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Books Postpartum Pregnancy/Parenting Notes Wellness

On the Asceticism of Motherhood: Agi Wittich

July 12, 2025
Yoga Readers Book Club reading Geeta Iyengar’s Yoga: A Gem for Women

How I Found Agi Wittich

I first came across Agi Wittich and her work on Facebook. I saw a post about ‘Yoga Readers‘ — an online book club that reads and discusses books on yoga. Agi is unique in that she brings structure and academic rigor to reading yoga, a direct result of her extensive work in academia. In a world where yoga is a popular buzzword and just about everyone claims to be a teacher or expert, I find her approach refreshing—it compels me to think about my postpartum yoga practice and what it means to me as a woman, mother and yoga teacher.

It was in one of these meetings that Agi said, “As a woman, I’m in postpartum until I’m in another phase of a woman’s life.” As someone who had crossed the one-year postpartum mark, I was intrigued by this statement. It made me question the idea of ‘normal’ that women in postpartum often think about. I often wonder if I’m irrevocably changed and should put the past version of me to rest. I decided to ask Agi to speak with me about her experience and thoughts on motherhood and postpartum as a yoga teacher. I was sure that, just like her book club meetings, our conversation would also be remarkable and insightful.

Yoga as a Tool for Postpartum Presence

Agi’s statement stems from her study of Yoga: A Gem for Women, Geeta Iyengar’s seminal book — the first book to focus on yoga primarily for women. In the book, Geeta details how yoga can benefit women in different phases of life (menstruation, pregnancy, postpartum, menopause) and provides detailed yoga sequences for each phase, including postpartum yoga practice. She speaks from a point of kindness and compassion for a woman’s changing body, focusing on nurturing women through these phases for long-term health and happiness. I love what this means for the yoga practice — that it’s not a static sequence of asanas that limbs execute day after day. Rather, it’s a practice that curves and bends and twists with us as we navigate what it means to live and breathe and interact with the world, and have a body that is receptive to life.

That our practice serves our bodies and not the other way around.

The Asceticism of Motherhood

Agi also put into words an experience me and other mothers know intimately – the ‘asceticism’ of motherhood. As our babies start to explore the world, they grab and pull at our earrings, our hair, our jewellery, and our clothes. Mothers find themselves removing anything that ‘gets in the way’ (of our babies, but also our lives). This process of shedding the unnecessary goes beyond just the physical and also reflects in out emotional landscape — we let go of relationships, thought patterns, even just things that can no longer be adjusted to the complexity of our new lives. (Postpartum is often about reassessing and then reclaiming these things — perhaps discarding them was a momentary need and they are useful after all.) In a strange way, this act of asceticism helped me assert myself  — I would take for myself what served me and leave the rest to its destiny.

Why These Conversations Matter

My conversation with Agi helped me see my postpartum phase not as a recovery period, but as a lived, ongoing practice in its own right. Motherhood—like yoga—needs presence, flexibility, and a willingness to keep evolving. The postpartum phase doesn’t have a fixed end point, it’s a stop on the journey. These conversations help me approach this phase without losing myself, and that’s why I share them—because if listening to others helps me, then it might help you too.

Agi Wittich and postpartum yoga practice.

Agi Wittich and postpartum yoga practice.

I recently also had a conversation with Ashtanga yoga teacher Mariela Cruz about her experience with motherhood and yoga. You can read it here.

Books Wellness

Butter by Asako Yuzuki (An Unusual Book Review)

June 30, 2025
Body positivity versus health and fitness journey reflections.

Butter, Body Positivity & Balance

I recently finished reading Butter by Asako Yuzuki. Originally in Japanese, it is inspired by the true story of a woman accused of murdering several men by seducing them through delectable, home-cooked, gourmet food. Rika Machida is a journalist investigating the case. She manages to get an interview with the enigmatic Manako Kajii, the woman accused of these crimes, who is on death row. As Rika digs deeper and gets increasingly entangled in Kajii’s narrative, she’s forced to confront her own beliefs about beauty, desire and gender roles. The book explores themes of femininity, power, body image, and how society polices women’s relationships with food, pleasure, and autonomy. It challenges us to ask ourselves: are we truly free? And this question hit me hard because it helped me articulate something complex and uncomfortable about what the body positivity movement has become.

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Postpartum Pregnancy/Parenting Notes Wellness

Postpartum Healing with Acupuncture: Boost Energy, Balance Hormones, and Sleep Better Naturally

April 29, 2025

As a yoga teacher I knew that after I had a baby, I would have to be extra careful with the healing process. To rush to ‘get back’ could lead to nagging aches, chronic weakness, and a disconnect from my practice. But simply waiting for things to sort themselves out was also risky — a slow drift away from the strength and vitality I had worked so hard to build.

To answer my queries I caught up Dr. Shruthi Rao at the Bodhsara Wellness and Salt Studio. Our conversation focused on the benefits of acupuncture for postpartum women. From hormone support and emotional balance to better sleep, lactation, and pelvic healing — Dr. Shruthi Rao breaks it down beautifully.

