|
|
|
|
|
About Priyanka
|
Priyanka is a native of India, who comes from a mixed background with an American mother and Indian father. Her mother is one of the first expats of New Delhi, which allowed Priyanka a keen pulse on both the Indian and expat community. She started practicing yoga when she was 17 as a way to deal with the stresses of being a teenager. Priyanka graduated from one of the top International schools in New Delhi, known as the American Embassy School in 1995, and went on to do a Bachelors degree in English Literature (B.A English Hons). She gave up a promising career in the corporate world with a fortune 500 company, Wipro, as a communications trainer, and embarked on a journey of Vipassana meditation, while she backpacked around South India in 2011. She signed up for the yoga teachers training course (YTTC) at the Sivananda Vedanta Meenakshi Ashram, where she continued to explore the spiritual path. Priyanka spent months in ashrams teaching and assisting, deepening her awareness and understanding of the breath with the help of Vipassana. She has been teaching yoga since 2012.
|
Priyanka's International high school education allowed her an insight on how to interact with and teach yoga to the International clientele, residing in New Delhi. Her Bachelors degree in English (B.A English Hons), along with her corporate background in training customer service, language and western culture, enabled her to merge excellent communication skills with customer centric behaviours allowing her to adapt and create the perfect yoga session for her private clientele.
|
|
Priyanka's knowledge of Vipassana and Yoga, two very different approaches overlapped to strengthen her yoga practice – which led to her to study Ashtanga Yoga at the Pattabhi Jois Institute, Mysore (KPJAYI), under Sri Saraswathi's tutelage. She continued to explore other forms such as Kundalini, Jivamukti, Anusara, Partner, Yin, Restorative, and Acro Yoga. The different styles served to enrich her teaching abilities as she teaches a traditional form of personalized yoga; that was catered to expats, diplomats and ambassadors' wives. This requires her to be well versed in all the forms of yoga, that are being offered in the 21st century, and allows her to blend the traditional with the new wave that has taken the world by storm...
Her client list spanned more than 400 clients from over 42 countries, (Ambassadors, diplomats/spouses, socialites, politicians and actors), and she has amassed over 20,000 teaching hours (This number increases everyday as she never stops teaching). Priyanka is a dynamic yoga teacher who insists on her clients being in the moment - her surya namaskars (sun salutations) are a spontaneous blend of traditional poses with variations, in such a way that require the practitioner to remain in the present and avoid getting caught in an ego trap or getting bored of their yoga. She enriches the practice by bringing focus & awareness to ones' body, breath, thoughts and energy centres (chakras not shakras!). Priyanka is able to weave in mythological stories related to the poses which allows one to take yoga off the mat (her latest mantra) and into daily life. Clients learned under her guidance for the duration of their stay in Delhi, which spanned anywhere from 1 to 5 years, allowing both to see the benefits of a long term practice. |
She has taught clients with various medical challenges such as scoliosis, slip disks, auto immune diseases etc, which means she has to spend time researching and interfacing with doctors to ensure a safe, holistic practice.
Priyanka is the grand-daughter of the famous freedom fighter, Lala Desh Bandhu Gupta who is honored for being an instrumental part of the freedom fighters movement in India, along with being a key player in social reforms, and a well known journalist. Priyanka is a closet poet & writer, who is occasionally inspired to submit articles to yoga blogs and has been interviewed extensively by local Indian media establishments. Priyanka had a negligible presence on social media as the private sessions were very demanding, requiring her to spend time studying. Her clients made advance bookings just to ensure they got to practice under her guidance, as she was extremely sought after. Post moving to Canada, whilst waiting for her work permit, she began recording guided meditations for her YouTube channel. However, it was not until COVID19 required the world to stay indoors, that Priyanka started livestream videos of yoga asanas (poses), pranayam (breathing) and meditation sessions for friends and family. This inspired her to upload edited versions of the livestream videos to YouTube and offer it to a wider audience for free. She is currently pre-recording shorter videos on an array of topics such as yoga for tradeworkers, chair yoga, yoga for eating - taking the current scenarios, weather and other areas that might interest her growing subscribers. Priyanka is always interested in hearing form you, so do take the time to drop her a comment on YouTube or contact her. |
