Welcome to Summer Solstice Mind over Madness Yoga in Times Square. The Summer solstice marks the time of year when the sun is at its highest point in the sky for the longest period. There are many traditions across all cultures that have celebrated this marker of time for centuries.

Yoga unites us with the Universal flow and connects us with our own personal rhythms. The discipline of yoga enhances our abilities to respond to subtle cues that promote wellness. Peace becomes the natural environment of our relationships and our world.

What was your highest point since the last Summer solstice?  Did you realize a yoga pose you’d been working on?   Were you able to remain stable when all around you seemed unstable?  You might have extended to someone in need in a way that enhanced you both. Or, you might have put into action some of the personal lessons learned from your yoga practice.

This is the time to celebrate our ability to extend. As the sun climbs to its highest point and is suspended in the sky for the longest period, it provides us with a vital force that sustains all of life, giving us a focal point and uniting our purpose to achieve our highest intentions.

Thank you for joining thousands of other yoga practitioners in Times Square and around the world to celebrate our ability to extend, like any plant or tree, to the Light. We are reminded of this through the practice of yoga, especially on the Summer Solstice.

Thank you,
Douglass Stewart
Cofounder Yoga in Times Square/Mind over Madness

---

Life is thrilling, but it can be tough. Urban life can be even tougher. The flip side of the astonishing array of choices, activities and aspirations that we have in a place like New York is how hard it is to stay centered, focused and present.   Nowhere is that more true than in Times Square, one of the most intense and frenetic places on the planet. In a place that fuels our desires and offers distractions galore, achieving santosa (the Sanskrit word for contentment) can be a challenge.

Ten years ago, we thought that there might be something to the idea of drawing on the energy of the sun to re-energize ourselves through stillness. As a producer of the other solstice celebration (aka New Year’s Eve), the Times Square Alliance thought this could be a calm, quiet and sunny counterpoint to that boisterous event. Now, thousands of people are making a different kind of pilgrimage to Times Square, and under the bright light of the longest day of the year, they are bringing just a little bit of stillness, and a little bit of santosa, to this intense and crazy city that we love.

Namaste,

Tim Tompkins
President, Times Square Alliance