Keep reading to learn what happens in a typical session, how it complements pelvic floor therapy, and how you can begin at home.

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Pregnancy/Parenting Notes Prenatal Wellness

Yes, You Can Get Pregnant with Low AMH — I Did

April 22, 2025
Attending a wedding in Bhopal during my first trimester. We had just started telling everyone.

“If you sleep more Pragya your AMH will come up on its own,” said the man who sat in front of me, a doctor in one of Bangalore’s most famous maternity hospital.

I looked at him unconvinced. None of the research I’d read connected sleep to AMH. And in any case, wasn’t it natural for AMH to decline with age? I had a sneaking suspicion that this man was misleading me, using his authority as the ‘expert’ to say whatever he wanted to a woman grasping for straws of hope.

I’ve spoken extensively about my journey to conception. It was circuitous, confusing and daunting. In retrospect, what helped was understanding and appreciating what I had control over. So I committed to practicing yoga more diligently, reminding myself of the miracles it had brought into my life. I made space for rest, journaling, and time with friends—and above all, I refused to let science and medicine intimidate me.

Here’s how I dealt with my low AMH, and you can too.

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Postpartum Wellness

My Journey to Aging Gracefully

March 8, 2025

I turned 43 this year.  43 looks different today than it did, say 10 years ago.  At 43 women are now starting families, changing career paths, finding love….question and challenging their world views.  I certainly found myself re-evaluating long held beliefs, thought and behavioral patterns.  Including my approach to my yoga practice.

I’ve written extensively about my conception and pregnancy journey and the role yoga played in it.  In retrospect I feel it’s important to point out that it was only the allopathic medical fraternity (“Western medicine” as many would say) that used the words “geriatric” or “old”.  Alternative health practitioners, including my yoga teachers, never once saw the idea that I was too old to become pregnant as credible. To them, my body’s potential mattered more than my age.  The irony is that many people think that this means according to yoga age doesn’t matter – but it’s quite the opposite.

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RIMYI Experiences Yoga

The Boring Yoga Class I Didn’t Know I Needed

February 4, 2025
At Tipu Sultan's summer palace.

Most of my practice is accessible now. I miss taking yoga photos everywhere I go and am consciously trying to do it again. It used to be fun.

It was Ratha Saptami today, the day when yoga students and teachers honor the Sun god with (usually) 108 repetitions of the Surya Namaskar.  Lately my days have been a balancing act between motherhood duties (in the absence of a permanent nanny), work and a workout (perhaps a workin is in order).  However, I managed to put together a program to pay homage to the Sun God in the hopes that he continues to shine his benevolent light on us.

After the session, I was scheduled to attend my regular RIMYI class.  The Tuesday morning class was the only one that fit into my schedule.  TBH, I’m not too thrilled about it.  I’ve attended the teacher’s classes before, and have never been able to connect with her.  But I didn’t really have much of a choice so every Tuesday I find myself using every ounce of discipline I’ve cultivated over the years just to make it to savasana.  Today it was different though, today that boring yoga class was one I didn’t know I needed.

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Wellness

My Resolutions for 2025…and Why Yoga Isn’t on the List

January 16, 2025

Attending Sunday Soul Sante in December.

December 2024 went by in a whirlwind. The days were short and nights long and cold. All I felt like doing was reading late into the night with a hot drink and practicing some cozy yoga. But I ensconced myself in some warm clothes through the wintry days, made sure Kalindi stayed warm and healthy, chalked out some quality time with Animesh and even did some goal-setting for 2025.

TBH my initial list had about 10 resolutions that didn’t inspire me even a teeny tiny bit. I crossed off all but these two, which genuinely excite, and even motivate me.

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Yoga Philosophy

The Guru’s Light: Remembering Sharath Jois

November 18, 2024
vande gurūnām...

vande gurūnām caranāravinde….

I got the news of Sharath’s passing early morning on a Tuesday.  In this age of AI and fake news I thought it was fake news.  But as the truth settled in, so did an unexpected and profound sense of loss.  Even though I had only met Sharath in passing (during my brief brush with Ashtanga Yoga in Mysore), I feel strangely bereft, as though the loss was personal.

I’ve followed the Ashtanga lineage closely and have drawn inspiration from countless teachers within it.  I have many friends who are devoted to the Ashtanga yoga practice.  As practitioners we never think of teachers as human, bound by the same mortality that binds us all.  The passing of legends is a vivid reminder of life’s impermanence.  As history shifts and the ground beneath our feet starts to shake – I find myself asking how I want to step into the future.

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Asana Pregnancy/Parenting Notes Yoga

Conception to Postpartum in a Series of Weekend Yoga Workshops

July 16, 2024
I've taken this picture so many times at Bellur, and never thought one day I'd be posing with my daughter.

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’.

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RIMYI Experiences Yoga Philosophy

The Ultimate Surrender – Intersection of Yoga & Vedanta

May 10, 2023

At the beautiful temples of Belur & Halebidu.

