What does Yoga have to do with my work in the tech ecosystem?
I recently completed my 200hr Yoga Teacher Training (after a 7-month rigorous training with 21 loving, supportive and courageous individuals).
What does Yoga have to do with my work in the tech ecosystem?
I'm dedicated to helping individuals and organizations thrive in an ever-changing world, in a purposeful and peaceful way.
Yoga has been an essential part of my life, my journey and my transformation. I noticed that I’ve been incorporating elements of my own yoga practice into my coaching, leadership development and team-building sessions.
I work with brilliant individuals from all over the world, entrepreneurs, investors, and technologists who are quite analytical, metrics-driven and outcome-oriented. They are hyperachievers who don't want to achieve more for the sake of “success” but because they genuinely care about their work, the people around them, and more often than not the world at large.
In an effort to make the world a better place with their knowledge, skills and resources, they take on so much, carrying this responsibility on their shoulders. As they work passionately toward their mission, which often doesn't feel like work, they start to feel a different kind of burnout. Not the burnout I see in more corporate settings that result from long hours and toxic managers, having to redo presentations at 2AM, or not knowing how this work adds anything to their life or the other way around.
Their burnout comes from genuinely caring about their work, making it their mission to serve and take care of others and loving it so much that it doesn’t feel like work. So they don’t notice it when they have not taken care of themselves, their minds, their bodies and sometimes their most important relationships. These passionate, hard-working and caring individuals tend to feel this inexplicable sense of anxiety, hopelessness and sometimes even a loss of purpose and a lack of motivation.
It breaks my heart to see these amazing people suffer from such a psychological and physical burden when they are creating tremendous value for everyone else. That’s why I’ve been on a mission to help them find their way back to a life of purpose, joy and hope.
Over the past 15 years, I have been researching the psychology of habits, happiness and motivation. In the past few years though, I deepened my studies, diving into the world of adult development and learning about the neuroscience of change. I noticed that I’ve been incorporating one major element into my work that unlocked so much for the people I work with as they are astonished by the science behind it.
That is “the embodiment of change” - taking all the insights, knowledge and learnings in their brains and bringing them into their bodies to create sustainable transformation toward their desired ways of being.
Built on our trust-based relationship, I challenge my clients with practices that are out of their comfort zones so they can get out of their brains and into their bodies - which is very uncomfortable and unfamiliar for most of them.
Above anything though, we practice how to trust the process, through practices that don’t result in any measurable outcome - by incorporating breathing exercises, getting into poses to express or recognize their feelings, creating awareness around the sensations in their bodies and paying attention to it, practising mindfulness whether it’s through meditation, journaling or just by being intentionally present and aware.
I've been witnessing a remarkable transformation from incorporating these practices into our work and our daily lives and getting unbelievable feedback not only from the people I work with directly but also from those around them - people who have known them for years, their cofounders, team members, even their spouses.
All of these practices we incorporate that have been backed by neuroscience are found in the thousands of years old teachings of Yoga.
The physical practice of yoga, the postures, known as Asana, is only one of the 8 limbs of yoga. There are seven more pathways of yoga that offer a holistic approach to living a meaningful and purposeful life - including breathing, concentration and meditation but also disciplines and duties to inform how we interact with others and show up in the world.
That's why I wanted to go through this rigorous Yoga Teacher Training to deepen my knowledge and equip myself with the tools and practices that Yoga has to offer so I could incorporate more of it into my work to help people achieve sustained desired change.
If you want to achieve sustained change toward your ideal self, built on your strengths, your values and your dreams, then yoga is a great practice to support this transformation and your evolution!
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My Yoga Journey:
I moved quite a lot in the past 15 years, Istanbul, Paris, New York and London. No matter where I was in the world though, being on my mat has always felt like arriving home. It’s been an anchor in my life grounding me and making me feel safe. When I moved to London, in March 2020, coincidentally 2 weeks before lockdown, I only had my yoga mat and Hendrix, my dog, in an empty flat waiting for my shipment to arrive from New York amidst the chaos at the time. My mat was enough for me to feel safe and grounded and to start putting down my roots in London.
I first started attending yoga classes in 2005 in Istanbul when I was in college. When I moved to Paris in 2011, the first thing I did was to find a yoga studio to continue my practice. When I moved to New York in 2012 and started meeting remarkable yoga teachers who shared more of the philosophy, I realized how yoga has been more than a physical practice for me but an essential part of my journey, a way to learn about life and myself, understanding and improving both my physical and mental state.
My yoga practice:
Grounds me and gives me a solid foundation to trust myself to grow
Shows me how I can push the limits of my brain, of what I believe is possible and encourages me to try new things, take risks, fall down and laugh when I do
Reminds me that we keep evolving
Allows me to internalize the fact that everything is transient in life, all the challenging and all the enjoyable experiences in life, just like the challenging and enjoyable poses are just in that moment, nothing is permanent
Encourages me to stay present and pay attention to what's happening both in my practice and in my life
Reminds me to appreciate and trust the process, go with the flow with intentions and release expectations
Enables me to experience life in a more mindful and holistic way, more aware of myself and what's going on around me and with me - physically, physiologically and emotionally
I turn to yoga to feel grounded and centered, to challenge myself, to open myself to receiving, and to gain clarity and perspective, strength and direction.
Yoga is part of who I am.
