FROM INTERNATIONAL DJ TO YOGA TEACHER
Meet Vikasa founder Kosta Miachin and hear his journey from a lifestyle of parties and emptiness, to one of yoga, fulfilment and happiness.
In my early twenties, I didn’t have a clue about yoga or wellness. In fact, I’d never even heard of yoga. I was into partying, big time. Drugs, girls and drinking were my primary focuses. I lived for the weekends. I worked as a DJ and a promoter. I ran events, performed in nightclubs and would consider a good night one that I could barely remember the next day.
While it was fun at the time, I felt hollow inside. I was burnt out and exhausted. I didn’t understand who I was or what my role in life could possibly be.
On the outside, my life looked great, on the inside, I was deeply lost and unhappy.
I was pushing my way through life with the brakes on. I grasped for answers outside of myself and used drugs and alcohol to numb the feelings of despair.
My physical health was also quickly deteriorating. I developed a severe skin condition that no doctor was able to diagnose or cure.
I knew I needed a drastic change.
Have you ever asked yourself- “Is there more to my life than this? What am I actually here to do?”
I did the most drastic thing I could think of at the time. I escaped to Thailand to train in Muay Thai boxing. After 3 months I was physically spent but my stress and anxiety had disappeared. I had more clarity and many of my health issues had gone.
I returned home. Yet, it didn’t take long for all my health problems to resurface again.
I felt hopeless, lost, in an endless loop of gloom and doom. No professionals could help me and everyone had different advice. I realised that they were all just trying to make money out of my problems, rather than truely care about helping me.
I realised something very powerful- I couldn’t buy a solution to my problems. The problem was in me.
So I switched course and decided to seek out something deeper, more internal and spiritual in nature.
I embarked on a trip to India to cure myself.
I ended up in an Ayurveda retreat in Kerala and it was here, quite unintentionally, that I attended my first yoga class.
The next day I decided to try the class again.
I attended that class for 50 days in a row.
On Sundays there were no classes, so I would try to practice on my own. One of these days while was practicing alone, a few people asked if they could join me. I explained that I wasn’t a teacher but they were happy to simply follow my lead.
After the class they suggested I should become a teacher.
As they say, the rest is history.
This led me on a very long journey to get to where I am today at Vikasa (this is another story for another time.)
Upon returning home I quit my destructive party lifestyle and started practicing yoga and meditation instead. Within months I noticed a massive shift in my life, and my energy started to rise. I felt connected in a way I had never experienced before and started to trust myself and my intuition.
I stopped abusing my body and started to care for it and eventually, I stopped trying to escape reality and instead started to enjoy being present in each moment.
Throughout my journey, I trained with five different yoga schools and found that my life had gone from emptiness to fulfilment, from loneliness to love and from lack to abundance. I found a deep sense of peace inside me, I changed my attitude towards life, and I discovered that my purpose is to serve others.
Most importantly, I realised that everything I ever wanted was already inside me.
I came to understand that the more we connect within, look after our health and observe the nature of the mind, the freer we are and the deeper and more meaningful life becomes.
At some point, I began to see yoga as a tool for the evolution, helping people to expand their consciousness and understanding of self.
This led me to creating the concept of Vikasa, which grew from a yoga school into a global community, academy and lifestyle.
On 11.11.11 the first Vikasa Yoga school opened it’s doors in Koh Samui, Thailand. Today, we host retreats and train people to become yoga teachers.
Above all though, we offer a space for personal evolution.
A space for people to come and peel back the layers, move deeper within and understand that happiness is a choice. The Vikasa philosophy is predicated on this notion- that in every moment, we have the option to choose happiness.
Vikasa isn’t just about yoga. It’s a way of life.
It took me many decades to train, learn and embody everything I know today. Vikasa is a way for me to share this wisdom and these practices with you in the hope that it will ignite your own journey of transformation.
Of course, you will soon discover just as I did, that only YOU are responsible for your own health and happiness.
The first step is taking the time to simply be with yourself, to dive deeper, to listen within and find out what happiness and wellness means to you. Then your path becomes clearer and your life becomes filled with infinite possibility.
Read more about Vikasa Founder Kosta Miachin here.
Try a free class with Kosta here.
Train with Kosta- 100hr, 200hr and 300hr YTT upcoming dates.
Part Two of Kosta’s journey coming soon- The Unfolding of Vikasa.
