Rebounding my passion and veracious self when I lost myself in the uncertainties of my existence was like breathing into a new life. It completed the missing pieces in me and made me stronger than ever. Greetings to my dear readers, I am Garima Kaura Bharucha, a holistic fitness trainer and a coach. Currently, I’m 41 years old and a proud mother of a 10 years old daughter. I stay in Mumbai and own a fitness studio here.
I belong to a Punjabi family, born in Himachal, as my mother is from Himachal (Dad is from Chandigarh).
As a child I was an average student not so inclined towards studies, I was more into artistic space.
I used to draw, tell stories and dance my heart out, these cultural activities always fascinated me.
But in those days, all these activities were considered more of a hobby or a stress buster rather than a career opportunity and I was also been encouraged to be sincere towards my studies to be able to make a stable career.
As for my education, I did my BSc from Mauritius, my father was working as an architect there. My parents shifted to Mumbai after my BSc, and then, I did my Masters in Zoology with Biotechnology from Mumbai University. I topped in my college in my Masters and stood third in the entire Mumbai University. This happened because I always wanted to make my parents happy and proud of me academically, I never stood first before and wanted to prove it to them. Also in my M.Sc class when
group of my friends were making a ranking list, they placed my name in the last position and that made me sad and provoked at the same time. All this worked as a motivation to push my limits and work hard and that's how I secured first rank.
After Post graduation, I did a course in clinical research services.
I was among 32 postgraduates selected for the Young Clinical Professional Program at Reliance Life sciences across India. This was a huge deal for me, and I worked there for three years. After this, I got into TCS, another company with a big name. This was followed by another job in Watson in the field of clinical research. For seven and half I was full-fledged into the corporate sector. I worked very hard at my job, I wanted give my best performances to make the company satisfied. I am a straightforward person, and always spoke my mind and found that, that’s not always been appreciated in corporate environment.
At TCS my immediate boss subjected me to lot of mental and emotional trauma as I never succumbed to his inappropriate mindset. Got bullied a lot from him because of my resistance.
When things got really disturbing, I took a bold stance against it. And reached out to their HR and shared all the details of the harassments I was been subjected to.
Following my confession, many gathered the courage to share their similar experiences with HR.
Unfortunately, the case was snubbed very tactfully as things were deeper than they appeared and my boss got support from some higher authorities, rather my department got changed. But I got a good support with many fellow workers and I felt content that I had the courage to raise my voice against things which I don’t approve off and could at least distant myself from that daily harassment.
All these events and overall, me being always kinda stuck with an idea of being ‘politically correct” mindset, made me realize that I am a misfit to the corporate world. I was not happy doing, what I was doing. It was more of a following the rat race rather being true to myself. .
I met my husband when I was doing my Masters and got married to him while I was working in TCS. I, being Punjabi, married into a Parsi family and had my share of hardships to adjust initially in the marriage. It was tough to get acquainted with a whole new culture, a different way of living and for me to tune myself in that manner.
Always desired to be an ideal wife, daughter and sister for my family.
With pregnancy, the desire to be the best mother got added in the list, rather became my prime purpose.
Due to certain complications in my pregnancy, I had to quit a well-paid job and my life shifted drastically after that.
I was blessed with a baby girl in 2012, we named her Pearl. I was delighted to be a mother and so were my family members. From a full-time professional, I was now a housewife, a mother!
As a devoted mother I ensured I give my best to my child, in every possible way I can. I ensured I breast feed my daughter as long as it’s possible. Ensuring I eat food accordingly and could breast feed by girl for 3 and half years.
I was meanwhile facing postpartum depression. To combat depression, I started eating rich high-calorie food, chocolates etc. as my coping mechanism. It took a toll on my health. I gained a lot of weight and was further disappointed with myself.
I was losing myself in this process piece by piece and was getting disconnected with my own self.
I was not liking what I was seeing in the mirror and of course on the weighing scale, was in absolute disbelief to see this version of mine.
This all made me go into a downward spiral. To add to my distress, when my friends and family members showed concern or tried to warn me about my increasing weight (bulging stomach and waistline), it rather than helping, triggered a lot of insecurities inside me. I was getting into a deep dark tunnel.
During one such day, I saw a new mother absolutely in perfect shape, walking with her toddler, looking confident and happy.
