It's the 21st June, it's summer solstice, and also today is International Day of Yoga (IDY).
I can be a little sceptical of international days of ...... (insert word for any activity), sometimes they just seem like a marketing ploy and a way to make us buy more stuff.
But International Day of Yoga isn't trying to sell us anything. It is encouraging us to practice yoga whether it's in our online group classes, in-person classes, on our own or with our households. Yoga is a way to boost physical and mental well being and the day aims to raise worldwide awareness of the benefits of practising yoga.
It was first proposed by the Indian prime minister at the United Nations in 2014, and became a reality in 2015 in recognition of its universal appeal. Since then people have celebrated International Day of Yoga by practicing yoga together all over the world: Trafalgar Square, Times Square New York, Eiffel Tower Paris, community halls, studios, online, in parks and open spaces.
A sequence of yoga poses called The Common Yoga Protocol (CYP), was designed by The Morarji Desai National Institute of Yoga for participants of International Day of Yoga. The CYP sequence was created to be learnt easily and to be practiced by all ages. It is the 'soul' of International Yoga Day, intended to offer peace and harmony among the millions of people who practice it on this day - kind of like creating a sense of community and togetherness.
It's been fun practicing and teaching this sequence in my open level classes and also to the over 65s class, with a few alterations it really is accessible to lots of people.