CHANDIGARH: Till last year, International Yoga Day that is celebrated on June 21 used to be a group activity on a large scale, but this time Covid-19 guidelines of social distancing have changed the way the event is being observed. This time, the theme for the day says it all: ‘Yoga at home, yoga with family’.
For the first time, since its inception in 2015, there will not be a mass gathering at centralised places for group yoga. To mark the day and engage more people, government authorities and different yoga associations have opted for virtual yoga.
Since the United Nations passed a resolution to celebrate June 21 every year as International Yoga Day, there has been a manifold increase in the number of yoga enthusiasts. Covid-19, however, has driven people to include breathing exercises in their daily lifestyle to boost the immune system to fight the pandemic. Yoga has turned out to be one of favourite fitness regimens during the lockdown.
ONLINE CLASSES AND SESSIONS
“Though this time we won’t have any mass gathering to celebrate International Yoga Day, the count of people doing yoga on a regular basis has increased as compared to pre-Covid times. Many of our passouts, who are professional yoga instructors, are already taking online yoga classes on a daily basis and they will do it on Sunday too to celebrate the day,” says yoga expert Kulwant Singh, who is working as an instructor at Government College of Yoga Education and Health, Sector 23, Chandigarh.
“Every year, we used to hold a yoga camp in the college premises that would culminate with the Yoga Day celebrations on June 21. But this time, because of Covid-19 and keeping social distancing in mind, we started an online camp from June 13. Both morning and evening sessions are held live on the college’s Facebook page and YouTube channel and we are getting a decent response. For June 21, we will be having a special session in which six of our college’s yoga instructors will be going live online,” says yoga college principal Sapna Nanda. “Our institute in collaboration with yoga scholars of the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER) organised a webinar on ‘Relevance of yoga in present day scenario’ in the run-up to yoga day celebrations today.”
{{/usCountry}}“Every year, we used to hold a yoga camp in the college premises that would culminate with the Yoga Day celebrations on June 21. But this time, because of Covid-19 and keeping social distancing in mind, we started an online camp from June 13. Both morning and evening sessions are held live on the college’s Facebook page and YouTube channel and we are getting a decent response. For June 21, we will be having a special session in which six of our college’s yoga instructors will be going live online,” says yoga college principal Sapna Nanda. “Our institute in collaboration with yoga scholars of the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER) organised a webinar on ‘Relevance of yoga in present day scenario’ in the run-up to yoga day celebrations today.”
{{/usCountry}}YOGA FINDS NEW FOLLOWERS
With gyms and other fitness centres closed to check the spread of Covid-19, more people are opting for yoga that has seen many new entrants in the last three months.
“We will be having special online yoga sessions spread across the first-half of the day to mark International Yoga Day on Sunday. Yoga institutes from six countries, including India, Australia, Japan, and Malaysia, will be joining us,” says Indian-origin yoga guru based in Australia, Rajendra Damodara Yenkannamoole, whose organisation Vasudeva Kriya Yoga runs 17 centres in Melbourne and one in Bengaluru.
“We will be having sessions on yoga as therapy, yoga for health, yoga for mobility and strength,” said the yoga guru, who has a YouTube channel and website vasudevakriyayoga.com.