Yoga Beyond Boundaries

With more than half a million searches for yoga per month on Google, people across the world want to learn more about how it can improve their life. According to Google, yoga dominates the fitness space for this year.  Over the past few decades, we have seen all forms of yoga and meditation become mainstream. Now it is piquing the interest and curiosity of the upper echelons of political leadership.

Recognizing the benefits of yoga and meditation, the British Parliament meditated before attending to policy discussions.

Politicians including former ministers Lord Haworth and Jim Fitzpatrick straightened their spines and focused on their breath at the launch of an all party group to explore the potential for mindfulness in health, education, criminal justice.

Lord Andrew Stone shares how meditation helped him center himself during stressful negotiations: “These practices made a massive difference. I was talking to some pretty serious people there, but I was being compassionate to all sides.”

Last month the global elite held yoga and meditation sessions at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. One of the panelists included Arianna Huffington, who spent time discussing the benefits of yoga and meditation.

India’s Prime Minister, Narendra Modi is a known practitioner yoga and meditation. Modi used his September address to the United Nations General Assembly to promote the practice of yoga and meditation and asked world leaders to adopt June 21 as International Yoga Day. Modi shares: Yoga is a holistic approach to health and wellbeing. By changing our lifestyle and creating consciousness, it can help us deal with climate change.

In an unprecedented and pioneering three-day retreat, a governing political leadership in India took a collective step in a focused way towards their own inner wellbeing with yoga and meditation. Sadhguru offered “Inner Engineering for Joyful Living” to the Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister, cabinet ministers, and 300 government officials, to help them better serve those that live in one of India’s largest states.

According to Chandrababu Naidu, the Chief Minister of the state, he shared on behalf of the participants that the Inner Engineering retreat was the best investment of their time. Further, he shares: Crafting a new state means giving joy and touching lives of all the people. This also means transforming lives of nearly 50 million people in our state. That will be the kind of fulfilment every person deserves. I’m committed to see this bliss and joy among my people permanently. It is not about just fulfilment but the aspiration to do good and what really matters.

Catch glimpses of the retreat here:

It may not be long before the US Congress takes time to do yoga and meditation. What began as a grassroots movement is quickly gaining momentum and with state patronage, the benefits of yoga and meditation have a potential to reach millions.