International Yoga Teacher in Belize

International Yoga Teacher Yogi Charu is in Belize to schedule trainings for Belize City youths to become yoga teachers in their communities in 2016. Charu, who’s based out of New York, was born and raised in Belize City before learning the skills and techniques of the Hindu spiritual discipline. He is partnering with Michelle Williams and Om Shanti, the Yoga Studio on Princess Margaret Drive. For some time now, Williams has been working with young people in hotspots across the city, teaching them the fundamentals of yoga that includes breath control, meditation, and the adoption of specific bodily postures. Now, the initiative is taking the art form a step further. Charu spoke to News Five about the inspiration for the initiative, which is targeting the youths between the ages of fourteen and twenty-one.

Yogi Charu

Yogi Charu, International Yoga Trainer

“I travel around the world and I train people to be yoga teachers and I just thought that it would be a good idea to give youths an opportunity to practice bodily hygiene, mental hygiene; how to open up the heart and mind and how to give the kids an opportunity to explore places they’ve never been. I’m from Belize and I made it; I figured out how to live in India, how to live in the Himalayas and how to travel over Asia and teach and everywhere I teach, people benefit. So I just thought, why not do the same thing for the kids in Belize when I was at the same age. So it is how to help them to show them an opportunity to make a positive conscious lifestyle. What it takes to be a yoga instructor…first one, you have to love humans and as you evolve more and more, if you love people, you want to care for people and that’s what yoga is all about. The word yoga really means union and a deeper meaning is love because when two people love, they come together, they unite. So yoga teaches you to love your own self and when we can love our own self, then we can share that love through compassion to other living entities—plants, animals and fellow humans. So when they go through the training, the training is going to help them to see life through a whole different avenue. Life is not just get up, work…no…it is about questioning life. Yoga is a philosophy and it’s a philosophy of questioning, why am I here, who am I, how did I land in Belize.”