As an athlete and a national-level, gold-medallist swimmer as a child, and then as a commercial pilot while growing up, movement was everything to me. But all of it changed in one moment when I met with a near-fatal bike accident which left me bedridden and unable to walk for eight months. Apart from multiple traumatic injuries physically, the emotional and mental toll the accident and subsequent recovery took on me was staggering. This is when my mother, a yoga teacher herself, pushed me into yoga along with doing physiotherapy. Slowly but surely, I stood up on my two feet again. Yoga helped me centre myself again, find my bearings and enabled me to heal mentally, emotionally and, of course, physically. Had it not been for my practice, I don’t think I would have ever recovered the way I did.
I was doing physiotherapy, which was all about mobilising my joints again, getting me to take one step after another, and making sure everything was working the way it should, physically. But it wasn’t easy; it was uncomfortable and painful to say the least. My yoga practice came in at that point to help me not only manage the pain and the frustration but also help me deal with the accident mentally and emotionally.
My breathwork is everything to me—there is not a day I go without it. As a child, I had asthma, and my mother used to make me do pranayama in fun ways so I didn’t lose patience. Of course, as I grew up, the more I understood that I was practising breathwork since childhood. I couldn’t be more grateful for it.
Realising the power of yoga and how it completely changed my life made me want to share this magic with everyone else. It came so naturally to me, almost like an inner urge, to not only practise myself but also to teach this holistic wellness discipline to any and everyone willing to try. Even today, when I see my students transform and change for the better, it fills my heart with so much satisfaction and joy.
The hybrid versions of yoga I teach are so authentic to the traditional practice. Since I am so in tune and grounded with my practice, everything I do, even with variations of yoga, stems from its traditional teachings At Anshuka Yoga, we stay true to the eight limbs of yoga while also catering to each student’s bio-individuality. it’s only for you if you’re flexible. But it is so much more than that—it makes you break into a sweat, it regulates you biologically and mentally and it arms you with knowledge that helps you face different situations in life. I always say, you are as flexible in your mind as you are in your spine.
The world really woke up to yoga to a large extent thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic. During the lockdowns, mental health issues peaked in numbers across the world. We realised the importance of feeling and being well in general. From physical health to managing anxiety or depression, yoga and pranayama help you to regulate your breathing, which, in turn, regulates your hormones, parasympathetic nervous system, your entire muscular system, circulatory system and the respiratory system. We were all otherwise so caught up in the race of life but the pandemic made us realise and face our levels of stress that needed management.
Thanks to the westernisation of yoga, the practice now has a much larger reach and is the centre of several global conversations. It’s opening it up to so many different people too—no matter their age, race, gender, fitness level—yoga is really for everyone.