It was yoga that helped them pick up their lives
Rekha Krishnamoorthy and Nilangi Kulasinghe firmly believe that mental wellness is the key to a joyful and stress-free life.
After being a Strategic Consultant for 10 years, working internationally, Rekha stepped into mental wellness and is now a full-time Hatha Yoga Instructor. Born in Malaysia, she had her primary and secondary education in Europe and then moved to U.K for her Law degree, ending as a graduate in Marketing and Management and now makes her home in Sri Lanka.
Nilangi Kulasinghe, a past pupil of Ladies’ College Colombo, a graduate in Business and Technology Management worked for eight years in the renewable energy industry. Nilangi divides her life into two segments - life before yoga and life after yoga. “Life before yoga has been the traditional path, first education and immersion in the corporate sector till I ended up in an emotional breakdown. Then I found Hatha Yoga - which gave me inner peace and that’s when I started to enjoy the purpose of living,” said Nilangi.
Specializing in Hatha Yoga, Rekha and Nilangi are partners in spreading the practice of yoga through “Sathya Yoga and Wellness”, the centre they launched.
Hatha yoga is a branch of yoga. ‘Hatha’ literally means “force” and thus alludes to a system of physical techniques. According to Yogapedia,
“Through the practice of Hatha yoga, the individual attempts to balance the mind, body and chakras through specific asanas and controlled, meditative breathing that complements the physical movements of the body.”
“I didn’t look out for yoga but yoga found me. About six years ago when I was buried in work I started going through a very difficult time. As a Strategic Consultant, I was stuck in work for days. I had no break. But during this one particular period in my life, I felt it started to catch up with me - my body felt like it was giving away, a feeling that I have never felt before. I started having panic attacks. This made me shift my focus into self care,” said Rekha.
She quit her job in 2015 and began to pay more attention to her physical and mental health. Feeling drawn to this particular form of yoga, she went for a five-month residential programme at the Isha Yoga Centre in India and completed 1750+ hours of yoga training. “The way I felt about life, the mental and physical release in my body was a very prominent feeling. Everything about me changed. I started feeling joyful and actually started loving my life,” added Rekha.
Nilangi’s experience was a similar corporate burnout. “After I quit my corporate job, I was emotionally, mentally and physically burned out. So then I started meditating and going for yoga classes. But I always knew that yoga was something more than a few daily sessions. That is when the thought of exploring the science of yoga came to my mind.So I joined the Swami Vivekananda Yoga University, India to understand more about it as I was very passionate about spreading it to others,” Nilangi says.
There’s a general belief that you cannot be joyful when you are a professional. Especially among Asians there’s this feeling that children keep you busy and you do not give much attention to yourself. The more time you give to yourself, the more happy moments you can cherish and you will be able to climb up the ladder in any sector,” they add.
The Sathya Yoga Wellness Centre is on Facebook and Instagram. They can be contacted on tel: 077 582 1550 or on email rekhahyt@gmail.com