Conception to Postpartum in a Series of Weekend Yoga Workshops

I’ve taken this picture so many times at Bellur, and never thought one day I’d be posing with my daughter.

I spent the past weekend in yoga workshop with Murlidhar sir, a yoga teacher who played an instrumental role in my pregnancy journey, from conception to postpartum.  This blog was supposed to be about taking a 3.5 month old to a yoga retreat.  But as I wrote it, it became a game of connect the dots.  It turned into a blog about how I attended a weekend yoga retreat in 2019 and met an impressive but little known yoga teacher who would one day have a profound impact on my life.

My journey has been nothing but magical or, as my gynaecologist would say, ‘a miracle’.

May 2019

In 2019 I was attending Iyengar yoga classes at Adarsh Bhavan in Malleshwaram.  One day our teacher told us about a weekend workshop at the Bellur Iyengar Yoga Center with a teacher known as ‘Back bending Murli’.  The teacher, who I’d never heard of, was famous for his backbends.  I attended the workshop and was amazed.  Yoga workshops can be physically challenging, but the blend of physical and mental challenge in this one was phenomenal.  You can get a sense of what I was feeling in this post.

A week later I got a call from an unknown number.  It was Murali sir (!) calling me to thank me for writing a nice post about him (!!).  I was speechless, but managed to stutter a ‘thank you’.  I was reeling from surprise and shock for days afterwards.

Today those days seem like ancient history.  Driving my red Alto all over town teaching students.  Eagerly updating my social media handles and wanting to be a ‘famous’ yoga teacher.

 

April 2023

Four years later, in April 2023 I heard Murali sir was conducting another weekend workshop in Bellur.  Medha and I registered for a weekend yoga therapy workshop with Murali sir.  I had regaled Medha with stories of how wonderful the previous workshop had been.  We headed out on a Saturday, for a weekend of retreating from the rigors of our busy live to a weekend of immersion into yoga.

I had been trying to conceive for close to two years, and was actively searching for teachers who could guide me.  I’d been through books, reached out to several teachers, combed through numerous podcasts…but wasn’t getting anywhere.  When I registered for the workshop it didn’t occur to me to speak to Murali Sir.  But when Murali Sir encouraged the participants to come forward with any queries he could help with, Medha encouraged me to share my story.

I was expecting Murali Sir to ask me for my medical reports, which I promptly shared with him.  What I wasn’t expecting was for him to call me on stage and have me share my problems with a workshop full of strangers.  I responded to his questions extremely self consciously.  I had never been this public about my fibroids, my AMH, my issues conceiving.  That day I had to verbalise my challenges for the first time.  I was surprised by the earnestness with which everyone discussed how yoga could help me.  I remember too, Dr. Amit, the radiologist who, over lunch, told me he’s seen numerous women with healthy pregnancies and multiple uterine fibroids.

Before I left Bellur, Murali sir told me he would speak to Prashant ji and give me a call about what to do next.

In a few weeks he called me asking me to drop in to his yoga center.  He had my yoga sequence.

“Do this for 6 months and come back to me,” he said after explaining the sequence.

“Thank you, I will.” I said.

As I turned to leave the center, he mumbled something else, like an afterthought.

“I’m sorry?” I asked turning back to him.

“I said, and within 6 months you might conceive.”

December 2023

The year was drawing to a close, and I was busy with food cravings, nausea, my growing body and reading up everything about pregnancy I could.  It was also a time of visits from friends, relatives, planning the baby shower, finalising a hospital.  It was getting increasingly difficult to find something that would fit, and I cleared out my closet of all the clothes that I didn’t expect to be wearing in the coming few months.

I had indeed conceived, and within only three months of practicing the sequence daily.  When I shared the news with Murali sir he was happy and asked me to come to his studio again in my fourth month.  He would teach me my pregnancy yoga sequence.

It was a trek to Chamarajpet – a little more than an hour each way.  I was in my second trimester and had the energy to undertake the journey.  He intended to train me well so that I could practice at home in my final trimester.  I was grateful for all the yoga props I’ve collected over the years – I could replicate my pregnancy yoga sequence at home almost verbatim.

July 2024

I’m in my fourth month postpartum now and life has come a full circle.  Two weeks ago I found out that Murali sir was conducting another workshop in Bellur and I promptly called him up.  I told him I was interested in attending and proposed that I would bring my husband and baby along.  He would watch the baby while I attended the workshop.  In case I needed to feed her I would quietly exit.  I would drive to Bellur on both days.

Within 10 minutes of speaking to him I got a call from Bellur.  They were arranging for a room for my family so that we could be comfortable for the weekend, and I could focus on the workshop. ❤️

During the workshop (which was this past weekend), a participant asked if it was possible to practice sirsasana in the ninth month of pregnancy.  Murali sir asked me to stand and ‘show myself’.  “She did pregnancy yoga all nine months and now she’s come back to practice with her baby.” he said.

I stood up and felt all eyes on me.  But, unlike last year, I didn’t squirm self-consciously.  I felt like I could own my journey.

 

 

I sometimes find myself thinking of my journey.  Not only of my pregnancy journey, but also of my yoga journey.  What started as a means of losing weight has given me so much more – a raison d’être, passion, income, recognition, a way of giving back, fulfilment, travel, health, wisdom, intellectual stimulation, long lasting relationships, and above all, love.