Yoga For Self-development

VERONIQUE NICOLAI is the Director of the Heartfulness Yoga Academy and the coordinator of the Yoga4Unity platform. As a pediatrician, she is also passionate about mental and physical well-being for all ages, especially children. Here she is interviewed by VARSHA KUSHWAHA of the Heartfulness Institute about her own journey of yoga.

- VARSHA KUSHWAHA

Q: Thanks for joining us Dr. Veronique. We wish to know where your journey started, and how is it you’re here today?

Thank you for inviting me. To make it short, I started with Heartfulness Meditation, a modern form of Raja Yoga. I didn’t start with asana and pranayama but directly with meditation. It answered the need I had when young to understand myself better. That’s why I also became a doctor, to understand how we work.

Why Heartfulness? I was impressed with the people who were doing it. To be precise, they attracted me because they were joyful. I felt they were well established in their family, successful in their profession, fun and authentic. I could be who I wanted to be, and it was extremely relaxing. Maybe that’s the purpose of yoga, to feel relaxed. I wanted to know what made them like that, and made me feel that way in their presence? There was joy. Only much later I discovered that yoga is all about inner joy.

I didn’t stumble into yoga after a trauma or an event. I was having quite a nice life, but I did have a question from childhood onward: “Why are we here?” I would ask, “Why go to bed if I have to wake up in the morning?” I felt that deep search for the purpose of life.

By the age of 21, I had an apartment, I was studying to be a doctor, I had great relationships with friends, and I thought, “If this is life, then I’m done. It can’t just be this! What am I going to do for the rest of my life?” I needed to find something deeper. And when I met people who were meditating, I could see that they didn’t have the same insecurity.