65. Yoga is for ANY body with Aarti Inamdar (Part 1)
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In this two-part episode, host Surabhi Veitch sits down with Aarti Inamdar, a yoga teacher and student of classical hatha yoga. With over 15 years of experience, Aarti has a passion for sharing the teachings and wisdom in the sacred ancestral traditions of yoga. You won’t want to miss these episodes as we discuss spiritual healing in yoga, inclusivity within the yoga space, and how the practices of yoga can make you a better parent.
We discuss:
Yoga as a Way of Life
Inclusivity: Any Body is a Yoga Body
Body Shame
Parenting & Yoga
Spiritual Healing Through Yoga
Make sure to catch Part 2 of this conversation HERE.
Aarti Inamdar Bio
Aarti, is a student and teacher of classical hatha yoga, trained by her elders and lineage teachers. Aarti shares the teachings of yoga as sacred ancestral wisdom traditions, and has been a guide and coach for over 15 years. She lives the teachings of yoga and enjoys sharing yoga as a way of life with her students. She teaches online yoga, meditation, and philosophy classes and courses; she runs corporate wellness sessions and retreats; and mentors individuals one on one to support them in their healing, wellness and health journeys. Her goals are to facilitate authentic wellbeing, mobility, and focus in her students using the tools that yoga provides.
Connect with Aarti & Important Links:
—Follow Aarti on Instagram or Facebook: Yoga with Aarti
—Website & Classes: https://www.aartiyoga.com/
—Hatha Yoga 6-month Immersion: https://www.aartiyoga.com/immersion
—Newsletter: https://www.aartiyoga.com/subscribe
Connect with Surabhi:
Website: https://www.thepassionatephysio.ca
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Surabhi: [00:01:24] Hey everyone, and welcome to another episode of Mom Strength. This is your host Surabhi Veitch, and I'm really excited to have on Aarti Inamdar today. Aarti and I connected online when I took one of her yoga classes. Uh, this. January. I think I'm like thinking what this is, uh, June, 2023. I dunno when this, um, episode will come out probably sometime this summer.
But Aarti and I have been connecting since, and I feel so in alignment with her, um, the way she teaches, her spirit, her energy, and um, the messaging that she has. So I'm gonna do an official intro and then welcome her on. So Aarti's, a student and teacher of classical hatta yoga, trained by her elders and lineage teachers.
Artie shares the teachings of yoga, a sacred ancestral wisdom. Traditions and has been a guide and coach for [00:02:24] over 15 years. She lives the teachings of yoga and enjoys sharing yoga as a way of life with her students. She teaches online yoga, meditation, and philosophy classes and courses. She runs corporate wellness sessions and retreats and mentors and individuals one-on-one to support them in their healing, wellness and health journeys.
Her goals are to facilitate authentic wellbeing, mobility, and focus in her students using the tools that yoga provides. Aarti, I'm so. Grateful to have you on here today. Welcome.
Aarti: Thank you. Thank you so much for having me, and thank you for that warm welcome.
Surabhi: Um, you are so welcome. So before we hit record, just for the audience who's listening, we actually had a really great conversation about parenting and yoga and how.
Nothing prepares you from parenthood, motherhood, and you are just dealing with situations as they come. And even if someone was to warn you about it, you don't really get it until you're in it. And yoga is one of those, I don't even like to call it a tool, but [00:03:24] it's a practice that you're practicing throughout your day, throughout your life, and that is a.
Great way to help you navigate some of the challenges of motherhood as well.
Yoga as a Way of Life
Surabhi: So can you talk to me about how yoga is a way of life versus, you know, a bunch of poses that we do
Aarti: a bunch of? Yeah, yeah, for sure. Absolutely. And that was really well said. We don't know what each day will bring us. When you wake up in the morning as a parent, you don't know.
I mean, what's gonna happen today? Is someone gonna be sick? Is someone gonna be upset? Is you just have no idea and you have to be. Open and ready and aware, and I think that's how yoga can be very helpful in that journey. You know, it puts you in this place of openness and readiness and willingness to take on difficulty and step into spaces that are uncomfortable and live in discomfort because it's through that discomfort that we stretch and grow.
