Solstice Shift: 108 Sun Salutations
Rachel Payton | DEC 11, 2025
108 sun salutations winter solstice
Solstice Shift: 108 Sun Salutations
Rachel Payton | DEC 11, 2025
Sunday ~ December 21 ~ 10 am
There’s a special kind of magic that happens when a group gathers with the shared intention to move, breathe, and transform together. Every year on the Winter Solstice, yogis around the world participate in a powerful ritual: 108 Sun Salutations. It’s a practice that is both deeply physical and beautifully symbolic—a journey inward, a celebration of light, and a reminder of the strength we already carry within us.
In yoga and many spiritual traditions, 108 is considered a sacred number—a number of wholeness and cosmic order.
A few reasons why it’s meaningful:
There are 108 energy lines (nadis) converging at the heart center.
A mala used in meditation has 108 beads.
The Sun is said to be approximately 108 times the diameter of the Earth.
In yogic philosophy, 108 represents the wholeness of existence, the connection between the self and the universe.
When we complete 108 cycles of Surya Namaskar, we symbolically honor the light within us and around us—especially meaningful on the darkest day of the year.
Completing 108 sun salutations is a physical challenge, but also an opportunity to witness your own resilience.
Some of the biggest physical benefits include:
Building whole-body strength
Shoulders, core, legs, back—everything participates.
Improving endurance and stamina
The repetitive movement builds heat steadily and sustainably.
Supporting flexibility and mobility
Forward folds, lunges, and upward movements help open the entire body.
Boosting circulation and metabolism
The rhythmic flow energizes the body and clears sluggishness.
But the biggest physical reward is often the most subtle:
You realize how capable you are.
Something shifts around round 20.
Something else shifts around round 50.
And somewhere near round 80… the practice stops being physical and becomes something more.
108 Sun Salutations is a meditation wrapped inside a sequence of familiar poses. You begin to:
Drop out of the mind and into the breath
Feel emotion move through you and release
Observe old patterns and stories dissolve
Experience presence in its purest form
Many practitioners describe a sense of clarity, completion, and inner quiet at the end—a recalibration of the whole system.
The Winter Solstice marks the shortest day and longest night.
After this day, the light begins to return.
108 Sun Salutations becomes a ritual of welcoming that light back—externally and internally.
It is:
A release of the old year’s heaviness
A clearing of mental clutter
A celebration of resilience
A reset before stepping into the new season ahead
It’s a reminder that even in darkness, the light is never lost.
The most important thing to know:
You do not have to be “strong enough” or “advanced enough” to try this ritual.
Some supportive tips:
Pace yourself — Slow and steady wins.
Modify anytime — Step back instead of jump, take Child’s Pose whenever needed.
Use your breath as your guide — If your breath becomes choppy, pause.
Break it into rounds — Sets of 10 with brief rest make the practice accessible.
Honor your body — Your 108 may look different than someone else’s, and that’s perfect.
This practice is not about perfection—it’s about presence.
After 108 Sun Salutations, most people describe:
A surprising sense of inner strength
Deep emotional release and grounding
A clearer mind and softer heart
A feeling of shared community and connection
A renewed sense of purpose, gratitude, or intention
It’s more than a workout.
It’s a rite of passage.
This Winter Solstice, you’re invited to join us at Kanab Yoga Collective for a guided 108 Sun Salutation practice—a chance to reset, renew, and return to your inner light.
Come as you are.
Move at your own pace.
Leave transformed.
Rachel Payton | DEC 11, 2025
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