I’m Natasha Noel, a social media influencer and Yogini, and this is how I Lead from Within
Natasha Noel is a true social media star, with over a 130,000 followers on Instagram. She is a motivational speaker and is vocal about her experiences of dealing with rape, abuse, and depression, and is passionate about breaking the stigma in society that surrounds these topics. She is also a trained yoga teacher and self-professed ambassador of positivity and love. This is her story, and how she leads from within…
My Journey
I was a professional dancer, starting at the age of 17, for five years. Then I got a really bad knee injury and I had to stop dancing. When I got into dance it was very therapeutic for me because I was going through a lot emotionally, mentally, and physically. And it was therapeutic because it’s a place where I could be without being judged. But then over a year and a half when I had my injury I couldn’t do anything – I couldn’t dance, I couldn’t do any physical activity. I think everything happens for a reason. In my third year, I was still confused between choosing Psychology and Literature, or only Literature. But my second year, when I got my knee injury, I also failed that year – it gave me more time to evaluate what I wanted to do and that’s what I did, and I focused on studying Literature.
It was at this time that I found Instagram and I saw amazing yoginis from all over the world doing hand stands and things like that, and I remember thinking ‘wow, that is incredible’. I found it very interesting. I realized that there is a whole science behind yoga and I wanted to listen to more of this and get more into spirituality. I realized that there was a whole lot of me which was upset and which was just broken. And I couldn’t figure out why. That’s when I went and I did my first teacher training course in the yoga institute. It was a three-month course and it was very good for me. At that point of time, I had a flexible body, but I needed something to mentally make myself better, to make myself stronger, to make myself understand situations and people. And, that is what the specialty taught me.
Along the way with Instagram, even when I started it was just me putting my story. I could never tell you how you need to live, because everyone is different and everyone goes through different things. I just put my story in all aspects – even till today, if I’m fighting with my mum, I’ll rant on Instagram and turn it into a positive. In today’s day and age what tends to happen is that we just get negative and we keep piling that up. We do not want or need or consciously believe that we can be better. I speak about what I would like to call the taboos in India, or even in the world, because I talk about rape, I talk about mental illnesses, I talk about depression, anxiety and body positivity. And because of that, for some reason, I became a voice to many individuals. For me it was always about women and women’s empowerment, because I’m a woman, but then it surprised me when I touched men’s lives. It has broadened my mind as well.
My Core Values
One is honesty. For me it is important to be as honest as I can, because I meet a lot of people in my life and I don’t want to give wrong impressions to anyone. If you’re authentic, you’re honest, it doesn’t matter. Another is hard work. No matter what you’re doing you need to work your butt off, because things don’t come easy.
Also, just happiness. I believe we can choose our happiness. Even if you’re depressed, even if you’re having anxiety, you can choose to see circumstances in a different light. At least that is what I tried to instill a lot in myself, because for the longest time I’ve been depressed and I still do have anxiety, but that doesn’t mean that I will give up on myself or on life.
My Superpowers
I genuinely believe that love is going to heal because, who has ever healed out of hate? I genuinely believe that love, and that is why I give and I talk and I preach from the root of love. The second is that when I meet people, I know exactly how they feel, I know exactly what is wrong. I would know that you are not in your best frequency. That has transpired into my everyday life right now because I have two jobs. I teach yoga and I’m also a social media influencer. I meet a lot of people and they get so irritated with me because I look at someone and I will say “Hey, are you okay?”, and within five seconds they start crying and they’re telling me things about themselves. I genuinely think it’s because I’m very connected to my field so I can see that in someone else. I think it’s a good thing because that has made me much more empathetic with my students and our connection and bond has grown, because I don’t believe yoga is where you come, stretch and go. You’re a therapist, you’re a healer, you’re all of these things as well.
My Role Models
One is my mum. I’m not trying to win an award here, but it’s my mum – and she’s not my birth mother, she’s my godmother. At 67, she still gets up every day, she still works, she doesn’t do anything less even at 67. Right from my childhood, she’s always engraved in me that I have to work hard regardless of what I want to do, what I want to achieve, what I want in life. I constantly have to work hard because that is the only thing that’s going to sustain me. And that is the only thing that’s ever going to allow me to grow and allow me to be better.
I can tell you this story. I really like mehendi. As a child I never asked my parents for anything because I was very insecure. I used to think they’re not my parents and if I ask it would be asking too much. We were walking on the streets and I just asked my mum, “Ma, if there is a mehendi place where we can put mehendi?”. She looked at me and she was also surprised, but she said, “Okay, but you have to walk”. I said okay – I was nine or something, very young. We walked for about eight kilometers in Delhi. We meet a person and I don’t realize that I’m exhausted and I’m hungry. I just collapsed on the floor and gave my hands to the lady and said “hold it for me, please”. She looked at me and asked “what happened to you?”. Because I was sweating, my clothes were drenched. And my mum says, “Oh, she just walked” and when that lady found out how long we had walked, she looked at my mum like we needed to go to a mental hospital. My mum said “She wanted the mehendi, so she needs to realize that if she wants anything she needs to work for it”.
My dad is my other role model. He’s a constant giver–even if he has just one chapatti for himself, he’ll have water and he’ll give that one chapatti away. That’s what I learned from him, because no matter where you are in life or what you are, you constantly have to be humble and just give. And, I think my giving in terms of love came from there.
On Dealing with Criticism
There are lots of ways I deal with hate. One, the most important thing in life is, I ignore it. Because, to be very honest, I get even more love than the hate. There are two ways to look at it. One, when someone is giving me hate they are that broken themselves. Imagine having nothing to do in life but just sit there and be a troll, and hate constantly.
The second thing I realized is that no one can break you unless you allow them to. If someone calls me, let’s say, a lesbian, I do not care. It does not affect me. But if someone calls me fat, I’m going to feel bad and I’m going to wonder “oh, my God, how can that person think I’m like this”. But, you see that is my insecurity. Have your opinion – I have a bunch of opinions. The difference is that I don’t shout my opinions down everyone else’s throats. Having said that, it’s also the way you approach it. If you’re honestly comfortable being you, regardless of your sexuality, your height, your acne, of your, I don’t know, pimples on the bum, no matter what anyone says, it cannot break you. Someone says “oh, you look fat” and I say “yeah, I know yaar, I had too much dinner”. That person cannot say anything. And even if the person does say something, it doesn’t affect me because I know yeah, I’ll go for a run and I’ll be fine. It is how you take it honestly.
My Message to Young Women
Love yourself. Exactly where you are. I think with a lot of young people what tends to happen is that we compare ourselves to a lot of people and we make ourselves go crazy. But if you authentically love yourself the way you are exactly, regardless of things which happen, whether good or bad, the good will still manifest. You will still remain neutral, it would not affect you. And this is what I believe. The whole idea is that you have your peaks and you have your valleys. In the peaks, everyone gets excited. But in the valley, everyone breaks down. Love yourself exactly where you are, because everything else in return will manifest when necessary, and if necessary.
