When I first decided to renounce my UN career, I admit I had tremendous anxiety and doubt on whether or not I made the right decision. I worked very hard day and night to graduate with honor degrees to help facilitate my access to the UN. I really would have never thought that one day I would just give up on all this and for what? For YOGA!
The irony of fate is incredible. I vividly remember those times when I used to make fun of my mom whenever I saw her practicing. I even thought of her and her yogi friends that regularly came to stay at our house as a bunch of lost people with no life (life as I knew it before, a very materialistic one)! And just few years later, I followed my mother’s path of yoga.
When I attended a yoga teacher training in Costa Rica two years ago, my intention was simply to recharge my batteries in between jobs. 5 months later, I joined Bex’s one-month yoga immersion in Bali and things took a different turn. During one of our morning sessions, I remember looking at her as she was guiding the practice and in my mind’s eye I saw myself teaching in her place. Ever since this moment, I allowed the teacher inside of me to reveal itself and blossom.
Here I am today teaching Yoga, AcroYoga and Thai Massage back in my home country. I remember the fear i felt before my first few classes. Fear from teaching in general but also teaching in Arabic in particular, fear from not being accepted, supported or understood. But of course, those fears were unfounded. The reality is that I never felt loved and supported in my entire life as I do now. I will never forget the words of one of the students that came up to me at the end of my first class: “thank you for how you made me feel”. In my entire career, I never had anyone thank me for such a thing. The greatest thing that any human can do is to inspire and help others feel better. People may forget what you say or do but they will never forget how you made them feel.
My aim is that through yoga I will achieve what I could not during my time at the UN. I believe that by helping people feel better and connect to themselves and one another we can encourage inner and world peace.