Yes. And the practices of [00:04:24] yoga really prepare us for that journey. Now, that doesn't mean we're doing asana all day long. Yoga, we just
Surabhi: stretch our way through difficult situations, right?
Aarti: Like, oh my God, my child is sick, I gotta do, so,
no, it's, it's that yoga is a way of life. It's not a thing you do, it's, it's a way you live. It's who you are. And. And when we think about the way yoga has been presented here in the west, uh, you know, that's been a, it's been all kind of mixed up and jumbled up. Like if you go to Google and do an image search and you say, what is yoga?
You'll see a bunch of pictures of people who all kind of look similar and doing similar things. They're young, they're fit. They're very skinny. They're highly flexible or mobile. They're able-bodied. They're usually white. They seem to have some degree of affluence. They're wearing certain clothes. [00:05:24] Yes. And then that's what we all think is yoga.
Yes. And me too, because it's not. It's an, it's everywhere. Like that's what we all think is yoga. Even though I was raised in the These traditions, that's what, same,
Surabhi: right, same, right. Like grew up in my home and it was never, for those of you listening, you're like, what is it like growing up with yoga in your, your home?
It's not like we're like, oh 6:00 PM yoga practice. It's more, you know, it's like literally just. The way of being, right. The, the practices that we have all tie in together really well. So it's not like it's announced and labeled, oh, we're doing now, Vinyasa yoga we're doing, no, it's not so contrived. It's just.
Woven into it. You know, I always use the example of like, if you're Italian and, you know, making meatballs or making pasta from scratch is like a family tradition. It's not so much like there's a time of day and like it's once a week like a class. It's just [00:06:24] part of your upbringing, right? Part of, and nobody can, nobody can kind of take that away from you just because you don't have a certificate in meatball making or spaghetti making.
Nobody can say you're less Italian for it.
Aarti: that's absolutely right. It's just, it's, it's in the water that we drink. It's in the air we breathe, it flows through our veins. It's in, it's, it's a subtle energy.
It's sunstar, it's something that's gets passed on. It's something we observe. This is why I don't teach my kids so-called yoga. I don't. Give them any yoga classes, they don't. And by yoga, I mean Asana classes. I don't sit with them and say Right leg, left leg. Like we don't do that. Um, they watch me practice.
Yes, they watch me cook. They watch me recite mantras. They watch me at my altar. They join me. We celebrate Navarre. In Diwali I'll teach them through story. I'll read texts with them. I teach them mantra pronunciation. But I'm [00:07:24] giving them yogic wisdom and yogic knowledge and I'm teaching them whatever I know, but it's not a class.
Yeah. It's just our life.
Surabhi: It's so much more than a class too. Right. So, and this is where we cannot reduce the entire, um, practice of yoga to. A class or one series of training. It's an ongoing effort to live it and breathe it, and I feel like there's so many days that there's just so much more to learn and grow and like be a forever student.
And in this, in this aspect, because there's no, there's no end goal. There's no end, you know, perfection. Whereas I find when yoga's all about Asana and the postures and, and the poses, people are like, oh, I achieved this position, you know, check mark, I'm an advanced yogi. Right. Just because you're more flexible or acrobatic does not embody yoga.
Right. That does. It doesn't, it doesn't match each other.
Inclusivity: Any Body is a Yoga Body
Surabhi: Can you tell me about how you accommodate people [00:08:24] with. Varying abilities and bodies and sizes in yoga because so much of yoga, like you said, you know, we see thin able-bodied, young, affluent, usually white, you know, folks on images and even on classes and website and platforms.
So that excludes people of the global majority. It excludes most people in the world, right, who don't have that body type shape, youth and skin tight clothing. Right.
Aarti: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Um, definitely that is, that is a, it's so important to try to structure our classes in a way that's welcoming and inclusive. Um, there are a few things that I do, and I'm still a student, so I'm learning as I go.
