134: Following Your Curiosity with Divya Kohli

Hello Couragemakers and welcome to another fabulous episode! This week I’m chatting with the amazing storyteller who is Divya Kohli.

Divya is a London-based, Indian-born senior Yoga and Meditation teacher. She embraces both the scientific and spiritual aspects of yoga and meditation, and the eastern and western parts of her heritage.

After studying Literature at Cambridge University, Divya won a place on The Guardian’s news trainee scheme. While working as a freelance journalist she discovered yoga, more than 20 years’ ago, seemingly by accident, when she stumbled into a class in a room above her local pub. Since that pivotal day in her life she committed to the practice and began investigating the theory of how it worked. This has led her to spend periods of time with teachers in India, while also learning from western schools of psychology, philosophy and neuroscience. She is a professionally trained Mindfulness Facilitator through the mental health charity MIND.

She has grown a community through her teaching, connecting with people across the city of London, the UK and beyond. Her aim is to share accessible ways the practices she has found to be life-changing and can help all of us who are susceptible to the stresses of modern times.

Alongside yoga and meditation, Divya is also passionate about writing, creativity and trance music!

In this week’s episode we’re really diving into the importance of nuance and owning the ups and downs of our own stories.

Divya shares her journey so far, from growing up feeling like an outsider, the many different career paths she has taken and how following her curiosity is what has led her to what she’s doing today.

We dive into how Divya gives herself permission to follow her curiosities, her practical advice for dealing with fear and uncertainty and her great motto of ‘do your time but make your time.’

If you wonder whether you’re on the right path, this is absolutely the episode for you!

I love how refreshing it was to hear all about the twists and the turns on Divya’s path and I know you’re going to get lost in her storytelling!

Enjoy the show!

About Divya:

Divya is a London-based, Indian-born senior Yoga and Meditation teacher. She embraces both the scientific and spiritual aspects of yoga and meditation, and the eastern and western parts of her heritage.

After studying Literature at Cambridge University, Divya won a place on The Guardian’s news trainee scheme. While working as a freelance journalist she discovered yoga, more than 20 years’ ago, seemingly by accident, when she stumbled into a class in a room above her local pub. Since that pivotal day in her life she committed to the practice and began investigating the theory of how it worked. This has led her to spend periods of time with teachers in India, while also learning from western schools of psychology, philosophy and neuroscience. She is a professionally trained Mindfulness Facilitator through the mental health charity MIND.

She has grown a community through her teaching, connecting with people across the city of London, the UK and beyond. Her aim is to share accessible ways the practices she has found to be life-changing and can help all of us who are susceptible to the stresses of modern times.

Website | Facebook | Instagram

Things We Talked About:

• The many different career paths she has taken
• Following your curiosity - finding things you could never have predicted
• Leaning into following the things that make you curious
• How Divya gives herself permission to follow her curiosities
• Being in discomfort
• Do your time but make your time
• Dealing with the question is this enough
• Divya’s practical advice for dealing with fear and uncertainty

Resources Mentioned:

• Working with men

About Meg & That Hummingbird Life

I’m Meg and I’m the host of Couragemakers and founder of That Hummingbird Life. I’m a coach for creative and multipassionate women, a writer and INFJ creative and multi-passionate who has a bit of a notebook and post-it note obsession, loves foot-stomping country music and likes her hot chocolate with way too much chocolate.

I started Couragemakers because I wanted to create a platform for passionate and unconventional women to have honest conversations and to share their stories, struggles and dreams. The intention behind this podcast is to inspire and encourage creative and mission-driven women to live a wholehearted life and follow the beat of their drum.

When I'm not recording episodes, writing