Interview with Serena Arora
INTERVIEW | SERENA ARORA | AYURVEDIC HEALTH PRACTITIONER | CERTIFIED YOGA THERAPIST“It's your monthly report card. So, what comes out of you every month and how it comes out of you every month is a direct correlation of how you've treated yourself that month health-wise.”
Interviewer: I met Serena at the Peace Retreat in Los Pargos, Costa Rica. I attended her and Kevin’s 100hr Swastha Yoga International teacher training. It was a very impactful training that allowed me to truly start trusting myself. All parts of me. Their fully intensive training goes deep into rewiring your core beliefs via mind and body. It was a very helpful training for my own healing and helped me to learn to teach yoga + share from a place of belief and trust in myself. I am so grateful to have crossed paths with the both of them, and I highly recommend their trainings and offerings to anyone looking to deepen their practice and or relationship with self. During the training, Serena opened my eyes to the amazing world of Ayurveda, so I was so excited when she agreed to sit down for an interview. She has a depth of knowledge to share. And her interview is raw, beautiful and enticing.
Tell us about yourself?
My name is Serena Arora. I am 47 years old. I was born and raised in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. My dad is from India and my mom is Chinese, born in Malaysia. She grew up in Singapore. They met in England, got married, and moved to Canada, where they had my sister and me. They wanted a great life for us, which they have fully accomplished. I feel like I've really been able to live the best of both worlds and have access to an Eastern world and a Western world. I wouldn't say that that was very easy, necessarily, growing up. It was maybe a little bit confusing. I felt pulled sometimes in one direction more than the other. It took me, I would say, a long time to find myself in all of that and where I belonged and where I didn't belong. But through the study of yoga and Ayurveda, I've been able to really pull and draw from those two worlds, and be able to create my belonging in some way.
So, for example, all of us would use food as medicine in so many ways, especially my dad. So, if you were sick or if we weren't feeling well or, seasonally, you needed to eat more of a type of food or something like that, just to gain some immunity or to avoid getting certain colds or cases of flu or whatever, then we would do that, and I just didn't really know why. And neither did my dad, really. He just was saying, “Well, my mom did this, so this is what we do.”
And so, I did all of those things unbeknownst to the concept of Ayurveda. I didn't really know the concept of Ayurveda at that time. I would do yoga – my dad and I would do yoga on our living room floor – and I would just think every kid did that – chanted and stood on their head and all these weird things. When I went to school, I realized that wasn't the case because I was living in kind of the Wild West, especially growing up in the ’70s and ’80s in Canada. There weren't a lot of kids like me.
And so, I realized very quickly that yoga was just something I did at home. And it wasn't until I was in my late 20s, actually, that one of my friends – I was already teaching group fitness classes – and she just said, “Hey, I'm taking this yoga teacher training. Do you want to take it with me?” I'm like, “Sure.” It didn't even dawn on me. I was barely going to yoga. I mean, I was going to a few yoga classes, but it was nothing that I really paid much attention to. I just did it sort of as this physical exercise.
And when I went to the yoga teacher training, again, it was very physical. It was an Ashtanga training. It was in 1999 and it was a very rare thing in the area. So, I think we were only the second group of teachers in the whole city. I started teaching at gyms, and I was a middle school teacher, so I would teach yoga at the schools and teach teachers. And then I taught with the staff and then I did a support – a lunch hour – and started a yoga group.
But I definitely got a lot of interesting feedback and pushback during my time doing all of that. I loved it. I was teaching middle school and then I would go and I’d teach yoga and fitness. I taught grade 7 and 8 middle school science. And so, I was looking out the window and thinking, What could my life be outside of this place? And one of the students put up her hand and she's like, “Madame?”
I said, “Yes?”
She’s like, “Did you have crab for lunch?”
And I was like, “Huh… Crab?” And I was smelling my breath, and I was like, “No. Why?”
She's like, “Because you're crabby.”
And I was like, “Oh, wow…” And I realized in that moment, I need to take this time and I need to really explore this. I don't want to be one of those… I'm bringing the energy with me, and I don’t want the kids to really feel that from me.
So, I decided to take some time off. And I traveled for 18 months and I traveled all over. And I studied Thai massage in Thailand and Thai cooking classes, yoga in India and ayurveda in India and really loved it, that little deep dive. And I was already teaching yoga. So then, I really got more into yoga as well. And I realized how much deeper yoga was – not just the physical. Being in an Eastern world, it was like, Wow, yoga is so much more, and I really swung the other way.
