Many Paths

As a child of South Asian migrant workers, I had two choices, doctor or engineer. I chose to be a doctor and started down the path of  science.

My academic journey began with a degree in Biology (the pre-med route). But once I got a taste of research there was no turning back. I loved the freedom of being a scientist. My parents had to settle for another kind of doctor. To their further dismay, my Master’s thesis research focused on defense chemicals in wildflowers.

My undergrad research opened my eyes to the exquisite sentience and responsive intelligence of plants and their innumberable strategies to defend themselves and adapt to their ever-changing environment. Related to this field is ethnopharmacology; this is where I learned about indigenous medicinal plants that later sparked my interest in addiction research.

I took my first dance class in college to fulfill an elective.  It was a class in Graham technique. I was hooked. Dance got me into my body in a way that aerobics never did.  The Limon technique taught me about the fluidity of motion, the coordination of movement with the breath and the excitement of the pause from Limon which prepared me for vinyasa and pranayama 10 years later. And then I found the rawness and the wildness of African and Afro-Caribbean dance with transformed me.  I had studied with different teachers but was most privileged to have taken classes with Ned Williams.

While I always performed in amateur productions, my fondest experience was as part of this community dance group, Best Foot Forward, when I was living in Ireland.  It was mixed-age and all abilities.  It truly was a community united in movement and creative expression. See if you can spot me in this community performance!

The dance injury I sustained initiated a deep dive into yoga. I was certain that yoga could help where physical therapy & massage had failed.  While, the guidance from yoga teachers did alleviate some of the pain and restored greater mobility, the discovery of the book, “Structural Yoga Therapy” held the key to complete recovery from injury.  I was fortunate to live close to NYC and was able to book a session with the author.  It was a fateful meeting with Mukunda Stiles that jump-started my yoga and spirituality practice and sent me speeding along that super highway. I began a new path in Yoga Therapy while completing my post-doctoral research and beginning my new job as a medical school lecturer.

Motherhood catalyzed another change and propelled me out of the fast-paced academic track onto the off-road, bumpy path of work-at-home motherhood as a holistic well-being provider and educator. I was motivated to share with families what I had found to be beneficial. I started with Pregnancy Yoga and Birth Rehearsal Workshops. Then expanded into Post-Natal, Womb, Kids and Special Yoga.

Yoga was also an invitation into spirituality, meditation, contemplative practices, and comparative religious studies.  My exploration of spiritual energy practices together with somatic  practices allowed me to experience and understand the myriad of ways that our bodies can hold, process, and heal from trauma – personal, intergenerational, and ancestral.  I bring this lived wisdom to my offerings.

My own birth experience motivated me to support women during birth and I  am incredibly fortunate to have taken my first doula training with Dr. Michel Odent, then followed with further training with Ibu Robin Lim.  I realized that it was vital for mothers to receive postpartum support so I also trained as a post-partum doula.

Usually birth is the outcome of  pregnancy, however, loss is also a possibility. So I support mother’s and their families through pregnancy loss and infant death. And I extend end-of-life doula care to adults and pets.