Year of Yoga: Tribute to yoga’s harmonizing power

Sri Lanka is all set to create a new experience with the art and science of yoga. The Year of Yoga Worldwide (December 2011-December 2012) is a tribute from Sri Lanka to commemorate the 30 years of Art of Living’s humanitarian service led by Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar. “Whatever the circumstances are, we will continue to serve the world as one human family with differences. It is time to celebrate the differences and celebrate life on this planet,” said Gurudev at the World Culture Festival in Berlin on July 2. “With all the volunteers, we are sure we can create a stress-free, violence-free society for our children." The Year of Yoga Worldwide is inspired by this very vision.

Yoga: universal, healing language

Yoga is practiced widely across the world. So many forms of yoga have sprung up, uniting people across diverse communities and languages. Yoga is, truly, emerging as a universal language. Yoga has travelled a long way. What started off in India several thousand years ago as a means to go deeper into spiritual study to modern day sky rises: where yoga enthusiasts resonate in different parts of the world, some to get healthier, fit, feel calm or simply to experience peace of mind.

Yoga as a means to free oneself from stress is well established. Over the years, The Art of Living has set an example of how yoga coupled with meditation can heal societies. Whether it was the Iraq war, Kosovo or 9/11. Yoga, breathing techniques and meditation have helped people, across generations, recover from trauma and find peace.

They say your life off the yoga mat is a reflection of how you are on the mat. As one finds more peace on the yoga mat, the peace gets reflected in other areas of your life. And peaceful individuals make harmonious communities. The Year of Yoga pays tribute to the power of yoga to create a stress-free, violence-free society.

For the yoga enthusiasts – Asia`s first Yoga Marathon

“Yoga is not just a set of exercises, it is a way of life,” expressed VidyutUdiaver, an Art of Living teacher. “Hatha Yoga is popular in various parts of the world. But there is much more to Yoga and many myths about it need to be debunked. The Year of Yoga Worldwide will showcase Yoga in all its glory; helping people to even go beyond Hatha Yoga with techniques like the SudarshanKriya Yoga.” The Year of Yoga will feature in its opening season Asia’s first Yoga Marathon in Sri Lanka with the performance of the full-body workout of Sun Salutation or popularly called Surya Namaskar.

World`s first Inter-Faith Yoga Choir

The sounds and music of various traditions and religions with soul-comforting guided meditations will ring in the New Year and the Year of Yoga. Placing people in the company of truth and the experience of yoga,the Inter-Faith Yoga Choir is poised to be arich and spiritually uplifting story to relate.

The Year of Yoga will feature the Spring-Summer and Autumn-Winter programs based on seasons to give a larger understanding of the wide nature of the asanas.Various forms of yoga will be taught such as Sri Sri Natya – Yoga with dance, Yoga and Meditation,Food for Yogis, Laughter Yoga (Hasya Yoga), Subtle Yoga(Sukshma Yoga), Yoga and Ayurveda, Yoga and Breath, Yoga for Women, Yoga and Creativity and exclusive yoga modules for various health imbalances and conditions.

The Year of Yoga Worldwide will include educational exhibitions, town-hall workshops, awareness camps, lecture-demonstrations, presentations of yoga case studies and fact-sheets. Campaigns on healthy food, lifestyle and habits, health, spiritual wisdom, environment and Ayurveda will be showcased in several countries to mark the year.

The Year of Yoga campaign will cater to the needs of several people across continents including families below the poverty-line, rural youth, internally displaced individuals, refugees and prison inmates, students, police, armed forces and corporate executives, amongst others.

A very unique and creative awareness campaign is to be unveiled soon announcing the launch of the Year of Yoga Worldwide.

For more information, please write to: artoflivingsl@gmail.com