Is yoga just about asanas? No, says Disha Deshpande — a yoga teacher and an inner work facilitator. Yoga, she says, is much more than that. While asanas take care of the physical fitness part of it, learning to regulate your breath and meditation are also an integral part that can help you in our daily life. Her new stay-at-home course — Yoga Reinvent 2020, which starts from May 25 — promises a journey within yourself.
Disha's new course, which starts from a basic price of € 9 (Rs 745), will have personalised healing paths for everyone. "I was doing online tutorials through Instagram for a while. But I realised that I could not see my students in this format and that did not let me connect with them. It would be like any other tutorial on the internet. A general tutorial with no personal touch," says Disha, a half Maharashtrian and half Telugu, who lives in Gujarat. She spends six months in Goa, three months in the Himalayas and the rest with her family in Gujarat. "Even when you are moving, if your breath is not right or if you are not regulating your prana (seen as universal energy which flows in currents in and around the body) around you then that movement does very little to help. Most of our postures are not ideal and if you keep relating that wrong posture it will have consequences like pain in the neck, shoulders etc. All of this comes from not knowing which muscles to activate for which action," says the 27-year-old.
No two bodies are the same and the same instructions will not work for two people, believes Disha. While there is a common link, every person has different needs. "I am taking information about each student prior to the classes begin. This will help me give special attention to each of them and address their specific problem," she adds. "People try to master as many moves in one class and that leads to poorer lines of movement. This is the reason why people complain of neck pain or a knee issue even though they work out every day," says Disha.
With the nationwide lockdown in place, a lot of people are dealing with stress and anxiety mixed with helplessness. "Breath is one thing that connects to the body and as well as to the mind. If you regulate your breath the body heals. Your thoughts and feelings also affect your breath. But if you change your breath that changes the way you think. There's no greater self-love than this. It feels like the universe has given us the time to slow down and unwind and re-evaluate our priorities," she adds.
With life getting back to normal, we might have to get back to work soon but we can use yoga in every step of the way, says Disha. "I want to teach my students to live their life better. I don't want them coming back to me forever one dependent on me for their well-being. They can learn and be responsible for themselves. You are not learning yoga to be a yogi but to enhance the life you already have," Disha says and adds that the human body is an amazing machine, the best that was ever created. "And if you give it five minutes of attention or 15 minutes of it it will make use of that. Yes, it helps if you practice in the morning when you wake up but a lot of us have to work very late or even work on perennial night shifts. Anytime is a good time to practice. To let your body heal," she adds.
