Shameem Akhtar is almost synonymous with yoga today. A recognised journalist who has worked with leading publications like The Times of India and Outlook newsmagazine, Shameem made a conscious decision to shift into the practice and propagation of yoga following her own life-changing experience with it. Herself a sadhak, Shameem has crafted an enviable integration between her livelihood and her life, and is a regular contributor to Life Positive.

A certified yoga shiromani with the internationally-acclaimed Sivananda Yoga Centre, Kerala (headquartered in Canada), she is also a certified yoga acharya (advanced level in teacher`s training in hatha yoga) with them. (Both courses are set in ashram atmosphere with yoga training and practice extending from pre-dawn till night-fall). She has done the Sadhana Intensive course (also with the Sivananda Institute, at its Uttarkashi branch) which includes nine hours of yoga daily (with the majority of this focused on pranayama or breathing practices).

She is also a certified yoga teacher with the Chennai-based Asana Andiappan Institute for yoga and naturopathy, and a certified yoga shiromani and yoga acharya with the Chennai-based Shiva Yoga Institute.

She is also certified practitioner, trainer and master trainer in Neurolinguistic Programming (the latest buzzword internationally in mindpower training) with the US based American Federation of NLP, and was trained by the founder himself, Dr William Horton.

She conducts regular yoga workshops at HELP library (run by India`s foremost fertility expert, Dr Anirudha Malpani) in Mumbai.

Her private students included former Miss World Yukta Mookey, and she currently teaches the family members of Spectra Motors (the largest Maruti Suzuki dealers in India). Apart from this, she also holds private classes at her residence.

She has taught yoga to Mahindra and Mahindra factory workers (at their Kandivili east tractor division), and conducted meditation classes for their executives. She has held around 16 workshops, teaching over 300 factory workers and executives.

She provides yoga capsules for Worldspace radio , which is broadcast on their Moksha holistic health channel. Her daily interview capsules also were aired in the same channel.

She has done 16 TV capsules on yoga for the Body & Soul program on holistic health, beamed on Star One.

Apart from teaching yoga, Shameem Akthar is a prolific columnist for various publications across India, in both English and Hindi. They include:

India Abroad, the largest selling Indian American newspaper, where she writes a fortnightly column.

Savvy magazine (for women), for who she does a monthly column on yoga.

A weekly column in Mid-Day , Mumbai`s largest selling city tabloid.

Life Positive, India`s most popular spiritual and holistic magazine that comes out monthly.

Harmony magazine for silvers, brought out by Anil Ambani`s Reliance group.

Aha Zindagi (a holistic lifestyle Hindi magazine owned by the Dainik Bhaskar group).

Ritz magazine published from Chennai.

She also writes on yoga for Mansworld magazine, India`s own men`s magazine.

She was also a a regular contributor for the spiritual section called Reflexions in DNA, Mumbai`s newest morning newspaper, is a regular contributor to Mumbai Mirror, a free-sheeter tabloid supplied with the Times of India.

Apart from these, she has contributed yoga and health write-ups for Deccan Chronicle (Hyderabad), New Woman (the women`s magazine edited by actress Hema Malini), The Times of India (Mumbai and Pune editions), and Asian Age.

She also provides daily health capsules on mobile handsets for Rediff.com , India`s largest internet portal that is listed on NASDAQ.

Life before yoga

Shameem Akthar had a flourishing professional life as a journalist but did a career turnaround after discovering the marvelous impact of yoga on her health. She had trained and worked with the Times of India School of Social Journalism (New Delhi), worked with The Times of India (Mumbai) for seven years first as copy-editor and then as feature writer; worked with The Telegraph, Kolkata, as special correspondent (features) for four years; and later with Outlook magazine as special correspondent, features, for three years. She handled the Wedding channel for Rediff.com, and was India-based copy-editor for the Indian American business magazine Mantram. Having personally found yoga to be life-transforming, she quit a lucrative career in journalism to further its cause in India, becoming a yoga teacher when the craze for it had not yet caught on here.

Recently Shameem has authored the book Yoga for Silvers", published by Harmony magazine. It is a yoga guidebook for the elderly

She can be contacted on sama_yama@yahoo.co.in.

(Read her blog at http://jaisivananda.blogspot.com/ )