Self-management through yoga

Yoga is all about self-management. One needs to know how to tackle their body, mind and emotions. It is a kind of self-journey that varies from person to person.Award winning Vishnu Prasad is regarded as one of the leading, young well-being consultants from India and founder of ‘Swasthi Yoga Studio Doha’. He is also the author of a book titled Silence to Stillness. He recently spoke with Community regarding his yoga philosophy and teaching norms.Vishnu started his yogic and spiritual journey from a very young age when he was 15 years old and initiated yogic meditation practices with his first teacher Yogini Chandralekha and among other great yogis. “Since my start, I have trained hundreds of thousands of people in yoga in India, Maldives, Oman and now in Qatar. I have been working in Qatar for seven years.“I learnt the basics of yoga from monks. I still cherish traditional yoga. I have also been in love with natural medicines – the holistic approach towards the mind and body. To be able to teach in other countries, I obtained yoga certification from a regular institute in India.”Vishnu has been holding regular yoga classes in Sheraton Hotel. He believes in customised yoga approach and pays individual attention to each of his students. “I do more of hatha yoga. I focus on breathing techniques. Most of the people come to me with the problem of struggling against stress and depression. I simply tell them to focus on and control their breathing. By working on breathing, we can control of our emotions. We know that when we feel stressed, our exhalation becomes longer and inhalation gets slower. When we are angry, our breathing becomes faster. The emotions we develop in our mind reflect in our breathing. If we learn how to regulate our breathing, we can control over emotions. Further, there has been a lot of scientific research highlighting the positive effects of yoga on health of our body and mind.”The trainer believes that yoga also acts as a preventive measure to be safe from different ailments. “It also improves our immune system. If we are able to control our emotions, we can have better social life and good ties with our families.“Different yoga postures help us in learning about ourselves through meditation. Most people say that yoga is a kind of self-awareness. However, for me, yoga is all about self-management. It is a self-journey. The journey differs from person to person. Flexibility is actually a by-product of yoga.”In response to the question that what new he has brought for his students in Doha, Vishnu said: “Though I have International TTC Diploma in Yoga and Yoga Philosophy, I practice what I have learnt from traditional yogis. My yoga teachings focus more on the outcome of different techniques. People come to me and they want to get some good results from yoga practices. I work with each student of mine and pay individual attention. I make sure that they get the desired results. Some people want to have flexibility in their body and other need to get rid of stress. Some will come to do away with their back pains. I try to make yoga customised for each of them. It is not easy.”He added: “I feel pretty satisfied when my students tell that they have got for what they came for. This is the key to my success so far in Doha. I take pain and pay full attention to each and every individual.”His book – Silence to Stillness, published in 2017 – can answer many questions in the mind of a reader and will give them a kind of clarity that will help them enter a deeper state in meditation and enhance their meditation journey.“I have been working on my second book. It is untitled yet. This book is about self-awareness and how to tackle different emotions. Just today (Monday) I launched my online coaching centre for those interested in meditation.”When asked if one cannot do regular yoga, what one needs to do to improve mental and physical health, Vishnu said: “Every day we need to spend some time with ourselves. We meet everybody other than ourselves. We need to reflect on our thoughts. Further, early morning physical activities also help improve mental health.”