So, when I came back, I was like, Okay, this is spiritual. This is emotional. A lot of people in India barely do poses. Maybe they just do some pranayama – some breathing – and then that's their yoga. They've done it. Or they just go for a walk every day, and that's their yoga. So, it was a really different concept that was built into it.
And plus, I had a yogi uncle – one of my dad’s eldest living brothers is a yogi – and he would ask me questions. He's like, “Why did you come here?”
And I said, “Well, to study yoga.”
And he said, “But why India?”
And I said, “Because this is where it all began. This is where it's from.”
And he kind of shook his head. He's like, “You do not study yoga. You are yoga.”
And I was like, “Huh…” So like no matter where you are – no matter where I was – I am the yoga. I'm in that middle school classroom and I am the yoga. I am showing them what I am, and I was crabby at that time. I am in the yoga classroom and I'm showing them what I am; I am the yoga. And it was all physical. I am the yoga when I'm in a relationship when I'm having a conversation when I'm sending an email when I'm answering the phone, whatever it is. I am the yoga.
I went back to Canada and I really dove full-time into yoga. I quit my middle school teaching job, and that was the beginning. And I had a yoga studio and taught yoga. I gained lots of different certifications, like a Sivananda yoga certification. I have a yoga therapy advanced certification. I'm a certified yoga therapist with the International Association of Yoga Therapists (IAYT). I studied Ayurveda much more deeply – ayurvedic health practitioner.
And what I realized was – as I was in my studio and teaching yoga full time – I was not practicing what I was preaching because I was doing, doing, doing, doing. I definitely felt like I was just going full force, speaking about wellness, speaking about health, speaking about all these things, but in the background, I was so incongruent. I was speaking about health, but I would barely eat one meal a day because I taught 40 classes a week. It would just be like, okay, maybe I ate one meal a day and late at night, or I would drink a bottle of wine after a class because I brought everyone into my house, and then we would stay up late. And then I would start all over again the next morning and then do it all over again.
So, my life was very incongruent with what I was preaching. I wasn't living what I was preaching. And so, to me, that was a big wake-up call, because I burnt out completely and ruined… I left my studio. I left my career. I left my marriage. I left my whole life, pretty much. And then I went back to India.
So, I came back, and then I really dove deep into studying Ayurveda. And that's when it started clicking for me. I really needed to heal myself and I used Ayurveda as that. At first, I was going to use it as a teaching method, like, Okay, I'm going to teach this. And I wanted to switch avenues with it and get deeper into that.
But what I realized while I was there was, Holy shit. I need to recover and heal, because I had completely burnt out and I needed to… Yoga – these sciences – are not just a flash in the pan. You have to keep these things going consistently so that they become sustainable. And I was 38 at the time and I was like, This is it. This is it for me. I need to take care of myself, because I was traveling a lot. I was traveling for work. I went back to the Ayurveda school to study deeply. And so that, for me, was like, Okay, let's take care of you first so then you can take care of other people.
And so, that became my practice and that's kind of how Ayurveda ABC’s came along. What can I do that’s going to make it easier and make my life easier, make me healthier, and it worked. It was the things that really really supported my health on a regular basis.
So, I created that. I was living in California at the time and I was studying Dr. Lad – he's a famous ayurvedic doctor in the West, from India. He owns The Ayurvedic Institute in Albuquerque, New Mexico. So, when he came to California to teach us as a guest teacher, he read my palm. And after first warning me not to swim in deep water, he said, “Just come to Albuquerque. Everything will be okay.”
And I was like, “Wow, that's the greatest sales pitch ever.” So, I went to Albuquerque – I applied and was conditionally accepted, and then I got transferred into the second year. They were like, “Yep, you're perfect.”
It changed my life. I really studied Ayurveda and then they hired me to teach. And so, I was teaching Ayurveda and yoga there. That was my dream was to marry these two sister sciences – Ayurveda and yoga – to bring them together to be the most complimentary, sustainable, healthy practice possible, because together, they're so powerful. And I taught some of the most intricate classes about working with each system. And I taught second-year students at The Ayurvedic Institute along with yoga teacher trainings. I was in Hawaii and I was in Costa Rica and I was in India and Canada and all over.
