Category: Musings

The impact of the season

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The summer is definitely gone when the coconut oil isn’t liquid anymore! The summer here was a very hot and dry one, which made most of my students getting exhausted quite quickly. I love to practice in the heat. It’s so much easier for the joints, the muscles…. well, the whole body is softer, much more flexible. I felt strong, filled with energy. Furthermore, I’m under the impression my body forgives easier in the heat when I push too much. 

Season is changing right now, the temperature went down, the long desired rain is there. While the plants outside might feel a relief, my body started complaining. Some pain here, less stamina there… I know I need to practice with a stronger focus and fully aware to avoid injury. My Ashtanga practice was difficult today, the change is in my body. Got the message and put yin yoga on my schedule for tomorrow. Also using different essential oils to minimize the impact of the season change. 

How about you? Do you feel the seasons in your body? Is there any that supports your practice?

Do you pray?

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I never used this term, as I related it to religion and I thought, people pray in a church, mosque, temple or on their own to their god. I even had issues with the term god, as I don’t belong to a religion and don’t believe in god. 

Even if this is still the same, my attitude made a full turn-around when I went to India for my teacher training first time and saw how open and easy people deal with their gods (yes they have more) and how they pray. I learned about the Hindu gods, and I love all the stories around them, colorful and beautiful analogies. And I like that they have a name, a family, a face, a body, certain things around them and everything is representing something important in life. Everything and everyone has a story to tell. They seem real. Even with a lot of arms and other magical attributes.

India took away the strictness and tightness I saw in religion as such and showed me a world full of openness, laughter, ease and same time seriousness. I learned to put my hands in prayer in front of my heart center during my yoga practice and nothing felt wrong with it. It wasn’t religious, it felt and still feels as a ritual.

However I still replace the term god with universe when reading a spiritual text and I still don’t pray, but strongly believe, it’s just a matter of definition. I recite mantras, I talk to the universe, I challenge the law of attraction, I ask and give thanks to my angles.

Well, guess some would call it praying. 

The next workshop is on!

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Play with us! It’s getting quiet, we listen, we slow down, we get soft and we look within instead of around. We tune in.

Let’s do it together.

The workshop is all about the central theme of COMPASSION and together we will meditate, practicing fascia release with Yin Yoga and finally you will experience a Chakra Healing.

8th September, 4-6pm, @Stadtyoga (Zürich)

Let me know if you are in by clicking here.

Freedom 

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The older I get, the more does my yoga practice change. No, I’m not talking about anything I can’t do anymore, on the contrary, I’m taking about freedom.

The freedom to decide what it means to dedicate myself to a daily practice. Yes, it means to show up. No, it doesn’t mean to practice the full primary series 6 days a week. Well there are weeks when I do exactly this, but the difference is, my dedication is to practice yoga in a way that suits my body needs that particular day. 

This means letting go of bondage. I do practice on my mat daily. Without feeling guilty to listen to my body and do exactly what I need that moment. Mindful practice without forcing myself. Some days this might mean practicing yin yoga. Others I might do some sun salutations and a simple flow to get my body long and stretched. It can also mean to just sit in stillness and meditate. Challenging enough! And still most days, I do the full primary series. Some days I think, let’s do a slow flow following some matching music, while some time later I recognize that I’m in the midst of my Ashtanga practice. And it feels great to just move without thinking, led by my body, doing what I love.

I also let go of the need to master advanced postures. I know they will come anyhow when I’m ready. Working on them without pressure and the need to follow the crowd. This too is yoga.

This is what I call freedom. It’s my practice and I stopped judging me. No labels needed, it’s just that, yoga. This is my way to create space in body and mind.

 

Photo by Nadja Kappeler

Give your self-healing capabilities a major boost!

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Enjoy a calming and relaxing Reiki session, to fully unwind while the energy is working for you. I’m free now for new appointments – face to face or distance, up to you!

Read more about the benefits here and let me know when you’re ready for an energy boost!

New class

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Yogis!

We will start a new class from next Wednesday – join us and make your lunch count!

We practice Vinyasa Flow, however no worries re the steaming heat, we adjust 🙂

Give it a try, first class is on me for all new joiners.

