What Is Surya Namaskar?
Surya Namaskar is a cardiovascular warm-up exercise performed before yoga asanas. The Salutation to the Sun is the literal translation. Surya Namaskar comprises 12 vigorous yoga asanas that provide a good cardiovascular workout in a single round. This is best done early in the morning or just before nightfall. The sole requirement is that your stomach is empty.
Why is Surya Namaskar called a Warm-up Exercise/Asana for Body and Mind?
Surya Namaskar is a yoga practice that strengthens your body, mind, and soul. Only 35 to 40% of our muscles are reported to be used in our daily activities. The rest of the muscles are dormant. While this activity engages around 90% of the muscles and maintains them active.
Sun salutation maintains your mind stable, peaceful, and aware throughout the day, in addition to keeping your body engaged. The reason for this is that when you execute this asana, the breathing exercises you undertake while completing the postures offer your lungs more oxygen. You'll notice that your breathing rhythm has changed to one that is heavy with vigor. This is because the body's essential areas are being charged.
Keep your mind quiet and concentrate on the Surya mantra, the various asanas, the portion of the body where you can feel the stress, stretch, and strain, and be conscious of your breathing while completing the postures. You are actually resting your mind when you keep your mind from thinking. As a result, you will be free of mental and emotional anxiety. You're training your thoughts to be calm and quiet with this exercise. With further practice, you will be able to remain calm and alert in a variety of critical and worrisome situations that arise in your daily life.
The Mantras:
Surya has a total of twelve mantras. Before beginning each set of sun salutations, you must say each mantra. There are 12 steps in each Surya Namaskar set. Each asana will take 5 seconds to complete. It will just take one minute to finish one cycle. This set must be done for each of the twelve mantras. It would take you about 12 to 15 minutes to finish one cycle. The amount of time you spend on each asana is determined by how long you spend on it. Below is a list of the twelve mantras. Each mantra should begin with the word Aum.
- Mitraya Namah.
- Ravaye Namah.
- Suryaya Namah.
- Bhanave Namah.
- Khagaya Namah.
- Pushne Namah.
- Hiranyagarbhaya Namah.
- Marichaye Namah.
- Adityaya Namah.
- Savitre Namah.
- Arkaya Namah.
- Bhaskaraya Namah.
The Benefits Of Surya Namaskar Yoga:
Forget about how the sun burns our skin; when we walk outside on a bright day, the sun is extremely important to our survival. It is possible that there would be no life on Earth if it did not exist. The Sun Salutation, or Surya Namaskar, is a gesture of thanks to the sun, which is the source of all life energies in our world. The sun salutation is made up of a series of 12 cyclic movements that help to connect the mind, breath, and body. This is merely a stepping stone to a deeper level of meditation.
The postures of Surya Namaskar serve as a great transition between warm-ups and asanas. They can also be done at any moment, especially if you're hungry. The optimum time to do this sort of yoga is first thing in the morning. Surya Namaskar will help to revive your body system and refresh your mind at this time, preparing you to take on all of the day's activities. It will help to invigorate the body immediately if done in the afternoon. It might also help you relax if done at dusk. The Surya Namaskar yoga position is really useful. When done quickly, it is a terrific technique to shed weight while also providing an excellent cardiovascular workout.
Reasons to start your day with Surya:
Surya Namaskar's postures are invigorating, soothing, and meditative. They also aid to enhance blood circulation, making the body more flexible. As we all know, greater blood circulation helps to keep our hair from greying. It also reduces hair loss, dandruff, and promotes healthy hair development. It also aids our important internal organs by improving blood circulation and making them more functional. Our skeletal and digestive systems gain greatly from the Surya Namaskar.
Can children perform Surya?
Surya Namaskar is ideal for kids since it helps to quiet the mind while also improving attentiveness. Children in today's environment are up against a lot of stiff competition. This is why they must incorporate the Surya Namaskar into their everyday regimen. The yoga stance also aids in increasing endurance and reducing anxiety and restlessness, particularly during exam times. Consistency is a crucial aspect of the Surya Namaskar.
This style of yoga, when practiced regularly, provides our bodies strength and vigor. It is also regarded as the ideal workout for aspiring athletes since it helps to develop our muscles and enhance flexibility in our spine and limbs. This is a position that everyone can do. It also has a lot of advantages for both men and women. For women, it aids in the loss of excess calories as well as the maintenance of proper body form. Surya Namaskar can be performed by children as young as five years old.