That made me feel no so good about myself, I started to question myself “will I ever be so fit in this life”, I almost felt inside me, it’s a lost battle!
But that day something shifted for me, I wanted to pull myself out of the darkness that I was sinking into, needed to give myself a chance, a hope!
So finally, I decided to enroll for a dance class, because since my childhood I wanted to dance, my ultimate source of happiness.
Obviously, this decision of mine was not very warmly accepted by everyone in the family. But I fought my way through it, knowing that if I don’t do it now, I might not collect the courage again and then I will lose on this opportunity to bring some ray of light to my life. By this time, I understood, for my daughter to be happy and healthy, I have to be in a happy and healthy space. After going to some local dance classes, people around me realized that I have a good sense of rhythm and I was very flexible. Dancing has been my childhood passion and to realize it now was a huge deal in itself.
Dancing felt like expressing and symbolizing my personality, my real repressed self was blooming out again.
So as a step further, I enrolled myself at Terence Lewis Dance Academy. At the academy, I learnt a lot of dance forms and worked on my body strength and flexibility.
When people came to know about my age, they thought I was doing it for a hobby and wasn’t taken so seriously in the class, almost felt like sidelined many a times.
I wanted them to know that my age was no barrier for me, I wanted to be pushed out of my comfort zone and them to give me chance to work perhaps little more on me and help me build my confidence.
Then, I joined Danceworx, where I learned ballet basics, contemporary and hip-hop. I loved their contemporary dance trainings as they used to emphasis that dance is not about looking beautiful while dancing. It is about letting the embodied emotions squeeze out on the beats of music. I wasn’t just learning dance but simultaneously I was relearning to express myself. I could sense the differences in me not just bodily but how I felt about myself. I felt more empowered. After dance classes, I used to go to the gym and worked out in an overall way to reduce my weight.
Physically I started looking very fit, slim and trim. Whatever anger that I had in me surfaced through my physical activities. I was being way too harsh on myself and on my body. Looking into the mirror, I could notice I looked rather malnourished and a skinny woman, almost lost all my muscle mass. I was not content the way I was going about my physical fitness, I was realizing something was missing. Luckily, I met one of my friends, she threw light on how I was not emotionally well. That hit me, I realized that I needed someone who could heal me from inside. And then, I pursued a course in Dance Movement Therapy from Tata Institute of Social Sciences for a year. They first worked on us to make sure we work on our traumas first and learn to work through them.
I cried my heart out during this course, that sweet, innocent little girl inside me was still wounded. I discovered my camouflaged traumas, the ones that I numbed myself to. My system just got shut as a coping mechanism to adapt to the environment.
I was now healing myself emotionally, addressing to my traumas not running away from them. I was becoming more myself.
After that I got to know about meditation and spiritual state. I started attending workshops on meditation, meeting new people around the world coming for the therapies. All these things cumulatively opened my clogged channels of physical, emotional and spiritual well-being. I learned the art of being fit in a wholesome and holistic way.
Today, I am a certified fitness trainer. I don’t limit myself to the physical fitness of the clients, although that is an important aspect, but I also focus on their mental, emotional and spiritual well-being.
Personally, I adore training young girls and women because I don’t want any girl out there still searching for a Garima in herself the way I was doing. I would love it if I could be that facilitator for other girls to help them explore their authentic and unfiltered version. I have also done NGO work as my commitment to give back to my society in every possible way. I have worked with a variety of patients, cancer patients, girls who were been trafficked, dyslexic patients, underprivileged kids, kids under trial.
Today I can proudly say that I have touched more than 300 lives during these 6 years of my career (3yrs as fitness/dance coach and 3yrs as holistic therapist). I look forward to do my best to provide my clients with satisfactory results not just in the form of a good body but also a healthy mind, peaceful mental state and a complementary glowing skin.
My journey has been a tough one but not impossible. I’d always be grateful to the people around me for supporting and encouraging me. First and foremost, my parents, who imbibed a strong value system in me that always kept me grounded and humble.
My husband for sailing through all the struggles we faced in the initial years of our marriage. After initial little resistance from his side, now -he supports me and value my opinion and passion.
My daughter is my lucky angel, she brought love and compassion in my life. She is my biggest source of motivation.
And my sister has been my best friend through my high and lows. She is my go-to person, my comfort zone and my secret keeper.
last but not the least, myself to always strive to bring the best out of me and to not give up.