Samoa meditates over International Day of Yoga

By Emily Dunn 25 June 2017, 12:00AM

Yoga teacher, Rachel LaUlu, is the talent behind Samoa’s ‘International Day of Yoga’ celebrations. 

Last Wednesday, with the help of recently qualified Ashlee Starter, Rachel held an intimate taster session to show the local community the benefits of the ancient practice.

The 21st of June has been earmarked as the official day of Yoga, this is a result of honourable Prime Minister of India Shri Narendra Modi Ji speaking at the 69th session of United Nations General Assembly (UNGA).

“Yoga is not about exercise but to discover the sense of oneness with ourselves, the world and Nature. By changing out lifestyle and creating consciousness, it can help us to deal with climate change,” he said. 

With such a convincing argument, the UNGA agreed to establish the annual event to celebrate and promote Yoga across the world. 

“Yoga provides a holistic approach to health and well-being and wider dissemination of information about the benefits of practicing Yoga for the health of the world population,” says the ministry of Ayurveda, Yoga & Neuropathy, Unani, Siddha and Homeopathy (AYUSH).

The event is in its third year, and is gathering pace after an excellent start in 2014, which saw an entry in the Guinness world book of records.

The first celebration included a lesson which was held in New Delhi, involving 35,985 participants, including 84 different nationalities. 

In Samoa, Rachel hopes that the celebration will encourage more Samoans to take up the practice of Yoga so they too can feel the seemingly endless list of benefits, both emotionally and physically. 

She spoke of the “connection between changing your body in order to change your mind”. 

“Yoga has been around for about 5’000 years, bringing together body mind and spirit and is always developing and always changing.” Rachel, was for a long time, the only Yoga instructor on the island, as was pleased about the opportunity to share her love of Yoga with the Samoan community.

By Emily Dunn 25 June 2017, 12:00AM
Samoa Observer

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