My first teacher
I discovered my first teacher ironically a few months after I graduated college, while I was a fashion assistant at Mademoiselle Magazine.
I was in the most uber chic of all magazine editors I had ever encountered office, and she had a copy of the book, Absolute Beauty, Radiant Skin, and Inner Harmony through the Ancient Secrets of Ayurveda on her desk. The book in itself is beautiful and has such a distinct energy just by holding it. if you haven’t read it, please order it now as it’s a must have for every woman looking to achieve peace, beauty, and harmony. Just leave it on your nightstand and read any page you feel called to open. Everything is relevant and just like Ayurveda, completely timeless.
This was in 2000. “The ancient science of Ayurveda I thought, and how to help create balance in a frenetic world.” I was hooked immediately and also perplexed on how to even go about achieving this. I was an ungrounded, trauma filled by day, party loving by night, non-sleeping, anxiety induced 22 year old. I hadn’t even discovered yoga yet. I drank iced coffee at 8pm before I went out. And when I broached the subject of spirituality at certain times, would be laughed at by my friends, lovingly but nonetheless not encouraged. Although it touched me, I put the book down for a couple of years…
Flash forward to 2013 and I was now helping that teacher I hadn’t yet met in 2000, bring her gifts out into the natural beauty space with the goal to get her the recognition she deserved as the true Mother of natural and ageless beauty. And expand her business alongside modernizing Ayurveda, the amazing and ancient science dating back over 7000 years. There are so many ways to talk about Ayurveda but my favorite description, the study of oneself.
Pratima was 74 when we met. How I love that woman. A mother in her own right to so many. You would sit in her office, close the door and she would look at you and without saying anything, you’d just start crying. It was like she could see and sense your pain and her soft eyes would try and ease any suffering just by looking at you. We would give her a word or topic to talk about, like love or consciousness and she’d create the most incredible and profound sermon that you absolutely needed to hear that day in that moment. You never really forget your first teacher, and for me it’s more one that helps realign your path or destiny. One that aligns with your values and speaks to your soul, even when you have no idea what that soul is talking about. Or for me I couldn’t even hear my soul. But I could definitely feel it.
I remember organizing Pratima’s 75th birthday party in September of 2013 and the first guest who I opened the door for was that same glamorous and chic European beauty editor whose book on her office table inspired my introduction to wellness, balance, and natural beauty and of course PRATIMA.
That was my first encounter I can remember believing in and understanding synchronicity and it was an evening I will never, ever forget.