Travel + Leisure - India & South Asia
WELLNESS WITHIN YOUR HOME
Chiva-Som International Health Resort’s online consultations ensure that staying indoors to avoid a pandemic does not affect your well-being adversely.
session. A smiling face on the screen, however, melts away this worry in no time. The ChivaSom expert scans my form, discussing every answer along the way, and puts me at ease. She explains that they’re currently offering oneon-one virtual fitness training, naturopathy and natural fertility consultations, and guided meditations. For me, she suggests guided yoga. “It’ll help you stay focussed and take a step towards mindfulness,” she explains. Within five minutes of this advice, my next session is booked for the following week. Even though I am used to waking up late on weekends, this hour-long conversation is a refreshing and hopeful start to my Saturday.
As I set up my laptop on a stool and settle on the yoga mat in my room, the oddity of the situation clouds my mind. Nervously, I click on ‘Join Meeting’. A tutor greets me with a warm smile. I notice a mirror behind him and a glass door through which other fitness enthusiasts can be seen walking. A reflection of treadmills in the mirror reveals that he’s conducting this online class from the resort’s gym. “Are you a beginner or do you have some experience in yoga?” he asks, breaking my reverie. “A beginner,” I tell him.
Starting with some deep breathing and chants, he guides me through every step of the asanas. Basic exercises such as hand rotations, shoulder rotations, and neck rotations get me ready for the regime to follow. While my body puffs and blows, not used to any exercise during the lockdown, my mind stays still and focusses on the movements. Taking me from sitting postures like naukasana (boat pose) to standing ones like vrikshasana (tree pose) and virabhadrasana (warrior pose), he pushes me to keep going. “One-two-three,” he counts, slowly guiding me as I inhale and exhale. Midway through the session, I break into a sweat.
Forty minutes breeze by, and my favourite part of yoga starts—shavasana, or the ‘corpse pose’. I lie down on my back and close my eyes, as advised. The grogginess of the morning is gone. My mind is at peace. A little while later, I hear a Sanskrit chant and prayer music echoing in my room. My mind is no longer racing with thoughts of deadlines and video meetings. I’m blissfully unaware of the time and I wouldn’t have it any other way. I’m in a land far, far away, where the only thing to do is relax.
A gentle toe wiggle on cue, an instruction to sit up straight, and an ‘Om’ chant end the session. On opening my eyes, I see the same sweet smile of my yoga guru radiating on the screen, from thousands of miles away. But more importantly, I see myself smiling with a new-found calm. Indoors might not be so bad after all. chivasom.com