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About Our Guest- Kushal M. Choksi – Finding Clarity, Purpose, & Meaning Through Breathwork
[/et_pb_text][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][et_pb_row column_structure=\”2_5,3_5\” _builder_version=\”4.14.8\” _module_preset=\”default\” global_colors_info=\”{}\”][et_pb_column type=\”2_5\” _builder_version=\”4.14.8\” _module_preset=\”default\” global_colors_info=\”{}\”][et_pb_image src=\”https://fromdoctortopatient.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Dr.Diva-Nagula-1024×1024-1.png\” title_text=\”Dr.Diva-Nagula-1024×1024\” _builder_version=\”4.14.8\” _module_preset=\”default\” hover_enabled=\”0\” global_colors_info=\”{}\” sticky_enabled=\”0\”][/et_pb_image][/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=\”3_5\” _builder_version=\”4.14.8\” _module_preset=\”default\” global_colors_info=\”{}\”][et_pb_text _builder_version=\”4.14.8\” _module_preset=\”default\” hover_enabled=\”0\” global_colors_info=\”{}\” sticky_enabled=\”0\”]Kushal Choksi started his career as a quantitative analyst with Goldman Sachs. He left Goldman Sachs as a Vice President of Asset Management to join Athilon, an investment fund. As a Managing Director at Athilon, he helped ramp up a $45 billion portfolio before the fund was acquired by EBF Associates. He then moved to India to join BlackRock’s Fixed Income business as a Senior Vice President, where he managed billions of dollars in the company\’s flagship mutual funds.
After returning to New York, he submitted to his passion for entrepreneurship and started his own tech startup. His content distribution venture, Hubbl, was acquired by Airpush within two years. He then started a proprietary trading venture, Clavileno Capital which later merged with ARB Trading Group.
He and his wife now run Elements Truffles, a New York-based artisanal chocolate company built on values of Ayurveda, sustainability, giving back and ethical trade.
Kushal is a trainer of personal development, meditation, wellness, and leadership programs for the Art of Living Foundation. He has taught secrets of breathwork and meditation to thousands across the US, Europe, and Asia. He serves on the US board of the International Association for Human Values (IAHV)..[/et_pb_text][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][et_pb_row _builder_version=\”4.14.8\” _module_preset=\”default\” global_colors_info=\”{}\”][et_pb_column type=\”4_4\” _builder_version=\”4.14.8\” _module_preset=\”default\” global_colors_info=\”{}\”][et_pb_text _builder_version=\”4.14.8\” _module_preset=\”default\” hover_enabled=\”0\” global_colors_info=\”{}\” sticky_enabled=\”0\”]
Full Podcast Transcription
Kushal Choksi 01:31
People can talk you in and out of a concept but an experience is so irrefutable, it\’s yours to keep so when I experienced that, for the first time, they realize that there\’s something in this breathwork keeping the mind still, I experienced a state of mind without thoughts. And that felt liberating. That was a feeling I\’d never experienced before. So I gravitated towards that saying I want to go a little deeper into this and didn\’t know where I was headed but I knew that there was something in it that I wanted. And that\’s when that journey began.
Diva Nagula 02:08
Hello everyone and welcome to another episode of From Doctor to Patient. Today I am joined with Kushal Choksi. He started his career as a quantitative analyst with Goldman Sachs. He left Goldman Sachs as a vice president of asset management to join Athelon an investment fund. As a managing director at Athelon. He helped ramp up a $45 billion portfolio before the fund was acquired by EBF Associates. He then moved to India to join Black Rocks fixed income business as a Senior Vice president, where he managed billions of dollars in the company\’s flagship mutual funds. After returning to New York he submitted to his passion for entrepreneurship and started his own tech startup. His content distribution venture Hubbell was acquired by Airpush within two years. He then started a proprietary trading venture called Liano Capital, which later merged with ARB trading group. He and his wife now run Elements Truffles in New York based artisanal chocolate company based on values of Aryuveda, sustainability, giving back and ethical trade. Kushal is a trainer of personal development, meditation, wellness and leadership programs for the Art of Living Foundation. He has taught secrets of breathwork, and meditation to thousands across the US, Europe and Asia. He serves on the US board of the International Association for Human Values. Good afternoon, Kushal, how are you doing today?
