I still remember early ventures into the yoga studio where it seemed everyone (except me) had been born doing the Sun Salutation–or at least had picked it up during childhood, some time between crawling and walking. These days, it is pretty much the new normal. If I go too long without starting the day with at least six rounds, I start to feel off. When the rest of my practice might get disrupted by the vagaries of life, I find a way to move through the moving meditation that is the sun salutation. If I can get outside to do them, all the better.
Through repetition, the basic form becomes almost second nature. Even so, I don’t think I’m done learning from suryanamaskara. It’s wise to approach any meditative practice with the humility of an eternal student, an eternal beginner, because there is always something to be learned, whether from the practice or from the self doing the practice. We are never done learning.
Because Sun Salutations figure so prominently in my personal journey, I intend to spend quite a bit of time sharing and reviewing them.
With freeze frames and slow-mo, the video below is over three minutes long. It covers a mere three cycles of breath, one of which is done in tadasana before starting out. I bring attention to the transitions as well as the poses.
