An Inspired Chat with Ahoo Sarab of Roswell, Decatur

Ahoo Sarab shared their story and experiences with us recently and you can find our conversation below.

Ahoo, a huge thanks to you for investing the time to share your wisdom with those who are seeking it. We think it’s so important for us to share stories with our neighbors, friends and community because knowledge multiples when we share with each other. Let’s jump in: What is something outside of work that is bringing you joy lately?
Drawing and painting. I took a long hiatus from this side of myself. I have always been creative and used it as a form of release and meditation. For the past decade or so, my creativity shifted into more practical forms, rather than art for the sake of art. So I stopped showing up at my easel, and instead, put my energy into studio and yoga events, like designing workshops for the studios, which does include a lot of graphics and digital creation, but not quite the same. About a year ago, I stepped back into my art room, and began doing one short project a day. It’s been so transformative, heightening my third eye intuitive center and bringing me back to my core self. It’s actually enhanced my ability to connect into and teach yoga better, because of spending more of my day in my alpha creative brain. This all helps me drop into a flow state, whether that’s teaching new sequences and flows, creating exciting recipes for the juice bar, or simply throwing paint onto a canvas.

Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
I have owned yoga studios in Georgia for the past 11 years. I’ve been a practitioner of yoga for 35 years, which basically means I have a lot of certificates and trainings I’ve taken part in. As yoga itself changes and transforms in the world, I find myself right there with it. I’ve gone through so many different styles in teaching and practicing, and I feel that’s what makes my studios unique. Having a deep understanding of this practice is what allows me to show up in whatever way it is calling me to. I try not to cling to any rigid way of being. I really see the studio as it’s own entity and the more I let it breath and flow, the more life it breathes back into all of us. I’m always working on new ideas and offerings for our students, so they can feel into the same depths of yoga that I have had the privilege of experiencing. There’s so much to this beautiful practice, and it’s exciting to continue to be in it’s embrace.

Thanks for sharing that. Would love to go back in time and hear about how your past might have impacted who you are today. Who saw you clearly before you could see yourself?
I had an art teacher in the 11th grade, the only teacher I remember from high school, that saw sides of me I never knew I had. She first saw talent in me, as an artist, and pushed me to expand and challenge myself with different mediums and styles. She’d let me stay after school, working on projects, and would ask me to help her with her own projects. She would always bring new artists and exhibits to show me, and at times, she’d even buy me entry tickets to the exhibits. She would enter my art into contests, and sometimes I’d win. Because of this, I ended up winning first place in the Georgia Student Drawing contest for that year and had my art placed in our largest museum, the High Museum for 3 months. This landed me a scholarship to art school and money for supplies.
She also taught me about auras and the third eye. This was right at the same time I was discovering yoga as a daily practice. So, her timing felt quite aligned with my life path. She taught me how to find a persons aura, how to feel energy off of a person or space and how to look at and align chakras. All of this was pretty unheard of in smalltown Roswell, GA. She showed me kindness in ways that other teachers had not and it had quite an impact on me to see that forging my own path, and being my true self, was necessary to the world.

What have been the defining wounds of your life—and how have you healed them?
My defining wounds have been my greatest teacher. They continue to be, but the way it shows up for me now is so different than how they showed up in my past. In my past, I would try hard to hide from my wounds or my demons, as I like to call them. It would feel shameful or weak to expose the wound. So, instead, I would fill the space with distractions. This wasn’t sustainable, and the distractions ended up creating more problems for me, whether that was clinging to the wrong relationships, or becoming addicted to toxic behaviors or thoughts. Where this shifted, was when I experienced a profound change and subsequent loss in my life. Like many, who go through a transformative experience, this was my complete unraveling of self, not at my own will or doing, and ultimately what led to my expansion and growth. That forced transformation became the method in which I healed and learned to friend and to be grateful for the lessons my wounds brought me. I can’t say the process has been very linear, but it has been consistent. Once I stopped hiding from the wounds, I began to heal them, through doing shadow work, confronting the demons, with the guidance of shaman and healers, in ceremonies. I learned to sit with my suffering, rather than hide from it. And truly let it speak to me. I worked my inner child, reparenting her, and teaching her she is safe. And I found mountains, where I spend most of my time healing. I like to say yoga showed me the way, and the mountains revealed it’s truth. I go on long journeys, in foreign lands, where I am silent, and disconnected from phones, people, busyness of life, and I meditate and self-study. I read the Snow Leopard, by Peter Matthiessen, each time I journey. I find solace in the authors wisdom and it’s become a ritual into reflecting on my own impermanence, in life and self. A line from the book says this well “The secret of the mountain is that the mountains simply exist, as I do myself: the mountains exist simply, which I do not.”

Next, maybe we can discuss some of your foundational philosophies and views? What important truth do very few people agree with you on?
The idea that we can appropriate anything simply doesn’t feel right for me. I believe instead in exposure and inspiration. Lately, there’s been a shift away from yoga’s roots, away from using Sanskrit, away from discussing its history or philosophy. This feels misaligned to me. You can’t pick and choose parts of the practice that you enjoy and ignore the parts that feel “more offensive”. It’s bringing subjectivity into a space of expansiveness.
To be exposed to any new way of being, whether its in yoga, martial arts, sculpture, literature, etc. and to have it come from a culture and country not your own, is a gift. And quite magnificent if you think of the path it took to land into your heart. So, rather than get caught up in ideas of possession and cling to the origins of things, I prefer to see it as a way to share in the gifts of each other. We are beings who create. I keep focus on how my life is enriched through exposure and how I am inspired by being exposed. If we keep our gifts and talents hidden in a box, how will we spread beauty in the world.
I’ve been gifted this practice of yoga and I am grateful for it, even if I wasn’t born into it.

Okay, we’ve made it essentially to the end. One last question before you go. Are you doing what you were born to do—or what you were told to do?
Born to do. It took me a long time to arrive here. But, I finally am doing the work I was always meant to do. And I love it.

Contact Info:

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