An Invitation to Yoga

In those days that I was at the university,- dreaming to be a film director that one day would walk the red Carpet at the Cannes Film Festival - I just used to close myself in my room - I was living with my parents at that time -, and for one hour or more I was following blissfully a routine that I was creating for the need to my body to move, to stretch, to breath and to relax. I used to finish the last minutes in silence and deep breathing. I was trained in Transcendental Meditation. Those last 15 to 20 minutes were the ones that did the big shifting in my life. I was feeling always in a strange sense of well being that was beyond the physical body. Sense of mindfulness, focus and clarity. Sense of silence and awareness that nothing else from the outside world could give it to me. That beauty, and peace were coming from those lasts minutes in which I was diving deeply in my inhouse. Years later when I decided to dedicate my life to yoga, and to study it, I realized that those years at the university were the seed to create a lifestyle that I live and teach today.

I am totally involved in the yoga and dance therapies field. I can say that the practice of movement, postures and mindful breath can do miraculous changes in any persons life, no matter the age. I give sessions to youngsters, middle age people, and senior citizens, handicaps, physically ill people or people who are passing through challenging times like receiving chemotherapy or coming back to life after surgeries in which parts of their bodies had been amputated due to malign tumors. Also to very stressed people who are at the edge of collapsing in their health with anxieties and panic attacks. That hour in which we share a space and a time to focus on their inhouse, their soul creates a shift that in a long term of practicing what we do in a session, gives the person a new openness to reach another perception about their own lives.

On the other hand, I can say that we are living a shadow in the field of yoga. It has become a business in which you can find Yogi stars like Hollywood stars. Fashion yogi designers. Huge events in the world were people gathered around the famous teachers trying to do complicated postures. Super thin, fit, slim yoga model teachers who are extremely flexible and use their flexibility just to show their acrobatic postures to catch the attention of a public who see them as the models of a new healthy way of life. Yoga is not about flexibility it is about breathing, its a discipline for everyone!. The shadow of yoga its a very narcissistic way of creating a tribe that promotes on the surface a fake road to a fake paradise. Buying the most fancy yoga mat, clothes, and eating what the famous promote, does not bring you in to Nirvana. Where is Nirvana? It is here and Now. Wherever you are and what ever you are doing in this moment, that is your Nirvana. Creating an approach to life through yoga its about reeducating yourself in your belief system. It is a road from the outside to the inside that only needs your will to do it.

Ayca Gürelman has been near me all these years that I have been living in Istanbul. We do not see each other often, but I have been always following what she is doing for this society as a yoga teacher, and practitioner of the path she has chosen for herself.
DJ: How did you start practicing yoga?
AG: I am a businesswoman. I was staying in London, and there I started to practice and to be related to Sivananda yoga. When I came back to Turkey I continued practicing by myself with the guide of the book written by André Van Lisebeth. At that time yoga was no so popular in Turkey, I am talking about finishing the 90's. After the famous earthquake in Istanbul in 1999, the practice of meditation started to be popular, so I joint a group to meditate and then I started practicing yoga with Ersin Saran. Through him I met the person who opened my real yogic path: Sri N.V. Raghuram, who is the international coordinator of SVYASA that is the Vivekananda Yoga University of higher learning and research of Yogic studies in Bangalore in India, and has many other branches in the world.

DJ: I always have seen you working hard in collecting information and spreading it. Your mission has been always of teaching and educating people about Yoga.
AG: I started the web site Yoga Merkezi where people could find information about what is going on in the discipline of Yoga in Turkey.
DJ: Yes, I remember. It was a site full of information about yoga. Philosophy, the teachers in Turkey, and news. It was really good. What happened?
AG: It became Istanbul Yoga Merkezi the studio in which we are today. With the web page people where thinking that we existed as a place. The most common question was where are you? and of course my answer was always, that we were just a virtual place, but now I open the studio due to the demand of the people and the job I am doing in yoga.
DJ: What happened after you met Sri N.V. Raghuram?
AG: I did the studies at the Vivekananda University, and during this years I am the one who is bringing him to expand this knowledge of the Vivekananda University. We work in the translation of books like the Bhagavad Gita that is the sacred Hindu text that scopes humanity as whole. We have created a place were people receive certification courses in Vivekananda , at the moment we have trained 120 teachers in Turkey. We go beyond Istanbul, this teachers are spread in different regions of the country. N.V Raghuram is coming constantly to give the philosophy part in our courses. I am doing educational videos that I post on facebook and can be find in You Tube as well. We are a bridge of information and education of the Vivekananda University.

DJ: What happened to your career in business?
AG: I finished my work as a Manager in Marketing. I used to worked in different multinationals. Now I am dedicated to the studio and to continue this educational program with N.V Raghuram.
As always when we get enchanted by a person or a situation, time passes very fast. This afternoon with Ayca has been like the taste of a Turkish delight, it is sweet, it is subtle and always lasts forever in your memory. Listening to her stories and laughter is just a delight.
 
Namaste
Diana Jaramillo
http://www.wix.com/dianayoga/dianayoga

Ayca Gürelman: http://www.yogamerkezi.com
İstanbul Yoga Merkezi: Bağdat Caddesi Kantarcı Rıza Sokak Köşeoğlu Apartmanı No 5. D:3 Erenköy. İstanbul.
Tel: 216-368-8482

Tweet

Top