And that's when I came here, to Peace Retreat, to teach a yoga teacher training, and I met Kevin, my partner. And it was very familiar. We were from the same place. I had almost bought his house 4 years ago in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. It was a love story that was so serendipitous. We were both in a really good place in our lives where we were ready for something different and more. And we knew we had to either work together and be together or both. And if we weren’t going to be together, then we definitely had to work together.
Kevin was really big in this human development area where it was the mental aspect, the cognitive aspect, which I had not a lot of experience… Like, 0 – almost 0, I would say. I come from a family where communication is very raw and real. You just say what you think and you think what you say. There's no filter. And then it lands the way it lands, and then you move on. And it’s cultural, but it's also really detrimental to me. And I guess I bring it back full circle to where I started. This was the best of both worlds, yes, but I really realized what worked in one culture doesn't really work in another culture. And where's the bridge? And so, then that was my job. I really realized I had to be the bridge between these two worlds.
Everything for me was really yoga, and Ayurveda was all about this very physical and emotional world. So, the cognitive to me was just a very underdeveloped part of my being. And so, for me, it was like, How do I marry now? How do I develop this side of me?
And what I'm realizing now, as I'm able to connect the dots between what I know health-wise – physically, emotionally – to these cognitive pieces… I'm able to put words to these pieces. I'm able to put, not labels necessarily, but able to connect the dots to, Wow, this is why I think this way. And now I can put language to it, and I can speak to myself in a way that is supportive, and I could speak to others in a way that is supportive and healthy, and I can create boundaries that are really great for me mentally, so then that way I can stay physically strong.
So, there are all these amazing insights that have come from Kevin’s and my partnership, but also Swastha. Swastha Yoga International was born out of our partnership, and we've been able to share it with a lot of people, which we’re really proud of and honored to be able to do.
I was still living in the States at the time, and then it turned into “Why don't you move to Costa Rica?” And I thought about it for a while – that idea that we could really create something great here.
And also what I really love about Costa Rica is it really supports my ayurvedic lifestyle. It's like, wake up early. Go to bed early. The sun rises and sets at the same time every day all year long. We live in the jungle. It's quiet, it's simple. It's fresh air. Fresh food, open air. And the people are really kind and pura vida. Very… what's the word? I would say it's more like, they don't really impose themselves on you necessarily. Everyone's just here with really good hearts just to live their own lives and be good people.
And Costa Rica doesn't have an army, which says a lot. That really speaks volumes to what we're seeing right now in the rest of the world – a lot of this conflict – inner conflict and outer conflict, and the struggle that people have with other people, and the projections that people are putting on others and their opinions. People here just live.
“Pura Vida. Simple life. It's like, “Let's live a life.”
And I love that because Pura Vida pretty much translates to Ayurveda – “study of life.” Pura Vida is like, just live your life and let's study it (through Ayurveda). And I really love the elements that are here because they're so prominent and they’re so obvious. Whereas in the Western world or in city life, it's covered a lot or takes a lot to even find nature in some cities and some parts of the world.
So yeah, I feel really grateful and honored to be able to really share all of that with everybody that I meet. And there are a lot of people that I meet that come through here, so it's been a real gift.
I remember when I was in my early 20s – or maybe mid-20s – I had been teaching for a middle school for a while and I remember a middle School teacher colleague asked me… I was like, “I don't know. I don't know if teaching’s something for me.”
And she's like, “Well, what do you want to do?”
I said, “I want to own a retreat center somewhere in a beautiful part of the world.”
And then she's like, “Oh, well, there's this place…”
And I look back… I was living in Alberta, Canada, so it's pretty in its own way, but it's cold most of the year. So, it was very limited seasonally in what I could offer. And it was really interesting because I look back, and I see all the steps that I took. I moved from one city; I moved back to another city. It was on the lake. It was really beautiful. I opened my studio. I had day retreats. And then I wanted to expand it to night retreats. I did teacher trainings there.
And so, it was kind of this warm-up for me of like, Okay, what is it going to be? And I remember having, like, “Okay, these are going to be the little soaps in the rooms, and this is what it's going to look like, and here's the curriculum, and this is what we're going to do every day…” And I would do these retreats and I would run retreats all over the world at different retreat centers, which was, again, another great experience because I could see what I liked, what I didn't like. I was on that other side of being the guest.
