This is going to be my series where I am going to share how YOGA impacted my life and made me a better person in real life. This series is going to be my story of personal transformation, of how Yoga helped me overcome obstacles and helped me in adopting a positive attitude towards life. I am going to share the misconceptions that we hold about Yoga (including me). In short, I am going to share everything that people wanted to know from me, ever. As always, I hope you would love reading this 🙂

The first blog of the series talks about: How my journey of Yoga started

This has been the frequently asked question, on what prompted me to take up Yoga. Since, Yoga has gained popularity in the past few years and there are youngsters cueing up to make it a profession, I was asked this too that did I have any plan to take it up professionally? Do I teach Yoga- Something which everyone presumes that I do

So, guys here it is- Neither did I teach Yoga nor have any intentions to do so. There are people around me who still presume that I teach but I still don’t do it despite holding an advance level training. That’s a misconception I think everyone have about me. Infact, teaching has never been my cup of tea and therefore even if I am certified practitioner, it never made me take it up professionally. My journey of Yoga just happened. I joined Yoga to get into a perfect shape but it will turn into a life transformative experience, is something I never thought!

Rewinding to the year 2013- From where it began!

July 5^th – was my last working day. This was the day when I got free from the corporate shackles and rather pursue the path of my dreams. Letting go of a career that I nurtured for 8 long years was not easy but there is a saying that- All is well, that’s end well. 

But why I am mentioning it here is because I struggled with both my body & health during my corporate stint. Managing a hectic working life started taking a toll on me. There came a point when I put on weight and suffered from acute lower back issues. I had symptoms of cervical as well because of the sheer negligence I showed towards my health. My working schedule would start at 7 AM in the morning and would end not before 9: 30 PM. I used to commute for 5 hours a day for work. One of the things which used to frustrate me was when I had to drag myself to work, despite being not in good health. I don’t know how many of you know this but summers doesn’t suit me. For me getting a heat stroke is normal and this used to be my biggest problem during the working days.

No physical exercise (because I had NO TIME), my body started reacting. From 2012-2013 particularly, I got to 68 Kgs. This started worrying me. Believe me when I say this but my desperation to get off this excess baggage got so high, that I started climbing 10 floors every day

Therefore one of the agendas I had, post quitting the job, was to retrieve my normal self back 😛

How I got into Practicing Yoga

I have never been a gym person. I don’t why but the idea of joining a gym never made me comfortable or may be it were the stories I heard, that made me form this opinion. I decided to join it nevertheless. Only to quit it within three days and vowing never to join back. Not discouraging here but gym didn’t suit me for the techniques they use

Those were also the days when people weren’t much into Yoga, as they are today. This was on a suggestion from a friend that I decided to try Yoga. As After all, it is a popular weight loss program worldwide (pun intended) and joining the troop was me as I searched for the classes and got through one.

How my Professional Training started!

By sheer coincidence!

One of my college friends was pursuing Yoga professionally from Morarji Desai National Institute of Yoga (MDNIY) and she convinced me to give it a try from a good professional institute

“If you are practicing it, why don’t you do it in a proper way? I assure that you will notice the difference yourself”- She said

She told me that there are certain techniques, with which you should do a particular asana. It is imperative, that you should do it in a right way. Joining a professional institute meant that I should learn these techniques.

I got myself enrolled in a one month foundation course at MDNIY, where I was taught a combination of basic asanas & theory, and needless to say that I loved every bit of it. This was Feb 2014

You ain’t a professional but you don’t think yourself to be less either, after a basic practice. Completion of this one month course gave me a high, as I vowed to continue it but failed miserably. I joined a regular class at the same institute but it didn’t feel the level, as it was in my foundation course

Cut to July 2014, I decided that I would enroll myself for a professional training and joined a three months certification program in Yogasana (Marking the word in Bold, because I will explain it in a Blog later). Subsequently, I did a professional certification program in Pranayama as well in Oct 2014. This was followed by an advance level training of 6 months in 2017

One of the things that I really feel grateful everyday is that I am blessed with the best things in my life. This meant that I got to learn from the people, who practiced this ancient program as it is- The way it should be practiced. Only if I had eyes to understand it fully!

Why I am saying so?

You know I have been practicing Yoga since 2013, but it was only during my advance certification course in 2017, that I could understand what Yoga can really do to you. To an extent I felt like a fool, of what I was doing till all these years but then I was reminded of words that my guru said when I was starting with this journey

“You are an enthusiastic kid. You will learn it. Your eyes are closed but you will learn it. You are an enthusiastic kid”

These lines still give me jitters but in the next blog I am sharing what it really meant   

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