Celebrate International Day of Yoga virtually this weekend

Zen Den Yoga School and Wellness Retreat in Boca Raton, Fla., offers a five-day Disconnect to Reconnect Yoga Retreat. File

Zen Den Yoga School and Wellness Retreat in Boca Raton, Fla., offers a five-day Disconnect to Reconnect Yoga Retreat. File

The International Day of Yoga has been celebrated annually on June 21st for the last five years, following its inception in the United Nations General Assembly in 2014.

Locally, the non-profit Heartfulness Institute of Dayton, offers free meditation and yoga classes as a service to individuals as a way of building to world peace on person at a time. Typically they would be celebrating  Yoga Day with in person training sessions at their centers located in Beavercreek.

This year, with the coronavirus pandemic still impacting gatherings, the group is joining with local and national organizations to present a special online presentation called Unite Hearts and Make Compassion Contagious.

The virtual event will take place on Saturday, June 20, at 7 p.m., the evening prior to International Day of Yoga, and will run for 90 minutes.

Every day at 12:15 p.m., Dayton Heartfulness, a local meditation center, hosts Uma Mullapudi, an experienced trainer, on both Facebook and Instagram Live. CONTRIBUTED

Credit: CONTRIBUTED

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Credit: CONTRIBUTED

The Hindu Temple of Dayton, India Club of Dayton, Gujarathi Samaj of Dayton, Telugu Association of Dayton (MATA), and MVAPI (Indian Physicians Association) have joined with Heartfulness Dayton to participate in Saturday’s virtual event.

The goal of the event is to help bring communities together in unity. Actually, the word yoga itself means "unity." With all the division that is felt in our society right now,  there couldn't be a better time to spread that message. Organizers expect millions of participants from all over the globe to attend.

“This is a great opportunity to get connected with so many hearts and directly experience the healing power of music and yoga and the expansion of consciousness that comes through meditation,” the Insitute’s statement read.

The event itself will consist of a global meditation session by the Heartfulness leader Kamlesh Patel (known as Daaji), a yoga demonstration by world renowned teacher YogRishi Ramdev Baba. Musicians Pandit Jasraj and Shankar Mahadevan, hope to stir the hearts of the participants with their performances.

Kamlesh D Patel, the guide of Heartfulness Meditation

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Leaders in the Heartfulness organization also hope to cultivate a sense of self compassion through the programming, particularly because of all the anxiety and stress the pandemic has created.

“Once self compassion is attained with one’s own self, it ripples out to others,” local Hearfulness trainer Uma Mullapudi explained. “The crux of yoga and meditation begins with self-compassion which transforms into self-care.”

How to join event online

What: Unite Hearts and Make Compassion Contagious

When: Saturday, June 20, at 7 p.m. (will run for 90 minutes).

How to participate: The event will be live cast on YouTube, FacebookInstagram, and Twitter, and other Heartfulness channels.

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Read more: Heartfulness Center offers tools for decompressing and destressing

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