Breathing life from the yoga mat

[Music]

hi

i’m nimisha i have been yoga teacher

from past

11 years and student of yoga for life

i would like to ask you a question how

many of you know here how to breathe

please raise your hand

interesting we all know how to breathe

this is the idea i wanted to share with

you all today

how to make use of your breathing and

your yoga as a tool to live your life

with more resilience

more happiness less stress and less

anxiety

many of you may have an idea about yoga

one which shows yoga as a physical

practice

where we are working on our bodies to

look like a pretzel

but this is not yoga

yoga on the mat is all about

how to sharpen our self-awareness

resilience and cultivating grit

our experience from the mat can help us

to create a toolbox to deal with the

difficult situations in life

and it all starts and end how we breathe

while doing yoga yoga is an ancient

practice

which was born in india my motherland

but in today’s fast-moving world yoga

has become a synonym world

of physical exercise awesome practice

but asan practice is only one part of

yoga

yoga has eight limbs these are eight

foundational pillars of yoga without

them

yoga will be broken yoga

the whole system of yoga will collapse

these eight pillars provide us

a strong foundation to stay grounded

when a tsunami or a storm hits in our

life

and the fun part is you can practice all

these eight limbs

on and off the mat from your office

chairs

to when in the middle of an argument

with your partners

or your work colleagues

just imagine a caterpillar

i’m going to name this caterpillar yoga

the caterpillar

yoga the caterpillar has eight legs

okay i know what you all are thinking

that

spider has eight legs not the

caterpillar

so just be bit creative with your

scientific minds

and imagine a caterpillar with eight

legs

okay the yoga the caterpillar will not

be able to move

without its eight legs it needs all it

eight legs to move steady and slowly

but in today’s fast-moving world

and in my 11 years of teaching yoga

i have witnessed that we all are working

so hard to strengthen the one leg of

this caterpillar

which is asan practice the physical part

of yoga

that we overlook all the other seven

legs of yoga

let’s meet all the eight legs of yoga

the first one is yamas which are social

ethics

the social ethics are kindness

truthfulness generosity

non-stealing and self-management

niama’s of personal discipline where

purity

austerity contentment self-study and

surrender

comes then we have asan which we all are

very familiar with

which is the connection of body and mind

then

we have a pranayama mindful breathing

we have turning inward patihara then we

have dharana which is concentration

focus then we have dhyana

letting go and the ultimate leg

the ultimate goal of yoga is samadhi

the complete harmony of self

all these eight legs works on

and off the mat

yoga can help us in many different ways

in our life

be it in any sudden challenging

circumstances

or a companion in a long healing complex

journey

yoga also has the ability to impact a

society a community

when people take this practice off the

mat

and turn it into a collective energy

yoga can be your companion your friend

who holds your hand until you reach a

dark scary tunnel

i will tell you about a dark scary

tunnel i had to survive

in 2017 i was sitting in an

endocrinologist

office holding my 10 month old baby girl

while doctor was looking at the screen

with his worrying eyes

he said he uttered the words

we have to do more tests seems like

you might be having a thyroid cancer

these numbers are way off chart

he checked the bulging lump in my throat

and said let’s give

uh thyroxine 150 mg to see if this

lump reduces in six weeks

those words shook my little perfect

world with the two young children

and one supported husband

i left the doctor’s office puzzled

disoriented and worried

worried about my little kids

what if i will die who is going to take

care of my kids

and surprisingly i was more worried

about

my husband starving not getting his

indian dishes made by me

after six weeks of grief i

realized that it was time for me to

really embody my

all eight limbs of yoga on and off the

mat

i deeply trusted my body and mind

i practiced mindful breathing took one

day at a time

one breath at a time i turned inward by

looking at the traumas

straight into the eyes by practicing my

satya

my truth i let go let go of the

expectations i have created from my body

from my life then i started

two year long journey to complete heal

my hypothyroid

after a while

the lump was reduced so there’s a

possibility

of me having a hypothyroid cancer or a

thyroid cancer

but i was told that i will be on the

