Health, happiness and travel through yoga with Shruti Shah

At age 28, she left her corporate job and expectations of society behind when she quit her corporate job and moved to Australia to study yoga. Shruti started her yoga teaching career in Australia, now has a home base in India and has travelled to Costa Rica and Nicaragua to teach at surf and yoga retreats.

Talking about practising Yoga and what made her becoming yoga teacher, Shruti says, Growing up in India, I was lucky to have yoga in my life at a young age. I religiously started practising at the age of 23 at a local Iyengar Yoga studio. What started off as a purely physical practice, slowly turned into a more holistic practice, changing the way I interact with the rest of the world. My experience of physical, mental and emotional healing through yoga made me very curious about the mind body connection. After years of dedicated practice, I decided to quit my job in Mumbai and committed myself to an 800 H YTT at Byron Yoga Centre in Australia. Yoga ended up transforming every aspect of my life and I wanted to share my learnings with the world. Teaching yoga fulfilled me in a way that sitting in front of a computer screen 9 to 5 never would.

Shruti Shah practised Iyengar Yoga for about 7 years before she got certified in Purna Yoga and she enjoys a dynamic Vinyasa flow too. She feels like her classes are a combination of them all, they are flow oriented, alignment focused and relaxing. When she is travelling and teaching yoga, she has a simple beginner friendly flow that is accessible for all.

Shruti Shah, Founder, Flowithshruti further adds, When I am at a surf retreat, I usually teach a challenging class that is tailored for surfers. I also enjoy teaching a very slow Restorative yoga class for days when the students are obviously tired and just need to take it easy. I have recently started facilitating cacao ceremonies and ecstatic dances, something I learned when I was in Costa Rica and Nicaragua.

Talking about finding international yoga teaching jobs, Shruti says, Yogatrade.com has been super helpful in finding volunteer jobs in Central America. I spent 2 months in Costa Rica last year and 3 months in Nicaragua this year teaching yoga at surf and yoga retreat spaces. Some places only require an hour or two of daily work in exchange for accommodation and three healthy meals per day. Connecting with people while travelling is definitely helpful in finding different yoga gigs. So put yourself out there, connect with like minded individuals and let everyone know that you are open to opportunities.

Being a 30 something year old single girl from India, with societal expectations and parental pressure to settle down it was definitely challenging to go against all odds and pursue my passion. It took 3 years for my parents to respect what I do and be supportive of my choices. Travelling and teaching yoga comes with its own set of challenges and is not as glamorous as it sounds. Sometimes I wake up disoriented not knowing what day it is, or what time zone I am in or where my next meal is coming from. Other times, you are living in this constant state of uncertainty and I do not know how I am going to pay my bills and most times things do not go as planned teaching gigs fall through, flights get cancelled, visas get denied. But one thing I have learned from travelling that there is no place like home.

Shuti further adds, Before I quit my job to study yoga, I was a Social Media Consultant for different start ups for over 7 years. I take up freelance social media projects, photography and content writing while I am travelling and when I am back home in India as well. And anytime I run out of money on my travels I come back home, work and save up for the next adventure.

Talking about her future, Shruti said, I honestly do not even know where I will be tomorrow, for someone who lives pretty spontaneously that is quite far ahead. I hope it is somewhere nice though, where I can continue teaching yoga, surf on a regular basis and have lots of good people around me. However, the end goal is to build my own yoga shala and health food cafe somewhere overlooking the ocean.

Website: https://flowithshruti.com

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