Namaste!
I often get asked "Why Yoga, when and how did you start it?"
The why part of it is more difficult for me to answer than the other two, so maybe you guys will be better able to understand that yourselves after I finish answering the two other parts of the question.
So Im going to give you a little bit of background on how I got into this.
My dad has always wanted me to be an active person, so when I was around 5 years, I had my first swimming lesson. I was desperate to learn swimming and I can still recall the day my dad and grandad walked me to my first swimming class at an indoor pool! I had a Yellow swimsuit with little frogs printed all over, and I probably still have it stored away somewhere! So I started with swimming and I continued over summer for a number of years until I outgrew the pool. I still enjoy being in the water to this day, and its probably one of my favourite exercise and please don't ask me which I like better! Yoga or Swimming? I honestly can't choose!
Around the same age, my dad enrolled me for golf lessons as well! My dad is a very serious golfer and had me enrolled very young to learn it and I did enjoy it. I've probably played on the course only a handful of times but I have had countless lessons and to this day my dad uses golf analogies to make me understand life situations and its quite helpful, although I have never admitted that to him!
I honestly think I understood the importance of being mentally as well as physically present through golf. I learnt if I'm frustrated then I'll probably not be able to swing the club to so much as touch the ball. Golfing really tested my patience and let me tell you, I was quite the cranky kid! I continued my training up until my 11th grade, but as my commitment to studies had to get better, my extra curricular activities took a huge hit. My weekends were generally dedicated to golf or swimming, although I wasn't great at either of them, I still carried it with me up until this stage.
In between these years, I have also had tennis, football and running lessons as part of school sports and we were quite well trained in all of them. But I didn't enjoy or take to any of these as much as golf or swimming.
Since I had very little time to commit to a whole weekend of golf, I had to forego my lessons. This was probably the point in my life I was MOST frustrated and I didn't even realise it. I was cranky all the time and quite angry too.
When I did realise that what I was lacking is some physical activity, I asked my dad to please do something about it. My dad has done Yoga for as long as I can remember and I clearly recall telling him "I will never do Yoga ever" when I was may be 8 years old?
WELL, THAT BACKFIRED! Safe to say my Dad is always right and gets his way, haha!.
So when I did ask my dad to help me out, I said "even Yoga is fine" (please insert eye roll here)
And that was it! My dad took this chance and had me attending 5 am Yoga classes the same week! I barely had any sleep at all those days, but I was okay attending an early class before catching the bus for school because that's how bad I needed it. I stuck to 3 classes a week, which was a small yet decent commitment. I did it on and off for a year, but I began practicing on my own quite frequently too.
I had fallen in love with doing 12 round of Suryanamaskar and soon I could not go a day without doing it.
Once I finished my 12th grade in 2016, I had already decided to take a year off before college, as most of you know.
At the time, my centre had the second batch of their Teacher Training Course. My Yoga teachers tried to get me to enrol, but I didn't think I had what it takes to do it. So, I actually didn't enrol! Two months since the course passed, and I was complaining of boredom. My dad had had enough. He said "put on some jeans, we're going out, oh and carry a book and pen" so I did. I didn't ask any questions. In five minutes he dropped me off at my Yoga centre and left.
The rest is history!
Cool dad, yeah?
If you guys would want a part 2 to this story then let me know below and I'll do it this week! Comment below or find me on my Instagram and DM me! Also, you should follow me to see my stories of failed attempts at some yoga poses! I'm quite funny that way, if I can say so myself.
Stay Safe, Stay Aware!
Comments