Shweta Ghorpade - Health Comes at All Shapes and Sizes (Yoga Artist)

Learning from the masters who are a correct fit for your style and inclination and tweaking those same learnings to fit the specific needs of each student is at the heart of it.

1. Tell us more about yourself and your profession.

A journalist by degree and an extended career graph in the media industry, I took a break from work after delivering my first kid and soon after the second one followed. I started struggling with back pain after delivery and tried to brush it off as a postpartum effect that would soon pass away.

However, the pain only intensified with time and led me to seek medical opinion that concluded with a diagnosis of Lordosis of the Spine. That is when I turned to yoga for relief and instead discovered myself through my home practice.

2. What is your fitness mantra?

My fitness mantra is simple -

Move your body
Eat healthy and mindfully
Maintain healthy sleeping habits

3. What are some of the major misconceptions about diets and exercises?

There is no one size fits all diet or work out plan. Each person has to keep at it to find the right teacher/trainer and the right diet as well as fitness plan to stick to.

At the same time, exercises should not be used as calorie currency to earn the food you eat. It is simply a way to keep your body healthy and strong. The aim of all the diets and work out plans should be to get healthier and stronger and not weight or inch loss.

Health comes at all shapes and sizes.

4. How can one maintain a healthy lifestyle with Yoga?

Practicing yoga makes you mindful of what you do on the mat and off it so that mindfulness transcends to every aspect of your life from your dietary choices to everyday routine as well as how you treat yourself and others around you.

The movement in Yoga Asana Practice is itself medicine and that combined with Pranayama and Meditation helps you attain a harmonious union between your mind body and soul to essentially feel all the love for yourself and those around you.

5. How can one build a successful career in your field?

Learning from the masters who are a correct fit for your style and inclination and tweaking those same learnings to fit the specific needs of each student is at the heart of it.

Everybody can do yoga but not everybody does the same asana similarly. Developing an understanding of that tenet as well as providing a wholesome yoga experience to the students that is not just limited to physical postures but includes breathwork and meditation as well is crucial.

6. What is one piece of advice you would like to give someone who wishes to practice yoga?

Keep at it.

7. How do Yoga and daily exercise contributes to overall well being and happiness?

I would like to borrow a quote from Bhagwad Gita to respond to this question

"Yoga is the journey of the self, through the self, to the self.”

Our eternal state is that of happiness and yoga teaches us that happiness is always available to us, regardless of our circumstances. We just need to look within to tap into that state of bliss.