Today on International Day of Yoga, I decided to share an interview of my dear friend Neha Goel, with whom I re-started my workout journey 8 years back.
You know when people tell you to have a workout buddy to stay committed to your healthy lifestyle goals. Both me and Neha have been each other’s support system. We have encouraged and motivated each other to stay consistent with our daily workout routines.
Though both of us started with Yoga training under the guidance of Yoga trainers; Hemangi Marathe and Reema Vengurlekar; after a year I chose to start with cardio & strength training, but Neha stayed on to continue practicing Yoga daily.
Today she is a certified Yoga trainer and has been training people since over a year. Whenever we talk, mostly our conversation is about physical and mental wellness. So, I wanted to share a bit about her journey with my readers.
So, here it is:
What was your reason or what attracted you towards practicing Yoga as an exercise regimen?
After my pregnancy I gained a lot of weight, and my body was stiff like a log, so I started yoga with the aim of losing post pregnancy weight and to gain flexibility. Initially used to do very simple and basic yoga stretches. Slowly when my body started showing results, I moved to Ashtanga practice. With Ashtanga practice, though, it was very tiring, body responded so well that I lost almost 9 kgs in 5 months.
Why did you decide to become a Yoga trainer?
For that I’m extremely grateful for my teachers Hemangi Aunty and Reema; my friends Aesha and Snehal. They all saw a teacher in me when I doubted if I had the skills required to teach. I had a deep interest and dedication towards yoga, but I was not planning to pursue it as my career but then sometimes my teachers used to give me surprise chances to take few of their classes. That gave me a lot of confidence and that’s when I finally applied for yoga teacher training course.
How was your learning experience for certification?
I registered myself with yoga certification board under Ministry of Ayush, Government of India. For that I took coaching from B.S Gupta Sir. From there started my amazing journey of understanding yoga in its full glory. It was then I realized that yoga is not only about physical transformation, but it is about finding your true self. It made me realize the importance of breath, breath control and aligning the breath with your movement. I studied a lot and did some short-term courses about human anatomy, posture alignment, different styles of Practices, chakras, and their effects to learn more and more.
What has been your learning from your years of practice of Yoga?
First thing that I have learned from my practice is the breath awareness. Initially when I started ashtanga practice I used to rush into the asanas without synchronizing my breath with the movement and that used to make me very tired by the end of the practice. But then slowly with the self -practice I realized that I need to focus on my breath more instead of asanas. Now my practice is so smooth and calming that I look forward to the next day so that I can roll out my mat and step on it.
Second thing I learned is to surrender. Now I do not rush into anything, I gently allow my body to move with the flow.
And most importantly I learned it is not only the one- or two-hour time of practice that is going to define you and take you towards your inner journey. It is a journey of lifetime, and you must be fully and whole heartedly committed to it.
Do follow Neha- My Quest For Yoga on Instagram. Her Instagram account is more about her self-practice of Yoga in which she shares her journey as a yoga learner which has its share of failures and success. But most importantly, growth.
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‘This post is a part of Blogchatter Half Marathon.’
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