One of the ways that I've learned from some of the great leaders in this field of accessibility and inclusivity in yoga is not to mention poses as hierarchical, [00:09:24] like you don't mention any kind of hierarchy in, in postures. Like, if you are better than you do this. If you're not as good, then you do this.
Mm. If you, you do this. If you're seasoned, do this. It's more like the way you present it. Like, okay, if you. If you, if this option feels like a good option for you, choose this option. But if that option feeling right, choose another one. And then nobody knows what's the more, uh, advanced or challenging. Yeah.
You challenge yourself and we should be challenging ourselves and we should be. Yes. Shifting yoga is this beautiful balance between pushing and striving with a little bit of discomfort. And soft, easeful gentleness. It's that middle ground, that little bit of tension between the two, those two ends. Yoga is what's in the middle, and that is a highly personal experience.
That's not gonna be the same for you. And for me though, it's my job to watch and to [00:10:24] partner with my student, which is why my classes are always intimate cause I believe. It's very important to partner with a student, even especially in these online spaces where you can't always see someone's doing some posture and their half of their body's off camera.
Yes, I need to partner with them. I need to talk to them. I need to have open communication and dialogue. Tell me what's going on. Sometimes folks feel shy. Yes. They don't wanna talk about it in class. They don't wanna share it openly. So I have to put myself in a position of being a very good listener. Yes.
And hold space for students to come to me with anything that's present for them, anything that they want to know that's impacting their life and their practice so that I can partner with them to create a practice that's very personal. And so, so one way is, is is that open communication another way is through not saying something is better than something else.
A third way that I do it is, um, has been through my [00:11:24] experience. I've lost my own body. More than once, at least twice, uh, once when I was pregnant and which was a real eyeopener because I had thought that I could do everything when I, once I became pregnant and my body said absolutely not, and I had a severe injury that left me 100% immobile.
Um, and, and then when I had a broken bone that was broken kneecap, that was shattered and I couldn't move at all. So through those experiences, Hmm. I was able to learn. I never lost my practice, particularly when I broke my bone. I didn't lose my practice. Why? Because I knew that yoga could be shifted for any phase and stage of life.
I could adapt everything. And I had a sense of, because of my teachers and my elders, I had a sense of knowing that yoga is a, is a vast, vast, vast project. And Asana is like one teeny tiny drop in the [00:12:24] ocean. And if Asana goes away, my yoga still lives on. Mm.
Surabhi: Yes. I love that. And I think that is more liberating and empowering than feeling like, oh, I can't do yoga anymore because I'm injured.
You can still do yoga and maybe your priorities shift. And even when I joined your class, I had an unexpected, like three weeks of coughing and I had a broken rib that was healing and it was about, I don't know, five weeks is still really painful, but you know, being a physio and I'm like, all right, it's all good.
I've had injuries before. I can still, you know, I knew I would be able to still perform anything that I could and then choose a different option or take a rest when I couldn't do pose and. I had that confidence going into your class because I have my background, but the average person listening might say, I'm too injured to do yoga.
I'm not flexible enough to do yoga. I, I'm not strong enough. Um, I, you know, my, my [00:13:24] physio told me not to stretch, so I can't do yoga. And you're like, yoga isn't about stretching, you know, it's not just about flexibility. It's about, like you said, that balance between. Softening and ease and also pushing and growing in that discomfort.
And I love that you put it that way. And you know the other thing is understanding that there's a reason yoga is more than just Asana. Mm-hmm. You know, when people ask is yoga about getting a workout? So what would you say to that Is, is yoga about the fitness and the physical aspect?
Aarti: Well, I would love to answer that question.
The, the physical, the physical aspect is a part of yoga and it does bring folks in. It is a part of yoga. But I wanna backtrack a little bit to what you wisely said earlier,
if I may, before I answer this question, because they have an injury. So that's where it's important to have a good teacher and a good. Environment where you feel safe enough to speak to someone about your concerns? Yes. And if a,
[00:14:24] a person comes forward and says, you know, I have this rib injury, I'm just using you as an example. Not that this was a conversation we had, but I have this rib injury and I am un, I'm afraid to do some of these things. We would have a conversation about it and we would discuss some options. But before we even did that, let's talk about the wisdom that's coming forward in your body right now.
