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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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Wellness Postpartum

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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Yoga RIMYI Experiences

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 & Vedanta 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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