Surya Namaskar, also known as the Sun Salutation, is much more than a simple exercise. It pushes and stretches the body, making use of muscles that aren’t very commonly used in our daily lives. This helps in improving the physical condition of the back, legs, etc. but that’s not all there is to it. Surya Namaskar acts on much more deeper levels of our existence and helps to put our body in sync with the sun. In order to understand this better, we first look at the basics of Surya Namaskar.
How to do Surya Namaskar
There are
different step of Surya
Namaskar which one needs to perform in order to complete a single round.
Each round consists of 12 steps:
1- Start in a standing position, with your hands in a Namaste in front of your chest.
2- Stretch your hands all the way
up, looking up and stretching your back in the process.
3- Bend down to touch your hands to your toes. Touch your forehead to your knees, if you can.
4- Stretch your left leg in front of you and bend your knee in order to come into a half warrior pose.
3- Bend down to touch your hands to your toes. Touch your forehead to your knees, if you can.
4- Stretch your left leg in front of you and bend your knee in order to come into a half warrior pose.
5- Take your left leg behind to make it meet your right leg and come into a position as if doing a pushup.
6- Go back and come down, touching your chin, chest, and knees to the ground. Make sure your groin area does not touch the ground.
7- Stretch your chest up, by resting your hands on the ground and look towards the ceiling.
8- Go into the mountain pose by arching your back, and feel the stretch on the back of your knees.
9- Bring the right leg forward and repeat the half warrior pose again.
10- Bend to touch your feet again.
11- Stretch up towards the ceiling with your hands raised above.
12- Come back to the starting position with Namaste in front of the chest.
Surya Namaskar Yoga helps you to break the compulsive cycles and patterns of life and empowers you to be free. The body is taken as a barrier to achieving higher possibilities in the spiritual world, but with Surya Namaskar, you can make the body as a stepping stone and an instrument in your journey forward. This is because Surya Namaskar helps you to put your body in sync with the solar cycle naturally, which is a very good place to be in.