Kushal Choksi 03:52
I\’m doing excellent. How about you?
Diva Nagula 03:54
I\’m doing fantastic. Now, I was reading your bio, and I was looking at your information some time ago. I was really interested because you were actually around during the 911 tragedy. We\’re about almost a month away from 911. And I have never really talked to anyone that was present during that whole incident. I\’d love to hear your perspective on what you went through. It definitely was a traumatic event for everyone for all of us, and more so for people who were present during that time.
Kushal Choksi 04:28
Absolutely. In life, there are very few events that actually mark a new beginning, mark the turning off a new chapter, if you will. This was one such event for me. I used to work in New York, back then on a on a trading desk at Goldman Sachs and I was so immersed in chasing the American dream that at some point of time, I had stopped asking what I was doing. You know it just flowing so fast in the current of time, that I was just completely sucked in. The days were merging into weeks and weeks into years, and it was just kind of a blur. And then it was a miracle that I just survived, this horrific event that kind of shook me up. It\’s the things that I took for granted the things that I depended on the things that I thought fill my day, or my pursuits, my so called chase, nothing mattered anymore. And it was in that moment that I really started asking, what was I doing. What was I here for? Is there more to life than what meets the eye, there has to be something beyond just chasing big bonuses and driving fast cars. And it was, oftentimes when you look at death from up close and personal, it creates some sort of vacuum. It creates some sort of void. You know, there\’s a certain discussion that dawns and you feel the meaninglessness of everything. And that\’s something that I had read about in books before, but for the first time, I was hit by something like that. It hit with a big hammer on my head, and that was very difficult initially to cope with it. Initial days, of course, I was having nightmares which became common, it was just the typical signs of the PTSD, if you will, which, of course at that time, I didn\’t know that it was that, those things became very normal. But after that, there was an urge to kind of finish things that were unfinished in my life. I thought I had a new lease on life. Now I wanted to do everything that I want to do. Life was too short to be playing safe, and I want to do this and that and kind of finish the unfinished business. But at the same time, there was a distinct lack of meaning in all that, because what if the curtain gets drawn at any moment, what was a point of all that anyways? So it was a void that I experienced at that time that I\’d never experienced before. And I\’ve seen with some cases, such void can take you, you know, to fill that void. It can take you to doing some things that are not so life supporting. You look for fulfillment in alcohol or drugs. I did some alcohol in that, that is the thing that, you know, that could help me fill this void or, or travel around the world, oh, perhaps that would do it. That would take me out of this funk. Trying different jobs, trying different things. But I realized, I was looking for fulfillment in the wrong places, in the wrong avenues. That was an interesting time in my life, where there was an urge to do everything. To finish a lot of things that I\’d started or not started, but at the same time, there was like it, I do it, but then, so what I would do that, and then keep coming back to the same void again and again. So I do that, feel distracted, feel a little bit of a high and then come back to the same void. And then saying this \”now what\”, so I kind of wavered in that space for a couple of years. And that was an interesting part of my life, to say the least.
Diva Nagula 08:26
Yeah, I can see that. It\’s interesting that you talk about that, because it\’s a kind of a struggle that a lot of people go through, whether you want to call it, you know, the entrepreneurial mindset, the serial entrepreneurial mindset, or whether you call it a midlife crisis, or just really, you know, chasing after the wrong thing. And honestly, I\’ve been through that whole aspect of myself. And in fact, I\’m doing a lot of internal work during this time. And it really has brought to the attention about not looking for happiness. extrinsically and it really comes, happiness really has to come within. And it\’s been really a journey for me, in many ways. But specifically coming to that conclusion. And I\’m sure when you finally found what it is to embark on to really find fullfilment, it\’s liberating. It really is. I mean, of course, there\’s a lot of work that\’s involved. And and you have to erase a lot of bad habits because we\’re very habitual people. And, you know, I\’m, I\’ll be 48 soon and it\’s like, you have to erase 48 years of, of bad habits, which which doesn\’t occur overnight. And so with you, so this whole process was a major turning point for you. What did it lead you to achieve or to find in terms of your happiness and your fulfillment?
