Parkour, mindfulness and the wild: How Sudipta Mondal turned Palawan’s jungle into a lesson
From teaching movement and mindful living to navigating the unforgiving jungles of Palawan, Sudipta Mondal recently found herself in one of the most demanding environments imaginable. The 38-year-old parkour athlete and holistic fitness coach is among the participants on Discovery India’s Naked and Afraid: Aadimanav, a survival series that pushes individuals to their limits with no modern comforts to rely on. For Sudipta, the experience became far more than a test of physical endurance. She speaks about survival, conscious living, and the lessons the jungle had to offer.
A parkour coach turns a brutal survival challenge into a journey of listening to the body, embracing uncertainty and learning from the forest
As a parkour and holistic fitness coach, what inspired you to step out of your comfort zone and take on Naked and Afraid: Aadimanav?
I don’t think I stepped out of my comfort zone. In many ways, I stepped into it. Nature has always been my greatest teacher. I grew up in a village in Jharkhand, where living with fewer comforts was simply a way of life. Later, Zumba taught me to have fun, calisthenics taught me discipline, strength, and body control, parkour taught me adaptability and how to build a resilient spirit, yoga taught me stillness, and years of coaching taught me that the body is capable of far more than we believe. When I was approached for Naked and Afraid: Aadimanav, I wasn’t chasing adventure. I was curious to discover who I would be when every identity, every comfort and every distraction was taken away.
How did your years of training help you navigate surviving the jungles of Palawan?
Movement is much more than exercise because it teaches you how to listen. Years of parkour, strength training, yoga, rehabilitation and mobility work have helped me understand how my body communicates. In Palawan, every step mattered. Walking on uneven terrain, climbing, balancing, crawling, carrying materials, or simply sitting on the ground for hours demanded efficiency rather than brute strength. My training also taught me body awareness. I could recognize early signs of fatigue, dehydration, and emotional stress before they became overwhelming.
What was the toughest challenge you faced on the show?
The hardest challenge wasn’t physical as such. It was uncertainty. Not knowing whether we’d find food, Not knowing whether the weather would change. Human beings naturally want certainty, but a survival show like this doesn’t offer it. No amount of fitness training can prepare you for living with continuous uncertainty while being sleep deprived, hungry, emotionally vulnerable, and physically exhausted.
Was there a moment during the experience when fear threatened to take over?
There were moments when my body was exhausted, when hunger affected my thinking, and when uncertainty felt heavy. But I’ve learned over the years that emotions don’t need to be fought. They need to be witnessed. Instead of asking, “How do I make this feeling disappear?” I would ask, “What is this feeling trying to tell me?” Breathing consciously and focusing on the next small task instead of the entire journey, and reminding myself why I was there helped me move through those moments.