I remember the day vividly when I was at the family’s dining table in my early teens. I even remember the purple-flowery shirt I was wearing, which showed off my chubby arms, says Sujatha Sharma. My mother pointed at my arms and said, “girl, you are gaining weight!” and that was enough for me to get to the terrace the following day to exercise.
Sujatha Sharma – her Journey
It was back in the 80s when there was no internet to look up content on exercise or had fancy gyms to go workout. Today every street corner has one ranging from five thousand to fifty thousand fees a month. It was a blissful era of no plethora of workouts from high intensity, to low intensity, to Zumba or dance aerobics to confuse the hell out of you. I had just two references, “freestyle” exercises which we did in a physical training class in school, and there was this little book on yoga my mother had picked up at a flea market.
It had this slim-svelte woman who was in her forties in a full-sleeved one-piece swimsuit. She looked fabulously fit and, for my young impressionable mind, had sowed the seed of how a woman should be in their forties. The book in itself had simple asanas with simple explanations, which also included face exercises. Thus, two things happened to me by my mother just pointing at my chubby arms.
Once I started to exercise every day, that hasn’t stopped even today, and a vision of how I should be when I become forty – like swami Sarasvati– that is her name. No, not literally a swami, meditating somewhere in the foothills of Himalayas, but her philosophy as to why a woman should exercise for overall well-being, physically, mentally, emotionally, and vitality. It wasn’t anything spiritual for me then.
Life eventually takes over – youth, college, relationships, marriage, pregnancies, motherhood, and now hitting middle age. Life goes on with many twists and turns; the one thing, however, was the hour I always took for myself to exercise even when I gained weight during my two pregnancies and took my time to shed it.
Exercising for me was not about losing weight or getting into size zero clothes. It was to feel fit and suitable about myself. It released endorphins, the happiness hormone that kept me positive and gave me a feeling of enchantment. Over the years, I had established the one hour for myself with my family, and they were very supportive of stepping in when I needed it. They always knew when I was back- I took care of things.
I did various forms of exercises, which included swimming and walking. Ashtanga Yoga was accidentally in the summer of 2019 when I was 45 years old. A colleague profoundly influenced me at work, and I wanted to do a short summer session with her teacher. I didn’t know I had walked into Ashtanga Yoga, which is considered challenging. People often start with Ashtanga very early in life or come after having practiced other forms of yoga-like Hatha Yoga or Iyengar Yoga, for a while, and the transition is easy.
I had some knowledge of yoga, did it as part of my cross-fit sessions once a week. I knew how to do the Suryanamaskar, the trikona, or the warrior. But what I saw and experienced that summer challenged me – going from who wants to twist into a pretzel to I want to do that, how do people do that, is the body capable of doing that? Now, what is a bandha? How does that help – I was sucked into these questions. The more I sought, the more I wanted to know and learn.
It had opened a whole new world for me. It wasn’t easy at my age, even though I exercised all my life or danced. The body goes through changes. It becomes rigid, the muscles don’t stretch easily, and have you tried jumping up a step in your 40s with both feet or tried hopscotch ?? In Ashtanga, you have jump throughs and jump backs. The body floats gracefully like there is no gravity.
Wanting to keep trying and failing got me to unroll my mat every day and try – this built endurance, patience, and determination. Ashtanga Yoga was not only working at a physical level. It was silently working at a psychological and spiritual level. It not only made me physically fit, but I was able to apply my practice to other aspects of life.
It’s been two years since I wanted into my first session, and I haven’t looked back. Sometimes I wish I had started earlier. Taking Swami Sarasvati more seriously and pursuing yoga earlier in life takes years of practice to get to an even intermediate or advanced level. But I am not discouraged, I have come a long way, and I instead look back ten years later to see what I have achieved than never get started.
Yogajourney40s started as a journaling of my practice, my challenges, working with my limitations or overcoming the limitation in time, what I could achieve quickly, and sometimes what wants me to give up an asana out of sheer frustration. Something for me, look back and say, wow, I can do this now. How did I progress? What makes me get on that mat on a lazy day – It’s the progress you see getting on the mat every day.
One day I can twist like a pretzel. The next day I can turn up with a hamstring strain that keeps me off the mat for a few days. It’s part of growth “ where there is no pain, there is no gain,” they say. And I would say it is harder for women in their forties to sustain the practice for many reasons – time constraints, family constraints, work constraints, physical constraints being the external factors. Injuries, health, lack of physical activity over the years, hormonal imbalances being a few internal constraints.
Lack of motivation, frustration, the urge to give up and do something easy, the results don’t come easily. Even today, I try to sail thru them and sustain the practice – this is what I want to share through the ManaPrasada platform.
I was influenced to take this enriching, empowering, and grounding practice not only today but in hindsight many years ago. What I want to give back is to influence those who have started, need somebody to give them a little nudge here and there to get on the mat to find themselves.
Yogajourney@40s was launched on Manahprasada Platform this 13th April’21 as a holistic wellness initiative created to help people willing to pursue this journey of Astanga yoga. It is also for those already in their yoga journey to find a community to share experiences and get support, thus promoting physical and emotional well-being. The platform brings interactive practice-sharing sessions with our inspiring Sujatha Sharma, who is giving away this noble service on the ManaHprasada platform for you.
Join Sujatha’s Yogajourney@40s tribe to unlock the second phase of your life!
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