So now here, I would offer the guests what I would have wanted. I was on that other end of the spectrum. I was in their shoes. I was taking teacher trainings, and camping in tents, and sleeping in dorms, and taking teacher trainings here, and going from studio to studio, and doing the inner work…
And Kevin too. I feel like we’ve really been there when we have that experience, so we're able to provide something really powerful because we've been there. Yeah. That's the first question, isn't it?
How would you describe you in your essence?
I know that when I am in my essence, when I'm really in my power, is when I'm teaching Ayurveda, when I'm teaching yoga, for sure. It's always just been a thing that comes right through me rather than from me. I often forget what I even taught when I leave the studio because it literally just came through my body and I was just the vessel for that, whatever the students needed. And I feel powerful and embodied when I'm in my essence. I feel like just this radiant, joyful, creative being that can create anything she wants. Because I have. I’ve done a lot in my life.
I've done a lot and I don't think I have really paused long enough to really give myself the credit or even have the willingness to give myself credit for that. I know some of my friends – okay, just a few friends, really – have just been like, “Wow, you have done so much in your life and touched a lot of people.” And so, for me, I feel I dismiss that a little bit, like, “Oh yeah, well that's just what I do.”
And I think maybe that's why – is because I love it so much and I love what I do, but it doesn't feel like work and so I'm able to just be in it, and let it be. Like, this isn't really me doing it, it's something else. So, I do feel very – you kind of said it – fluid and I feel very much like I'm doing what I'm supposed to be doing on this planet.
I also feel like I'm very real. I don't resonate with using a lot of the spiritual world, new-agey kind of vernacular. I feel like that's a mask, and hiding behind it in some ways, and I have nothing to hide. And I've definitely been a perpetual student for a long time. I'd say, like, 47 years. I'm 47 and I'm constantly learning, which I think – I know – gives me the ability to be a really powerful teacher and impactful leader.
And that's what I want for my students. It’s not about what you know; it's just what kind of student are you and are you able to just be the student? Are you able to keep opening your mind to new things? Yes. I mean, I've taken… I can't even count how many – I don't even know how many – trainings, workshops, whatever that I've gone to. But I've been able to pull from all of that to be able to be in my essence, I think, is the best way to say it.
And I love when I am. And I'm also starting to not mind when I'm not, because I know when I'm not, that is the lesson. And so, I love that I'm older. I really do love this age where I feel very wise and embodied in what I'm teaching. And I am grateful for that. Being able to teach yoga for over 20 years is an accomplishment in so many ways, but also for me, it's like, this is true. This is really true for me. And so, I can give you an answer that is either from experience or some kind of embodied experience that I had. And I am really happy about that.
In your words, what is Ayurveda?
Okay, here's the elevator pitch: “It's a 5,000-year-old science from India that is dah-dah-dah, a yoga sister science, or whatever it is.”
“Ayurveda,” to me, in my own words, is a daily practice of discernment and deciding, “Is this food, experience, relationship going to contribute to the fabric of my well-being or is it going to take away from it?” And that's what I've learned over the years and come to understand.
And I do explain, it's like food and diet and lifestyle and all those things. But really it's more than that. It really is the science of life. And I feel that Ayurveda is optimal health, is what I call Swastha, and I equate that to Ayurveda to be fully established and rooted in oneself. And have to be in a state of optimal health on all levels – physically, emotionally mentally. And when you are in that state, anything is possible.
And nothing is scary because even that is moving towards this journey to death. We are going to embrace this life, everything that we have, every day that we have here, every minute that we have on this planet is going to be embraced, and every experience is here for us, not happening to us. And I really feel that has gotten me to a place of, like I said, living… If it's contributing to the fabric of my well-being, it may not feel good, it may not be comfortable, but it may be contributing to the fabric of my well-being, as long as I learn the lesson.
What inspired you to get into your field of work or service?
Getting into yoga was effortless for me; it was so innate in me. It just came through me. And I was like, Okay, this means I have to use this platform in whatever way that I'm supposed to use it.
I felt a lot of conflict in that, actually, because the “Hollywood-izing” of yoga in the Western world – making money and becoming this “yogalebrity” or whatever – was really conflicting with what I felt yoga was. But it is also my full-time career, so I really dance that fine line. Like, Okay, I'm doing this, yes, as service, but also it's my business and my career and my livelihood and the livelihood of other people that I'm serving. So, it's been a really interesting dance for me over the decades.
