Namita Piparaiya is a Yoga and Ayurveda Lifestyle Specialist and the founder of Yoganama. This platform brings these ancient practices under one roof, intending to make them accessible and relevant to all. A former corporate executive, she spent over a decade, from management trainee to business head, with leading MNCs including Citibank, Aviva, and Generali before finding her true calling in Yoga.
Namita is acclaimed as one of the leading Yoga influencers in India, with a very engaged and dedicated following across social media platforms. Over 35,000 yoga enthusiasts follow her on Instagram and her Yoga and Pranayama tutorials on YouTube have garnered tens of thousands of views.
Check out Namita Piparaiya in conversation with WF President, Ms. Namita Nayyar on her journey her love for yoga & future plans!
Ms. Namita Nayyar
From the corporate world to becoming a yogi, your journey took a major shift; tell us what was your motivation during this period and the series of events that lead to you becoming a yoga influencer.
Ms. Namita Piparaiya
Yes, indeed, it was a significant shift. For more than a decade, I worked my way up across leading MNC financial services organizations. The turning point came when I was offered a promotion in my last job. It was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that would have accelerated my career exponentially. But even though it was the best thing that could have happened to me professionally, instead of feeling excited, I felt weighed down. Instead of feeling joy and happiness, I felt disconnected. Because accepting it would have meant committing my life, time, and energy to growing a business that I was not feeling inherently passionate about. It was then that I decided to let go of the security of a monthly paycheck and decided to pursue what I had always found myself driven towards. And that’s how I decided to invest my energy and resources in what I believe the world needs today more than anything else – peace of mind.
FULL INTERVIEW ON NEXT PAGE!
This interview is exclusive and taken by Namita Nayyar, President womenfitness.org, and should not be reproduced, copied, or hosted in part or full anywhere without express permission.
All Written Content Copyright © 2021 Women Fitness Org
Ms. Namita Nayyar
You launched ‘Yoganama” as a platform to make Yoga accessible to many, your philosophy behind the same, and how it operates?
Ms. Namita Piparaiya
The core philosophy of Yoganama is based on its three pillars – Yoga, Ayurveda, and Philosophy.
Yoga offers tremendous stress management benefits. A wholesome yoga practice must include Asana, Pranayama, and Meditation to truly unlock its full power. Asanas help us work from the outside-in, but Pranayama and Meditation help us manifest changes from the inside out.
Ayurveda helps you customize your practice to your unique needs. With an Ayurvedic understanding of your personality type and environment, you can design your practice in a way that fits in with the ever-changing environment around us.
Philosophy brings clarity and wisdom. Why do you practice? What is the purpose of practicing these postures or breathing exercises? How do you deal with anger? It helps you understand concepts like mindfulness or equanimity and connects your yoga practice to your everyday life.
Each pillar personally helped me transform and improve my quality of life. There were changes in my personality, eating habits, and lifestyle that happened inherently. Almost like your energy starts to find a natural balance, and you become more intuitive by nature.
And this forms the core philosophy of Yoganama. I actively bring awareness to these aspects through my content across social media, my blog, and articles in leading national publications. During the pandemic, I’ve been taking online yoga classes, and my videos are available on leading OTT Platforms. I am also working on building a unique digital platform for practitioners the world over. And using any spare time to complete a book to help people develop their home yoga practice.
The intent is to further one’s journey to health and happiness by helping incorporate these practices into one’s daily routine. And we are using all possible means and channels to do so.
Ms. Namita Nayyar
You hold a strong belief in Ayurveda along with Yoga. Tell us three daily Ayurveda rituals that you swear by
Ms. Namita Piparaiya
Yes, indeed, Yoga and Ayurveda are firmly connected and become a powerful healing unit when combined. We often think of Ayurveda as just herbs, recipes, and treatments – but Ayurveda at its core is a tool of self-awareness. That is why the first thing you do in Ayurvedic treatments is a personality assessment. In the same way, you can use Ayurvedic concepts to understand yourself better. Yoga and Meditation further enhance your self-awareness as they make you more mindful. And this is when you can start to trust your intuition as you become wiser about your behavior and more tuned to your own emotional and physical needs.
So, as you can see, my core belief is that Yoga and Ayurveda empower us to make the right choices. Therefore, my rituals are not the same every day because my needs are not the same every day.