medication for my entire life

i was determined to do the work by

living my

all yoga and its eight limbs on and off

the mat

journey was uphill

but yoga was helping me tremendously to

say

on the path of my healing and with the

help of doctors

to wean me slowly from the medication

but the yoga was there

holding my hands all the way through

this journey

in the end i did not even need the

medication

that butterfly gland in my throat was

thriving

working well on its own once again

during this complex journey a long

journey

yoga was yoga provided me a tool kit

which was very vital for my journey

it taught me how to take one day at a

time

how to cultivate resilience how to

turn inward self-surrender to the

situation

and let go of the expectations i

was creating my caterpillar

was moving all on its eight legs

in the process of transforming into a

butterfly

just not in my personal journey i have

witnessed many

caterpillars transforming into a

butterfly

and each time i see one resilient

butterfly

i reassure myself that this system of

yoga

works yoga also can help us

to deal with the daily

day-to-day certain challenging

experiences or situations which arises

in our life

mohammed my 60 year old yoga student was

involved in a car accident

the driver of other car was fuming with

anger and hurling insults to him

during this time muhammad stayed calm

and he

offered all the damages to cover all his

damages

despite of muhammad being kind and

generous

the other driver decided to call the

traffic police

mohammed was deeply connected with his

body and mind which allowed his nervous

system

not to go in flight or fight mode which

allowed

his mind and body to

make a logical conversation make a

logical decisions

mohammed explained in his own words

suddenly it occurred to me that as if i

was living my yoga off the mat

by fully present with my mindful

breathing

be by connected with my body and mind as

i would have been on my posture practice

muhammad weaved his yoga practice off

the mat

in this difficult situation his

caterpillar

was also transformed in a butterfly

in this difficult situation which arise

suddenly

yoga provided a set of skills for

muhammad

to just not more aware of his body

but his mind was more resilient too

you guys are not only influential on

individual level

it has a ability to impact a society

when people take this practice off the

mat

and turn it into a collective energies

the most powerful impact of this

practice

i have witnessed in 2020 when the covet

hit

in our small community cows all human

connections were restricted

we felt as if we were locked inside our

own houses

during this time i started

yoga virtual yoga on a pay it forward

concept which means you take a class

with me

and you pay it forward with your

generosity

a gesture of kindness and gesture of

compassion

to yourself or to the others

we saw each other’s faces through the

screens

to remind ourselves that we were not

alone

in the time of uncertainty we were not

alone

in the time of struggle

we set up the intentions to be fully

present for that one

hour and not to think what’s coming next

we set up the intention to turn inward

and process our fears

of uncertainty by doing so

we all were grounded in the present

movement

by doing so we were all collective

practicing on and off the mat

we met four times a week from april to

september

in one of the most strange times our

generation has ever faced it was

unprecedented time

nobody was equipped enough to deal with

yoga during this time provided a toolkit

to people to stay resilient

in one of the most challenging times

yoga provided the toolkit taught them

how to take one breath at a time how to

take

one day at a time without worrying too

much

about what’s coming next

virtual yoga became

our platform and life

became our math

collective energies people cultivated

this

collective energies they turned their

collective grief

into the collective effort yoga taught

them how to change this collected effort

to a collective energies to uplift each

other

to help each other

and to check on each other often

all caterpillars were in the process of

transforming

into a butterfly in one of the most

challenging

times if i call on you today to start

practicing yoga

you might think that you need a mat

or you need to follow a youtube video

that’s great that’s perfect

but what i’m highlighting today is

yoga is more than meets the mat

as yoga has helped me and many of my

other students

to face my own storms and tsunamis

yoga can help you to face your storms

and tsunamis in life

i would like you to invite again to

close

your eyes and take one deep breath

in and out through your belly

thank you