Kushal Choksi 09:56
Yeah, I mean, it\’s initially as I said, it was it was all the external stimuli that I was looking for to get that fullfilment then, and I realized that he was just bringing back to the same place, I really struggled for a while to find that. I grew up in a very religious family back in India and so there was some seeds of spirituality that were sown early on. But I was kind of a rebel, and there was a very thin line between spirituality and religion, and which always bent towards the religion more and so I never subscribed to that part much. But there was a, there was some seed that pulled me towards it, I felt like there might be some answer in that. That was one sphere that was perhaps not explored. And I tried reading different things. And, of course, I started meeting a lot of people who had achieved that state and I could see that. But again, like how you said, there was a lot of concepts that were thrown at me about about happiness, you know, that you can find it within and being in the present moment, and in not letting your mind go, you know, in the past or worrying about the future. But one thing I continue to struggle with is, How? You know, I understand that the happiness is within but how do I get there? How do I tap into it? Can I tell my mind to be in the moment? How do I really do it? Okay. You know, just by telling it, it\’s an effort, and the language of mind is not effort. So how do I do it? In that state, one of my friends used to work with my wife at Goldman Sachs. She said that one of the spiritual masters from India is traveling to New York Guru Dev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar and he said, Why don\’t you go seen him? He\’s coming to New York, you should you should meet him at a public event at the, at the Waldorf Astoria, then I\’m like, I\’m sorry, I\’m not interested in gurus, I was completely, I would say, hyper averse to the whole concept of having someone as a guru. And so I said, I\’m sorry, I can\’t. But you know, in a funny sequence of events, I somehow ended up there. And the very first experience of breathwork, and some meditation that I experienced that afternoon, it completely changed my orientation. It completely changed my bearing. And I thought, this is the direction where I should be headed. To find what I\’m looking for. I was still very cautious. I would say cautiously optimistic, because at some level, there was this deep rooted fear or resistance about spirituality. But at the same time, there was a pull in that direction, because I knew there was something in there that I wanted, because I actually experienced it. I mean, people can talk you in and out of a concept, but an experience is so irrefutable, it\’s yours to keep. So when I experienced that calm for the first time, I realized that there\’s something in this breathwork, keeping the mind still, is the first time by the way, in so many years in my adult life that I can remember, I experienced a state of mind without thoughts, for an extended, you know, almost 20-25 minutes, and that felt liberating. That was a feeling I\’d never experienced before. I gravitated towards that. I want to go a little deeper into this and didn\’t know where I was headed. But I knew that there was something in it that I wanted more. That\’s when that journey began.
Diva Nagula 14:07
That\’s amazing. And I\’m really curious about the type of breath work that you engaged in that was so liberating, and that changed your your life, essentially. So it was a holotropic breathwork or Soma, or there\’s so many different types of breathwork out there, what did you practice?
