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| (Closing ceremony in Auckland with participants, volunteers and event coordinators with invited guests) |
Yogathon
2019, is pleased to announce that New Zealanders have collectively done ~
137,000 sun salutations over the two weeks of the national challenge. This
success belongs to every participant, every person in New Zealand who decided
to try a sun salutation and submitted their number to contribute to the target
that was set.
Yogathon
- Health for Humanity was a two week event across New Zealand, encouraging all
New Zealanders to learn, participate and incorporate yoga in their daily lives.
Participants registered online, individually or as groups and did Surya
Namaskar (sun salutations) at their own pace and in their own time. They
counted the number of times they did the cycle, a combination of 12 asanas and
submitted their total count to the organising team.
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| Volunteers performing Surya Namaskar Nritya at closing ceremony |
“Yogathon
will keep working towards the objective of making yoga more integrated in
people’s lives. This year we did Surya Namaskar Yagna. Which was mainly focused
to teach Surya Namaskar (Sun Salutation) and practicing it,” said Ajay
Agrahari, National Yogathon Coordinator.
“Our
journey doesn’t stop here. In the future Yogathon will bring all elements of
yoga. Raja Yoga, Hatha Yoga, Karma Yoga, Bhakti Yoga and others. For now we
were focussing our target of 108,000 Surya Namsakars and it is heartwarming to
see us exceed this target.” he added.
The
challenge was launched on 15th June. The closing ceremony took place on
Saturday 29th in Auckland and Wellington.Closing ceremony of Yogathon 2019 was
organised to acknowledge, participants, yoga schools, studios, gyms, school,
community organisations, teachers and volunteers who made Yogathon 2019 a
success.
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| Participants doing Surya Namaskar at Anahata Retreat, Golden Bay. |
Yogathon
- Health for Humanity, is a division of HIndu Council of New Zealand. In its
8th year of operation, this is the first time the target has not only been
reached, but exceeded. The organisers are positive of the future prospect the
event holds.
Members
of Parliament Hon Kanwaljeet Bakshi, Hon Parmjeet Parmar were also present at
the closing ceremony. They congratulated the participants, volunteers, teachers
and community organisations that made the effort in participating and
continuing with the age old practice of yoga.
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Invited guests Members of Parliament Hon Kanwaljeet Bakshi, Renowned yogini Sannyasi Pragyadhara, Ranjna Patel Board Member of Mental Health Foundation NZ and Members of Parliament Hon Parmjeet Parmar at Closing Ceremony in Auckland (Right to Left)
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“Yoga
is more than physical well being. It plays a crucial role in mental well being
and contributes to holistic living,” said Mrs Ranjna Patel, guest speaker and
Board Member of Mental Health Foundation NZ. “Meditation and mindfulness are a
part of yoga. These techniques help us to cope with stress in our
lives.”
Renowned
yogini Sannyasi Pragyadhara was also a guest speaker for the closing ceremony.
She highlighted the benefits of yoga and how it brings a lot of order to ones
life. She emphasised how practicing yoga and doing the asanas teach us the
values of Dharma, sustainability and life. She highlighted that surya
namaskar is a package which includes the mantra (sound vibrations), asana (body
postures), pranayama (breathing exercises) and dhyana (meditation).
“Achieving
the target would not have been possible without the support of all
participants. We are grateful and thankful to all the yoga studios around
all these cities for opening their doors for free yoga classes during the past
two weeks to support Yogathon and raise awareness of the importance of yoga to
our health. The overwhelming support for this event makes us delighted that
yoga is indeed mainstream in New Zealand. Thank you once again.” added Ajay
Agrahari at his welcome speech.
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| Yogathon at Yoga in Daily life Wellington. |
Schools,
childcare centres, community organisations, youth groups (bal vikas), temples,
yoga schools, individuals, everyone collaborated with Yogathon offering yoga to
young and old, regardless of ethnicity and background. Each of these helped
immensely in ensuring accessibility to yoga was not limited due to
ability.
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| Volunteers at Kawai Purapura, Albany |
“It
is with pleasure I share with you that this year, we had participation from
more cities than ever including Auckland, Hamilton, Christchurch, Wellington,
Palmerston North, Coromandel, Rotorua, Nelson and also the oldest gold town of
New Zealand, Westport.” said Ajay Agrahari.
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|
Yogathon at work Place, Participants at IQVIA Yoga Club.
|
“This
year, Yogathon was organised to coincide with the International Day of Yoga.
This made it much easier for everyone to participate, join in and talk about
yoga in our lives. “ Ajay Agrahari National Coordinator.
A
number of community organisations and yoga schools registered as a group in
this years challenge. This brought in a slight competitive element to see who
was doing the highest number as an organisation and individually.
Art
of Living contributed a count of 8,700 repetitions, Hindu Swamyasevak Sangha
~11,000 repetitions, Yogi Divine Society 12,000 repetitions whilst Dr Pooja’s
Yoga & Integrated Mind Body Therapies contributed a whopping ~46,200
repetitions of surya namaskar.
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| Participants at Dr Pooja’s Yoga & Integrated Mind Body Therapies |
In
the individual category, Mrs. Kavitha Magesan of Rotorua did 108 surya
namaskars everyday for the 14 days. Winning in the highest individual category.
The national event is gaining more traction and awareness all of New Zealand.
At this Year’s International Yoga day on 21st June; Yoga Education in
Prisons Trust with collaboration with Yoga in Daily Life Wellington and
Yogathon did Surya Namaskar(Sun Salutation) in Wellington to fundraise for Yoga
and meditation classes for prisoners.
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| Wellington Coordinators with Yoga Education in Prison Trust. |
If
yoga schools, organisations, community groups, teachers or volunteers want to
be involved with this initiative, please get in touch with us.
Watch
this space for more events and next years challenge information.
Ajay Agrahari Komal Shah Nidhi Bhargava
National Coordinator Joint Coordinator Wellington Coordinator
Yogathon NZ 2019 Yogathon NZ 2019 Yogathon NZ 2019
Phone: 022 341 9447 Phone: 021 035 3591 Phone: 021 0274 4489
Email: yogathon.nz@gmail.com
Instagram – yogathon.nz