Having this rib injury. What is, what is this rib injury showing you? Is there something that's coming forward that's quite helpful to you? And this is a kind of that uns shaming piece that I learned from one of his mentors, David Bedrick, about. Maybe it's okay that you have a rib injury. Maybe there's some wisdom there.
Maybe there's something that's coming forward. Maybe you're a busy, overworked mom and you're running at a mile a minute and you're always out of breath cuz you're constantly running. And so maybe, and I'm just, this is not our conversation, but this is something because I've done this so many times within myself and with my clients, maybe part of your body's [00:15:24] like, I just need to stop for a second.
Surabhi: And I actually think that in many cases of these chronic colds and that take, you know, a cold should take a few days to get better. But it, when things are lingering on, it's right. We are in our society, are so, um, ready to just accept it. Oh yeah. It's just, it just takes that long. Okay, but why? Right. And so for me it was a, it was like, I had known I was pushing it last fall, and then I got sick and I got sick for a long time and I was like, yep, I knew this was gonna happen, and it happened.
And so it actually was really even in this discussion, it was really nice because it forced me to slow down and I have come into 2023 with a different energy where I am centering pleasure and joy in everything that I do. Rather than just going, going, going without even stopping to pause and reflect and say, what?
What am I doing this for? Am I happy here? Am I [00:16:24] growing here? Or is this actually limiting me? Mm-hmm. And so I do think that when we look at injuries as more than just physical, because even at, even though your symptoms might be majority physical, Your brain, your emotions, your mind, your soul is responding to that too.
And so we can't, we can't be just like divorce, spirituality, and you know, emotions from the physicality of any pain, any injury, even for your pubic synthesis injury during pregnancy. Pregnancy is a very emotional time. Your brain, everything, your body's changing so much. So when we have pain during pregnancy, and this is something I talked to my pregnant postpartum people.
We have to talk about the stress management aspect, the lifestyle aspect of it too, because all of that influences and impacts pain. And so I remember actually we talked about it, we had a, we had a one-to-one session where we talked about my ribs and you asked me like, is this okay? And I really appreciated that even though I'm a healthcare practitioner, you still want to be, when you're in a class, feel like you're being [00:17:24] supported, right?
Yeah. Yeah. And I appreciate that you held that space where I could ask openly and not feel like, oh, is she gonna judge me because I'm a physio and I can't do these poses? Right. We, we, we put that shame on ourselves and I, I think you hold a beautiful open space for that.
Aarti: Well, thank you. That's very sweet.
That's actually the piece that I love the most is in forging those relationships. And that's the part that I think is the most sacred to me, um, because the guru relationship. In the lineage tradition that I have studied under, uh, hails that relationship and that bond as truly sacred and necessary. So I take that responsibility very seriously and I care deeply for my students.
Um, and I, I really do want them to be whole and feel supported and loved in that space and they, and
Body Shame
Aarti: to your point about people feeling sort of shame or guilt, it's the yoga world that we live in here in the west makes us believe, [00:18:24] yes, we have to have a certain look, shape and ability to even step into a yoga class.
This is a norm that I have been fighting against for the 15 plus years that I've been a teacher and the however many years As a student, you don't need to be flexible to do yoga. That's like saying, you know, you need to learn about how to ride a bike before you learn how to ride a bike. It's so true. A side effect.
Yeah. Flexibility is a side effect. Health and fitness is a side effect. The purpose of yoga is mostly for the mind and for the spirit. It is a heart, mind, body, soul practice. And the asana or the postural part is one teeny tiny drop in an ocean of practices and ways of being and knowing. And we need to draw, take a little bit of emphasis off of the asana and bring forward some of the other more very gorgeous pieces of the [00:19:24] practice that are so necessary for us in, in these times and in in, really in all times.
Surabhi: I mean, that's it, right? Like,
Parenting & Yoga
Surabhi: I, I love this actually, cuz this is a great segue into how yoga and parenting Can support how yoga can support your parenting because, um, By default, I was a very, uh, stressed, anxious type a personality, overworker hard worker, you know, coming into parenting.