Kushal Choksi 14:21
So this is a this breathwork is called the sky breath. Meditation is called Sudarshan Kriya. It\’s abbreviated as SKY. And it\’s just rhythmic breathing, just using the own rhythms, the rhythms of your own breath, to to get your mind to a certain state and the most beautiful aspect about this which actually I could relate to is that every other aspects of mind control that I tried before or biohacking or whatever it required some sort of effort at the level of mind. You tell your mind to focus on something or you tell your mind to resist something or nothing, and everything felt like a frontal cortex activity, everything felt like effort. And that I could not do because, you know, at the realm of the mind, I realized I couldn\’t control my own mind with the mind. So then I needed something else to get to it to control that. In this breathwork, I found that that will switch, that using the rhythms of the breath, I could just get into a state without any effort, the mind just sunk into meditation, the mind just went to a space where there were no thoughts. So all I had to do was just breathe. I didn\’t have to resist any thoughts. I didn\’t have to concentrate about anything. In fact, the first time I was doing it, the instructor kind of said, just let the thoughts come, you know, as as they\’re coming, don\’t resist any thought, which itself was a liberating feeling for me for the first time. That you know, this is I can do it. And this is this seems within reach of the very first experience of the sky breath meditation. You know, it took me to a stage much deeper than the first time I tried to meditate. There\’s tons of research done. Actually one of my very good friends, Dr. James Nester, he\’s written a book called Breath. And he has compared all these different types of breath works. And he is sky breath, this edition Kriya was also a trigger for him, that got him down the path of trying different breathworks and exploring, you know, different types of breathing. Of course, me being a very left brain Wall Street guy, I was not ready to take it for granted, just because somebody says it\’s good, I was not going to believe it. I did a lot of my own research I did a lot of peer research and independent research that I looked at. And then I said, This perhaps has something that it\’s both scientifically validated and also, of course, it gave me the experience. So there, there\’s something in it that I wanted to go down the path of exploring further. So that was my experience with sky breath. It\’s roots are in very ancient Vedic breathing, Vedic wisdom. It\’s both ancient science and contemporary wisdom, if I may say. That\’s a very life transforming experience.
Diva Nagula 17:55
And for you specifically, how often do you engage in this practice? Is it very easy to perform to get the desired results?
Kushal Choksi 18:57
I practice this daily. It is something that as a trader, I saw this was one of the best return of investments that I could make for myself. And when I say return of investment of time. You could do this. So as you said, there\’s so many things out there, what is it that you do and what you could do when you only have so many hours in the day. So this is one practice that after having tried so many different things, that stuck with me. It takes about 20 minutes a day. I practice it every day. I usually do it the first thing in the morning because that sets the tone for the day for me. It has worked at so many different levels for me, and now I also teach that practice by the way. I\’m a volunteer for the foundation. I pay it forward just by volunteering my time teaching this practice. It\’s It\’s so effective. What kind of stayed with me was that it was so effective from the get go. In the very first week, I started seeing results. Of course, the very first session, I saw results. In the very first week, I started seeing how I was just changing me how we were how I started, you know, responding to the situations rather than reacting to the situation, and nothing else had changed in my life at that time. First of all, I was in denial. How can this practice be? Is it something out there? Or did I succumb to something? Did I just drink some Kool Aid? But it was not that, and then as I started going deeper into it, learning more about it, the scientific underpinnings of it, I realized that it was really effective. There\’s a lot of substance in it. It\’s been now practiced by over 150 million people across the world in 150 countries. That gave me some confidence. That I\’ll be okay. I tell you, Diva it\’s a gift that keeps on giving?
Diva Nagula 21:11
Yeah, now, it seems like it\’s been very impactful for your life. Can you explain the art and science behind this specific type of breathwork? And what it does to the brain? How it\’s effectively calming the nervous system?
