balrāj
Yogin & Private Coach/Advisor
Balrāj uses the wisdom of traditional yoga philosophy to help people achieve meaningful growth (so they can become meaningfully free).
Balrāj is a yogin who teaches traditional yoga spiritual philosophy. He uses the wisdom of traditional yoga to help people turn their stress into meaningful achievement. He specializes in helping people become meaningfully free.
Balrāj’s approach to stress/anxiety/burnout and personal (meaningful) growth is guided by the simple and profound wisdom of the spiritual traditions born on the Indian subcontinent. Generally speaking, these spiritual traditions were meant to solve the problem of anxiety, and required developing the capacity to sit with our anxieties rather than avoid or try to destroy them (so that our anxieties weren’t directly or indirectly determining the course of our life). In yoga, as we develop the capacity to sit with our unwanted thoughts and painful emotions (rather than unthinkingly run from them), we notice how our habitual ways of thinking/feeling/acting/perceiving were all wrapped up in trying to secure ourselves against the discomfort of our insecurities (by trying to acquire such things as power/status, fame, financial freedom, etc.), and how this craving was reinforcing the very problem we were attempting to subvert. In other words, learning to sit with one’s anxieties is the very beginning of experiencing freedom from our myriad (unconscious) habitual and compulsive ways of being. And so while learning to sit with our anxieties is, indeed, simple, it is certainly not easy—and it is always made more difficult by craving the state of being that we think is on the other side of anxiety.
The inner stability that results from sitting with our anxiety allows us to access our own intrinsic inspirations, motivations, standards, values, and needs—and liberates resources trapped in repressive habitual behaviours. This self-awareness gives us access to a more than just “stress reduction” (which tends only to create a vacuum for more stress that feels meaningless), but also provides a way to experience a more fulfilling life of meaningful growth, increased energy, more “balance” and support—a life no longer wrought with self-criticism.
In his private work, Balrāj offers private coaching and advisory services. In his public work, Balrāj teaches the philosophy of traditional yoga from the perspective of existential phenomenology (i.e., spiritual yoga), and was featured in a 2002 article published by one of India’s largest news networks (ABP News) that discusses the relationship between contemporary yoga practices and the spiritual goals of traditional yoga.
Balrāj received a BA (Hons) and MSc (Oxon) studying South Asia and India respectively. He then obtained an MA in philosophy, defending his thesis on phenomenological method. He received his Diploma in Yoga from Annamalai University and the title of Yoga Vidyā from his teacher.
Though Balrāj is not a licensed mental health professional, he became an approved member of the Inclusive Therapists Community and can now be found on their Directory of Inclusive Therapists.
To learn more about how Balrāj might be able to help you, take a look at who we work with and then schedule your free Clarity Call with Balrāj.
Balrāj lives in Toronto, Canada.