9 Ways to Celebrate International Yoga Day

During International Yoga Day on June 21st, we are invited to start healing on a personal and global scale.

Beyond postures that create physical wellness, yoga restores the very core of our humanity. It reminds us that we are never apart and alone, but deeply connected with each other and the world around us. It allows us to move through struggles and tap into the cosmic consciousness that spans beyond time and space. 

Have you been feeling burdened and overwhelmed by events in the world or in your life? Now is the time to ground our bodies and begin to rise through the pain together.

Your At-Home International Yoga Day Celebration

Life can sometimes get in the way, preventing us from celebrating International Yoga Day with a large community gathering. Or perhaps we simply feel like practicing yoga and meditation alone. But regardless of the circumstances, it's important to remember that we can still honor this special day in our own way. We've put together a list of ideas for a perfect at-home International Yoga Day celebration that you can enjoy solo or with loved ones in the weeks leading up to it. So, roll out your mat, take a deep breath, and let's get started!

1. Read One Sutra

The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, the oldest text on yoga, is rich with insight and information. Bogged down by problems? Is your mind noisy and nonstop? Browse the sutras for a fresh perspective on life, your unique circumstances, and to see the bigger picture. I strongly recommend BKS Iyengar’s book for an expert analysis, but you can also find plenty of content online.

2. Set Intentions

In 2020, International Yoga Day falls one day after the new moon- a perfect time to plant the seed for something beautiful to grow. What makes yoga yoga is that every movement has purpose and meaning. This carries off the mat into the way we live our lives: without intention, we get caught up in routines and habits rather than taking an active role in creating our life. Most of us have dreams and aspirations that exist outside of our regular patterns. Intention-setting is a chance to check in with your goals and make sure that they align with what you’re doing. Action step: write down who you want to be and three action steps.

We have an Intention Setting Worksheet available for download that you can use to set your goals and manifest your dreams. To access it, simply click on the provided download link.

3. Practice Ahimsa

As Covid-quarantine couples with a polarized political climate, it’s very tempting to unleash our inner beast. If we’re not mindful, we see our fellow humans (and even ourselves!) as a problem that must be dealt with instead of the perfectly imperfect beings that we are. Try this unconditional love experiment: witness and embrace your imperfections. Let yourself be flawed, and know that it doesn’t make you any less magnificent. Let someone else be right. Let them be annoying. Remember that we’re all trying our best and it’s ok to be broken. See the people around you not as separate and apart but as a mirror of your perfectly imperfect self. 

To help you incorporate Ahimsa into your daily life, we've created an Ahimsa Workbook that you can download and use.

4. Have a tech-free hour

Schedule one hour on Yoga Day to turn off your phone and computer, or dare I say it... unplug the internet! Don’t just put down your device or keep it in another room. Actually turn it off. See how it feels to be “disconnected.” See if it opens your ability to truly connect on a much deeper level. Tap into your sense of creativity and if you need to fill the time, an art project is a great option. Go outside and listen to the sounds of nature. Try a third eye or self-meditation, which opens up your center of insight and intuition, the place that breeds a deep sense of internal knowing that does not rely on Google or any information you could possibly find on the internet.

5. Clear your space and discard junk

Media has us thinking that we need more and more, but what we really need is less. We’re always layering things and ideas on top of ourselves, which actually bring us further away from feeling truly good! Yoga teaches us to remove the mental clutter and get down to the core of our being. Try this yoga practice for the space you inhabit: Go through everything and discard the things that you don’t love or use. In letting go of objects, you create space for your soul to be free and comfortable in your skin.

6. Take a ritual bath

Now that you’ve cleaned your home, it’s time to cleanse your body. If you have a natural body of water near you, get in there and dunk! By the Ganga in India, they say three dips make for a ritual. So go ahead and submerge yourself and each time the water washes over your crown, imagine that it pulls away any impurities. If you don’t have an open body of water nearby, hop in the shower and visualize every drop of water cascading down your body, taking with it whatever you don’t need.

7. Write a list of gratitude

Now, imagine your body and the space around you as an empty vessel that is pure and ready to be filled with joy. Yes, times are tough but there is still so much light within and all around us. Take some time to think about the ways in which you are blessed. Write those things down and let the feeling of gratitude seep through every cell in your body. By focusing on the good, we invite more positivity into our lives. Have you ever been stuck in a rut where bad things keep happening? That is the time when you need gratitude the most. Just in the way you can get stuck in a bad rut, you can also get “stuck” in a good one if you keep up with this practice!

8. Recommit to a regular practice

Practice always ebbs and flows- that’s just part of life. But no matter how busy you are, there’s always at least one little thing you can do daily to stay on your yoga path. Remember how unproblematic life feels when you get on your mat on a regular basis? Inspire yourself with that feeling. Imagine as if your life exists exactly as it does now, but there’s no friction. No resistance. Practicing yoga or meditation daily is what will bring you that freedom. Yes, it’s hard to take the first step, so make it easy on yourself. Your daily commitment: roll out your mat and sit on it for five minutes. If you do that one thing, you’ve done something great. If you do that one thing every day, you are headed in the right direction to your destination, and there’s nothing else that matters.

Starting an at-home daily yoga practice is an excellent way to enhance your knowledge of yoga and its benefits. And what better occasion to begin than on International Yoga Day! To help you get started, here are some useful tips here that will guide you through the process of establishing a regular yoga routine in the comfort of your own home.

9. Get on your mat

We can talk for centuries about technique, philosophy, history, and everything around yoga, but there is a huge difference between talking and doing. As Ashtanga yoga guru Pattabhi Jois said, “yoga is 99% practice and 1% theory.” So roll out your “red carpet” and stretch it out or just sit and listen to the sounds around you.

If you're still feeling a bit uncertain about not executing all of your yoga poses perfectly, it's time to let go of that worry. Here are a few compelling reasons why you should embrace the process and stop fixating on the pursuit of perfection.

Try as many of these ideas that appeal to you, and let us know how it goes! The whole point is to feel good, so make sure it’s something you want to do, not have to do. If there’s one thing on the list that especially excites you, start with that one thing.