Happy Summer! With summer comes the influx of wellness ads and content, pushing how to live “healthier” lifestyles, workouts to fit into the perfect outfit, and more. It can all feel a bit overwhelming and discouraging. Many of us are trying to simply enjoy life and summer, without worrying about how we look, or hopping on the endless trends. So, we decided to speak with the lovely and incredibly knowledgeable Anisa Shukla. Anisa is an Ayurvedic practitioner and yoga instructor based in New York City. She started her Ayurvedic practice, The Shakti Community recently and has been quite prominent on TikTok since 2022. Our interview with her felt more like a therapy session, leaving us feeling a bit more full of life, and inspired to take care of ourselves in a more gentle, holistic way.

Anisa has a unique background that has heavily influenced the way she lives her life. After spending her first six years in Dallas where she was born, Anisa moved to Bangalore, India for 5 years with her family. Interestingly enough, Anisa’s mother, who is the inspiration behind Anisa following an Ayurvedic pathway, is first generation Indian American, and moved to New Jersey from India when she was one year old. Anisa’s father was born and raised in Uganda, and later moved to Queens, New York, which is where her parents met. Interweaving Indian culture was an intentional part of Anisa’s upbringing, but became more natural after living in India during her formative years.

During this time, Anisa had the opportunity to become fully immersed in Indian culture while attending an international school - giving her a broad point of view. After returning to the States, Anisa knew that she wanted to study medicine - but somehow tied in the aspect of community, while ensuring that she approached the subject in a more comprehensive manner. Anisa went on to study public health in college, and made a conscious decision to integrate community care with medicine. Over time, and with the guidance of her mother, who is also an Ayurvedic practitioner, Anisa began studying Ayurveda seriously. Anisa wholeheartedly believes that Ayurveda is also a method of “mothering” one self, or finding a sense of belonging or nurturing from. Through Ayurveda, one has the ability to care for oneself on a much deeper level than meets the eye. It’s a way of understanding how every part of our bodies, minds, and lives are connected, oftentimes more than we believe.

As our conversation continued, we discussed the trends we often see on social media - taking ashwagandha (or random supplements with ingredients our food and bodies naturally produce), green juices, detoxes, and more. What’s interesting about these trends, versus how Ayurveda is viewed in the West, is that in comparison to these quickly passing trends, Ayurveda is often met with resistance. In Anisa’s experience, Ayurveda is sometimes seen as restrictive (by non South Asians and South Asians alike), intimidating, “exotic” or something that is misunderstood. In reality, Ayurveda has a very simple philosophy of using nature to improve our mental and physical health, and it’s quite easy to adapt Ayurvedic ways of living into our daily lives.

Ayurveda allows one to meet themselves on a deeper level - which can be incredibly daunting at first, but the benefits lead to a much more fulfilling, happy, and healthy life. The journey is mainly mental versus physical, and more of a spiritual journey than a “health” journey, like many of us think in the West. Ayurveda can push one to face fear and impatience, looking for longevity rather than a quick fix or instant gratification. With Shakti Community, Anisa’s vision is to educate people in the West and beyond about what Ayurveda really is, and bring Ayurveda to our world today. Eventually, she hopes to write a cookbook (which is in the works) in addition to hosting retreats for women.

We asked Anisa for three tips on how to slowly incorporate Ayurveda into our lives, and she gave us some very helpful (and relatively simple) tips!

1. Create a routine for yourself that works for you! You don’t need to follow what everyone else is doing. Build a daily plan that works with your lifestyle, rather than altering it completely.

2. Get some movement in! This can mean anything; go to the gym, go on a walk, practice yoga, run, stretch. Preferably, you should do this in the morning - but if you’re an evening exercise person, do that. Movement is essential to keeping our minds and bodies aligned.

3. Practice mindfulness. Incorporate meditation into your daily routine - people often think meditation is simply not having thoughts. When really, it’s simply noticing that we have constant thoughts going through our minds, and simply bringing our mind back to the present moment.

If you’re looking to learn more, visit www.theshakticommunity.com and support Anisa’s incredible TikTok @shakti_ayurveda! We are so lucky and grateful to have women like Anisa in our communities, who are working towards improving the lives of the collective, in any way she can.