How Yoga Found Me

We were locked in the classic “inverted V” yoga pose with the funny name: the downward facing dog.

The teacher, a visiting instructor from Hong Kong, made her rounds among the 50 participants, reminding us to lift kneecaps, push back thigh bones (not the spine) and rotate shoulder blades.

The woman next to me tilted her head, our eyes met; we smiled and instantly bonded.

She is a mother of two who drove two hours from Cilegon, Banten, to make it to the workshop that morning, and for the next two days. 

“I teach aerobics at home, but some of my students have been asking me to offer yoga class,” she told me later as we munched on celery sticks dipped in hummus during lunch break.

“Are you a yoga teacher?” she asked me.

I thought about the question for a while. I am not officially a teacher, and my current profession could not be further from the activity.

I am journalist, and have been one for 11 years.

But lately I have become more and more immersed in the practice and the learning of yoga.

In the last few months, I have attended several workshops and teacher training classes, and have already signed up for a rigorous month-long program to become a yoga instructor this summer.

I guess I am what you would call an aspiring yogini.

I am someone who has graduated from being a yoga enthusiast who attends three classes a week, to becoming a dedicated practitioner who builds her own yoga practice at home, devotes her time to studying yogic philosophy (including the Sanskrit) and whose calendar is marked with dates of costly training programs.

I am part of the band of people across the world embracing this ancient Vedic tradition.

Another friend decided recently to quit her journalism job to train in India to become a yoga teacher.

I have a mortgage and a husband, so I will refrain from making such a drastic change in my life. Plus, I still love my profession and believe that writing is my calling in life.

Anyone familiar with my track record in sports may laugh off my current passion. I grew up dreaming of becoming a badminton player like my brother (I was broken-hearted when my mother refused to enrol me in a badminton school), before dabbling in jazz dance, aerobics and tennis.

I also have made serious attempts at mastering tae kwon do (blue belt), inline skating, swimming, scuba diving, ballroom dancing and, most recently, capoeira.

My fascination with yoga developed gradually. I began taking a gentle yoga class in mid 1995 in search of an effective relaxation method to cure me of a chronic migraine. Still, I was not won over at first.

One day I was introduced to a different type of yoga, one done in a room heated up to 42 degrees. That makes sure your joints are lubricated enough to prevent injuries and works up your heart rate. For the first time, I broke into a sweat - buckets of it - doing yoga.

I was sold.

Soon I took up other forms -- the Asthanga, Vinyasha, Iyengar, Kundalini – that are just as strong and powerful, and my love grew stronger.

I love what yoga has done to my body. It has strengthened it, elongating my muscles, expanding my flexibility and reining in my recurring indigestion problem.

Although I effortlessly quit smoking – a 15-year nasty habit – on New Year’s Eve 2005, I probably could not have carried it through without relapsing but for my yoga.

After a while the physical movement was not enough. I hungered to learn more about yoga outside of what is taught at studios or on DVDs.  I bought a range of books and took workshops to study its philosophy. That was when it hit home that yoga is a way of life.

The physical aspect of yoga makes your body stronger and more pliant. It quiets your mind and prepares you for the discipline of the higher practice that involves concentration and meditation.

But all of these are only steps to reach a state of spiritual liberation: a union with God or life source - whatever you believe in. This state is called Samadhi.

Yoga has evolved in me. What started out as a means to attain physical perfection has transformed to become a vehicle to pursue this spiritual harmony.

I began to apply the yogic principles in my daily life, striving to live as truthfully to others as well as to myself, and doing my hardest to eliminate impurities in thoughts.

Yoga does not dull my sarcastic tongue, nor has it managed to stop me from swearing at reckless drivers who endanger other motorists on the street. But little by little I have started to remove even the whitest lies in my conversations; also eliminating excessive shopping, eating or drinking; and surrendered to a situation that I cannot control.

It keeps my sometimes stormy temperament in check.

While it is still a long way for me to attain that ultimate state of Samadhi, it does not seem like a remote possibility now.

Meanwhile, I am just doing it one pose at a time.

+ Sarasvati

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