The philosophy of yoga and Vedanta sometimes intersect, and I love spotting this overlap in different classes.

During the last RIMYI class I took, Raya spoke about letting go.  When we talk about letting go of something, there is an assumption that you’re holding on to something.  It’s important to analyse this something.  How are you holding on to it?  Why are you holding on to it?  Once we analyse it, can we let it go?

To make it relevant to the asana practice Raya asked us to ask ourselves what we were feeling in the asana we were holding (Uttanasana).  What were we truly feeling?  Were we feeling our hamstrings hurting, or was the back hurting, or were we holding the abdomen too tight?  When you can identify what you are holding – you can begin to let it go.  “I let go of my back, I let go of my abdomen, I let go of….”  He asked us to do the same in Sirsasana, but focus on mental conditions/conditionings. He asked: Can letting go be voluntary?  Can we actively let go?

He gave us the example of how he came across a ratty old t-shirt when he was cleaning his cupboard.  Everyone tells you to let go of this old tee that you don’t even use anymore, but you can’t.  We need to understand that it’s not the object that we can’t let go – it’s the memories associated with it that we’re unable to let go.

What are we actually holding on to?  Can we analyse that similar to how we analysed Uttansana?  Mentioning yoga sutra 1.11 he asked us to ponder over what is the role of memory and cleansing the memory.  Can we actively identify and do something about?  Letting go of an old t-shirt is easier than letting go of memories.  Memories can be good, troublesome, traumatic, ecstatic.  How do we deal with this baggage of memories and how does it impact us?  Can we let go of attachment to the memory?  Can we actively let go of sad memories?  Going into parsva sirsasana he asked us to contemplate looking at the memory from a different angle.

अनुभूतविषयासंप्रमोषः स्मृतिः PYS 1.11

Memory is the unmodified recollection of words and experiences.

 

He spoke about two sutras that he would frequently speak to Guruji about:

सुखानुशयी रागः PYS 2.7

Pleasure leads to desire and emotional attachment.

दुःखानुशयी द्वेषः PYS 2.8

Unhappiness leads to hatred.

A person with a sense of discrimination should strive a balance between sukha and dukha instead of living a the mercy of these two.  There are so many triggers in life today – we are all used to certain manners, ways and customs.  But can we let go of getting triggered?  Raya told us that  us to actively open our drawers and pull things out and look at everything that comes out and ask ourselves if we are using it.  Have we been keeping certain memories in the cupboard, maybe even in the freezer.  And even in the freezer have they become rotten and started stinking?  Can we actively bring these memories out,  clean them up and throw them away?

How do we throw these memories away?  By turning it from klista to aklista.

 

वृत्तयः पञ्चतय्यः क्लिष्टाक्लिष्टाः PYS 1.5

The movement of consciousness are fivefold.  They may be cognizable or non-cognizable, painful (klista) or non-painful (aklista).

The fact that it happened remains, but the feeling associated with it goes.  Raya also stressed that we all want happiness, but we remember the sad things more – happiness has a shorter shelf life.  Happiness is like camphor or mercury – you can’t hold it, it evaporates.

Next in Sarvangasana, Raya asked us to finally consider what we can let of of intellectually.  He spoke of fear and how we’re all fearful of something.  But some are able to face their fear because they have practiced handling this fear.  Practice analysing your fears and insecurities – once analysed can we let them go?  After giving daanam in a temple, we pour water over our hands symbolically ‘washing away’ our attachment with what we’ve given.  We need to let go of claiming things – ‘I’ did this, ‘I’ own this etc.  The most difficult thing is to let go of this claim.  After letting go of these claims, can I let go of the ‘I’ itself?

When one moves from the grossest to the subtlest, neither the beginning is seen nor the end.

My Vedanta teacher always stresses the importance of balance in life.  It is important for us to seek pleasure, but also to accept that pleasure and pain come together.  As seekers we are encouraged to go after our dreams and desires, but we need to remember that the result of our pursuit depends on many factors.  Therefore, we can’t be swayed by victory or defeat, sukham or dukham.  We should pursue life according to dharma, and with the best of our physical, emotional and intellectual intent.  And surrender the results, fruits, fear and even happiness to a higher purpose.

What is left to surrender when I have surrendered everything?

My teacher explained the idea of surrender using verse 18.66 of the Bhagawad Gita.

सर्वधर्मान्परित्यज्य मामेकं शरणं व्रज |
अहं त्वां सर्वपापेभ्यो मोक्षयिष्यामि मा शुच: ||

In this shloka Lord Krishna is asking Arjuna for the ultimate surrender – the surrender of the ‘I’ or the ego.  Letting go of the ‘I’ in all the claims that I make.  Once I have surrendered everything, I surrender the ‘I’ too.  And in that way I merge with the One, the universal consciousness.

 

At the Blue Temple, Chiang Rai.

At the Blue Temple, Chiang Rai.