I mean, it's great that it's an industry. I love that a lot of people would never have gotten into yoga had it not become an industry. But this experience that I've had where people become very territorial with yoga and very possessive over yoga… No one owns yoga. So, to make it so copyrighted or trademarked in so many ways has been a hard experience for me.
For me, it's all about collaborating. I love collaborating with other people. I love studying different yoga styles. I've been to so many different yoga teacher trainings and programs. To me, yoga is yoga. And that's worth it. Go study all different kinds of yoga because you're gonna get something new every time and it's beautiful.
What is your driving force in this world?
So, my family – I hope they've benefited from whatever I've been able to share and also benefit now from what I'm just letting go of. That’s a driving force to me. It sounds like what's keeping me motivated, but really, the surrender is the driving force in so many ways. I just need to surrender and let go and allow what I’m meant to bring to this world, and trust that what I've already brought to the world is life-changing to the people that it's touched.
I feel like I have a very limited amount of time left – we all do – that is where I really want to share my gifts fully with the world. I want to leave this world being able to say, “I gave everything I had.” And that includes writing my book and telling my story and learning and breaking patterns so that I don't keep continuing that same cycle of dis-ease. And being able to do it in a way that feels loving and contributory.
I feel like there's lots that I want to do for my family and my loved ones in terms of Ayurveda and yoga and those kinds of things, and I've done them. They warned you in Ayurveda school, your family is going to be your worst clients, because you're so caught up in the result of them that, if they don't comply, it just becomes a heartbreaking experience. And I just really feel like I've learned to soften and surrender to whatever is going to be.
What is one thing you wish every woman knew?
This is emotional for me. Okay, I'll start with what I wish. I wish all women really understood the power that lives inside of them – that they have, that has gone unseen, dismissed, unheard, suppressed, stifled. Because women and femininity are so… We call it Shakti. The Shakti that is embedded in us, that is innate in us, has created this world. This is how what you see has been created: through us. And we don't need credit for it. We don't ask the credit for it.
I believe it was seen – how powerful we really were – and that had to be suppressed and dimmed and shut down and put in a box, because that power was scary. It was scary, not only to others – and I would say the male counterpart – but also to women themselves.
"So, one thing is to realize the power that you have and not be afraid of it, because it's limitless.”
And women are so… I have a soft spot for young tweens, like age 10, 11, 12, just before they became 13 and 14. When I taught middle school, and I just saw the insecurity… I also opened a group home for youth age 10 to 17, and I just saw how their inner feminine wild was shut down.
And I feel that for me, even, and I didn't live that life at all. You know, I lived the opposite. I was actually encouraged, but I was encouraged in a way that fit in a box. I was encouraged in a way that fit in society. I was encouraged to be creative in a way that was able to – and we all are – is able to be categorized or labeled in some ways. And for me, I really feel women are not that – that their creativity is so abundant that it does not fit in a box. That it does not necessarily have to have a label.
And so, we work within the systems, and of course, we have to to some degree. And when we get out of those systems, can we start to re-ignite that Shakti in us so that she knows there is something that doesn't have a word to it? That doesn't have a label to it? That doesn't even necessarily have to abide by any rules or fit in any lines?
And that creativity… And I see it more and more, that young women now are really tapping into the creativity, and creating whatever it is that they want, and creating the life that they want. I love that and it's amazing to see.
I realized very early on, I get to make my own rules here and following the rules keeps me small. And following the rules keeps me in a place where I couldn't feel free. I couldn't spread my wings and I couldn't fly, and I really needed to fly. And I think that's why I love this. It's open air. There are no walls.
I really wish that women and girls could really just begin to encourage and uplift other women and girls, instead of holding them down, pushing them down, keeping them small because of their own fears, because of their own judgments, and their own insecurities.
And these young women today who are able to break through that and break that pattern – they’re leaders. They're going to lead this world out of what we've taken it into, which is a very deep, dark place. And so, I honor those women that are courageous enough, and all the trailblazers ahead that have already started that movement, and there are many. And so now, it's going to take all of us.
And so, when we see that – when we see women spreading their wings, when we see women being in their power, and we see them leading and encouraging others to climb up, to pull each other up, so that we can see the light really and spread our wings and be able to get out of the confinements and be able to fly... Once we are able to encourage each other to do that more and more and more, then it becomes this collective freedom.
