Embracing the Sun: The Benefits of Surya Namaskar

Starting your morning with the correct mindset and feeling refreshed can make all the difference. Nothing beats positive thinking and a little push from a rejuvenating yoga session. Surya Namaskar, also known as Sun Salutation, is an ancient yoga practice of paying reverence to the sun. 

This series of twelve postures or Asana are done cyclically and can act as an effective cardiovascular workout that has a greatly positive impact on the human body and mind. If you wish to learn what Surya namaskar is and how it can benefit your mind, body, and soul keep reading ahead. 

What is Surya Namaskar?

T. Krishnamacharya's 1934 Yoga Makaranda is the earliest known literature that describes Surya Namaskar as a series of asanas. It is debatable whether Krishnamacharya created the sequence or acquired it from his forebears, despite the fact that he is frequently regarded as the founder of contemporary Hatha yoga. 

There is much disagreement over Surya Namaskar's precise origins. Some academics claim that the physical sequence is thousands of years old, while others argue that it was created in the 20th century by the raja of Aundh to complement sun-honoring ancient Vedic mantras.

Ideally, Surya Namaskar should be performed in the morning to capture the life force or prana shakti, which is at its strongest at sunrise. The sun salutation sequence aims to cultivate a silence of mind and focus while stimulating all systems and chakras. It offers you a warm-up for an effective and invigorating technique of connecting with inner power and stability.

Also read: A Step-by-Step Guide to Surya Namaskar 

Benefits of Surya Namaskar

Surya Namaskar is not just an exercise that will help you to stretch the different body parts but it provides a complete and energizing workout for the body and mind. Let's learn how a simple routine of surya namaskar serves as a form of gratitude and obeisance to the sun, to establish a connection between nature and one's inner self. Let's learn more about the benefits of sun salutation. 

Physical Benefits

Everyone tells us that Surya namaskar helps heal the unhealable hearts hence we often associate the regular practice with cardiovascular health benefits. But did you know that there is more physical than just heart health? Here are a few more. 

• Flexibility and strength: Active sequences stretch muscle groups, including hips, calves, shoulders, and back. This helps with greater flexibility over time. Also, Surya Namaskar requires muscular coordination in several poses and provides strength to the muscles, arms, legs, and back.

• Improved posture and balance: Surya Namaskar can help resolve postural issues by strengthening the muscles that support the spine to improve flexibility. A good posture can reduce strain on the back and neck, and the alignment and stability of the sequences also contribute to balance.

• Weight management: we have established that sun salutations are an effective cardiovascular exercise, and the prime reason for that is the controlled breathing and heavy breaking of calories. Thus if done vigorously, it can lead to weight loss as it increases your metabolism and contributes to long-term weight management.

• Enhanced Breath Function: Pranayama acts as an integral part of Surya Namaskar, which encourages controlled and rhythmic breathing. It allows for enhancing lung efficiency, strengthening the respiratory muscles, and monitoring breathing exchange, contributing to overall respiratory health.

Mental and Emotional Benefits

Yoga always speaks volumes about how it's beyond physical benefits. Surya namaskar practice also contributes to much more than physical benefits. Here is how a disciplined practice can help you enhance your mental and emotional bandwidth. 

• Stress Reduction: Surya Namaskar is backed by rhythmic breathing and fluid-controlled movements creating a meditative state filled with calming agents. Thus, when one practices Surya namaskar it helps the practice relax their mind, reduce stress, and lower anxiety levels.  

• Enhanced Focus and Concentration: Mindfulness of one’s body movements and breathing can help you focus on smaller details by making the mind attuned allowing you to concentrate better. 

• Emotional Stability: The calming effect of Surya Namaskar will lead you to greater emotional stability and by reducing stress and promoting relaxation, it in turn will help you manage your emotions better, fostering a more balanced outlook on life.

Spiritual Benefits

Everything that calms your body and allows you to have control of your chakras will hold spiritual value and these points will attest to our claim. 

• Connection with the Sun: Surya Namaskar is beyond just a workout of this age. Since we trace the yoga’s route the practice is deeply rooted in Hinduism and yogic history. Every religion highlights how the sun is revered as a source of life and energy. Thus, by practicing Surya namaskar one can form a connection with devotion, allowing you to synergize the sun's energy and the broader universe.

• Mind-Body-Spirit Integration: The amalgamation of rigorous physical movement, controlled breath, and mindfulness fosters tunefulness between body, mind, and spirit allowing you to explore a rather holistic approach leading to a deeper understanding of inner-self while feeding a sense of inner peace.

• Energizing the Chakras: Our body movements are believed to be centered around chakras and while practicing Surya Namaskar one activates and balances the flow of chakras, and energy centers in the body. By stimulating these energy-yielding centers, one can restore balance and vitality, while promoting overall well-being.

Surya Namaskar Routine for Weight Loss 

Full-body exercises that work your muscles, increase your heart rate, and increase your flexibility are sun salutations. This blend helps boost your metabolism and burn excess fat. Engaging different muscle groups in one cycle of 12 poses can help you get stronger and increase lean muscle mass, which is important for long-term weight loss. 

Stress addiction recovery is an added benefit of rhythmic breathing and the meditation aspect of sun salutations, emotional eating tangentially, and weight gain It can help avoid that your body gradually cleanses faster, and nourishes improving absorption and digestion. 

But remember Surya namaskar can greatly aid in your weight loss efforts, it is most effective when accompanied by a balanced diet and an active lifestyle. Thus, there is no right or wrong answer to how many Surya namaskars one must perform thus listening to your body. Start with the least of performing only 3, to begin with, and then raise your practice to as much as 10 or 15. If this seems like a lot, just remember that the traditional number of rounds is 108, which may take you more than a few weeks to work up to.

Also Read: Best Yoga Poses for Weight Loss

Take Home Message 

We are sure that now you are convinced of the holistic nature Surya namaskar holds. Start your Surya Namaskar practice regularly to experience its amazing health benefits. It is advised to do it under the supervision of a trained yoga teacher or consult your doctor if you have any medical condition. If you wish to explore the world of yogic practices you can enhance your practice by checking the yoga teacher training courses at Heart of Yoga Institute in India.