Same time as Mondays (12:15 – 13:15), same location (Stadtyoga, Zürich Binz).

Let’s dive into the yoga frequency together! Monday or Wednesday or both – let me know if you’re in 🙂

Reiki

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I am guided, and sometimes it seems there’s even more… I know, it sounds strange and I can tell you, it felt just totally unreal. Let me start at the beginning. Some time ago, I was thinking on what might be my next step, my next learning along my yoga path. I found myself in front of my computer, searching for – hold on. What? I searched for a Reiki training. Hell what? Reiki is great, don’t get me wrong, but my Reiki experience – which wasn’t that much to be honest, but at least I received Reiki a couple of times – wasn’t any kind of game changing to dig into it much deeper. So why was I looking for a Reiki training? I didn’t had a clue.

However doing this search and my surprise when I recognized what I was searching for, made me curious. I really felt like a puppet on a string! Strange! However, this moment, it got my full attention. I stopped questioning and continued kind of observing myself. Soon I found a teacher who ‘spoke to me’ and believe it or not, I did the training. I was flashed. I practiced and my world was shaking; it was unbelievable. What happened during my self-practice, but the experience when I gave Reiki was even more exciting. I had to learn how to differentiate between the client and me to understand what’s a message for my client and what are just my thoughts or physical reactions. New doors opened up for me.

It didn’t take long for the 2nd training to follow, which made me even more sensitive to the more subtle layers of the aura. Energy work is just amazing and the more I learn the more I understand, that we don’t know much about it. Anyhow, it works.

I will be forever grateful, whoever or whatever influenced my fingers that day to type ‘Reiki’ into the search. I also thank myself for the courage to just do it without knowing why and to simply believe that this is what I have to do. It feels like my path. No matter if Reiki or Yoga is the vehicle, supporting people to help themselves is the most rewarding work I can think of.

Do you want to get an idea of what this safe and gentle form of hands-on healing can do for you? Wherever you are in this world, let’s get in contact!

Atman

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When I was a child, there was a time I was thinking about who I am. It was very clear to me, that there is something I struggled explaining or finding the right words. I called it my “coenesthesia”. This feeling of “I”, which I believed would not die with my body. This special feeling when saying “I”, this is my true self.

I kept this belief my whole life, but many years later yoga philosophy taught me the right terms of what I already knew since a young child. In yoga this true inner essence, our inner self is called Atman. A kind of fragment of the Divine (Brahman), which exists in every one of us, and which is the very core of our being. We easily mistake it with our ego and identify with our body and mind, instead of going beyond intellect, ego and emotions.

Realizing this false conviction and identification with the ego, the mortal body and mind is called liberation (Moksha), which eventually leads to freedom from the cycle of death and rebirth (Samskara).

Frankly spoken, even if I had this insight already as a child, it doesn’t mean it’s easy to live by. To translate and implement it into daily life is where we struggle most. Knowing, understanding is one side of the medal, get it on the driver seat of life is the other side.

This is what a meditation and yoga practice helps with, no matter what style, on or off the mat. Yoga is the sum of all paths on inner development, the goal of which is to realize and experience your Divine true inner self, and thereby transform life.

This short dispatch is nothing but a very high level glance at the yoga philosophy, which is so worth a deep dive!

Utthita Trikonasana

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Utthita Trikonasana – extended three angle pose.

Think rotation, think strengthening.

Think stretching, think opening.

Deeply grounded, while reaching up towards the ceiling.

🔱 🔱

The next level

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Only when you can be extremely pliable and soft can you be extremely hard and strong. (Zen Proverb)

When practicing, find something more than just the physical challenge. Use the physical practice for controlling your mind, as the physical body is merely a vehicle. It’s not that important what you practice, but HOW you practice. It’s about deep listening, understanding your body and creating harmony. Notice when you are pushing and stop immediately. Let it go, connect with your breath, feel your body, then start again. 

Getting soft in your practice isn’t a sign of weakness, but strength. 

Yoga means union. Union of purusha (spirit, soul) and prakriti (surrounding, nature around us). Union of atman (true self) and brahman (absolute consciousness). Union of body and mind, the unity between the individual soul and the cosmic soul.

Bring your practice to the next level – get soft.