Four times a year at Nova House, we do something a little different: we move through 108 Sun Salutations together, as a group, all the way through. If you've never done it, the number alone probably sounds intimidating. It is, a little. It's also one of the most grounding things you can do with a room full of people.
What Are 108 Sun Salutations?
The tradition itself is old. Practicing 108 Sun Salutations at the change of seasons, the two equinoxes and two solstices, goes back generations in yoga communities, a way of marking the turning of the year with the body instead of just the calendar. Sun Salutations themselves, Surya Namaskar, were traditionally practiced as a greeting to the rising sun. Doing 108 of them at each seasonal shift is a way of greeting the change itself.
Why Is 108 a Sacred Number in Yoga?
Why 108 specifically? The number shows up everywhere in yoga and Hindu tradition, and there's no single explanation, more like a stack of them that all point the same direction. There are 108 beads on a traditional mala, used for counting mantras. Ancient astronomers noted the distance between the Earth and the sun is roughly 108 times the sun's diameter, and a similar ratio roughly holds for the moon. In yoga philosophy, the number is considered a symbol of completion and wholeness. Whether or not you find the math convincing, the pattern is clear: across a lot of traditions, 108 has always meant "a full cycle."
What to Expect During a 108 Sun Salutation Practice
Physically, moving through that many rounds builds serious heat. Your first twenty or so feel like a normal practice. Somewhere in the middle, your mind starts negotiating with you. By the end, most people describe something close to a moving meditation: thought drops away, and it becomes just breath, movement, breath, movement, on repeat, until it's done. That repetition is the point. It's not about being impressive. It's about staying present with something difficult for longer than feels comfortable, and discovering you can.
There's also something that happens in a room doing this together that doesn't happen practicing alone. Nobody is thinking about how they look. Everybody is just trying to make it to the next round. By the last set, there's usually a shared, wordless kind of solidarity in the room, the sense of having done something hard together, which is a big part of why this tradition has survived as a group ritual for so long.
Join Our Seasonal 108 + Restore Class
We build our 108 + Restore class around the equinoxes and solstices on purpose. It's a way of letting your body notice the season changing, not just your calendar. You don't need to be strong or flexible or particularly good at yoga to do it. You just need to be willing to keep going, breath by breath, until the season has officially turned.
Come try it at the next one. Bring water. Leave your expectations at the door.