For instance, I start my day with a couple of glasses of room temperature water. There are some months where I additionally consume a warm cup of lemon water. This is an intuitive choice I make. I never force myself to eat or drink anything just because it is considered healthy. I will take it if I enjoy it.
To share another example, these days, my breakfast is a bowl of fruits. Some months I prefer to start the day with a cool refreshing smoothie; other months, I begin the day with a more substantial meal like paratha or sandwiches. All of these are intuitive decisions. And if one were to analyze, they would align with the interplay of Ayurvedic Doshas at that time in my life and my external environment.
Some elements in my daily routine have become an ingrained habit over the years. These are waking up before sunrise, practicing Meditation, and getting some movement every day, such as Yoga, Sukshma Vyayama, or walking. I like to finish these early in the morning which sets the tone for a productive and fruitful day.
Ms. Namita Nayyar
With International Yoga Day, approaching the theme this year is “Yoga for Health – Yoga at Home”. Share five yoga exercises you advise people to improve immunity and oxygen.
Ms. Namita Piparaiya
I think it is wonderful that more and more people across all age groups are practicing Yoga at home. It is a powerful practice that is highly versatile and benefits everyone.
In terms of improving immunity and oxygen levels, the number 1 technique is breath awareness. This will set a strong foundation for advanced pranayama practices. Breath awareness can be enhanced by breathing mindfully, using props like the yoga belt, or by placing your hands across the belly, ribs, and collar bones sequentially.
The second would be to practice Sun Salutations or Vinyasa-based dynamic yoga practices that are energizing and invigorating. This helps strengthen the cardiovascular and respiratory systems, which is essential for strong lungs.
Third, add a variety of Yoga back bending poses like Cobra, Bow, Wheel, or even standing backbends. This helps counterbalance the forward stooping posture that we develop over hours of computer work or phone use. A more upright posture means better breathing capacity, and your lungs get more oxygen every time you breathe.
Fourth, add forward bends to help calm down the nervous system and make your breath naturally rhythmic. These include postures like Child Pose and Standing or Seated forward bends. Even lateral stretches like Triangle Pose can be included here. These postures are also great to do before meditation as they help minimize distractions due to a wandering mind.
Fifth, twisting postures will help you stretch and release the muscles in the torso, which will ease the breathing process. They are also great for the spine and the nervous system. Postures like Half Lord of the Fishes Pose, Supine Twist, and Twisted Lunge are some options in this category.
Ms. Namita Nayyar
Many people lookup for “Yoga for weight loss”, poses you suggest for the same, and diet tips
Ms. Namita Piparaiya
Yoga can certainly help with weight loss and in a very sustainable way as well. But first, it’s essential to understand that weight loss is a function of three things – Diet, Exercise, and Non-exercise activity (aka NEAT, it refers to how active you are during the day outside of your workouts). And out of these three, it is our Diet that is the primary contributor to our weight. As no amount of exercise can outrun our dietary choices.
Yoga and Diet
Yoga helps with dietary choices. It is a stress management practice that calms down the nervous system, regulates your hormones, enables you to find mental peace, and makes you more mindful. This strengthens mind-body awareness, reduces food cravings, and frees our intuition. As a result, your dietary habits start to change. You can differentiate between real hunger and emotional hunger. And an unhealthy relationship with food starts to disintegrate. Let me share my experience; before I started Yoga, I used to have very strong sweet cravings; there would always be a slice of cake or a pastry in my fridge. It was somewhere along my Yoga journey that I realized I hadn’t felt like eating a cake for months! And this is the experience that a lot of people have when they start Yoga and meditation.
Yoga and Exercise
While Yoga was traditionally a pre-meditation practice, it has today evolved to include many different methods and styles that would qualify as a low to a medium-impact exercise routine. This is suitable for today’s fast-paced lifestyle where people have limited time for exercise. So, in terms of weight loss, earmark at least 60 minutes for your yoga practice; out of this, 30-40 minutes can be reserved for moderately intense Hatha or Vinyasa Yoga and remaining time for breathwork and meditation. Include postures like Chair Pose and all Warrior Poses. Include more strengthening postures like Chaturanga and Vasisthasana to integrate the whole body. Practice Restorative Yoga at least once a week or more as per your needs.
