21st June is celebrated as International Yoga Day. Yoga is good for health and fitness benefits. The Coronavirus Pandemic has taught us many lessons! It has taught us how vulnerable are we as a race? How did we keep running after materialistic things in life which have become pretty immaterial currently? Schools, Colleges, Offices, Religious Areas, Malls, Shops, Public Places, Travel, Tourism, and economies all have come to a standstill!
With no letting out zones available, we alone remain to handle the stress and anxiety piling up slowly within and around us. An uncertain future quite throws us towards a disturbed mental state and sometimes even closer to depression. With the buildup of COVID cases externally and frustration internally, it becomes essential for us to take care of our physical and mental health. The best way to attain this is through Yoga and Meditation! Yoga has immense benefits on your physical health ranging from reducing life-threatening conditions like BP and Diabetes to enhancing blood circulation and muscle flexibility. It also has soothing and calming effects on the mind and cleanses your soul.
Real Winning Women Lead The Way Towards Good Health on Yoga Day
On the occasion of The International Yoga Day 2020, we decided to speak to some ladies from the WinningStree community and understand the benefits of Yoga from them. How Yoga touched their lives, impacted it positively, and changed it for good. Presenting the excerpts of our conversation with them to our readers from the health and fitness aspect of yoga on this Yoga Day.
Preety Ginoria, Kolkata
Preety Ginoria is the founder of a fashion boutique from Kolkata. Her day starts as early as at 5 AM and she balances her life and work, both from her abode. She is a very creative and energetic person with a zeal for life. A doting mother of two kids and a darling wife, she single-handedly almost manages all aspects of her life.
Yoga and Meditation happened to her as she started visiting Brahma Kumaris who happen to have a center close by her house. She is an ardent fan of Surya Namaskar, which is 12 asanas combined into one and her life has seen a major change getting impacted positively.
“I feel more active. My muscles got toned up post doing Yoga. I feel energetic throughout the day. My thyroid is in control and most important my weight is also in control.”
Kaajal Desai Mahajan, Delhi
Kaajal is a motivational speaker and transformation coach from Delhi. She has more than 500 hours of credit to her training hours! Kaajal got introduced to Yoga when she was 17 years old and since then hasn’t stopped. She has learned a lot in many ways of improvising the art and comes across as a very active and fit personality.
“I got introduced to Yoga when I was 17 years old. Thanks to my mother she was very active with her yoga practice and I joined her classes with her during my vacations. I will be turning 40 soon and haven’t got off it to date. It’s become my most important “me time” of the day. Yoga rejuvenates me and helps me remain fit and healthy.”
“Yoga is much more than just physical exercise, it’s a great tool to practice mindfulness as with every asanas you focus on your incoming and outgoing breath. The eight limbs of yoga are Yama (abstinence), niyama (observances), asana (yoga postures), Pranayama (breath control), pratyahara (withdrawal of the senses), dharana (concentration), dhyana (meditation) and samadhi (absorption).”
“For most, they are only made aware of pranayama and asanas thanks to so many yoga institutes and celebrity yoga videos. However, yoga has a deep spiritual meaning. Physical control of breath and mind is just steps to the final step of liberation and Dhyana. Through the body, one discovers the mind and the soul. You come in contact with your true self. Thankfully in this lifetime, I got lucky enough to get introduced to the most innate part of yoga which is Dhyana.”
“Vipassana helped me include meditation as the most important part of my life. Thanks to my Yoga Teacher I got introduced to meditation through Vipassana at a very young age. I am a daily meditator and meditate twice a day for one hour each. Meditation has helped me bring self-transformation within me. It has taught me to love without expectations. Also, it has shown me how can one live a life with complete acceptance of what’s happening in life good, bad, lucky, and remain detached and equanimous at all times.”
“It has helped me to pull myself out of the darkest and deepest phases of my life on my own with self-awareness. It has made me more compassionate as a human being and helped to live a life without duality. Meditation has helped in bringing focus, discipline, being in present detaching from the past, and worried about the future. It has helped in living life moment by moment in here and now.”
Purnima Bahuguna, Noida
Purnima Bahuguna is a fighter and a survivor, an Ex- Senior Program Manager with a Top IT firm, who turned into Naturopathy and Ayurveda as she fought her way out of deadly cancer and has never looked back ever since. A doting mother of two, a health consultant, an organic product range owner, and a friend cum guide to all who want to treat themselves right but naturally, she has what it takes to be a powerful woman.
“Yoga is Jeevandayini for me. When I’ve had a tumor in the year 2006, Yoga along with Ayurveda helped me in getting rid of the tumor naturally. I used to practice Pranayama regularly morning and evening. Yoga helped me cure my reproductive system health too. I had very irregular periods and had an immature egg formation issue. Yoga helped me fix that and I’ve 2 beautiful daughters courtesy Yoga.”
Tanupriya Pal, Kolkata
Tanupriya is a versatile personality who is a lawyer and also has her own range of natural homemade beauty products. Yoga is an integral part of her life. She practices Yoga from Isha Foundation and finds her life shaped beautifully because of it.
“Actually, Yoga has freed me mentally more than physically and that is what I do hold close to my heart. It is something that makes my soul happier.”
On this International Yoga Day, Winningstree urges each one of you to include yoga and meditation as an important part of your life to build resilience, bring peace, and unbounded joy in your life! Let discipline reach your mind and may all beings be happy. May all beings be peaceful.
