BENGALURU: Around six years ago, yoga got a special day dedicated to it. And now, for this year’s World Yoga Day (June 21), while the spirit to celebrate remains the same, the format assumed will be quite novel. In light of the ongoing pandemic, events are mostly online, with a special focus on immunity and strengthening of lungs and the respiratory system.
Take, for example, the live virtual yoga session by Jindal Naturecure Institute. The 30-minute session will showcase asanas that help in boosting immunity. “The age old practice is underrated when it comes to improving one’s immunity. There are asanas that directly work on the flow of white blood cells (WBC) which are the first shield of your immunity,” says Dr. Rajeev Rajesh, chief yoga officer at the organisation, whose live session will be conducted on June 20 at 4.30pm on their Facebook page. The first 20 minutes of the session will be organised for mothers and next 10 minutes for kids to enable them to stay healthy, fit and calm by incorporating naturopathy into their daily lives.
Yamini Muthanna, on the other hand, is conducting a 10-session yoga workshop for pregnant women, while also breaking all myths about the dos and don’ts of workouts. “The workshop is more on the flexibility and breathing than on the strengthening. Our body is made of vata, pitta, kapha, dosha. It’s about getting the right balance of all four to create a healthy environment for the baby to grow,” says Muthanna, who is going to conduct the session online on Zoom. Not a huge fan of yoga sessions going virtual, she says, “I prefer offline but going virtual is need of the hour.”
Agrees yoga therapist Dr Anjanaa Subramanian, who is choosing to focus on breathing workouts due to COVID-19 and the onslaught of health worries it has brought on. She is working on 100 breathing workouts as a 100-day series that will help in lung functioning. “These will be a mix of yoga techniques and some of my own. Till now I have come up with five breathing techniques,” says Subramanian, who posts instruction of the asanas on the Facebook page of Recover Physiotherapy.