Tati the Yogi
Tatiana’s Instagram
Discovering her North Star
She’d walk in, order her coffee, head to her usual seat, open her choice of the book of the week, and read away. Two to three hours later, she’s still at it. Earbuds in. Sometimes not. She comes across as fresh, quiet, introverted, and a deep thinker.
I ask her with a grin on my face: “So, what’s your story?”
“I don’t know where to begin. I always loved the ritual of getting my morning coffee as a routine, even when I had my full-time job. I’ve often come to this branch to do freelance work. I come here to check email messages and read. You know, it’s getting out of the house routine.”
I discovered that Tatiana is a researcher, a writer, a Yoga teacher, and a public health professional. My chat with her was about everything except public health.
On reading
She reads self-development books. She’s mainly into non-fiction. Her go-to and all-time favorite book is Khalil Gibran’s The Prophet. She finds it insightful, poetic, and meaningful. She bubbles up as she explains that this book is essential for everyone, even non-avid readers. Currently, she’s into Yoga books — a lot. She suggests checking out Inner Engineering: A Yogi’s Guide to Joy, and The Yamas & Niyamas: Exploring Yoga’s Ethical Practice.
The Yoga teacher
Yoga started with her ten years ago as a junior at the American University of Beirut. She took a course at random and got hooked. She kept at it when she traveled to do her Masters. It helped her get through the stress and physical anxiety.
“I like Yoga because, for me, it’s a guide to living a good life, knowing your values, and living with integrity. I strive to live ethically and keep in shape. The physical and philosophical work in unison. One has to first begin and understand the principles before exercising the physical.”
She believes that inspiring students is not through books alone and not by teaching only. Yoga helps to purify your body and the energy channels. It’s trendy now. For her, people need to be aware that Yoga is more profound than many think. Yoga starts with the individual to be self-aware. Yoga helps you be mindful of your patterns. She subscribes to the principle of non-violence.
“When you teach Yoga, you have to be consistent. You have to live the practice. You have to be the practice.”
Her struggles
She struggles with instability in her life. She seeks space to meditate and recharge for her students' sake. She yearns for consistency. Dissipating energy in all directions drains her. Recharging is essential to get to a point where she can share abundantly.
“Why can’t we just respect each other? When you respect yourself, you’re able to respect others. We lack compassion in this world. It’s like people are always angry.”
It starts with you. Be aware. Be aware of yourself. You can be blind to your mind and your patterns, or you can be mindful of it.
Dealing with materialism is another challenge she deals with. She explains that Lebanon associates your value with the bag and shoes you’re wearing. For men, it is about the car you drive. Why should my value be associated with the bag I’m carrying? The pressure is not the same elsewhere. This is a battle for her unless you live in Beverly Hills or The Hamptons. Her parents did not raise her that way.
On identifying her North Star
She believes that life is about learning. She’s continuously examining herself. A bit too much, maybe. She’s still on the journey of discovering her North Star. The one thing that she refers back to when everything else is shifting. Recently, a lot is changing for her.
“I was so attached to what was on my resume. My whole life was centered around academia. And achieving things. And getting the highest score. And being on the honor roll every semester. I had fear in me. I had to always be good, or else I wasn’t worthy.”
It’s changed for her. Her relationship with things moved on as she let go of a lot. She studied public health because her dream was to help people struggling with malnutrition, poverty, and food insecurity. Then, she realized that her career did not allow her to get enough hands-on experience. She realized she doesn’t have to have a particular title to be the person she wants to be. To do this or to do that.
“That’s my purpose now. To help people. Versus having something on my resume. I’m going through some sort of late adolescence. I was kind of always so focused and “teta-like.” I didn’t go out. I didn’t have much life outside work and academics. After graduate school, I started discovering more of myself. Now I’m 29. I love traveling solo, living the life that I was missing. I used to be a Monica, and now I’m a Pheobe. I totally let go. I’m more like “ouououou …” It was never me.”
She loves to write. She claims she’s a writer focusing on projects and goals that mean something to her. Since she’s living in a country and a context where things are so unpredictable, she learned to be resilient and flexible and live day by day.
Her generation is very different than her parents’. She had to learn that, and that’s OK. They were married at 25 and had a house, and they had …(insert your own list here). She understands that people have their paths and timing. And that’s OK, too.
“My North Star? For me, it’s writing. Even more than Yoga. If I lose myself in one task, it’s writing. Even though there are things I’m passionate about, if there is one thing I remember doing since I was very young, it was always writing. I wanted to be a journalist. I was encouraged not to do that. It wasn’t practical. So, it’s always been there. I write about what I’m learning and share it with people.”
She knows that writing is for her, and it doesn’t matter where her words appear. It’s about writing and sharing with others. She feels swept away by the words when she reads someone else’s work. She always connected with them. While she doesn’t know where she’s going with it. Yet, she’s confident that writing is closest to being her North Star.
She loves wordsmithing so much that she feels a shift when she completes writing something. She feels a change in energy and a big release. It’s like something has left you. And you still feel very energized somehow. I guess that is how you know you’re doing something you love.
And it’s a wrap
I spent a good forty minutes chatting with Tati. She was so generous in sharing part of her experiences with me. I could tell that she was starting to peel those layers. It’s a tough call to decide what to share with other people. Her drive, for sure, is to help others by sharing lessons learned on the way.
We all have our stories. I wonder what’s yours.
Starbucks drink: Grande Almond Milk Latte (with an occasional pump of hazelnut).
