"Tell me the story about how the Sun loved the Moon so much that he died every night to let her breath" - friend of mine told us this beautiful story during her Nidra class. The conception about the dualistic nature of the way we live, always attracts me and the idea of finding the harmony in it's truly fascinating - as a mirage that actually can become real. Somehow always the love seems to be the key, the love in all its dimensions - love for someone, for ourselves, for the nature, for everyone...
The idea about the Sun and the Moon and their symbolic meaning, takes part in any culture, civilization, mythology or ideology. It's still and always been so much connected with our perception of the world we live in - light and darkness, hot and cold, day and night, exciting and relaxing, yin and yang. And the only way to be able to recognize the existence of one of the parts is by having the other one, each one exist trough the other.
In yoga the concept of the Moon and the Sun is represented by different asanas, sequences, pranayamas (breathing techniques), mantras (sacred sounds) and mudras (ritual gestures). Sun salutation and Moon salutation are created to balance this two energies in our body by performing them as correspondence to their signs - in the morning with the sunrise or in the evening, when the time of the Moon comes, or performing them attuned with our inner state and the result we want to get - hot, exiting, energized effect or cooling down, relaxing, creative one. Lets see a bit more about the Moon salutation (Chandra Namaskara). It's a sequence performed to create a flow which is cooling and relaxing. It puts us in receptive and meditative state. The 14 poses of Chandra Namaskara represent the 14 lunar phases and as well are connected with the fact that all parts of the moon see approximately 14 days of daylight, followed by 14 days of 'night'.
Benefits:
- cooling down and relaxing the body and mind
- boosting the creativity
- stretches and strengthens the spine, legs (hamstrings), arms, abdominal muscles
- brings the mind in meditative state
- aiding to fall asleep easier and benefits more from the sleeping process
- increases the function of the digestive system
Sequence: 1) Prayer pose (Pranamasana) - close eyes and relax 2) Raised arms pose (Hasta Uttanasana) - inhale 3) Standing forward bend (Uttanasana/Padahastasana) - exhale 4) Equestrian pose (Ashwa Sanchalanasana) - inhale 5) Low lunge/Half moon pose (Anjaneyasana/Ardha Chandrasana) - inhale; keep the back toes tucked 6) Mountain pose (Parvatanasana) - exhale; similar to Downward dog pose, but the feet are together 7) Eight limbed pose (Ashtanga Namaskara) - on the next exhale
8) Cobra pose (Bhujangasana) - inhale 9) Mountain pose (Parvatanasana) - exhale; similar to Downward dog pose, but the feet are together (same as #6) 10) Equestrian pose (Ashwa Sanchalanasana) - inhale (same as #4) 11) Low lunge/Half moon pose (Anjaneyasana/Ardha Chandrasana) - inhale; keep the back toes tucked (same as #5) 12) Standing forward bend (Uttanasana/Padahastasana) - exhale (same as #3) 13) Raised arms pose (Hasta Uttanasana) - inhale (same as #2) 14) Prayer pose (Pranamasana) - close eyes and relax (same as #1)
Try and enjoy it!
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