And then you have a child and you're like, oh, wait, I can't just hard work my way out of this. I can't just work hard and then my child will be quote unquote, better behaved or be fitting in better or learn more. You know, it has nothing to do with you and how hard you push. And actually parenting is not about pushing.
It's about that softening, right. And. Going back to kind of what the, the language that you used about that balance. So can you talk about how your experience in yoga actually influences your parenting or supports your parenting? [00:20:24]
Aarti: Well, it's definitely a work in progress,
Surabhi: which I think is always the case,
right?
Aarti: I often tell my kids, I am learning how to be a mom through you, so you can reflect any feedback to me and teach me how I need to do, uh, how I can do better. They are my teachers and they are my elders in many ways because
Surabhi: I'm, I just had a, that's like a light bulb moment. Can you just say that again?
Like, I've never thought about it that way. Wow. So your kids are teaching you how to be a mom because without them you wouldn't be a mom.
Aarti: No, they're my elders. Wow. Wow.
Surabhi: That like, give me goosebumps. Like, I think if you're listening to this, I think that is such a powerful way to, um, look at your children and give them the respect that they deserve as human beings.
Just because they're tiny and younger than you does not mean that they're any less deserving of [00:21:24] time, space, energy, love, affection, and respect.
Aarti: A hundred percent. I couldn't agree with you more. And in fact, babies, little ones, they're closer to wholeness than we are.
Surabhi: I, I feel that. And I'm like, you are more complete than I am.
Cuz you know, cuz the thing is the society, right? Teaches us to say, oh, you're too emotional. Push that aside. Oh, you're too clingy, you're too needy, you're too loud, you're too whatever. You're too not smart enough. Push all that aside. And so you start to just take away pieces of you as you get older. And now I feel like in my late thirties, I'm like, oh, I need to come back to who I was and like feel whole again.
And that's something my kids don't see And that's yoga.
Aarti: Yeah, that is yoga. This is the thing. This is how yoga is different in its approach to maybe what we're used to. The fundamental essence of yoga, if I can speak really broadly, is that you are [00:22:24] whole. You are whole. Your essence, your nature yourself is complete.
And that wholeness is described as infinite love. Your wholeness is whole. My wholeness is whole. My essence. Your essence. Our children's essence, our neighbor's essence, it's whole. And the practice of yoga is about peeling away the layers that separate us from knowing ourselves in that way. Wow. Anytime we feel bliss, anytime we feel joy, look at a baby.
How can you be with a baby and not smile? It's not possible. It's not possible. That bubbling kind of like happiness and that joy and that like there, that is a connection to that whole space, that blur space and their,
Surabhi: even their eyes. I was at the passport office the other day and I totally got emotional because there was this, there's like three babies and one was seven weeks old, like super fresh and one was probably a few [00:23:24] months old and I locked eyes with her and I was like, wow.
I feel seen like the, the. Baby's eyes are so real, so real and honest, and they just see you as you without, they love you. They love you. They're not seeing you with all the social expectations of, oh, this is a woman. She must be yada, yada. You know, they're just looking at you, love you. And I think that that can be an intimidating thing, intimidating thing for some people.
But my daughter, especially when she was born, she had those eyes and that was the first moment in my entire life that I felt, wow, someone is seeing me for who I am, my God. Because prior to that, you know your parents, when they have you, they have expectations of you from the second you were born.
Before you were born, right? Your school, your friends, your partner, everybody has expectations of what they imagined you to be like, what they, the, you know, the view that they see you through which your baby is fresh, literally seeing you with a fresh pair of eyes. And I think that is a [00:24:24] gift that for anyone who has children or anyone who has proximity to, you know, you know, you, nieces or nephews or children in your neighborhood, like that is a gift to be around them.
Aarti: It is. And, and many people when they're near a child, no matter how, like, you know, however they are externally rough and tumble, whatever, they will crouch down and play with a little kid in the innocent and honest way. They, they meet a child where that child is, because deep down we all have that recognition of wholeness.