“And the world will become free, not just the women, not just the feminine energy power of this world. It's going to be the entire world, because we have that power. We have that Shakti to uplift and bring up everyone. And if we can feel the support rather than the suppression of others, that will change the world.”
But it's going to take that. And looking at the news in other parts of the world, it's not that. And it's going backwards in so many ways. I really love this analogy, as I call it, “crab in the pot syndrome.” So what we've done is, we're all these women. These women are these crabs. “What are you? Did you have crab for lunch?” How ironic.
And so, being these crabs in this pot that is just about to boil. And when you boil crabs, when the water is getting warmer and warmer and warmer, the crabs realize, “Oh, shit. We're going to get boiled to death here.” And so, they all start climbing and scampering, one on top of the other. They get panicked. And when one crab gets to the very edge of the pot and she almost gets out, do you know what the other crabs do? They grab her and they pull her back down.
If we're going to suffer, you're going to suffer. And that analogy to me is what I feel so many women do to one another. It's like, “No, you can't be here because I'm not. So, if I'm not going to be there, you're going to get pulled down.” And that's getting less and less, I feel – I hope. And this is something that I've been encouraging women all over.
And through my teaching, it's like, how do you uplift? How do you not become jealous? How do you not pull each other down back into the pot? Because nobody wins. Nobody wins in that. How do you get her to the top before the water gets hot? And then you help her pull everyone else back up. Then you get everyone to step on your back, on your back, on your back, one after the other, so that all our crabs get out. And then we hold on to each other and we lift each other up and out. I mean, I don't know how far away that is, but I hope one day we'll get there.
What is your relationship with your period?
So, my relationship with my period is – I want to use the word “benign” – and I only say that in a way because it has never really been at the forefront of my life. It's never really made my decisions for me or to do. But how it started was really… I mean, I got my period at 14 years old.
Now, I know girls get them quite young. I don't know if that's lifestyle, if that's diet, if that's location, if that's whatever… I don't know what that is. Pesticides… There are so many factors for me now that I have been studying it a lot, it's like, okay, what is real? Why is it happening earlier and earlier? And why is it painful? And why is there so much angst and worry and fear and pain around this topic? Disgust... All of these things.
So, when I was 14 years old, I got my period. I think I remember lots of girls already had it, but I never really worried about like, Am I getting it? Is it late? Why is it…? I never questioned it. It literally just came. And I asked my mom how to put in a tampon and she said she had no idea because she had only used pads with belts on it. There was a belt, I guess, on the pad that you hooked onto your panty. I don’t know. So, back in the whatever – ’40s and ’50s and ’60s – I guess that's what happened. So, it's before adhesive pads.
So, I was putting in this tampon for… I don't know exactly, but probably 3 hours, and I could not get it in. It would not go in. It hurt. It would not go in. What I realized later was that I had an extra thick hymen. My hymen was quite thick, and so it wouldn't go past it. And so, I couldn't wear a tampon and so, pads it was.
The whole experience was insignificant for me, until I was a middle school teacher. Girls – what I noticed was… I taught phys ed as well, and young girls – 12 years old – would give me excuse notes – letters from their parents: “Please excuse so-and-so from gym class. She has her period.” And I was like, “Well, what do you mean?” And I remember thinking, What do you mean? So, you have your period. We all have our period. It’s normal. To me, it was a normal thing. It wasn't something that should be considered abnormal or an excuse. It's part of life, to me.
And I talked to them a little bit about like, “Are you embarrassed, or what? Do you need anything? Is that something that could help you?” And it was just like, “No.” That was the excuse: “No, I'm on my period, so I can't. I can’t.” So, being on my period became equated to cannot. Cannot do. Victim. Incapable. “I'm incapable because of this.”
And I didn't buy that. I didn't buy into it. I didn't like it. I made kids participate. And this was even later on, actually, even when I was teaching at The Ayurvedic Institute. I had adults: “Well, I'm on my cycle. I’m on my moon. I can't participate in yoga.” And I was like, “But there are yoga poses specific to being on your… Reducing pain or reducing PMS symptoms for your actual menstrual cycle. So, why would it be that you cannot do something during your period, when there are actually things that are made for it – specific for it?”
