Meenakshi Vishwanath | YogaScussion | Ep. 4
In this episode of YogaScussion, Dr. Meenakshi Vishwanath talks to hosts Gina and Brendon about how she grew up in India with yoga woven through her family—a grandfather who practiced headstands before court cases, a mother exploring holistic wellness decades early. Yet she describes herself as an “on-again, off-again” yogi, never quite appreciating what was always there. Training at Yoganjali Natyalayam in Pondicherry, surviving dental school’s demands, navigating deep depression after moving to the U.S., and eventually meeting her husband Brendon in a yoga class she tried to avoid—Meena’s journey reveals the difference between inheriting a practice and truly choosing it for yourself.
Topics: Growing up with yoga in India, cultural differences in yoga practice, Indian yoga lineages, ICYER Pondicherry, yoga ashrams, immigration and identity, depression and healing, orthodontics and yoga, prescriptive vs. intuitive teaching styles, Ashtanga vs. traditional Indian yoga, yoga in physical education, Hindu temple yoga classes, self-paced practice, mantra chanting, guru-shishya tradition, yoga as destiny, cross-cultural yoga perspectives, householder yoga, grit and persistence