Shri Narendra Modi, Prime Minister of India has called upon one and all to participate in the “My Life – My Yoga”(also called “Jeevan Yoga”) Video Blogging Contest, a joint effort by  the Ministry of AYUSH and the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR), during the course of his monthly Mann Ki Baat address to the nation. The contest focuses on the transformative impact of Yoga on the lives of individuals, and comes as one of the activities related to the observation of the sixth International Day of Yoga (IDY) coming up on 21st June 2020. The contest has gone live on the social media handles of the Ministry of AYUSH as of, 31 May 2020.

The observation of IDY in the past years has been marked by thousands of harmonious mass demonstrations of Yoga in public places. Due to the contagious nature of COVID-19, no mass gathering would be advisable this year.  Hence, this year the Ministry is encouraging the people to practice Yoga at their homes, with participation from the entire family. Through the My Life – My Yoga video blogging competition, the Ministry of AYUSH and ICCR seek to raise awareness about Yoga and to inspire people to prepare for and become active participants in the observation of IDY 2020. The contest will support participation via the social media platforms of Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Video contest will be open to participants from all countries.

The contest will run in two legs. First leg consisting of an international video blogging contest, wherein the winners will be picked within a country. This will be followed by global prize winners who will be selected from winners from different countries.

Entries can be submitted by participants under three categories covering youth (aged under 18), adults (above 18 years) and yoga professionals, and further, separately for male and female contestants. This makes it a total of six categories in all. The participation guidelines and details of the Canadian prizes can be found in www.hciottawa.gov.in and www.cgittoronto.gov.in

This contest is open to all participants across the world. To enter into the contest the participants are required to upload a 3 minutes duration video of 3 Yogic practices (kriya, asana, pranayama, bandha or mudra), including a short video message/ description on how the said Yogic practices influenced their life. The video may be uploaded on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram with the contest hashtag #MyLifeMyYogaCanada and appropriate category hashtag.