Homemaker to a Successful Yoga Trainer – Pratibha Agarwal

Today, my three yoga centers are my second home and my dedicated team of yoga teachers are my extended family. My two grown-up sons are glad I did not choose to rest and my husband is proud of my work-life balance.

However, around seven years ago, all this was but a dream, when I had almost convinced myself that being a successful home-maker is enough to shoo that thought that perhaps many women have to deal with, ‘I know I have all that I could have asked for, a loving husband and two brilliant kids, but maybe, just maybe, something is still missing.’

Yoga in early childhood

My father use to be obese and thankfully he chose holistic wellness to treat symptoms of obesity. We tagged along and frequently visited naturopathy centers during our holidays. Yoga was a compulsory morning routine and this is when my tryst with yoga had begun. As a child I was flexible and nimble, at least that is what the yoga teachers at the naturopathy center thought of me. I remember feeling a sense of achievement after the morning sessions. I felt confident and always looked forward to the next session. They encouraged me to pursue my practice. I tried keeping up with the practice but with increase in academic pressure and less time for recreation, yoga eventually took a back-seat. I also feel that there was less awareness about yoga and its benefits those days – as compared to what we see now.

Yoga to the rescue

Coming from a traditional joint family scenario, I got married right out of college and soon I was a mother to two boys. There was financial security, there were caring family and friends, overall, it was a comfortable lifestyle. And this I believe resulted in laziness and perhaps emptiness. I had also begun to gain lot more weight post second delivery. To add to this, with no apparent cause, I became a victim of depression and had started taking anti-depressant pills which may have further added a few extra kilos. I even had the doctor advising me against running because of my constant knee pain.

I am so glad I decided to break free from the shackles of fear, depression and unwanted thoughts. A few classes of yoga is what I needed to take me back to that happy and confident place that were ingrained in my heart and soul, when the yoga teacher at the naturopathy center had made me realise that maybe all I need is yoga to fill that emptiness. Though yoga returned to me years later – when I turned 34, I found myself taking my practice rather seriously. Weight loss, looking younger and fitter, running for 10 kms,  etc is what the world noticed. And I experienced boost in confidence, good health, freedom from pills and aches and pains and most importantly the feeling of happiness.

Learning the Yoga Philosophy

Mental health and the ability to connect with yourself, I believe are the biggest gifts of yoga. Noticing and experiencing these changes both at the physical and mental level inspired me to pursue yoga teacher training course and understand the science behind this transformation. I pursued my course at SVYASA and completed my international teacher training course with RYT-200 and RYT 500 certification from Yoga Alliance, USA. I personally believe in traditional yoga forms but at the same time I feel that today not everyone is attracted to yoga because of its psychological benefits or spiritual aspects. It is mostly the immediate physical benefits such as weight loss, flexibility, freedom from body aches, etc that people want from yoga. Having said this and also as someone who believes that all eight limbs of yoga are interrelated, I can say that no matter what reason people come to yoga for, after the practice of asana, they are bound to experience improvement in breathing and with integration of pranayama and asana they will experience a sense of pratyahara, a sense of withdrawal from the outer world and reflect deeper on what’s going on inside. One leads to another, irrespective of which yoga form we choose. Thus I went on to learn power yoga, restorative yoga and even pilates.

Sharing the joy of yoga 

I was sincere with my personal practice after completing TTC. Friends who were busy with work and family and needed that motivation and inspiration to get on their mats started approaching me and I was more than happy to guide them and share my knowledge on yoga. From teaching 1 friend to a small group of 5 to 7, from taking classes at their terraces or residence, to now being recognised as someone who has contributed immensely towards the growing popularity of yoga as a fitness routine in Hyderabad, I am only grateful to each and every one of them and to every opportunity that came my way and inspired me to open my own yoga center. Though the idea behind taking up TTC was not to teach yoga as such, the fact that I am now a full-time yoga trainer was just meant to be. I decided to go with the flow.

The journey to learn and inspire continues

Being a yoga teacher can be an immensely gratifying experience. Every Time a student comes up to me and says that they can sleep better or they just feel happy and healthy after joining yoga, I realise what a happy and fulfilling job we have as yoga teachers. I would like to share one such experience I had around 3 years ago, when an elderly couple from South Africa had contacted me for personal classes. They were in Hyderabad to visit their son and had as less than 10 to 12 days in hand to learn yoga. At first they were reluctant to join because my building had no lift and they had to climb 2 floors to get to my studio. This seemed impossible for the elderly gentleman who was finding it difficult to even take a few steps without complaining about pain and fatigue. However, his wife found the motivation to try at least one session. The following day, she motivated her husband to come along. I remember it took him to close to half n hour to climb 2 floors. They left for South Africa after completing 12 sessions and promised to continue with their practice. A month later she called to tell me that her husband is not just walking but is also able to bend forward and touch his toe! She said that they remember me in their daily prayer and bless me. My heart was filled with joy and gratitude and these are the moments that make teaching yoga such a rewarding and heartening experience.

My yoga center is named after the heart chakra and is called Anahata Yoga Zone. We started with one branch and now have three branches around Hyderabad. It is a place to laugh, cry, connect, evolve and embrace life through yoga. From acro yoga, aerial yoga, power yoga to hatha yoga and pranayama, we leave it to you to explore and decide your yoga style. For me, embracing yoga was embracing life again and I hope that you too can make this choice … it is never too late or too early to start your yoga journey.

Pratibha Agarwal

Founder

Anahata Yoga Zone

http://www.anahatayoga.in

Also Read: https://www.juruyoga.com/finding-sacred-space-yoga-journey/