As a child, I was always very active and loved being outdoors in nature. My father was a runner and a great athlete. He passed away suddenly when I was six years old. Running felt like a connection to him and was a really great space to connect to myself, and with people who've been on the trail before me.

I find it very spiritual and grounding to be out on the trail, because I'm not the first person to be out there. When I see the tracks of various animals or insects, I think about all the different life that has touched that space.

I played a range of different sports but always felt that there was this part of me I was holding back, and that I couldn't fully be the athlete I wanted to be.

I thought I was just being an awkward, self-conscious teenager. It really hasn't been until the last seven years that I've started to piece together why I felt so held back.

I've never felt like I got to tap into my potential, and I’m exploring how to push those boundaries for myself.

The biggest eye-opening experience was during my yoga teacher training. It invites so much self-reflection. While contorting my body through specific ways, I was able to bend, mold, and expose.

I started to peel back some of those layers and recognize that I was denying so much of what made me me, which was taking away from me being able to live authentically as an athlete, as a person, as a human being.

So many people get caught up in the asana, or the physical postures of things, without realizing that there's so much more than that.

I found this freeing connection that's very much been part of my athletic journey. As athletes, we have to know ourselves. We have to be ourselves fully, and that's not just about muscles, strength, or speed. It's about who we are at the core.

[As told to @Ragi Gupta — continued]