Live Your List - Making Space For Yourself
With the end of a relationship in her mid-50's, this Redhead resident decided to take a sabbatical year. Mary Girishaa Westley packed up her house and closed her Ayurveda practice of 10 years, with plans to stay in an ashram and study in India and Thailand.
"I wanted to step out of life and explore what I wanted to do with the rest of my life. It was also an opportunity to reflect on where I had been. My post-menopausal gap year ended up being the greatest gift," Mary Girishaa said.
In mid-2015, she moved into the Mangrove Yoga Ashram at Mangrove Mountain to finish her two-year yoga teacher training diploma. For six months, she lived in one room, studied yoga and completed a teaching internship.
“I enjoyed the ashram and learnt to get out of my own way. You could be given five minutes' notice to teach. So, you had to drop the nerves and do it," she said.
After receiving her diploma, Mary Girishaa chose to stay at the ashram as a resident yoga teacher. But before taking up the role, she travelled to India and Thailand.
In India, Mary Girishaa went to the traditional Ayurvedic hospital Vaidyagramma in Coimbatore, in southern India. She attended an international Ayurvedic conference. Then undertook a six-week intensive cleansing and rejuvenation process, which is supervised by a doctor. After her time in India, Mary Girishaa felt "squeaky clean" physically, mentally and emotionally.
“The panchakarma was powerful. I got to know myself better and also the importance of creating space in my life for me.”
Her next stop was Nong Khai in north-eastern Thailand, where the Mekong River is the border between Laos. During this visit, she set up a house and the daily routine of meditation, yoga, shopping at the food markets, preparing lunch, riding her bike, hanging out and the occasional treatments.
“I allowed what I had learnt in India to settle - for it to consolidate and have the space to reflect on what I had discovered about myself. It was the opportunity to be."
In Thailand, Mary Girishaa discovered her body and mind thrived when living in tune with nature.
“We make health and wellbeing complex, but it is simple. If we come into line with nature, our body is forgiving and will come back into alignment.”
Back in Australia, Mary Girishaa went to the ashram to take up her position and an additional human resources role. Her expected couple of months there turned into several years.
“If life is a classroom, then an ashram is boot camp. I wanted spiritual growth, and the universe gave it to me. I loved it; it was intense yet supportive. You don’t often have the opportunity to have this support as you all travel on the same path.”
For the past 20 years, Mary Girishaa has followed signposts as they appeared, rather than plotting her destination with a bucket list. She listens to her heart then walks through doors as they open knowing, sometimes unconsciously, it was the next step.
This faith has seen her study Ayurveda and Yoga, set up Newcastle’s first Ayurveda practice and teach internationally in Bali and Thailand. Recently, she started her Surf Life Saving Bronze Medallion; started to adapt her 12-week conscious living for women program into an online course; and plans to buy a nana campervan to take her grandchildren camping.
Her latest door-opening experience was writing a chapter for Wild Woman Rising: Brave Women who have Carved their own Path, which was launched online on 29 January, and hard copies are due in a month. In this book, Mary Girishaa shares her story and the soul wisdom and tools she learnt on the way.
“I have always dreamed of writing a book. This chapter feels like it is a steppingstone to my book with the working title of A Learning Journey: Wisdom and Tools for Walking the Path."
