How To Help Someone With a Eating Disorder in 2020

✨Trigger Warning: Eating Disorders✨⠀

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Today I’m sharing something that’s very close to my heart and always will be. I got my first eating disorder when I was 13 years old, Bulimia. I had overate at my own birthday party, I had lost control and just kept eating sweets and cake until I felt sick. The anxiety and panic was growing inside of me and the only way to let it out was to throw up. At the time I had no idea what Bulimia or eating disorders were, it’s like it found me. At the beginning I was just throwing up occasionally but it didn’t take long until I started throwing up everything I ate. It hurts to think back at the fact that I couldn’t even eat a carrot without throwing it up. ⠀

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After 6 months of throwing up, I got Anorexia and got depressed for the first time. It breaks my heart to think that I was just 13 years old when I got my first depression, no child should feel depressed or starve themselves. ⠀

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I remember the day before I got hospitalised for my Anorexia. I ate half a carrot and half a crisp bread in the morning and was about to go to school, then I fainted in the kitchen and I had to be hospitalised. Where the real struggle started with force feeding, therapy and learning how to eat again. Eating disorders are extremely painful disorders for the family and for the person being sick. It hurts for the family to see the person so sick and equally it hurts for the sick person to see their family in so much pain. ⠀

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Today I’m sharing this because it’s in the past and I have left this chapter in my life behind me. I know that they’re still millions of people struggling with eating disorders and it would be an honour to help any of you see that it can pass, you can become healthy and love your body again. Love your body in ways you didn’t knew was possible. Heal the whole in your heart that needs to be healed. ⠀

How To Help Someone With a Eating Disorder

• Get professional help. Try to not let it take too long before getting professional help. The sooner the better. Eating disorders are extremely complicated, rarely is the problem really about food and how much you want to help the person you probably can't unless you're a professional eating disorder therapist.
  

• Look up what supporting organisations there is in your area. They often have support both for family and the person who's sick. It can be so helpful for both of you to talk with someone who isn't in the closest family to get support on how to talk to the person who's sick. I will soon be volunteering for one organisation by taking calls on their help line, when you have gone through this you can do that too.
  

• Just let the person know you are there for him/her and let he or she come to you when he/ she is ready. I remember that every person I met told me a story about their friend who had an eating disorder or tried to get me to talk about mine. The sick person rarely want to talk about it so wait until he/she comes to you, until then just try to be the best friend/parent or sibling you can be.

• Remember that this will pass, have patience and remember that this is temporary. It can feel like it will be like this forever but with the right help we can beat these terrible eating disorders.

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If you, anyone in your close circle or anyone around you are experiencing anything like this and need someone to talk with, I’m here for you. Just send me a private message and I will help with in any way that I can.⠀

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Thank you for listening! ⠀

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Namaste 🙏🏼

How I got My First Yoga Studio Job after my 200h YTT

Namaste Beautiful Souls!

Today I'm sharing some very exciting news with you - I got my first Teaching job at a Yoga studio!

I'm so grateful, excited and happy. I will be teaching Classical Kundalini Yoga at Huddinges Hjärta in Stockholm. My classes are every Monday 18.00-19.30, between 1 June-31 August.

Huddinges Hjärta is a beautiful Yoga Studio that used to be an old church. The energy in the studio is incredible, the first time I was there I had to lay down because the energy was so strong. I felt like a new person when I left, which is exactly the feeling we want to feel after Yoga. It's quite rare to find a spiritual Yoga studio in Stockholm so I feel very lucky that my first studio is such a spiritual Shala.

One of the owners, beautiful Mara, is my dad's old friend and we met the first time when I was around 4 years old. She was working at a circus then and I remember that I thought she was some kind of circus-super-woman-cartoon-characters. She loves Chanting and Pranayama, just like me, so hopefully we will have a workshop together this summer. She has practised and taught for so many years and is so experienced, I feel so grateful that all these incredible and experienced Teachers that I have in my life.

Here's a my 5 best tips to anyone who's fresh out of 200h YTT and looking for your first studio job:

1. Ask all your connections, ask your family, friends and Yoga Teachers if they know a studio that need someone. Let people know that you are looking for a Yoga Studio to teach at.

2. Join some Yoga Teachers groups on Facebook, I joined one called "Yoga Teachers Stockholm" as soon as I got back and sometimes if a teacher is sick they will post there and ask if someone can take their class.

3. Be open for everything, I think it's common to want to start at the biggest Yoga studio in your city when you come back but be realistic, you need to start somewhere so be open to teach at a smaller studio. All experience is good experience and you need it to be able to teach at your dream studio one day.

4. A no is just one step closer to a yes, so I have been in contact with so many studios since I got back and many have said no, don't let it put you off! The more No you get, the closer you are to a Yes!

5. Be yourself. When we are new as Yoga Teachers we might want to be exactly like our favourite Teachers or I was a bit worried that my style of Yoga will be too spiritual for Sweden. Just be your authentic self when you talk to studio managers or when you do a audition.

Everyone living in Stockholm, I really hope I will see you in my classes this summer! I can't wait to teach live and face to face after all the online classes I've been doing.

Thank you for reading!

Namaste with love,

Santoshi 🙏🏼

My Life-Changing Yoga Teacher Training

Namaste Beautiful Souls 🙏🏼

Returning back after two month's in India has been a blessing and a heartbreak. My first week back in Sweden I kept dreaming that I was still in India, and in my heart - I still am.

It's not easy to describe how incredible my 200h Yoga Teacher Training at Anand Prakash Ashram in Rishikesh. I learned so much more about teaching Yoga, the wisdom of Yoga and my own practise than I thought I would. The teachers really taught from their heart with passion and Vishva-ji is so available - throughout the classes, both in the classroom, in the Ashram and teaching morning Yoga every morning. I'm so grateful we got to go to Ganga for some outdoor classes, to the Jungle Ashram and the the Hari Krishna Temple as a group.

Being together with a group of 30 people who all aspire to become Yoga Teachers is just so beautiful, it feels like you're together with people who are at the exact same place as you at the same time. We also did so many beautiful rituals everyday and we got some time with Vishva-ji where we got to ask personal questions where some advises he gave me really changed my life.

The food, staff and Ashram is really 5 star and more. Would recommend anyone who's looking for a Yoga Teacher Training beyond just the physical level, to come here because you will learn about the physical, mental, spiritual and emotional level both of yourself and other people.

Thank you so much everyone involved with my teacher training and everyone in the Ashram! I'm so grateful to have a new family, both my 200 YTT class of 30 people, the Akhanda Yoga family all over the world and a second home, the Ashram, to always come back to. 

Thank you for reading!

Santoshi 💗