Kushal Choksi 21:24
Yes. At gross level, we are the body, right? We say, Okay, I am Kushal and Diva, we identify with that body, but our life has seven different layers and our existence has seven different layers. The grossest is of course, the body. Subtler than the body is the breath. Then comes to mind, as a mind, not the brain, but the field of energy, where, you know, the thoughts and emotions spring from and feelings are felt, then comes intellect that judging faculty, which says, Yes, yes, no, no. Intellect makes its decisions based on memory, storehouse of all these experiences. It\’s like how you said earlier, 48 years of experiences, or perhaps lifetimes of impressions that we have collected, that goes into this science called the limbic brain, it\’s the memory, your memory is the ego, that sense of identity. And then comes the self, our consciousness, the big mind. And so this seven layers are the makeup of who we are. And as life progresses, we lose the rhythm between the seven layers across the seven layers. So in very simple terms, the Sky breath just rhythmically aligns these seven layers. It goes through all these different layers, to yourself. This is called Sudarshan Kriya. It\’s made up of two words, Su is proper, Darshan, is vision, in Sanskrit, and Kriya, is the purifying action. So through the action of your own breath, you get the vision of who you are, and not the body, and not just the mind, but who am I really. And so, it just goes through all these layers, to the self. When you connect to the self, that is that source of happiness, a source of joy, what we say is within, what I found is when you take a dip into that space. It is so nourishing, it is so enlivening, it is so invigorating, it\’s just so peaceful, and the place to enjoy, place to be. I wish everyone on this planet at least once experience, that space. Where you are away from all the modulations of mind, all the impressions in the memory, all the thoughts, the pains and aches of the body. Away from all these layers, but just established in that self. In Sanskrit, the word for \’health\’ or \’happiness\’ is \’swasta\’ which means being established in the self. There is a lot of merit to being established in that space or even just dipping into that space for a minute or a few minutes. It just brings you out so charged. So first and foremost thing at an experiential level. This sky breath gives you that ability to go that tap into that space of who you really are. At the scientific level of course you have sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system. One is responsible for fight or flight, the other is responsible for deeper rest. The sky breath allows you to kind of maintain that balance. And these are the scientific research that allows you to bring that balance into the system so that you are more economists you are more centered against all the situations in the life, or they\’re happening. Another thing that it does is it stimulates the vagal nerve. The vagus nerve has it has nerve endings from all these different organs. It says that the stimulation of vagus nerve can create a lot of peace and calm in the system. The science also says that I was responsible for reducing the cortisol is the stress hormone. It\’s responsible for increasing the the seretonin flow, which is the happiness hormone. So it impacts us. There are hundreds of scientific research that is done. In fact, this is the most recent that came out from Yale and Harvard, that that goes much deeper into it, compares it to other modalities, other breathwork and mindfulness modalities. That\’s all left brain thing. But for me, the most important thing was that how it allowed me to be present, how it let me be. Away from the constant barrage of thoughts, the constant barrage of priorities, the things that we have to do things that are constantly drawing us outwards. It just allowed me to retreat in that deeper space, effortlessly, without much effort, what I do is just sit close my eyes and breathe.
Diva Nagula 26:50
The other thing that comes to mind when we\’re talking about such modalities and techniques that lead to more peace and calmness, on the flip side, does one become so calm and so relaxed, that they lose the the spark to get ahead in business or to get ahead in life, or to maybe even lose that competitiveness?
Kushal Choksi 27:15
In fact, it\’s the actual opposite that happens when you get into that space. Oftentimes, we don\’t do things because of fear of judgment, because a fear of failure. We feel \”oh, what if I do this, if I don\’t succeed at it, what would the world think of me?\” This whole practice, I can speak from my personal experience, and a lot of people that I\’ve met across the globe, in last 20 years who\’ve been practicing this regularly, is that it gives you that ability to be still inside, but also be very dynamic outside. In fact, it was only after I learned this, I left the comfort of my nine to five… or more like seven to nine job and jumped into my own startup and become a serial entrepreneur. This is my third startup and this technique gave me the ability to follow my heart. Oftentimes we don\’t do that, because either we are in our comfort zone, or there\’s some circumstance around us that kind of holds us back. Sometimes there are responsibilities, of course, that we have to respect, I\’m not saying just jump in, headfirst. But oftentimes, even though there is an opportunity, it\’s our mind that holds us back. And this practice gave me that ability to move past and say, what\’s the worst that can happen? There was so much confidence. I realized that I just had to be in action. I just had to do it. And it worked out great. If not, I\’m gonna move on to the next thing that makes me happy. Lo and behold, it did work out in my case. My first start up failed, my next two became successful, but that didn\’t stop me. It\’s just been such an amazing ride for me. I just feel like there\’s a safety net and so I can jump off and I have a parachute. I can jump off the ledge and do things that otherwise I would not have.
Diva Nagula 29:31
And how does this compare to just traditional meditation? There\’s so many, so much research that\’s available for meditation, and there\’s so many benefits to meditation, just the same kind of benefits that you would get from the breath work that you\’re you\’re talking about the sky breath. So why would you choose one versus the other? Or can you do both? Or when would you choose one versus the other.
