The journey till today…. What made you invest in the life you are practicing?

I was certified as a yoga teacher in the year 1996, but didn’t use it much till I came back from my journey to the mountains…..Here is the story...

It was during my law college days that I was soccer training and my lifestyle was not the healthiest. I suffered with shin splints on both my legs, a week before my 1st soccer match, which made me unavailable for my college soccer team. It was a big blow to me as I had invested a lot of time and effort to enhance my performance by employing a personal trainer and a sports physio to assist me in minimising my risk of injury.
Unfortunately the single dimension approach failed to assist me as the focus on holistic living was missing.
This caused me a lot of introspection both in my personal life and professional life and started seeking the purpose of my life.
I spoke to my parents and asked them to sponsor my trip to the mountains so I could meet with the buddhists in Dharamsala and maybe find some answers.
As I was preparing for my trip my sister gifted me a reiki course which I enrolled myself in, without really knowing what it was about. Right after that I experienced an exciting event. I was at a friend’s house and she had a plant that was nearly dead. I was like, why not try to transfer some energy and see if it works? I visited her every day for 3 days and used the reiki techniques. On the fourth day, she called me, and shared with me that the plant is actually blooming again!
This experience planted a seed of belief in me about the power of energy transference and kindled inquisitiveness in me to search further.Today science has proof to show that energy transference is not only a spiritual concept, but a scientific concept.

With that in my baggage and a book called The Alchemist I left for the mountains.
The journey was a mix of magic, surprises, entertainment…. (Something I can share with you another time as it will take up more space)... which confirmed my self-belief that I want to use my life in assisting others live a healthier and happier life.


Why did you choose to be a Yoga teacher?

I was in 10th Grade and was extremely stressed about my exams and was having sleep issues. I started practicing yoga and that gave me results which helped me. It was then I decided to enrol in a yoga teacher training certification.
The training was at an ashram in India in 1996 and at that time I thought it was the toughest experience of my life. But the desperation to understand my health and how I could enhance it motivated me to go through it.
From living in comfort and luxury to sleeping on the floor in a shared dormitory, bucket bath with cold water and yoga sessions at 6 am which required me to start my day at 4 am was not what many teenagers choose to do.
I was so inflexible that I could not touch my knees but after 6 weeks I was touching my head to my knees - magical and not possible scientifically, which answered another question for me..if science does not show it does that mean it cannot happen?
So I was very excited with myself and yoga as a form of wellbeing.
Yoga states that an inflexible body means an inflexible mind. So by that definition the battles I was having with my mind as a teenager starting sorting itself out.
I followed yoga till I went to law college where the peer pressure moved me from yoga to a more ‘social life’ which was the catalyst for my change towards the mountains.
My real yoga teacher journey started when I got back from the mountains with a clear decision that I wanted to help people enhance their life and assist performance taking into consideration all aspects of life and thus approaching wellbeing in a holistic manner. I then studied to be a personal trainer and a massage therapist, and combined my reiki and spiritual healing to assist all beings that needed it.


Why does your company work towards the global goals of Agenda 2030?
My company Bodyguru Retreats is committed towards contributing to the UN goal of good health and wellbeing which is one of the 17 global goals of the agenda 2030.
Without healthy people we cannot have a well-functioning society and difficulty in evolving of happiness is restricted. I thus believe that this is the essence of building sustainable people, companies, communities and the world.
The passion of our commitment shows in the choice of our activities and partners who are of the same mind-set that investing in empowering people to feel well through motion is priority and our way of contributing to a healthier and happier world.




What are three points of advice you would give?
1. Eat Well
2. Move Well
3. Sleep Well

Three simple principles in life without the complications of how many calories, how many steps or how many hours of sleep.

The idea is to simplify life and create a safe space to live in so that one is not living on tenterhooks of a wrong desert you may have eaten, a few less steps you may have taken or a few extra hours of sleep you may have or not have got...

By this I don’t mean that we do not need to improve our lifestyles.
We do need to eat well, sleep well and move well but without complicating it build up our mental strength which will enable us to implement this as a way of life and not a temporary diet of any sort.

For this it’s important to understand yourself, what it is that makes you feel best and have a life coach to motivate you through the process.

How do you follow a happy and healthy life?
We are all different. What suits me doesn’t necessarily suit you.
We have experts in the form of Traditional Dr. and Modern Medical Dr. so I choose to consult them to understand knowledge and systems I may not have but the real health and happiness for me comes from maintaining balance.
Having clear boundaries of my needs and wants and allowing a bit of flexibility in that to support the environment suits me best.
For example. Eat well=Chew properly, eat mindfully with intention, eat on time, eat small portions rather than complicating it with calories, micro nutrients, how much protein, not too much fat, etc etc…
The more one complicates a system the less it serves you. When you are hungry eat, when you are full stop, when you feel like you need vitamin C, eat something that can give you that. Keep it simple and you will see the returns from both the body and the brain.
I spend time for self-introspection, understanding of my patterns and deciding my need for change at that moment in life to be able to eat well, sleep well and move well. That’s my simple but powerful mantra.

Prameet Kotak
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Anna Idell
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