Each gesture repeats, day after day — yet within me, nothing remains still.
The asanas become mirrors, thresholds to cross, silent teachers to listen to.
Every morning in the shala, the practice always begins with Sūrya Namaskāra – the Sun Salutation.
It doesn’t matter whether you’re an advanced practitioner or it’s your very first day on the mat.
In 2017, when I returned to Mysore – a month earlier than planned – I already had few years of practice in Sharath’s tradition behind me, several teacher trainings (as both student and teacher), and a yoga school I had opened in Goa with some Indian friends.
I was practising the Second Series up to Kapotāsana… well, let’s just say I’d been working with that posture – a stubborn companion – for quite some time.
I’ve never been one to change teachers often or go spiritual-shopping. Switching too frequently is like digging shallow wells in search of water: as soon as you find nothing, you move and start digging elsewhere.
But that early arrival, that unexpected extra time, made me decide to try something new: another shala, another teacher. And I’ve stayed there ever since, humbly starting again, having again asanas assigned one at a time, like a beginner.
It hasn’t always been easy.
For months, I clung to my old certainties: I practised two versions of Laghu Vajrāsana — the one I was used to before, and then the new one.
True change requires more than technique: it calls for trust.
It calls for surrender.
Yet every day, there’s one constant: Sūrya Namaskāra, the Sun Salutation.
No shortcuts, no distinction: whether it’s your first day or your twentieth year, you always start from there.
The Sun Salutation is the great leveller.
A simple gesture that says: here, we are all students. It also reminds us of something deeper: that each day is a gift.
That stepping onto the mat is a privilege.
That we are dedicating time to ourselves.
That we can be grateful for this opportunity, even when it’s hard.
Even when we feel fragile.
Even – and especially – when we start over.
No matter how far we’ve come: each day, in order to grow, we are invited to begin again with simplicity.
To catch our breath.
To find strength exactly where we feel most vulnerable.
Om shanti, shanti, shanti.
‘Be Root in the Earth, Be Sky in the Heart‘
