Celebrate Holi the festival of colours in your yoga class
Posted On : 18 March 2021.
Holi a festival of colors and joy. A celebration that reminds us of the victory of good over evil. The festival of Holi marks the arrival of the spring season, where all the empty branches of trees started blooming, and the sun started shining brightly. It is the festival that celebrates life with lots of love, fun, and lots of colors that made everyone laugh with a positive spirit that matches the theme of yoga that also spread positivity and love, peace, and harmony. So how can you bring the Holi, the festival of colors, to your yoga class?
The victory of good over evil
Let’s take a much closer look at the story, the infamous demon king hiranyakashyap possessed himself as a god, wants everyone in the world to worship him. His son Prahlad was an ardent devotee of Lord Narayana and disobeyed him. This angered the Hiranyakashyap very much and he asked his sister Holika to take his son Prahlad to sit on a burning pyre. Holika has the ability to subsisted fire however, when she sat on the burning pyre with Prahlad she burnt to ashes while Prahlad remained unharmed. The Holika symbolized the ego, your bad habits, and the limitation of the past.
Burn your ego and the cycle of bad habits by breaking one limitation at a time. Fix your bad posture by adding a twisting yoga pose to your routine. The twisting yoga pose, such as the lord of a fish pose, lengthen your spine and gives your internal organ a good massage that rejuvenates your internal organ and boosts your energy level if you are leading a sedentary lifestyle. Break this habit by showing up on the mat every day without fail.
Do not try to counter your Negative Emotion
We human tend to oppose everything strongly which seems threatening to us. That is the same with negative thoughts, generally, we try to overcome any negative thought with positive words. We are not saying that it does not work but the outcome is short term. The best measure to tackle this is to do nothing and let it go. When you become silent and observe it. When you simply observe it your thought will loosen their grip on their mind.
A splash of colour to the class
Holi is the festival of color, it is the time where everyone comes on the street to celebrate and put colors on each other, dance and do lots of fun without any inhibition. Now when we ask you to add a splash of colors to your class, it doesn’t mean that you have to play with colors in the class. However, you can add a splash of color to the class by bringing a colorful yoga accessory to the class or maybe colorful yoga gear. Dance your heart out in Satsang and kirtan which is an integral part of the yoga training program especially if you have enrolled in a yoga teacher training course in the Rishikesh program. Dancing in kirtan will set you free from any inhibition (if you are having one) and fill your class with uplifting energy. Practice yoga poses such as a happy baby, a downward-facing dog that will rejuvenate you to the core.
Welcome spring to your life
Holi is not only celebrated as a festival of colours but also marked as an indication of the spring season where the trees finally started blooming after long winters. Bring the joy of the spring season in your life by taking your yoga class outside in nature. Practiced the energized yoga poses such as standing forward fold or warrior pose to fuel the internal heat. Indulge in a breathing exercise(pranayama) for the smooth flow of prana in your body.
Celebrate union via hugs and namaste
Holi is a festival where people literally go to everyone's houses to wish them Happy Holi, put colors on each other, hug each other, which symbolizes union. The union very much related to yoga as yoga is literally translated as the union of your consciousness to the higher onsciousness. So, bring this feeling of togetherness or union by ending your class with namaste, which means I bow from my supreme consciousness to the supreme consciousness in you but also a symbol of wishing elder or strangers. Or you can do a group hug that symbolizes your togetherness with your fellow yogis.
Bring the festivity of Holi to your yoga class by adding a splash of colors and happiness in your yoga class. Celebrate life by breaking old habits and spread joy around you.