Yoga has changed my inner engineering: actor and yoga icon Shilpa Shetty

Actor Shilpa Shetty needs no introduction. Making her debut with Baazigar in 1993, Shetty has worked in at least 40 films, across three decades, making her way up the ladder with acclaimed performances in Dhadkan (2000), Phir Milenge (2004), and Life in a… Metro (2007).

She was also the first Indian celebrity to contest in the British reality TV show Big Brother- Season 5, subsequently emerging as its winner. 

An advocate of yoga and wellness, Shetty has redefined ‘fitness’ in her late 40s. In 2015, the actor launched her Yoga DVD, later campaigning for the Indian government-led Fit India Movement in 2019. The same year, Shetty took a step further to make yoga more accessible and launched the Simple Soulful by Shilpa Shetty app to focus not just on yoga, but also on overall fitness and wellness. 

YS Life caught up with Shetty to dive deeper into her journey with yoga, her philosophy of consistency, and what’s next on her plate.

Edited excerpts from the conversation: 

YSL: You have always credited yoga for maintaining both your physical and mental well-being. Has your approach to yoga evolved over the years, as you grew professionally and personally?

SS: Absolutely. First, I did yoga to alleviate my cervical injury. Then, for the next four years, I did yoga to stay fit. But that's how you look at yoga when you're young. Today, yoga has changed me, and it has changed the way I think. 

Today, it's about being aligned. I don't look at it as an exercise regime. I look at it as a way to keep myself balanced and to keep myself in sync with my soul. So yeah, it's, it's a little profound and a little deep, but that is my connection with yoga.

YSL: Is there any specific philosophy within yoga that has surprised you with its impact? 

SS: Many aspects of yoga have surprised me! As they say consistency is key, and in yoga, with every stage and with years of practice, it gives you a key to open another door. 

When you approach yoga in the beginning, you just see this one huge door. And then when you start practising it, and understand the depth of yoga, it'll give you another key. It's just never-ending. 

The journey of self-discovery is so beautiful. It makes you believe that nothing in life is impossible. It gives you the key to the power of thinking right, not just for yourself, but even for other people. And I think that is one lesson I have learned through my journey of yoga. It has changed my inner engineering. 

I'm in love with the science of yoga. I think my greatest learning from yoga is the fact that you have to be in control. And you shouldn't give the key of control in anyone's hand. Your emotions can vary from time to time, depending on the energy in the room,  and things that happen in your life, but you can choose how you want to deal with it. If you have awareness of your breath you will realise that no other circumstances and people will have control over your minds. 

As everyone's aware, I've been through many ups and downs, but the only thing that keeps me going is the fact that I have control over my breath, and over my mind. No one can tell me how I am meant to feel. It (yoga) teaches you to know and own your truth. 

YSL: Are there days when you do not feel like practising? 

SS: You think that I'm somebody who likes to wake up and work out in the gym, the first thing in the morning? No, I'm absolutely as human as you are. There are days it's exhausting because of the kind of work that I do. I'm also a mother of two kids—a five-year-old and a 12-year-old, and I had them very late in my life. It’s extremely demanding and exhausting. There are times when I want to just sleep in, but the one thing that keeps me going is the results. There is no free lunch in the world. I know that workouts and yoga make me look and feel the way I do. So I have to get up and push myself. 

Sometimes I can only get in maybe three or four days of a workout of any kind, in a week. But what I do religiously is, before I wind down, I do my pranayam. 10 minutes in the day, at the end of the day—I do that for myself. 

You have to be consistent, and without consistency, you can't achieve your goal.

YSL: What's next? Are you working on any projects at the moment? 

SS: For the last two years, I have been slaving it out. I had been working in the Indian Police Force, and simultaneously I was working on Sukhee. I was exhausted. I just started with KD- The Devil, and I also came out of an injury, I fractured my knee, so I feel maybe that was God's way of trying to tell me that I need to slow down. 

I'm kind of pacing it out now. I want to live a little, spend some more time to discover myself, and more time for yoga. I haven't decided on what I want to do next. I'm reading a couple of scripts, so maybe next year. I don't know if I'm going to work this year…sounds really strange coming from an actor!