What is Yoga

Dr Hemalatha, our young, enthusiastic anaesthesiologist, is here to share her experience, beyond medicine and her everlasting unstoppable love towards yoga…

What is Yoga:

YOGA – the word is derived from the Sanskrit word “YUJ” meaning yoke or union.

The purpose of yoga is not only to keep good physical shape but also to experience infinity.

Yoga is not only a physical exercise

To me, it is the way of living

It helps to connect the body, mind & soul

It incorporates breathing exercises, meditation and poses, designed to encourage relaxation and to reduce stress

My Vision About Life & Yoga:

I define my life’s vision as whom I want to be, what I wanted to be known for and the set of experiences & accomplishments I aim for. Lastly, my vision is to experience life, love and family.

Relived My Childhood Memories:

Dance is always my first love. But I couldn’t do much after my post-graduation and marriage. I somehow rekindled my passion again in 2017 June and I joined a reputed dance studio (fitness class). Then I pushed myself & to my surprise, I gave three, 10km marathon as well. But without proper weight training & strengthening exercises, I lost considerable weight in a short span. Added to this, I joined many dance workshops & finally ended up with left knee pain. After the [dance]stage show, I decided to take a break & rest for a while.

My Yoga Journey Started in 2018 June:

I could not sit idle without any workout and I was missing my happy endorphins, a lot. I always wanted to learn yoga as I believed that yoga would help me to improve my dancing skills. I enquired & finally chose SARYA YOGA STUDIOS.

Initially, I joined for a month to see how it worked for me. I had to skip a few workouts/asanas, not to strain my knee again. In a few weeks, I could feel my knee pain getting better. The main reason behind is, all those asanas were strengthening my quadriceps. I get to learn from trainers who would walk around and correct my postures & instruct me about the Do’s and Dont’s.

   

From then on, my yoga journey was quite good & pleasant, until I injured my left hamstrings while doing the front split. I was advised to quit all activities for 6 weeks. I couldn’t hold on to it for more than 3 weeks. I slowly resumed dance class (salsa) and then resumed yoga after 8 weeks. That was a major setback and I learned that I should always listen to my body. I skipped deep hamstring stretches for few months. I slowly regained strength & started doing hamstring strengthening exercises.

I will always be late for the session but I will be regular(3 days/week). After the session, I would love to stay back & request my trainer to guide me in some advanced poses. My love for yoga started to increase and I started to surf a lot. I followed so many yoginis on the internet & got inspired by their posts and poses.

This lockdown is a real boon to me. I never thought I would do home practice. I started to read a lot about getting into poses/holding onto poses for longer time/proper alignment/preparatory drills needed to get into the pose. I learned from some of the yoginis tutorials and I practiced them at home. Then I would shoot a video of me and see how close I am and where I should improve. My trainers also came forward and helped me & guided me so well through zoom classes.

Now, this lockdown is over but still, we don’t have studio classes. Our online classes are keeping me sane & my beautiful journey continues forever.

Lessons Learned:

• Do you work and wait patiently
  Keep practicing and push yourself daily & wait patiently. One day, you will be surprised to see yourself in a perfect alignment, you were working on.
• Consistency is the key
  Yes, it will take minimum 6-8 months to see a detectable improvement in overall same of well being
• Listen to your body always
  You should know when to push hard & when to stop and that comes out of practice
• YOGA is not just a breathing exercise
  But breathing is very important that connects the body, mind & soul
• Last & most important is to find a perfect trainer
  I am so lucky to have found our SARVA. My trainers keep changing but everybody is amazing in their own way. Their part is very important & they have guided me so well to date.

YOGA has been a life-changing experience for me.

Know your passion
Dream it
Follow it
Live it