Hi Friend,
Now that I've officially pivoted my blog to Yoga and Ayurveda, I thought I would share my story. Looking back, I truly find it amazing how the little conversations and experiences along the way culminated into my becoming a student of these ancient philosophies.
Growing up in an Indian family with strong Vedic roots, I've heard about/encountered both Yoga and Ayurveda many times throughout my life. I remember my mom buying a Yoga DVD from a library book market when I was probably 5 or 6 years old (I don't remember her ever using it though), and as my dad immersed himself deeper into learning about religions and Hindu culture, conversations about Yoga and Ayurveda inevitably struck up too.
Despite my exposure, however, I not only had no real interest in these philosophies, but I had no respect for them either. I was growing up in the West, learning about Western medicine and Western science as the "real" medicine and science. It was after COVID hit, when I joined my dad in watching a video about Yoga and Ayurveda, that I realized how wrong I was.
Despite the many incredible treatments Western medicine has developed, they lack a holistic view of health. This is where they are still behind in comparison to Yogic and Ayurvedic outlooks on living healthy; in these Vedic philosophies, health encompasses your physical, mental, and spiritual health. Only when all three are in balance is one considered to be healthy. In fact, these three elements are interdependent too, so to treat any ailment or disease, one's entire composition must be accounted for to truly target the root of the issue.
Furthermore, Ayurveda often has the reputation of being made up of home remedies with no real scientific base. But Ayurveda discusses the processes of how our bodies work, while Western science discusses the objects. So, when both are compared, they show the same human body and the same bodily functions. While Ayurvedic treatments are slower, trying to work in harmony with our natural processes, Western treatments are more nuclear, working to change or fix certain parts of our bodies or cells.
I explain this because for me to begin my studies of these philosophies, it was important to recognize the misconceptions I harbored about Yoga and Ayurveda. Only once I realized these philosophies have so much to offer did I become open-minded enough to study them.
But it was not only the exposure from my parents that led me here but many chance players along the way.
In January 2018, I attended weekly yoga sessions at a yoga studio during my PE class in school. It was a wonderful way to relieve the tension that built up in my body during the week and a perfect time to catch some extra zzz's (our yoga teacher actually permitted us!).
Having had a good experience at these sessions, I opted to take some yoga classes for my PE credit during January of 2019 as well. Attending the classes and listening to the instructors, I realized how mindful yoga was intended to be; as a yogi, focusing on how your body feels and adjusting accordingly is an important part of every practice. After 3 months of on-and-off classes, I stopped yoga again. I was finally graduating high school and looking forward to enjoying college halfway across the country - why would I want to waste time being introspective and deep?!
My next encounter with yoga took place in January of 2020 when I attended a retreat for my fellowship program. Because our fellowship was centered around entrepreneurship with a focus on making social change, our professor held this retreat before classes to introduce us to the focus of our first semester: discovering our calling. The retreat hosted many reflective and team-building activities, and since one of the mentors was a yogi, we had yoga and meditation classes in the mornings. As she talked about her pivot from engineering to yoga, her experiences in India, and her retreat adventures, I felt drawn to yoga. I had always enjoyed doing Yoga, and now here I was, being told and shown that yoga had the power to change my life. So after the retreat, I invested in a yoga mat and practiced yoga every week... until COVID hit.
The rest of 2020 flew by with no more thought of yoga. But 2021 began, and in the first week of January, on a night I was up super late for absolutely no reason whatsoever, I felt a powerful need to search up yoga teacher training programs. I still don't know what compelled me to start digging in that direction, but I found a YTT course that I could afford, signed up, and got started.
I've been practicing yoga more or less regularly since then, and even though it has only been ~3 months, I have noticed the shift in my mindset and my health. I am much more mindful of what I put in and on my body, of how my body feels and what it might be telling me, and overall, just lead a much more intentional life.
I understand now that I want to share my journey because I see myself growing a little bit every day, and there's just so much I'm learning that finally helps things make sense. Even in writing this, I realized that it was every January of these past four years that I had some experience with yoga that pushed me closer to where I am today. Small coincidence, but isn't it amazing how the universe works? Only another sign that my journey here was inevitable...
Thank you for reading this far and for listening to my story. I'll write again soon, but until then, stay healthy, happy, and maybe try to bring some more intention into your life... who knows where that might lead you?
Shreya
Yorumlar