Today marks the third annual International Day of Yoga, now recognised worldwide and endorsed by the United Nations.
More than 180 countries all around the world are expected to celebrate and honour this day, helping to raise awareness about the benefits of yoga, and humanity’s quest for a more harmonious lifestyle and improved state of health and well-being.
The theme for the 2017 celebration, organised by the Permanent Mission of India to the United Nations, is “Yoga for Health,” highlighting how yoga can help us achieve equilibrium between mind and body.
With this theme in mind, here are 10 quotes to encourage us to pause and reflect on our own yoga journey, and the impact yoga has had on our lives and can have on the lives of others.
1. “Yoga is an invaluable gift from our ancient tradition. Yoga embodies unity of mind and body, thought and action…a holistic approach [that] is valuable to our health and our well-being. Yoga is not just about exercise; it is a way to discover the sense of oneness with yourself, the world, and the nature.” ~ Narendra Modi, Prime Minister of India, in his U.N. address urging the adoption of International Day of Yoga in 2014. It was subsequently endorsed by a record 175 member states.
2. “When wealth is lost, you have lost a little, when health is lost, you have lost something of more consequence; but when peace of mind is lost, you have lost the highest treasure.” ~ Sri Paramahansa Yogananda
3. “(Yoga’s) goal is a state of completeness in which the body, mind, and heart are fully coordinated, and as a result all activity becomes as effortless as ripe fruit dropping off a tree.” ~ Alistair Shearer
4. “My subject is yoga—the path which cultures the body and senses, refines the mind, civilises the intelligence, and takes rest in the soul which is the core of our being.” ~ B.K.S. Iyengar
5. “Yoga is the dance of every cell with the music of every breath that creates inner serenity and harmony.” ~ Debasish Mridha
6. “A yogi can be in the forests of the Himalaya or in a big city; a real yogi is as unconcerned with his own environment as he is with himself.” ~ Shyam Sundar Goswami
7. “You are the destination and the journey. You are the yoga itself.” ~ John Weddepohl
8. “Yoga is not a religion. It is a science, science of well-being, science of youthfulness, science of integrating body, mind, and soul.” ~ Amit Ray
9. “Yoga practice can make us more and more sensitive to subtler and subtler sensations in the body. Paying attention to and staying with finer and finer sensations within the body is one of the surest ways to steady the wandering mind.” ~ Ravi Ravindra
10. “Yoga is the science to be in the here and now.” ~ Osho
Namaste and Happy International Day of Yoga!
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Author: Tehla Bower
Image: United Nations/Instagram; Narendra Modi/Flickr
Editor: Nicole Cameron
Copy Editor: Khara-Jade Warren
Social Editor: Catherine Monkman
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