And Geeta Iyengar was very instrumental in creating this kind of yoga for women, because yoga was only for men and only men could participate in yoga. So, when women started doing more and more yoga – specific women only – Geeta Iyengar made it her mission to say, “This is how yoga can help women. And let's look at that.” So, she really changed the perspective on that. Instead of, “No, you can't because you're not allowed,” or, “You're on your period” or whatever.
But back to my relationship with it, so to me, it was very triggering. When I saw women treat it like, a disability. It’s not a disability. And so, to change the perspective, for me, was like, “This is your power.” I know that there’s a lot of empowerment and practices and menstrual practices… Moon ceremonies and all of these things that really work with women on their cycle, which is great now that we're honoring. It's something to be really honored.
My relationship now with it is like it’s your monthly report card. So, what comes out of you every month and how it comes out of you every month is a direct correlation of how you've treated yourself that month health-wise. How you took care of yourself, is a better way of saying it. So, how your period came out, and how you felt when it came out, and if it did at all is in direct correlation to how you took care of yourself that month.
So, if you have dark blood, right away – brown to dark black, even, blood – that means that's residual blood from the month before. So, it's not your fresh cycle. It still has residue from the month before. Things like pain. So, if you have pain… Ayurveda doesn't believe, actually, in PMS – it doesn't even think about PMS. For them, PMS means that if you have these kinds of signs and symptoms, that's an imbalance. That is, you're not in balance. And that is something more fully holistic that you need to look at. And your period is just simply telling you what's going on.
It's not about reducing that. It’s not about taking a pill to get rid of it. It's not about taking a pill to regulate it. Because this is giving you valuable information. So, if you are not getting your period, that's valuable information that you have a Vata excess – you have excess Vata in your system. If you are getting pain in your period – painful periods – that is a sign that you have too much pitta in your body, in your system. Your pitta dosha is high. If you are getting endometriosis or excess tissue in your ovaries or cysts on your ovaries – ovarian cysts – this means that you have excess Kapha in your system.
So, it may not necessarily be anything to do with your period, and also we definitely don't want to shut it down or suppress those symptoms or take them away. What do we need to do? What does the body need to do to bring itself back into balance, which will eventually regulate your period. And that's your report card.
What is something you have learned from someone else that you've carried with you?
Oh my gosh. Wow. I've learned so many things over my lifetime. Okay, I would say something someone's taught me… Inadvertently taught me? I mean, so many things. Oh my gosh.
But I would say that something that, I guess, more recently is Kevin's daughter… Very inadvertently. I mean, she really taught me a lot about my shadow side of feeling like a failure, not getting what I want… Fear of not getting what I want, I think, is the best. And she just taught me that through being her.
And being in this role of quote-unquote “step-mom” has really taught me a lot about putting others first and how important self-care practice is for me. Because I lost it and I regained it as a result of losing it. Because I feel like I always had the opportunity to have it. Self-care was a big deal for me, but I created my own schedule, so I could work around that. I created my own life's career, so I could incorporate it into that. Not everyone had that. I chose not to have kids. So, that obviously gave me more time and space to be able to do it. I lived by myself most of the time and had a lot of space to be able to do what I needed to do, and that was a luxury that most people don't have.
And when I came here, it really taught me that's why most people need the self-care, is because they're just giving it up daily. The commitment is there maybe, the willingness is there to keep it, the desire to have time for themselves is there, but it doesn't always happen. It takes deep commitment. Deep, deep, deep hunger for it. That realizing how you feel when you have it and realizing how you feel when you don't have it.
And the gift that it gave me was… I was so stressed out and I literally got an autoimmune disorder from it. It flared up inside of me. And I realized – it was a huge wake-up call for me. Like I had rheumatoid arthritis at 45. I’m like, “No way. No way is this possible.” Am I going to just live with this disease and be an ayurvedic health practitioner and teach yoga and live with this disease that's in my hands, literally, or do I use what I know and recommit to what I know?
All the things that I've lost, all the things I gave up, all the things that I did because I undermined myself. I was people-pleasing and I was putting everyone else in front of me. I realized my relationship with people-pleasing was a big… No. It’s very disempowering. And I realized how much I had to stand for myself, and how also, looking back, how much I put myself last going forward.
