“I started to enjoy yoga and the philosophy behind it,” Maya said. “During my holidays, I travelled to Everest Base Camp, and that opened up my world. Although I went back to my job, about a year later, when my friends were heading overseas, and I had no leave left to join them, I decided to go anyway. I quit my job and bought a one-way ticket to South America.”

When the holiday was over, Maya wasn’t ready to return. By chance, she met an Australian going to India to become a yoga teacher, and so she joined him and studied yoga in India for six months. When Maya returned to Australia, she wanted to study Ayurvedic medicine, but there was nowhere to study it. “Friends of mine had been to Endeavour, and it had a good reputation, so I decided to enrol in Nutritional Medicine instead. While I studied, I taught yoga – including in corporate offices during lunch and after work. After I graduated, I added health talks to my corporate work.”

“While I was at Endeavour, I also worked at a health food shop. It was a great education alongside what I was learning at college. I helped all sorts of people and saw many diseases and conditions. Some of those customers became my yoga clients and vice versa. At the start, I didn’t have a clear idea about what I wanted to do with my degree. I just believed in natural medicine and the body’s ability to heal itself as long as we give it the right help.”

Maya enjoyed delivering corporate health talks because she could help many people at once. Unfortunately, this fell apart during COVID-19 as more and more people began working from home. Maya redirected her energy into work for a supplement company.

“Aside from Ayurveda, I love supplements. I have seen how much impact they can have if you use the right ones. My role is to support practitioners. I teach them about the products and how to use them. They are practitioner-only supplements, so I need my degree to do the job. The cool thing is that I’m also involved in laboratory testing of supplements.”

Maya said it took until the third year for all she’d studied to come together. “In the student clinic, it all started to make sense. But I think it’s important for students to realise that clinic is not the only option. When you graduate, there are many different paths you can take.”

When she can travel again, Maya will return to Nepal first. “It is the most beautiful place in the world,” she said. “For me, being there was life-changing.”

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