3 Ways To Celebrate National Yoga Day & The Summer Solstice
Summer Solstice is the longest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere (south of the equator, it’s the shortest day). It is also known as midsummer, and has been traditionally marked with celebrations and festivals, down through centuries of humanity.
Slightly more recently, the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) marked June 21 as International Day of Yoga (aka Yoga Day). The date was selected because when the first Yoga Day was established in 2015, it coincided with the Summer Solstice. Narendra Modi, the Prime Minister of India, chose the overlap because the word solstice comes from “solstitium” in Latin, which means “sun standing still.”
Good stuff, right?
This year, the Solstice is back, again, on June 21. In honor of the two special events both happening on this one calendar day, we came up with three suggestions for ways to celebrate:
Marion Michele
Salute The Sun
Seems fitting that on the day we’re bathed in the most sunlight, we should send that star a little love.
Grab your mat, find a nice, sunny spot (inside or out), and do at least three full rounds of yoga flow (don’t forget your breathwork!).
Michelle Spencer
Chase The Sun
Whether it’s hiking, surfing, gardening, or just hanging out at a park, spend some time in the sunshine today. While grabbing a latte at your fave streetside café would technically fit the bill, see if you can find a way to get into nature for awhile, maybe even putting your feet in the dirt and balancing your sun shower by breathing in some good, grounding Earth energy.
Oh She Glows
Oh She Glows
Taste The Sun
Nature really pulls out the stops with her summer produce. Stone fruit; vibrantly green veggies; red, ripe tomatoes plucked warm off the vine. The summer sun provides a banquet, perfect for enjoying this double occasion. And what better thing to eat than this avocado strawberry caprese salad from The Love and Lemons Cookbook (reproduced on Oh She Glows). This recipe is summer in a bowl: sweet strawberries, juicy tomatoes, fresh basil, and just enough balsamic vinegar to balance it all. Better still, this salad works for just about everybody (unless you’re on AIP or otherwise off nightshades): It’s vegan, gluten-free, grain-free, nut-free, refined sugar-free, and soy-free. Taste it, and let the summer celebrations begin.