Even though I had all this time and space and everything for my physical self-care practice, how I would swing in the pendulum swing. I would swing. I would put myself first and then I would put everyone else first, then I would go and I would toggle back and forth in the extremes, rather than I could have both. I can have both. I can keep my self-care practice by readjusting times or whatever I need to, and then take care of other people in that process.
And I reversed my autoimmune disorder. It wasn't her that did it, but it was her that brought it up in me.
What is beauty to you?
True beauty, to me, is radiance. Radiance from the inside-out. And that is deep, sustainable beauty. It comes back to self-care, honestly.
When people take care of themselves, especially women, I want to say… When women are able to take care of themselves and put themselves in a place of deep honoring – honor their bodies, love their bodies, treat themselves with deep respect and love – self-love, self-respect, self-esteem… When they are able to do that and it's healthy and robust, Agni is ignited. That's beauty to me.
And she doesn't vomit her beauty on others. She doesn't project it on others. She doesn't shame others. And it's not from the outside-in. That outside-in is just masked. It's veiled. And people see right through that. True beauty – and that's where Ayurveda comes in – is like, what I’m eating, saying to myself, drinking, not drinking, who I'm hanging out with, what I'm watching, where I'm placing myself, where I'm living, my environment… Are all these things contributing to the fabric of my well-being, which I consider beauty, or is it depleting? And that is, to me, the ultimate choice. We get to choose.
I look at kids, who are looking at beauty on the outside or looking to the outside for something else to feel good… I mean, not just kids. But if you're looking to the outside for more to support your beauty or to make you feel good – to esteem yourself for self-esteem – then, really, it's hollow. There's so much shallowness to it – to you. And what do you need to fill yourself up?
That fulfillment, deep fulfillment – and only you can give yourself that – that is beauty. And people cannot help but see that, because it comes out of your eyes, and your face, and your skin, and your words, and your demeanor, and your actions, and your hair. It really is so many things.
That's the thing: when you start making yourself and your health a priority, everything else follows suit. It becomes automatic, and you really realize the things that pull you away from and that take you off your path, and it really affects you. And that's when it's like, Okay, who am I committed to here? And what's that boundary that I need to place in order to sustain it?
People cannot help but notice how radiant you are, and they will ask you, “What are you doing? Oh my gosh, what are you doing? I want what you have.” And so, be very mindful of what you're doing and notice, like, “Okay, well, I’m doing this.” Because the more radiant people we have in the world, the better off we will be, right?
What is one thing you wish every woman knew about their period?
Ayurveda says you should not have pain or mood swings, even. It should just come and go, and come and go, like a flow. It is a flow, literally. And so, if you're not experiencing flow – if you're experiencing destruction or a break in that flow, something's not right.
I also want women to know that their periods are beautiful and honor the lineage that is their feminine lineage. And if they're stopping their periods from flowing – they're taking whatever they're taking – stop it. I really encourage them to think twice about why they're doing that.
Also, what I want them to know about their periods: it’s information. It’s invaluable information of what's happening inside of your body that you don't see until every 30 days, every 28 days, every 21 days.
If they're experiencing pain or their body's rejecting [birth control like an IUD] in some way, there's a reason. What is medicine for one person can be poison for another. I know many women who have a copper IUD without hormones, and it was the most natural they could do, but it was still creating a lot of bleeding. It was creating a lot of discomforts. There was a lot of rejection – your body's way of rejecting, saying, “I can't have this.” And when it does that, it's like, how do you listen?
What would be some of your recommendations to help women lean into their moon cycle?
Well, I think I would categorize it – because it's not the same for everybody. So, to really connect to your menstrual cycle is to make sure you have it. So, get off whatever it is that you’re suppressing. I can't remember what it was called. There's an injection or something, where you just don't have your period. And start having it and getting to know it and learning about it and understanding it in some ways.
To me, getting in tune is not creating an expectation – that it has to be at a certain time, that it has to look this way, that it is going to last this long… Let go of all of those expectations and let it just simply happen. Let it just happen; experience what happens. “Okay, it was painful. It was 3 days late. It was so heavy to begin with, and what not.”
I talk a lot to women going through menopause, and they get their period for 3 weeks straight or then it’s not… Because it's learning to recalibrate. It's just learning to transition. And in those transitions, or even if it's not – the transition is coming off of birth control, to transition back into regular, whatever that is for you.
How can people get in touch with you if they want to work with you?
They can visit my websites at https://www.serenaarora.com.