This leaves us with NEAT, which means don’t spend long hours sitting at your desk. Stay active, get up often, do errands, open the door when it rings, fill up water bottles, get up and look outside the window, and so on. These little activities during the day eventually add up and contribute not only to weight loss but a host of other health benefits.
Ms. Namita Nayyar
You are a certified Hath Yoga practitioner, is it different from Vinyasa, also favorite hath Yoga poses for building flexibility & preventing back pain
Ms. Namita Piparaiya
Yes, I’ve had extensive training in Hatha Yoga, and over the years, I’ve incorporated other styles into my teaching. I like to teach Hatha, Vinyasa, and Restorative classes in a week. That gives a well-rounded practice for the entire mind-body complex.
Hatha Yoga focuses more on holding postures in stillness; it is, therefore, more grounding and allows you to experience a posture in greater detail. The more time you spend in a pose, the more you understand it. It also gives you time to focus on your breath. In fact, in the Mysore Style of practice, Hatha yoga postures are held by counting our breaths rather than keeping time. For instance, the teacher may ask you to hold Chair Pose for nine breaths, or Cobra pose for 12 breaths, and so on.
Vinyasa is a more dynamic form of Yoga – you move faster from one posture to another, making seamless transitions. Sun Salutations are a form of Vinyasa. Similarly, several yoga flows can be created by combining different poses. Just like you repeat sun salutations, Vinyasa flows are repeated multiple times in a class. So, even though you don’t hold the posture for very long, you repeat it multiple times.
When it comes to flexibility and back pain, there are a few muscles that you need to stretch and a few others that you need to strengthen.
Hip flexors need to be stretched, achieved by Crescent Moon Pose (Anjaneya Asana) or Low Lunge (Ashwasanchalanasana). The upper back is stretched by postures like Extended Child Pose (Nikunjasana) and Cobra Pose (Bhujangasana). Deep backbends like Camel, Wheel, or Bow pose to stretch the entire front of the body, including the hip flexors, upper back. Strong core and shoulder would also support back pain, so postures like Plank Pose (Phalakasana), Yoga Bicyldes, Hollow Holds, Dynamic Bird Dog (Sharabha Kriya), or Boat Pose (Naukasana), which is a great hip flexor strengthener, can be included
Ms. Namita Nayyar
Yoga rituals you would like the pregnant and lactating woman to follow, also to help during delivery
Ms.Namita Piparaiya
The type of poses changes with each trimester, and no two pregnant women are the same. Therefore, pregnancy yoga should be customized to each woman’s unique needs. It is best to consult an expert before starting a yoga routine.
But here are a few things to keep in mind – listen to your body, don’t overdo stretching, don’t do complicated postures that you didn’t do when you were not pregnant. In the first trimester, you mustn’t overheat the body; inversions are discouraged from week 10-13, lying down flat on the ground may become uncomfortable as the pregnancy progresses. And more importantly, focus on strength and stability rather than just stretching as the body produces a hormone called relaxin which naturally makes expecting mothers more flexible. Therefore, one should be careful not to overstretch or destabilize the joints. Use props for support and modify postures as needed.
A few postures that are generally suitable are Child pose which is helpful with nausea in the early days of pregnancy, Goddess Pose helps support the pelvic floor, and poses like Warrior 1 and II can also help stretch and strengthen the legs. Bound angle pose is excellent to end your practice or to relax anytime you need it. A mindful yoga practice can help alleviate aches and pains, stress, anxiety, and fatigue. So, one must make yoga is a part of their daily routine.
Ms. Namita Nayyar
New Yoga trends like Hot Yoga, Anusara, are upcoming, share your thoughts on the same?
Ms. Namita Piparaiya
Yoga is a constantly evolving practice. As more teachers across the globe adopt it, they personalize it bringing in their unique elements. Innovation is always good. It keeps Yoga relevant to modern-day life. It allows the new knowledge to be absorbed, which only enhances this ancient practice. It also allows people of all cultures, temperaments, and expectations to find a practice that suits their needs. However, if the practice does not include all three aspects, which are Asana, Pranayama, and Meditation, then it is incomplete.
Since the western world is more used to physical fitness activities, there’s a tendency to reduce Yoga to a physical practice. I don’t think it is intentional; this is just what happens when a different culture reinterprets a native tradition. When there’s no familiarity or affinity towards internal practices like Pranayama and Meditation, new practitioners may inadvertently bypass it and stick with something that they know or can relate to – like moving their body. As a result, most commercial yoga establishments and popular schools today focus more on physical aspects of Yoga rather than internal ones.