Kushal Choksi 29:58
I have been the one to always choose the path of least resistance. I do things that are easy to me. This was easy. I\’ve tried, perhaps every single type of meditation that\’s out there, and this was the one that stuck with me. Because this is an active form of meditation, you are breathing. That activity of breathing transports your mind into a state of meditation. I\’ve tried different modalities and different types where you sit and focus on certain parts of the body or focus on a certain sound or focus on a light, different kinds of things to get your mind to that state. Perhaps the state of the mind is same with every meditation in every, if I may say, successful meditation, there\’s nothing to get. In a meditation, perhaps the end experience is the same. How you get there is very important. You get there through a process of negating things, your process of resisting things or you just get there effortlessly, how quickly you get there. This is what this process or this way of doing it and stuck with me because it was very effortless, very gentle. Every time it gave me that experience here. Here\’s the funny thing, I have been breathing/meditating for last 16, some years, not two of my experiences have been the same. It gives you what you need in that moment. If I have had a very long day, if I had a long night before, if there\’s a lot of fatigue in the system, it gives me that physical rejuvenation. If I have a lot of thoughts going on, if the mind is just just bombarded with just a lot of things. It helps me clean that. If there\’s something that\’s weighing on my mind, a feeling of loss or something. It gives me strength to move past that. I myself was getting amazed early on now I started asking, I was like, how can this one such an innocuous thing where you just sit and breathe? There\’s nothing\’s more you\’re doing? How can it just show up in different ways, and give me what I need in that moment? That was a very gratifying experience. I\’m all about instant gratification. I didn\’t have to wait for months to experience that. At the end of training minutes I came out, rejuvenated, I got what I needed in that moment.
Diva Nagula 32:52
Yeah, and a lot of people who I coach or my clients, we always talk about different modalities to calm the nervous system. Obviously, breathwork and meditation are top of the list. And everyone says to me, I can\’t meditate. I can\’t sit still for 20 minutes, I can\’t seem to get rid of these thoughts out of my head to go into a meditative state, then they get turned off by having to sit and do that process for 10 to 20 minutes, or however long it may be. One of the most relaxing things, and one of the easiest things to do is some sort of breathwork, it is a form of meditation. This type of mindfulness practice can achieve what meditation can do for you. It\’s really about tapping into what is the best modality for yourself. You have to try the different ones out there to see what resonates highly with you. And for me, I can sometimes get into a meditative state, but breathwork seems to be very easy. I always tell people the basics of breath work. I tell them to do the box breathing. That\’s a very common practice, very easy practice to start with a specific breathwork type modality. It\’s baby steps. If people\’s nervous systems are really amped up and they need something quick and easy this is a great starting point to really go into a mindfulness practice. And obviously, there\’s advanced techniques, and there\’s techniques like the sky breath, which I\’m sure it\’s can be adapted very quickly for a person. I like to just try different modalities. Then there\’s other modalities that are even easier where you can get to that state of of brainwaves, like the Delta wave by using binaural beats. I\’m a big fan of binaural beats, because you just slap the headset on, listen to it, and 20-30 minutes, your brain is already into that same Delta wave. It\’s beautiful and it can be done anywhere, anytime and you don\’t have to worry about the thoughts and clearing your mind. So it\’s what resonates with you and it\’s great that there are so many different practices, but at the same time, it can be very confusing and daunting for people because there\’s so many. So it\’s nice to be able to have a conversation with someone who\’s been doing this sky breathwork technique for many years, and also understanding how it\’s transformed your life for the better. You\’ve been doing this for 16 years now.
Kushal Choksi 35:30 16 years? Yes.
Diva Nagula 35:31
Wow. That\’s amazing. I\’m sure it\’s had a huge impact. It\’s amazing that the impetus for this was a traumatic event, and that that\’s what\’s really changed your life. And so I\’m sure your life is much more in bliss, what you were looking for that you found. When you\’re talking about entering that state of self are dipping into. I\’m more thinking that\’s more of the oneness type of mentality. It\’s beautiful, there\’s different ways to get to that oneness state. But getting to that state is really beautiful, and blissful. And really, for me, anyways, that attains a different perspective on spirituality. Once you understand that we are all one and we\’re all connected, it kind of changes your perspective and how you treat yourself and how you treat others.
