Yoga to unlock stress

Shavita Kotak Photo: Supplied 210076_01

Goya Dmytryshchak

An Altona yoga Instructor Shavita Kotak has gained an audience of 3000 by live streaming from her garage during the COVID-19 lockdown.

The former financial planner started online yoga classes via a Facebook group called ‘Wellness with Shavita’.

She said people had tuned in from around the world, including the United Kingdom, United States, India, Canada, Malaysia, New Zealand, Germany, South Africa, Netherlands, Malta, Norway and Singapore.

“I think it’s because of the stress and anxiety people were feeling with the uncertainty of things,” Ms Kotak said.

“We all have our life planned out and all of a sudden it’s turned upside down and how do we move forward, how do we navigate ourselves through this?

“More than the actual yoga postures, I think with my classes it was more about connecting with other people and the meditation side of things where we addressed the different parts of our bodies that deal with different parts of our emotions.”

Ms Kotak said she received “lots of beautiful messages”, especially at the start of the lockdown.

“I had people in the front line who were working at the Royal Women’s or the Royal Children’s hospital, where they were extremely stressed with the situation,” she said.

“They used to put the classes on, all the staff, before they transitioned from work to home so they have a definite break, mentally.”