Yoga is for everybody – especially in these challenging times of isolation and separation. Keeping this mind, yoga enthusiasts gathered near the Yeronga park swimming pool area to celebrate the International Yoga day.
The Institute for Australia India Engagement (IAIE) and Fight4Balance organised the International Yoga Day session with the support of India High Commission in Brisbane.
The session was conducted by Indian trainers Neha Dhupia, Bhawna Govind and Akshay -associated with the Art of Living Foundation.
Hailing from Mauritius and now settled in Brisbane, 33-year old paraplanner and part-time yoga instructor Bhavna Govind believes that practicing yoga is a lifestyle and not about the postures. “It’s how you relate to others as well. What you eat and whole mindset of not being stressed-out. Through Yoga, our breathing and our mind can relax and our relationship to others also improves. It is completely different from fitness workouts as it is a holistic approach” , she said.
“It is always wonderful to conduct yoga sessions. Yoga is not just about asanas, it’s also about union of body, mind and spirit. While we are doing the yoga postures, we are going and tapping higher level of existence. We took a meditation session in the end. It makes us go beyond what we see. I see that Yoga is a way of life. It had to done and practiced everyday”, said Neha Dhupia, a yoga and meditation trainer for Art of Living Foundation and also, simultaneously pursuing her PhD in school of Psychology.
Stephen Illidge, CEO for Fight4Balance, stressed the importance of Yoga as means of building community participation. An Australian charity servicing a community of invisible youth -boys and girls, Fight4Balance helps families of children with disabilities and the children themselves. “These children are normal persons physically, but they have cognitive and perceptual disabilities, which means they process information differently and have lot more difficulty regulating their emotions. We develop programmes in adaptive sport, functional health and community participation for these children. We also have resilience and well-being programmes for parents through exercise. This is where we are using Yoga to help as a self-regulation programming, particularly with breathing and calming themselves”, said Stephen.
Dr Ashutosh Misra, CEO of IAIE, said that yoga in the current time has become more important for people to deal with the stress and tension caused by Covid 19 and ensure a healthy mind and body.
Indian High Commissioner Mr Gitesh Sarma had sent his message on behalf of the Government of India for all the participants which was delivered by Dr Ram Mohan, Chairman of India News and IndBiz.