Kushal Choksi 36:27
Absolutely. It\’s that seventh layer of our existence, the self, that connects me, to you and to the universal consciousness, if you will. It\’s so precious to have this awareness and opportunity to dip into it.
Diva Nagula 36:44
And it\’s very powerful, because this things like this should be, in my opinion, taught to the public at a very young age, or to be taught to people in lieu of or along with medications, I\’m not a big fan of anti-anxiety medications or antidepressants unless it\’s absolutely needed. And if they fail conventional techniques, such as breathwork and other mindfulness types of practices then I would agree that an antidepressant or an anti-anxiety medication may be appropriate. But I would love to see more practitioners teaching these types of techniques to their patients.
Kushal Choksi 37:24
I completely agree with you, Doctor. Of course, I\’m no doctor, but I\’ve seen people who come to my programs, or just in general to these programs, because they\’re not able to sleep, there\’s some some sort of neural responses, some stress disorders that are, you know, they\’re forcing them to just gobble a cocktail of medications and one or two days of this practice, I\’ve seen people just, you know, think, Hey, I didn\’t need to take or pop a pill tonight. That\’s such an amazing thing to see.
Diva Nagula 38:06
For listeners who are curious about Sky technique, where can they go to learn more about this?
Kushal Choksi 38:11
Sure, they can go to artofliving.org, Art of Living Foundation has been teaching these practices all around the world. They can look up the next Sky breath meditation workshop. These days, they\’re all happening on zoom. It used to happen in person, but zoom. I even like the zoom version better, you can do it from the comfort of your own home, really be yourself. And, yeah, just that it\’s a three day workshop just a couple of hours every day. I encourage everyone to at least give it a try, then you decide whether it\’s for you or not.
Diva Nagula 38:47
Is it a rolling enrollment or is that you have to just catch a course when it\’s offered from the
beginning to end?
Kushal Choksi 38:54
There are tons. It\’s a largely volunteer in organization, so there are tons of volunteers around the world that are always offering up their time to teach. At any given point of time, in your time zone, you would find at least 8 to 10 programs in a given week. Usually it\’s starts on Friday ends on Sunday. You can look me up on there. I teach regularly on the same platform.
Diva Nagula 39:20
Excellent. You also are coming out with a book. So talk to us a little bit about the book and some of the contents of in when it\’s coming out.
Kushal Choksi 39:30
Yeah, this whole aspect that we talked about in last last half an hour, I put that in a in a book. It\’s called \’On a Wing and a Prayer. Spirituality for the Reluctant the Curious, and the Seeker\’. Perhaps all three of my own life stages at different points in time. It\’s my journey. How this traumatic event kind of pushed me towards looking for a deeper meaning. Looking for something that was more than just nine to five of life. In that process, how I stumbled upon this path, met a spiritual master and everything that I learned from him. Sometimes judging it, sometimes questioning the stereotype, sometimes not accepting it, but yet, despite all the doubts and trials and tribulations, keep coming back to it. In the process, becoming a better version of myself every day. It\’s my journey. I would love for anyone to experience this calm that I experienced. I would love for everyone to experience that but if there are any questions, or if there\’s any doubt in your mind, whether it\’s something for you, or whether that is something you should do when you retire, because that\’s the time of these other pursuits for the later time of the life, then you will be able to relate to my own struggles and my own learnings and perhaps you will enjoy this. The book is coming out very soon. It\’ll be published on the 20th anniversary of September 11 by Penguin Random House. And yeah, there\’s more information about the book on my website. My first name, last name, dot com. KushalChoksi.com.
Diva Nagula 41:43
Excellent. Yeah. But I appreciate it Kushal for taking the time out of your schedule to join me on
the show today. So thank you, once again. It\’s great to have great having you on the show.
Kushal Choksi 41:53
Thank you. It\’s been a pleasure.[/et_pb_text][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][/et_pb_section]