from burnout to yoga teacher

– What does the word « health » mean to you? What are the first thoughts arise after hearing it?

– that it is good to feel your body… In the past, the feeling that thoughts live in their lives and the body often did not abandon it. As if there was a lack of merger. I guess it was a bad feeling – lack of energy, good mood. However, when the thoughts merged with the body, harmony between them has changed, and well -being has changed. I spend days easier, joyful, relaxed. So, the word « health » now means how good it is to feel good to balance between body and mind.

– You mentioned that there was no shortage of health challenges in your life. How long do you feel the harmony of body and mind?

– Well, not so much. Maybe for four years. Before I started my inner trip, I was a freelance photographer. The pace was beastly. A lot of stress, communication with different people. Therefore, it is natural that the body began to strike eventually. I used to get up in the morning and I can barely breathe – shortness of breath presses my chest and during the day the whole body begins to vibrate. It seems as if you are doing your day’s work, but you feel such an imbalance that it is even scary … Even the slightest failure has knocked me out of the crayfish that I could hardly come back to myself.

– What made you think it was time to change your lifestyle? Did you ask yourself why all this happened?

– As I said, the absence of a stable work regime, little kids at home, the desire to be a perfect photographer, mom, wife… I found, I find it every day with them, then I go to take pictures, and when I come back, my mom and wife. When everyone falls asleep, I go to work until 3 p.m. I handle the photos at night. I ate at any time, sleeping anyway, and lying down late at midnight, I fell asleep. Thoughts, self -loathing, that children see too little mom and the husband – his wife.

I would call this phase of my life self -harm, destruction. I often repeated myself that I love myself, that I was fine, but I wouldn’t be fooled.

Mission: « I want to accompany people to the same peace that I discovered during the yoga, » – shares K. Fragienė. / Photo by K. Funciene Personal Archive

– Finally did you have an burnout? What did you understand from?

– I got up in the mornings all the painful, shaking. I was young. I started thinking: isn’t that everything?! I didn’t want that end. I was afraid to even think that if it is now, what will happen after a year, others…

– It is often said that recovery begins with perception. What was your first step to healthier yourself?

– I started with a traditional psychotherapist. After evaluating my physical and emotional state, I prescribed medicines that were supposed to help harmonize the body because, as it said, too much adrenaline was excreted, and the adrenal glands were too strong, so I was in combat regime all day.

Parallel the traditional medicine, I started looking for other help. I wrote down to the Silence Camp, after which lines of how I want to continue to live, what inner state to nurture, what values ​​to grow, what thoughts to wake up and how emotionally you are in challenges.

About four years ago, it seemed like a mission to me, but a couple of months ago I accidentally found that notebook, I started reading and saw that all my dream points are now fulfilled! When you run away, you are involved in work, your home, you seem to notice those changes.

I want to accompany people to the same peace that I discovered through yoga myself.

– You mentioned the camp of silence as an extremely important break in your life. How did it change your relationship with yourself? What other practices did you try?

– I learned about the silence camp from facebook. I talked to another girlfriend to go together. When we arrived, we gave the phones. We were also recommended not to bring books to get as much as possible from the daily information noise. You could only be with you, your senses, your thoughts, and feel all the emotions. There I realized how great value is to silence and how I missed it. With silence, inner peace came.

Well, it wasn’t that easy. I had to try to do not just drink pills. I became interested in a variety of tranquility and to maintain the practices that I learned at the Silence Camp. One of them is rebefing (conscious breathing). I started to attend breathing sessions to finally recover into the body sensitive because I felt huge at the time the exclusion between the body and my mind. It used to be, I do something and does not give up the feeling that it is not me, but someone else for me. I watched my thoughts very much – how she was angry and how quickly the impression caught my attention, and that is why peace disappears.

Self -discipline is probably one of the best practices we can apply in our daily lives. Plus, it costs nothing.

When I started, I could no longer stop. One after the other was followed by breathing and meditation practice. They helped me (at least I think so) to stop medication much earlier. I only stayed my rituals that I did honestly every day.

Water therapy – Watsu – also worked well. I was accompanied by Giedrė Paršeliūnienė to these amazing practices, who made me listen to my inner world and could explore it with the depths I didn’t even imagine being. While floating in a shallow warm baby pool, in silence, I went on a deep meditation trip through memories, feelings, emotions, experiences. That meditation state returned me to conscious presence, to my own self.

I tried to rinse with water everything that had already served and let the qualities I had blocked to unfold. I learned to take everything that was happening to me at the time, the most peaceful and harmonious path – without rush, fighting, running, even though it was really a great challenge for me.

I am currently in the transition between photography and yoga, but I very much hope that yoga will occupy an increasing and more important place in my self -realization in the future.

