Ayurveda, Yoga & Me

Ancient medicine like Ayurveda, acupuncture, yoga and the traditional way of working on my health has been part of my life since 2017. With Ayurveda, it has been a much longer journey.

I am Archana. R from Bangalore, India. I am a Yoga instructor since 2017 and a therapist since 2019. I have been suffering from PCOD for 12+ years. At the beginning of this hormonal imbalance, the doctors could not give me more details on what it means and how should I overcome this? The family members didn’t recognize what it was, as nobody had heard about it.

The Allopathic Gynaecologists kept prescribing oral contraceptives and the extra growth protein powders without explaining what they can do to the body. After which, I moved towards homeopathy medication which did help me for some time to keep my periods in check, but at some point, that too stopped working and finally moved towards Ayurveda and Unani medicine in 2009-10.

Over time, I started working for an MNC in the night shift for more than 12 months and moved to a day shift job which was also stressful. All this just added to my woes. The body cycle went through many changes leading to weight gain from 63 kgs to 72 kgs over 6-8 months. 2017 February, on the last day of my job, I met a Yoga & Acupuncture therapist who helped me shed about 5-6 kilos in 6-8 months.

It helped me build my confidence back and become a better & healthier person both inside and outside. My mind & body both felt lighter & much freer. My teacher was pleased with my dedication & transformation, she asked me to handle the classes, but it didn’t feel right for me to start taking classes without knowing much about the background of Yoga, let alone teaching it.

That was the beginning of my Yoga journey, and there has been no turning back ever since. I took up a yoga instruction course with an affiliation center of VYASA called Sudarshan Yoga. Under the guidance of a gold medallist, Mr. Sudarshan Omkar started instructing while pursuing my certification course. Soon after receiving the certificate became a full-time instructor at his Institute.

I attended various workshops in Ashtanga yoga & Pranayama/Dharana/dhyana from @1000yoga, PCOS from Adhyatma Yoga to advance my practice. To enhance my knowledge further moved full-time towards Yoga. I signed up for a Post-Graduate Diploma Yoga Therapy course in January 2019 @SVYASA and completed it in July 2020. I am also a certified Garba yoga teacher.

While pursuing my PG course, I also took up prenatal Yoga because Pregnancy and pregnant women fascinated me. Due to the business-minded hospitals, most of the women were forced to opt for C-sections rather than giving them a choice. I wanted to do my bit to help women to understand their bodies and build confidence in them and prepare them for what women’s bodies can naturally do, just like all the other mammals on this planet. I have worked with six women so far, starting with my sister in law & a neighbor, both of whom had a normal delivery—guided practice for diastasis recti post-delivery.

I am currently a Consultant Yoga Therapist and an Instructor with an online platform known as Myyogateacher, catering to North & South America. I have been conducting group classes & personal classes since June 2020. Each person is different, and each class is designed specially to cater to the needs of the students. Every aspect is taken into consideration, from physical to mental health point of view. I added another feather to my hat with “the Lamaze breathing & relaxation techniques for easy & effective labour" under the guidance of Nutan Pandit, founder of Natural childbirth Centre, India.

Apart from Yoga, I love to travel, pursue languages, read novels, watch movies and sign up for new courses to update myself. I currently train students in level A1 German to improve my speech as I am pursuing level C1.