A Specific Type of Exercise or Diet Can Only Be Effective for a Specific Group of People. This Is the Reason Why Ayurveda Also Talks About ‘Dosha’, Different Body Types as VAT, Pit and Kafh. According to Which the Diet of a Person Can Be Structured.
1. Tell us more about yourself and your profession.
Namastey! My name is Rajat Thakur and I’m from Vashisht, a small village known for its natural hot spring water near Manali. I grew up in the Himalayas and my love for the mountains raised me as a Climber, Skier, and a Mountain guide.
Apart from this most of my life has been about learning and teaching Yoga. For many years I travelled around India learning from Swamis and Gurus different ancient forms of Yoga methods.
Right now I work as a teacher disseminating the profound knowledge of Yoga here in my home town Manali.
2. What is your fitness mantra?
That there is no such mantra. You have to work hard for it. As simple as that.
3. What are some of the major misconceptions about diets and exercises?
Both diet and exercise are a very vast subject to talk about. We hear new misconceptions related to them almost everyday. And most of the concepts contradicts the other.
You see, a specific type of exercise or diet can only be effective for a specific group of people. This is the reason why Ayurveda also talks about ‘Dosha’, different body types as Vat, Pit and Kafh. According to which the diet of a person can be structured.
This makes it clear that what your diet consists of is just another misconception for me or someone else. When deciding your diet or your exercise,one needs to first develop a deep sense of understanding of the self. We also need to address our physical condition at the same time. What exercise works the best for me might be a killer for some one having a slip disc.
So I won’t just bullet down numbers of misconceptions here that people can follow blindly,but rather ask them to study thyself.
Are we even hungry when we have a meal? Or do we just eat because it’s 2 o clock? Are we exercising so that we function at our best?, or are we just doing it to look like our favourite Instagram model?
I say “inquire within”, and all the misconceptions and facts will naturally appear in front of you.
4. How can one maintain a healthy lifestyle with Yoga?
How can one NOT maintain a healthy lifestyle with yoga?
Yoga after all itself is a way of life. It demands a certain kind of lifestyle. It’s not just a one day thing. It takes years, it takes efforts on a regular note.
To be a practitioner means you have to break all your conditionings that you’ve made so far and while you appreciate who you are,you still work towards your best possible version.
No matter for what reason some one practices yoga, he/she is already taking a leap towards a better lifestyle. From the way you breathe to the way you engage yourself with the world, it all happens in a much better harmony with Yoga. It just enhances the quality of your life.
Yoga will give you balance, it won’t let you eat too much or eat too little, it won’t make you sleep too much or sleep too little, it won’t let you speak too much or end up speaking nothing at all, it won’t let you go to either of the extremes but rather fill your life with as much as what’s needed. And to have exactly what we just need is the key to a healthy lifestyle.
5. How can one build a successful career in your field?
No matter if it’s my field, your field or anyone’s field. The key to build a successful career in anything is to first love what you are doing. And to know what we love to do is to know what is our Dharma, our part to be played in the world.
Before just trying to build any career, take time to introspect whether this is what you actually want? Why do you want it? Is it merely to earn money? Because that won’t be your thing to do as you are doing it purely for another end, for a symbolic value. Is only getting rich or famous how we define success?
There are things that come to us naturally and for some we do have to work hard and shed a good sweat. We all are born with some kind of unique talents that we shall acknowledge and find a way to express. Therefore I must ask you to find those gifts that you were born with and things that you really love to do. It might be singing, playing an instrument, teaching, cooking or you may even be good at caring for those in need.
No matter what your unique talents are just take time to address them and put them into expression.
I assure you once you do this, opportunities to grow your Dharma into a successful career will naturally happen. Then no matter what ever field it is, what matters is that how beautifully we fill the empty spaces of the world with things that we love the most. And once we do this, we have not just build a successful carrier but we have build this world to be a better place to live.
6. What is one piece of advice you would like to give someone who wishes to practice yoga?
The advice is to see Yoga as not just a work out but as a work in. It’s not something we do for a few hours on a mat and later walk away towards our worldly temptations. It is a way of life where we cultivate discipline into our life by which we will reach out towards self realisation.
7. How do Yoga and daily exercise contribute to overall well being and happiness.
Just like we earn money, our mental & physical health is also to be earned, or else the day is not far when what ever we have earned will be spent on repairing the health we have lost.
Yoga is investing in the now so that we avoid any future sufferings. I think If one just keeps this in mind and put Yoga or any other discipline under implementation, they have took the first step towards their well being & happiness.
Be it bad health, relationships, business, fitness, sickness or whatever you may name, everything that we have today is not out of sudden but in one way or the other accumulated gradually through the course of time.
Even if we don’t believe in Karma, let’s take an example of us sitting in a crooked position for one hour a day. Soon the hours turn into days, days into month, months into years and Bammmm!! we get slammed with a chronic physical pain, deformities or ailments.
It’s very simple, this is a universal law- the law of accumulation.
Thus we must take small initiatives on a regular basis for our betterment and well-being. These tiny little steps we take right now are definitely going to catch up soon in the future and will be parts of the bigger picture we see then.
So no matter if it’s a morning walk, a swim, Yoga or running or anything else, just make it a commitment to everyday invest some time in your personal practice, your well being, self love & self care, as when we do this we accumulate health and joy in our life.
- Interviewed by - Christina Monachan
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