Moment Inspired

Credentials

 

Certified Integrative Nutrition Health Coach - studied at the Integrative Institute of Nutrition, NY.   

 

RYT200 registered with Yoga Alliance, Certified Yin, Yoga Nidra and Kids Yoga Teacher.

 

Reiki Master and Integrated Energy Therapy Master Instructor.

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BS, Computers & Information Systems

BA, Economics Honors

Change your Story Change your Life

My Journey so far

 

Our life is a book of stories. Some stories, can change the course of our lives. The story I’m about to share is one such. It's the reason behind my "why" and the driving force behind every action I take today and also why I took a break from my IT corporate career. My aim is to inspire you to stop waiting for someone to fix your life and your health. It is time to take charge of your life starting NOW. Once you sit in the driver seat of your life and connect to yourself, you’ll be confident and empowered to make choices that are life enhancing and natural.

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Balance and harmony is our true nature.

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My healing began, once I became the advocate of my health and stopped relying only on my doctors to find a cure for the painful symptoms that had found a home in my body for 7 long years. 

Through my personal health challenges, I have experienced that our body has an innate wisdom to heal itself, if we give it a 

chance. 

 

For the past decade I have been dedicated to sharing the 

importance of breath, movement, and eating whole foods. I view foods as medicine and believe they can restore health and wellness and also prevent and even reverse chronic symptoms and dis-ease in our bodies. My approach is two pronged: First we teach about mind body connection and its importance in regaining control of health and balance. Then we focus on restoring gut health. 70% of our immune system lives in our gut, and our physical body is the vehicle that houses our soul. Taking good care of it is our prime responsibility. No one knows us better than ourselves!

 

Read below for a detailed version of my diagnosis, healing and beyond.

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My health challenge:

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My major health challenge was the constant pain I had to endure from the fall of 1998 until summer of 2006. After experiencing constant full body pains, lack of range of motion due to my swollen and stiff knees, and herniated discs, my primary care physician diagnosed me with Lyme disease in winter of 2005.

Finally, I had an answer for my pain and it was very real.

I was treated with extensive antibiotics for 4 months. When my pain didn’t subside and doctors had no cure for my pain, they began to prescribe daily dose of antibiotics through IV.  At that point, I made a decision and a COMMITMENT to heal myself. How would that happen? I didn’t know. All I knew was, itwas time to relieve my body from the physical pain. It was critical, as by then my kids were 5 years and 18 months old. They needed their mom to be happy and healthy, in order to thrive. 

 

For the first time in 8 years, I envisioned a future where I was healthy and pain free. I was looking for solutions to heal my body with a single pointed focus. Synchronicity and my unwavering spirit got me closer to my vision. One thing led to another. Eventually, long story short, I managed to get rid of the pain naturally by 2007, with the help of lifestyle changes like adding strength training and  anti-inflammatory spices. Our bodies are amazing bio-computers and can self-heal when given the right atmosphere and environment, is my experience.

Years later I noticed the connection between the mind and the body:

I started reflecting and figuring out what had caused the healing after all. I remember, I making a split second decision to take my health in my own hands and then took steps towards my goal to heal from the physical pain. I changed the story of my life by envisioning a life where I lived pain free. I followed the cues that showed up in my life.

The positive mindset was the most crucial step in my journey towards healing. Basically, I rewired my brain. Now years later there is so much evidence, and literature that talks about how positive thinking changes our brain, our cells and our genes. I know and believe we all have the potential to heal ourselves. After my body pain subsided, I started looking for ways to add exercise that my body could access and would keep my body healthy and flexible for the rest of my life.

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Yoga/Integrative Nutrition journey begins:

My yoga journey began in the summer of 2008 with regular breathing exercises, called Pranayama. I learnt Pranayama after attending a local week long workshop with Swami Ramdev, from India. Few years later, I started practicing vinyasa with my teacher and mentor, Ursula Cox and her amazing yoga team. I practiced regularly. There were times, it was challenging to keep the practice due to lingering side effects of Lyme. However, all these years despite challenges, I never lost sight of health and balance in my life. My body is very good at reminding me when I steer off the middle path. 

