Good question!. A question I have posed to myself, very often, in the past year. Honestly speaking I never ever thought about being a yoga teacher! At least not until 2017.

During the summer of 2017, I decided to sign up for a 3-day kids yoga teacher training program in Long Island, New York. I  have always had a rapport with children and I love yoga and this seemed to be a logical path. It seemed very doable especially as I was still shaking off the effects of my health setback. Just the thought of a fun way of teaching yoga to kids was exciting and I was truly looking forward to going to New York for my training. As it turned out the training got canceled due to lack of enough participants. I was disappointed.

My family and I decided to go to New York city anyway as part of our summer vacation. We had the opportunity to stay in Upper East Side for a week in a 100-year-old house attached to this gorgeous 100 year old church, thanks to the generous invite from our friends John and Erwin. John who is the pastor allowed me to visit the church after morning mass, when its closed to the public, through a private entrance everyday. Every morning I found myself sitting on the ancient cool tile floor surrounded by glowing thematic stain glass, in front of the altar and meditating. I felt cocooned in an ethereal sense of peace and calm. During my meditation on the morning of the last day of my stay, a thought popped into my head ” Why not the Isha Hatha Yoga Teacher Training program?”.

I had briefly entertained this thought some 3 years prior in 2014, not so I could become a teacher, but more so I may put my body through a rigorous training and re-set my whole system and purge the autoimmune disease from my body. My family commitments at that time along with my health concerns had made it seem impossible to pursue this path and the thought just fizzled away.

Now when the thought popped into my head during this magical moment in the church I quickly ended my meditation and rushed to my room and reached for my computer. As I logged in to the Isha Yoga site, I was pleasantly surprised to read that that very day was the first day of the 2017 Teacher Training program! Coincidence???! Most probably! Never the less I felt a tingling of excitement as I considered the possibility of my participation in the program.

Later that morning while driving out of Manhattan I broached the subject with my husband and daughter and lo and behold the first words out of their mouths were “Sure! why not?. Go for it!”. Now, that’s all the encouragement I needed. For the next 6 months, I mulled over this idea and went through a series of doubts, questioned my physical and emotional ability to go through with this decision.

If the Divine wills it that I go through this training and finish it strongly I would like to teach young children, teenagers and those people dealing with physical disabilities and those recovering from various afflictions.

Why young children?

Wouldn’t it be lovely to teach young ones the power of yoga?. They are naturally flexible and well poised to learn without any fear of rigidity. Armed with yoga they can grow into their teen years with the ability to deal with social, emotional pressures of adolescence and get through the formative years of high school and college with a balanced body and mind.

Imagine children with no ADHD, ADD  and any other labels of disorders! No medications! No delinquents!

Why the sick and the recovering?

After my personal ordeal with my health, I would be honored to help those in similar situations to get through their challenge and to give them hope. I believe there is a better, more graceful and dignified existence outside of medicines. Yoga is the answer. Yoga gives hope to lead a healthier life. I would be thrilled to be the bearer of hope.