To bring balance and diversity into Yoga, there should be more encouragement given to native Yoga Teachers who come from the culture and may perhaps have a better understanding of the more subtle aspects of the practice.
Ms. Namita Nayyar
Share your daily fitness routine? How do you like to kick start your day?
Ms. Namita Piparaiya
I like to begin my day before sunrise, which means my routine starts with going to bed on time the previous night. Before anything else, I like to start my day with sectional breathing and meditation. If the weather is very cold, I may practice Sukshma Vyayama or gentle joint rotations before that.
I like to follow up my meditation with some non-fiction reading. This is a time when I am in a very calm space and not yet ready for a lot of activity—reading works as a bridge between meditation and the rest of my day.
After that, I begin my physical practice. Yoga is a part of my daily fitness routine. On days when I practice Yoga, I include various Asanas that are a mix of heating and cooling postures. A few times a week, I also like to add some HIIT or free weights for variety. These days my yoga practices are more grounding and restorative.
Ms. Namita Nayyar
Foods you prefer in your Diet? 5 foods you try to keep to a minimum.
Ms. Namita Piparaiya
I believe in intuitive eating as it eliminates negativity around food and helps us reconnect with our bodies. It encourages you to eat if you’re hungry and to stop if you’re not. The focus is on tuning into our feelings and emotions rather than suppressing them. And by building such awareness about our body’s signals, we can learn to interpret them accurately. It has greatly transformed my relationship with food.
I enjoy all fruits and vegetables and what I prefer keeps changing from season to season. But a theme that is consistent throughout the year is that I love colorful food. So, there’s always be a pop of colors with vegetables or herbs that I can find.
For example, in the last couple of months, I’ve enjoyed making Asian meals. They have many vibrant and colorful vegetables like broccoli, zucchini, corn, bell peppers, spring onions, and herbs, basil and coriander, and so on. They were a staple in my kitchen, and I would mix them up with paneer, tofu, or seitan-based gravies. Another cuisine I prefer is the Mediterranean, which means hummus, falafel, and feta-based salads are frequent. In Indian cuisine, I am that rare person who loves all types of gourds, from Ghiya, Turai to Tinda! They’re soul food, and I include them often in my meals.
Foods I try and keep to a minimum are white flour, sugar, alcohol, processed and packaged snacks. However, as someone who eats intuitively, I don’t deny myself something if I feel like having it. So, if I feel like eating a slice of chocolate cake, I will eat it and enjoy it. Or suppose I am eating pita bread made with white flour, which has lots of raw and pickled vegetables, hummus, and falafel. In that case, I will not be very concerned about it. The white flour then becomes a means to get in a lot of other nutrient-rich foods.
So, my approach is that of moderation. Nothing is all good, nothing is all bad, in the correct quantity, everything has a role to play.
Ms. Namita Nayyar
Being the cover girl for Women Fitness India, you are an inspiration for many – messages you would like to give beginner yoga followers.
Ms.Namita Piparaiya
Thank you for the honor of featuring me in Women’s Fitness. My message to anyone beginning yoga is not to get overwhelmed or intimidated by complicated postures. They are not crucial in the larger scheme of things. Everyone benefits from the practice, irrespective of how deep their yoga pose is. The result you seek from your practice is how you feel at the end of it and how it enriches your life, interactions, and emotions. And the better quality of life is ultimately achieved through breath awareness and mindfulness.
So, always follow your intuition. There are many different styles of yoga, and with regular practice, you’ll find the one that’s perfect for you. Some of you will be more driven towards advanced hatha yoga postures, others will find themselves naturally connected with pranayama and meditation, and others will find great joy in gentle yoga practices. You should identify what works for you and carry on your journey. It will naturally evolve in a way that’s best for you.
Yoga is a beautiful practice that has the power to transform not just you but the world around you. It simplifies life; it empowers you to take charge of your emotions and rise above the obstacles of life. It’ll make you stronger in body and mind.
Know More About Namita Piparaiya
This interview is exclusive and taken by Namita Nayyar, President womenfitness.org, and should not be reproduced, copied, or hosted in part or full anywhere without express permission.
All Written Content Copyright © 2021 Women Fitness Org