The cultivation of gratitude and joy

It takes intention and practice, which Sacha Wolfson seems to have no lack of 

Yoga, a practice predominantly deep-rooted in India, has spread its branches worldwide. It helps one navigate their inner balance and be with themselves as they search for peace and tranquility. Sacha Wolfson, owner of Wolf Sun Wellness, believes the same and has had an incredible journey figuring out his definition of inner balance and peace.  

Introduced to yoga by his sister, who is also an instructor, 20 years ago Wolfson found this “weird” and wished to never do it again. Life had its own plans to bring him back to where he had started, and today he is here to impact lives with his expertise in this field. 

“In 2016, I hurt my knee and I was doing a lot of other trainings when I decided that I wanted to incorporate more stretching, so I started doing five to 10 minutes of yoga a day. Then turned it to 40 minutes to an hour a day, and then just escalated from there,” said Wolfson. In order to balance things out with the other hard trainings that he was undergoing, Wolfson found it imperative to get regular at yoga.  

He observed that most people, especially athletes, were used to practicing yoga to counterbalance the effect of the strenuous training and weightlifting at the gym to increase agility. This got him to realize the need of yoga and how people struggle to incorporate this as a part of their lives to make it better, despite wanting to do it being incapable of figuring out a time to practice it.  

Wolfson continued to practice daily for about three years before he decided to do his first training to move onto the next chapter. Before his deep inclination towards yoga, Wolfson was in sales and service for about 20 years when he finally realised that his real calling was teaching yoga. “There is a lot of philosophy associated with it. The more I delved into the philosophy, I really wanted to find something to give back, and actually doing a service to the world, […] cultivate a life that allowed me to focus more into teaching and more on giving back and doing more community things,” he said. 

As he wishes to give back to the community and be of service to society, he continues to upskill himself and commit to be a life-long learner. He believes that to be able to be a good teacher, it is very important to learn too so that he can be of better service and help more people.  

Going through a period of a 50-hour workweek, along with a 100 hours of teacher training for yoga per month, along with teaching people for about 4 days a week, Wolfson realized eventually that yoga was his desired sanctuary. It was a very intense period for him as he struggled with multiple responsibilities and tasks that, to be fulfilled, required his full attention.  

“The more I did the teacher training at Quants, the more I realized how much I love absorbing that and how much that stuff just energizes me. And that was something I was excited about and wanted to share. I kind of just came to a breaking point last October where I just realized that I wanted to jump in and go on a different path,” said Wolfson. He reflected that he is way more passionate about this and that makes him feel more fulfilled. On his last day of teacher training, he made up his mind to quit work and just go all in with yoga. 

Wolfson booked the tickets right away to Peru when he had made up his mind that he was going to teach yoga full-time. Around November, Wolfson went to Peru for his 20-day intense training of different types of yoga like Ashtanga and Sivananda yoga, and found it to be “such a great environment.” He found the facilitators and people running the training well-experienced, and they provided an engaging environment to immerse himself to the world of yoga. 

Asking him three tips for people to incorporate yoga and mindfulness in their daily lives, this is what Wolfson had as his two cents. 

Incorporate a practice of just five minutes every day. It is understandable to take out a dedicated hour to practice, but starting with just five minutes a day can be a stepping stone to doing so regularly.  

Keep away from your phone during rest. He advised to get an alarm clock and keep the phone away before sleeping. He mentioned that it is imperative to find that time to reset and have a sound sleep. He also mentioned how having an alarm clock and not having to depend on mobile phones for alarms is an important habit to develop for maintaining a healthy, sustainable sleep schedule. 

Don’t overcomplicate things. “Mindfulness doesn’t have to be that hard,” Wolfson noted. “You just have to find moments of presence and breathe throughout the day and when you’re feeling stressed or worked up, just stop for a couple seconds, maybe close your eyes, breathe, and stay in the moment.” 

Wolfson believes in practicing gratitude and continues to preach the same as he does so when he wakes up in the morning. Having said so, he continues to inspire and impact several lives through his mindfulness coaching at Wolf Sun Wellness. His dedication towards the community and serving the people though his expertise and learning will be continuing. “I am still learning and still working to get there, but it’s really just enjoying that journey and creating and cultivating that life of gratitude and joy.”