Yes, we, we can all see it. They say there's a meme out there. No matter how old you are, no matter what your status or stage of life is, it is in life. If a kid holds you a bananas, a telephone, you're gonna answer it.
Surabhi: Right. So true. It's so true. And you know what's been something that's really beautiful for me is coming back to, um, our culture and how yoga was like practiced in our homes and it. In our lineage [00:25:24] Recently I've been getting into Bollywood dance and I am dancing with, I say kids, but they're like, you know, 10, 15, 20, some of them 20 years younger than me.
And I. I brought my kids to one of the practices and seeing how they interact with my kids. Just like you said, getting down to their level and like actually talking to them as humans. This is part of our culture. However, when we go to our Western culture, people are awkward around kids. They're like, I don't know how to talk to kids.
I don't know what to say to them. I'm like, because you don't see them as human. If you just look at them and see them as a fellow human being, you should not have any trouble talking to them. Maybe you don't have to entertain them or sing a song, but just respect them as a fellow human being. And I feel like, you know, that is in all stages, especially when people are, you know, oh, I, I don't know how to talk to a, a person who's trans or queer or, you know, black or white or, you know, whatever other culture that you're not from, whatever's not the dominant culture.
Well, if you just treat them with respect that a human being deserves, you [00:26:24] should have no, no problems, right? If you just take the time to actually see them. And I feel like that's what parenting has taught me is. I used to think I was bad with kids, even though I'm actually always, I was the best babysitter and kids always, you know, loved me probably because I, I'm a child at heart too, but I was always like, I don't know what to do with them.
And then I had kids and I'm like, I guess you don't really have to do anything with them. You just hang out with them and yeah, let them lead the way.
Aarti: Let them lead the way. That's so wise. That's really well said and very beautiful. If you just come down to their level and listen to them and open your heart, they'll take you where they wanna go.
We tend to think of kids as problems that need to be solved, much like, like puppets. Yeah. Things we have to raise into something. Or turn into something or make them into a thing like have a job. Like what do you wanna be when you grow up? I never ask my kids. I hate that question too. Well, their whole themselves, right now, their present moment, [00:27:24] which is a yoga teacher, at most.
Yeah. Living in your present moment, in this present moment. They are who they are and it's whole, and it's enough and it's perfect. We can ask some questions like, okay, what problems do you wanna solve? What things interest you? Where? Where do you feel like you're flowing? And that things might change of course, but why do we think of our kids as.
Something that need as, as little pre adults, why can't they just be who they are in this moment? And we will be, we will have a more joyful relationship with them in the role of parents if we can meet them where they are and see them for their wholeness in this moment. Yes, they're not broken beings in need of fixing much like we as adults are.
Already whole.
Spiritual Healing Through Yoga
Aarti: We are also not broken beings in need of fixing, so we're not coming to yoga to fix ourselves. Mm. We're whole. We're coming to yoga to build awareness of ourselves. Wow. And see ourselves [00:28:24] as in that whole space. That's why when you leave a yoga class, you feel so good. You've had access to it.
It's different. Hmm.
Then when you stretch after a run, why is it It's different? Because this is a practice. Practice of access, of awareness building, of connection, of introspection. All the great teachers of this world say that if you really wanna know who and what you are, you have to turn within. Yoga has been shown to be this external practice, yes.
Of showcasing something, but actually it's an internal practice of the mind.
Surabhi: Yes, and I also, I love that it's when you. Many people think yoga, self-improvement or, um, personal growth and, you know, I wanna better myself. Right. People almost feel like this sense of smugness, oh, I do yoga. And I, when I say people, I don't usually mean people of our culture who practice it because.
It was never taught to us in that lens. But the yoga industry here, it is very much a hierarchical, people who do yoga are thin [00:29:24] and attractive and wealthy, and you know, that type of mindset. So I think it's very common for people to think they're doing yoga to get better. And I think that what you just said is you're not doing yoga to, yes, you will grow personally and you know, yes, you probably feel better, yes, but you're doing yoga to return to your wholeness and to recognize that you are already whole.