About 4 years ago, I started practicing yin yoga with my first yin teacher and mentor Gretchen Schuttle. The yin side of yoga has 

brought balance to my yoga practice that my body and my active brain needed. I love practicing and teaching Yin. Yin has been the perfect complement to my Vinyasa practice, my first love. 

In the spring of 2014, I signed up for my first 200hr yoga teacher training with Ursula Cox. The yoga teacher training was only meant to deepen my practice. Those six months transformed my life forever in ways, I had not envisioned. I found my voice and experienced the sweetness of sharing on a larger scale and decided to teach yoga. Fast forward, today I teach adults/children to listen to their body's needs by connecting movement with their mindful breath. I teach kids as young as 2 and adults as old as 79 (I only know this because my student shared her age with me). I enjoy teaching mindful vinyasa flow, yin yoga, yoga nidra, children yoga and mindful breathing and meditation at locally at health centers, schools and at my home studio.  

 

In the past 2 years I have studied with various teachers to enrich my yoga journey on and off the mat. I have had the honor and privilege of studying and training with the amazing Yin Master Teacher, Bernie Clark and the soft spoken and calm, props queen Diana Batts. I have got my Yoga Nidra Certification with Jennifer Reis, the founder of Divine Sleep Yoga Nidra. I have studied with Shakta Khalsa, the founder of Radiant Child Yoga. I have taken advanced workshops with Sadhguru the founder of Isha Foundation and creator of Inner Enginnering, Tao Porchon Lynch, the most humble and oldest yoga teacher alive, the amazing Katherine Budig and Isauro Fernandez.

After, I started teaching yoga I decided to take a break from the Software Corporate world. I continue to enhance my knowledge by studying, researching, and getting trainings in practices that have helped me achieve balance whether it's a yoga style, nutrition, positive mindset, meditation or breathing. I have experienced our physical, mental emotional and energetic layers of the body need to be in balance for better health.

 

Last year, I made a decision to earn a professional title for my many years of research and self study around anything and everything that influences the health of our mind, body and spirit. In March 2016, I enrolled to become a Certified Holistic Health Coach from Institute of Integrative Nutrition, in New York. I graduated from the Institute for Integrative Nutrition in March 2017.

 

Today I support my students, clients and community at large by educating, and guiding them to use natural whole foods as medicine to not only to heal their bodies but also to prevent chronic illnesses that have become an acceptable norm of the aging process. I introduce them to the power of the present moment, mindful eating and breathing by connecting them with their breath to manage the everyday stresses of life. We cannot change the outside influences but we can surely change how we perceive and respond to those stresses.

 

Today on a personal level, I follow a self-care routine which includes breathing techniques, meditation, walks in nature, vinyasa flow practice and a meditative practice like yin to ground and center me. This routine and a healthy eating lifestyle has helped me calm my mind, improve my sleep quality, moods and my energy levels. I wake up and listen to what my gut is craving for and start my day - somedays with a veggie omelette with sprouted toasts, others times an oatmeal with walnuts and blueberries or just a good old green smoothie or fresh squeezed juice.

 

I have realized from personal experience, the first step to healing my body begins with accepting the existence and presenceof the challenging health symptoms in my body and mind first. 

The second step is getting to the root cause of the symptoms and then taking steps to remove or manage the underlying cause in order to return to balance. Balanced health and cultivating joy is a constant dynamic journey worth traveling. I'm grateful for every little pain free step, I'm able to take today. I'm able to experience, the long nature walks just because one random day I decided it was time to stop waiting for the next pill that would cure my Lyme disease. This is why I'm so passionate about what I do today.

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For health & happiness,

-Neelam