#AsanasOfJoy: Meet Insta yoginis who are taking yoga to the world

This International Yoga Day, these Instagram yogini’s share their love for yoga, and how they are reinventing yoga for the new-age fitness buffs.

‘Yoga makes me the happiest’

Srishti Kaushik, aka Yogini Srishti, is a graduate from Daulat Ram College(Delhi University). She’s skilled in different forms of Yoga:Hatha , Yin, Restorative, Vinyasa, Ashtanga, Laughter. With over 215K followers, her videos largely focus on women’s health issues.

“I was struggling with some issues of my own, because of having a retroverted uterus I used to face complications during menstrual cycles and went through a lot of pain every month. What most people don’t know is that women with retroverted uterus tend to have high chances for contracting Urinary Infections and for me these UTIs were so common that I to rely on medication for consecutive months. Like all problems in my life before this, I found the solution in Yoga,” she shares.

“I was born and brought up in a joint family of 20 people in Hapur which is a small town in UP and ever since I was a kid, I had a natural inclination towards Yoga and I took every opportunity to go for Yoga tournaments. Ask any kid what they want to become when they grow up and the answer would be unique each time, but for me I always knew that if I am going to follow Yoga throughout my life I’ll be the most happiest person,” she adds.

‘My love for our heritage started my saree yoga journey’

For Delhi-based Rakhi Sharma, practising yoga was life changing. She recalls how two years back she was, “depressed, suppressed and an ordinary girl” before she practised Yoga for the first time.

“I explored yoga when I felt helpless and useless, and it changed me. My Insta page doesn’t have 72k followers, but 72k people from around the world who are my family. We are united by our common love for yoga! As much as I love other cultures, I’m the biggest fan of my own heritage! That’s how I started my saree yoga journey,” she says.

‘People tell me that my posts gave them positivity’

Sakshi Gupta, who began practising back in 2014 and feels she has grown immensely as a practitioner as well as a guide. With over 47k followers, says she’s far from being a yogini in the true essence of the word, and would rather call herself a yog sadhaka (yoga practitioner).

“Instagram for me started as a space where I can share my love for this incredible practice and connect with other practitioners. But now when people tell me that one of my posts inspired them in some way, gave them positivity, helped them feel better physically and mentally, made them feel comfortable in their skin or inspired them to start their own yoga practice, it is so rewarding. It has become not only a way for me to express myself but also a way I can directly help thousands of people in some small way,” she says.

Gupta, adds: “ Yoga is like home to me. I come to the practice for comfort, care and healing. My practice helps me grow mentally, emotionally, spiritually and of course physically. I am not just talking about the yoga we do on the mat but what we take with us off the mat.Honestly for me, in the city, my home is the best place because it’s my personal space. Sometimes I would go to the local parks or pre-pandemic to the studios. But now my home is perfect.”

‘At Jantar mantar, I was actually chased out by the guards’

Fitness blogger Radhika Bose, whose follower count stands at 545K, says, “Being an influencer wasn’t that common when I started out. I used to post photos of myself doing yoga every day as it gave me joy. I was ridiculed by a lot of people. Motivating people to take up fitness wasn’t considered a job. But I wanted to create art with yoga, so I would scout for places all over Delhi to shoot. Name any place and I have struck a yoga pose there.

Author Tweets @Nainaarora8

Follow more on Facebook and Twitter