Yoga, Intention, and the Days of the Week

One day, years ago, in a training with Anusara® yoga’s founder John Friend, I learned the significance of each day of the week. Since it’s Sunday, I’ll expand on it’s meaning below, but I figure I’ll give you my notes on each day to quench some curiosity first.

Meanings of the days of the week.

Sunday: Dedicated to the Sun. As this is the first day of the week, here we set our intention.

Monday: Day of the Moon. A day for balance, turning in.

Tuesday: Dedicated to Mars. Power, fire, initiation, masculine energy.

Wednesday: The day of Mercury, known as the messenger. This is the bridge between worlds, uniting Feminine and Masculine energies. A day of awakening, communicating.

Thursday: Jupiter’s day. Since Jupiter is the weighty one, this is also the Guru’s day. A day to honor your teachers and celebrate the teacher within. Big energy day.

Friday: The day of Venus. Beauty, feminine Goddess energy, a sense of expansion and goodness rule this day.

Saturday: The day of Saturn. This day has an energy that concludes or binds, being the last day of the week. Saturn is like the old man, or patron of the cycle. Masculine energy.

Setting Intention with Yoga

The sun holds a seemingly limitless amount of energy and power. We, as human beings, have worshiped the sun throughout history for it’s life sustaining energy and beauty.

Yet even this radiant star is only a fraction of the great light that pulses throughout existence. When you feel the warmth and life giving light of the sun, it can remind you of the light you also hold within.

This is Sunday – Day of the Sun. This is the first day of the week, a fresh start that holds power. This is the place to set your intention for the rest of the week (though it is good to set intention every day, so please continue even if you aren’t reading this on Sunday). What do you choose to align with? What do you choose to shine light upon?

Every intention is a choice, and bringing the energy of light, of the sun, into it is very potent. Using this practice – by opening to the limitless possibilities life offers and then deliberately aligning with what is going to bring the most joy and harmony, you empower and illuminate your experience from within. By choosing to do your practice today and every day, aligning with your intention and the bigger energy within, you can access the potency of this time with more focus and grace. This, of course also supports you off the mat.

Mini-Meditation:

Sit beautifully, both connected to the earth and uplifted into the heavens.

Take a deep breath and turn your focus to its movement.

Feel your own internal shining light, even if you are not that aware of it right away.

With each breath, feel your inner light grow, until you feel as if the sun itself were shining from within.

Now, set your intention for the week.

What is the highest intention you could bring into being right now?

Envision it. Speak it. Call it into the present with your will.

Hold that intention in the light of the sun (inner or outer light – either is fine).

Then, with a beautiful breath, let it go.

Give it to the grace of your breath, and trust, with gratitude, that it has entered the current of Grace.

When you are ready to continue on with your day, keep a remembrance of this bigger energy and inner light, so that each thing you do can be in alignment with that which is most life affirming, and that which will help your intention into being.

Om Shri Tejase Om