Mm. And the, and the wisdom that lives within you. And I think that's where, you know, even just the power of solitude and meditation and spending more time by myself actually over the pandemic has been more healing than I thought because I realize, wow, I didn't need to read a thousand books. Although I do read and I love reading, but.
You know, we all often are seeking for answers in everyone else and Right. Often it exists within ourselves. If we just allow ourselves enough distraction free time to actually hear that.
Aarti: That's very well said, and you're, you're absolutely right. It's a [00:30:24] personal journey. It's a personal journey, and the practice of yoga has will deliver, as you rightfully said, physical benefits, health benefits.
Many, many, many, many benefits to your mind, to your heart, to your body, to your spirit. There's, there's so much power in these practices, but if we're thinking only about yoga for fitness, sure we'll get those physical benefits. But if we're thinking about yoga to sort of relieve some of our stress and suffering and go within ourselves and lighten the load and clear a little bit of that mental messiness.
We'll get those physical benefits and then some. Yes. But the problem is here in the West, all we're thinking about is Warrior One and Warrior Two, and like Chaturanga Dandasana and just like all of these strength poses and we're hypervigilant when it comes to alignment and muscle squeezing and where our bones are stacked.
And I'm telling you, [00:31:24] I have never had a student in 15 years who really knows how to line up their bones and their anatomy because they don't, in that moment, you can't think that way. It's, I don't know why there's so many cues about anatomical alignment that are complex. I've had, I've had teachers tell me, rotate the head of your femur this way, and like, oh gosh, I have a degree in science and, and anatomy and physiology, and I have to like pull back from my practice.
To really think about that. It's, it's a lot of information that's unnecessary. How about if we just teach students to be peaceful, to take a few deep breaths to place your foot in your hand where they're supposed to go, but then after that, go within yourself, breathe deeply, soften those muscles, relax your body, cultivate a focal point of your choosing, or I'll offer one to you.
Recite a mantra, if you have [00:32:24] one, or just watch your breath, see what happens in that space between the inhale and the exhale. Mm-hmm. Soften deeply into things. And then what happens? There's, it's, it's actually like a beautiful, magical process, but if we're hyper-focused only on the physical, which has its place, okay.
But if we're hyper-focused only on the physical always, then we'll just be stuck there and we miss out on the, the wholeness of the practice, which on a larger sense, It is very harmful to the culture. It's very harmful to the tradition. It's very harmful to the people. So there are,
Surabhi: and it's not even, it's, it's not even, um, Something that originated in our practice.
It's something that Western culture has slapped on. You know, it reminds me of the same thing with acupuncture. So , I studied Western medical acupuncture and it was touted as, oh, it's not like traditional Chinese medicine, it's Western. It's better. And so I'm like, literally it's the same points.
They just name it something else cuz they don't like, you [00:33:24] know, uh, energy and key and like chi and like all that other language. Because it's too, um, not based on science in quotes, right? So they just literally use the same points, they copy the same things, and then now they're giving physiological and anatomical reasons for those points.
So now we can make sense of it. And now Western. We accept Western now we accept it only if we can somehow in our heads reason with it, even if sometimes it doesn't make sense. So yoga has been the same. A lot of our eastern cultures, indigenous cultures, African cultures, the practices are taken, co-opted, and then, uh, being given a new meaning and even at new pronunciations, yes, butchering of meaning and it is so harmful to the inherent yes.
Our cultures, our people. Um, and I love that you, you say that because never in my life, even as a physiotherapist, it's the same. People are obsessed about, I had a coworker who would tell people, don't walk like that. Think about lifting your arch up when you walk. I'm like, who has the mental energy to [00:34:24] keep their arches lifted?
And I'm like, it's not actually necessary to do that. The point is to move. When I go to pick up my water bottle, I'm not thinking what degrees do my hand expand and how much do I rotate? It just happens. And yoga needs to be the same way, right? It needs to happen and we need to allow our bodies to recognize do we like what's happening?
Mm-hmm Do we wanna do, we wanna try something else? And that's where we grow.