Comparison: « How you are dealing with your challenges during the day, you will do so on a yoga mat – not only Carolina has learned not only your body but your life. / Photo by K. Funciene Personal Archive

– How did yoga appear in your life?

– I discovered one of the first yoga teachers on my way – Amber Skad – unexpectedly. I went to the healing massage. When he saw my body, he immediately warned that I had to do something, otherwise the good would not end. This time the massage took about three hours. I barely stood up after the pain, the tension of the tension. The body was shaking, tears in my eyes … I realized that there would be no easy way and I had to attend yoga classes consistently. Amber offered to try to come to yoga lessons. As I went, I stayed, and later I finished with him as a yoga teacher.

– People often say they have no time for sports, healthier habits or spiritual practices. How did you manage to add it to your daily routine?

– When you become more disciplined, you have a sleep schedule, daytime regime, and sport is a priority, believe me, time comes. I’m not saying it’s easy. Inner desire is important. With discipline, you feel and feel like you feel better in the long run, and when you feel better, you do more (smiles). Less time devoted to unimportant things, external noise – telephone, social networks, more for sports. It was harder for me to put sports in the first place. No one was at home at home, so we had to discover the sport around them.

– I wonder how your family – husband, kids reacted to your recovery and change path?

– The man was very supportive because he saw the result and greatly improved my well -being. In parallel, I also watched the growth of my awareness, a great desire for books. I was hungry, so there were many things in my life at one time. It used to be, as soon as I find a free minute, I immediately attack to do something for myself – listening to a pod or grabbing a book. In the past, I tried to do more for others, but eventually came the moment when I just had nothing to give them.

– When did you feel that you already had the strength to share your experience with other women?

– I just felt that there were more people in my environment who were suffering from similar problems. The man kept pushing me to marry yoga, but it seemed to me that it was not time for the lack of practice, the knowledge that I had to start doing the hardest asanas first, and only then to teach.

The attitude was replaced by my yoga teacher, G. Skad, saying that no gymnastics need needed here. « Your goal is to accompany people to the same peace you have discovered through yoga, » he said.

Since I had the possibilities to go to India or where I didn’t have anywhere else, I started asking for amber to organize yoga teachers’ courses on weekends. He agreed. For half a year, I criminalized the mystery of yoga. Because I learned with great desire and love, everything went easily.

The word « health » now means how good it is to feel good to balance between body and mind.

– Did you have moments on your way when you felt the risk of returning – to old well -being, routine, attitude?

– No. Perhaps because I have seen a very striking difference before and after. My greatest motivation became the desire not to return to the previous state where I was living before. Do not fall into the role of the victim, not to get stuck in self -pity and the environmental reproach.

Today, that sharing, being with similar thinking, similar values ​​practicing people is like a gift to me. This feeling is immeasurable – neither money nor something else.

– Without better well -being, balance between body and mind, what other changes yoga brought to your life?

– When you start working with yourself, everything changes radically. Also, relationships with family – husband, children. When a wife, her mother in a good mood, health, it all around her. But don’t think that now my life is just roses (laughs). Everything in it happens, but I already know how to deal with those things. My favorite phrase became, « And it will pass. » When I have trouble, I try to look at them from the perspective of time. How things will look after a day, two, week or year. Then that inner irritability takes and subsides.

The result: Carolina’s journey to recovery and changes crowned with no Only improved well -being, but also with a better quality with family. / Photo by K. Funciene Personal Archive

– Some people fear that yoga is associated with religion and that they can be involved in a certain sect when they start attending yoga classes. What would you say to them?

– Probably it all depends on the teacher himself. From what he broadcasts during lessons. I try not to touch religious topics. I think yoga is more about our balance: we breathe, soothe our thoughts, release the emotions pressed through the movement, and learn to deal with discomfort through stretching pain. There is a great deal of feeling of inconvenience when performing asanas correctly. As in our daily lives. Notice: How you are handling your challenges during the day, you will also behave on a yoga mat.

– Have you been looking for ways to confirm your inner sense, intuition that what you do is true and right?

– Yes. I grabbed research and psychological books. In my mind, I made the check marks and searched for approval on both sides. This is how I tried to calm my mind. Then I realized that everything is very beautiful – all the spiritual things speak the same thing as modern psychology, but maybe the names are different. I saw that the same keywords are repeated everywhere – love, truth, simplicity.

– Another fairly common stereotype: if you already practice yoga, you should give up meat and move on to a strictly plant diet. You gave up?

– I am currently avoiding stereotypes in all areas. It is more important to me how I eat that food – with love, gratitude. I observe that there is no emotional eating, overeating, and I am grateful for every bite. I try to eat fully and as diverse as possible, but I do not avoid stray. I think the most important thing is to eat consciously, to allow yourself to feel what the body wants more and less.

Thanks to the teachers for starting a recovery trip, I did not go straight to the extremes because it would be much harder to go to the goal of going ultimatums.