How it all started
“How did you come to yoga?”
That is a question I have often been asked.
At the time of 14, my mother took me to a yoga weekend for the first time.
At that time I didn’t understand much about “yoga”, but I liked the acrobatic exercises, was proud to make it into the headstand, wondered about all that breathing and didn’t know what to do, while everyone was meditating. (That the sudden silence was meditation I came to know a few years later)
Then I accompanied my mother again and again to a yoga class. I remember some other Yoga Students standing around me and pulling on me to get me into the warrior.
Private Yoga Teacher in Delhi
When I came to Delhi at the age of 19 (2009) to volunteer for an organization in a slum for a year, my yoga practice became not only much more intense, but above all more regular.
Three times a week, my friend and I had the luxury of a private yoga teacher. I was still very new to Yoga. The stretching was painful and didn’t have any understanding of Pranayama and felt it was more of a necessary evil. Nevertheless, I developed a first proper approach to yoga.
Also, because in India yoga is still lived.. Our landlady did her breathing exercises every morning and when we walked in the park, we heard loud laughter from the laughing yoga groups and watched individual Indians practicing yoga in the park.
My first intensive yoga training
In October 2012, I traveled to the Himalayan mountain resort of Manali and met my second yoga teacher. He taught Shivananda yoga and I did a seven-day intensive course with him, where we practiced seven hours of yoga a day, especially Asana and Pranayama.
I liked the teacher and decided to do an intensive one-month yoga training with him. The program was similar to that of a yoga teacher program, with a strict daily routine, many hours on the mat and philosophy, mantra and shatkarma lessons.
I was his only student and every morning I staggered through the deep snow to his yoga room. Manali is a bustling tourist resort in summer, but in winter almost all the shops are closed and so only me and the locals lived in the village.
Even in hindsight, the memory of it still feels special to me. I had a close teacher-student relationship with the guru, almost as discussed in some traditional books. I lived a simple life and practiced yoga.
Yoga Teacher Training in Goa
A year later, I decided to do a certified education and found a suitable yoga school in Goa, run by Vijay, an over 55-year-old Ashtanga yogi. In “Universal Yoga” I received a sound training in ashthanga and hatha yoga under palm trees by the sea, with a focus on the correct guidance, execution and correction in the asanas. I also met the best yoga philosophy teacher I could wish for and got an insight into Patanjalis Yoga Sutras.
After this 200-hour yoga teacher training, I began to teach yoga regularly in my hometown of Manali. I enjoyed teaching travelers from all over the world, but over time I lacked the depth in my own practice and yoga knowledge, so I decided to do another yoga teacher training in 2014.
Yoga Therapy Course at Ashram
This time the focus was on yoga therapy and meditation and so I decided on the Paramanand Ashram in Indore, a touristically completely unknown place in the middle of India. In this 300-hour yoga teacher training, I not only lived the life of an ashram dweller, but was introduced to the worlds of pranayama and meditation.
In addition, we received special yoga therapy classes for participants to reduce physical and mental suffering as a yoga teacher.
After this time, I not only developed my own yoga practice, but also started offering yoga trips and retreats.
In 2015 and 2016 I did trainings in Daramshala in Ayurvedic massage and Thai yoga massage. I also lived for several weeks in the Rajasthani Ashram Shri-Jasanth to teach yoga to the visitors, Ashram family and Indian children.
During a yoga trip with a guest, we finally lived for a few days in the Anand-Prakash-Ashram in Rishikesh.
The guru of the ashram himself, Vishvketu ji, was also there and led a yoga teacher training at the time.
What I experienced in his morning yoga classes was unbelievable. Suddenly yoga became whole! Vishvketu was able to combine yoga philosophy, asana, pranayama, meditation and mantra in his self-developed teaching style and let everything merge.
Every yoga lesson with him was like a new awakening and for me it was clear if I wanted to travel on my yoga path, then with him.
Yoga Teacher Training in Rishikesh
Exactly one year later (October 2017), I was sitting in front of him again on the mat, this time as a student for the six-week 300-hour yoga teacher training.
What I learned and experienced during this time is probably the knowledge of a whole life. Not only did I mature personally on my own yoga path, but I also learned to teach very special yoga classes, deepened my knowledge of yoga anatomy, and developed a clearer picture of the yoga tradition and philosophy.
During this time I also discovered my love of Bhakti yoga with mantra chanting and singing Kirtan and took parallel lessons in harmonium. The harmonium has since become an important companion to me.
I continue to practice yoga regularly and combine my teachers’ different yoga directions with my own style. I teach and run retreats and workshops throughout India.
Through my passion for sports, I also try to incorporate yoga into my training as a supplement and balance and deal closely with yoga and sports.
I enjoy my yoga journey, which will probably never end. Again and again there are new insights, a different perspective, another aha experience that captures me with childlike joy in yoga.
I wish to be able to convey this joy to my students.
Update:
In 2019, an apprenticeship in singing bowls therapy and Nada Yoga/Mantra Yoga with Shiva Girish in Goa was added.
In January 2020 I did a 200 hour teacher Training in Ahstanga and Yin Yoga with Upaya Yoga in Goa.
In Aprl 2020 I completed a Basic Ayurveda Course run by the International Academy of Ayurveda
In Juli 2020 I started by 30 Hour certified 3 Month Yoga Anatomy Mentorship training with the Yoga Anatomy by Dr Ariele Foster.
