Taking care of one’s mental and physical health has never before been as important as it is during the coronavirus pandemic that has claimed several thousand lives in the past months. Yoga has immense benefits for people looking to work on their bodies. Not only can yoga help boost immunity, the meditative properties of this practice are key to keeping your mind calm during social distancing. Indian Yogi and author, Jaggi Vasudev, popularly known as ‘Sadhguru’ in his message for International Yoga Day talks about yoga being “the technology of self-transformation”. Sadhguru is also the founder of the Isha Foundation that has been organising worldwide programmes on Yoga Day in which millions come together to practice yoga. However, due to the pandemic, this year the foundation has been releasing videos online that can be viewed from the safety of one’s home.
Previously, for International Yoga Day, the Isha Foundation has organised their programmes in dedicated of the armed forces. Sadhguru himself has travelled to the Siachen Glacier to conduct a special programme for the soldiers guarding one of the harshest terrains. Yoga can have quite extraordinary results on the body and, perhaps more importantly, the mind of the soldiers considering the effect that combat and war can have on the psyche. On International Yoga Day in 2016, Sadhguru was even invited to speak at the United Nations General Assembly.
Sadhguru in an interview from Coimbatore said, “Right now, a whole lot of studies are saying that during this moment of pandemic and post this pandemic situation, one of the biggest challenges will be the psychological crisis that human beings will face. Well, when a problem is thrown at us, we should not become a problem. This is very, very important. The simple yogic processes that we are offering you for this International Yoga Day has the power to liberate you from this and also enhance your immune system in a significant way. There are enough studies to show this.”
He also goes on to talk about important it for people to use this lockdown period to keep their physical, mental and emotion health in check and work on further improving it. Considering the near apocalyptic scenarios we are witnessing; they can take a toll on everyone’s mental health. Not is there a widespread virus but also the financial difficulties many are facing during the lockdown can have disastrous consequences for a lot of people. Sadhguru, in an attempt to highlight how yoga is instrumental for self-improvement said, “Whenever there is an external crisis in their lives whether on the personal sphere or in the society in the nation or in the world, most human beings create an emotional and a psychological crisis within themselves. When life around us goes into a crisis mode, it is most important that we as human beings function at our best - our physical self, our intellect, our emotional balance - everything should be at its best. Our innate wisdom must function now because now there is a crisis outside, you cannot afford to create a crisis within you.”
{{/usCountry}}He also goes on to talk about important it for people to use this lockdown period to keep their physical, mental and emotion health in check and work on further improving it. Considering the near apocalyptic scenarios we are witnessing; they can take a toll on everyone’s mental health. Not is there a widespread virus but also the financial difficulties many are facing during the lockdown can have disastrous consequences for a lot of people. Sadhguru, in an attempt to highlight how yoga is instrumental for self-improvement said, “Whenever there is an external crisis in their lives whether on the personal sphere or in the society in the nation or in the world, most human beings create an emotional and a psychological crisis within themselves. When life around us goes into a crisis mode, it is most important that we as human beings function at our best - our physical self, our intellect, our emotional balance - everything should be at its best. Our innate wisdom must function now because now there is a crisis outside, you cannot afford to create a crisis within you.”
{{/usCountry}}Sadguru also urges people to not just practice yoga themselves but to take it a step further in teaching those around them too. In order to celebrate International Yoga Day, the Isha Foundation is offering free webinars that go over the basic yogic practices to help free one’s body and mind.
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