Some impressions and thoughts about The Yoga World 2017 in Munich
Barbara Noh, Patrick Broome, Dr.Ronald Steiner, Christine May.
They all accompany me as a yoga teacher through online yoga classes or newspaper articles on my own yoga path for several years.
Now I was especially looking forward to meeting these yoga teachers at the Yogworld fair in Munich and to participate in their yogaclasses and lectures for real and to see what is going on in the Western yoga world.
Many dogs
“Flowy, creative and a lot of dogs” – this is how the most popular yoga class style these days of the “Westerners” can be described.
In the western world we seem to love dynamic yoga, where you get into a sweat and are brought into demanding yoga asanas under the exact instructions of the teacher. Many Vinyasas, again and again in the downward facing dog, at the end a short final relaxation and swoops one is charged with new energy and ready for the stressful everyday life.
Yoga can be exhausting
In his yoga class, Dr. Roland Steiner explains that yoga can and should be exhausting. But please without the competition in ind, that can be so typical for us. We should look away from the neighbour, close our eyes and feel into ourselves what is good for us and what we need.”
Two things are important for health: exercise and relaxation. Dr. Roland Steiner recommends a relaxation in Shavasana for at least 20 minutes after every Asana practice, during which you can also get a good sweat. It sounds plausible and ashamed I admit that I never give myself enough time in Shavasana.
Alexandra Hägler, a trained physiotherapist and developer of the Physio Flow Yoga style, which is geared towards an exact posture, also thinks that only when you tighten your muscles properly and get them to work, you can should get into a nice stretch and can relax better.
Yoga as fashion?
Yoga is hipp. And you can clearly see this at the Yoga World in Munich: special yoga clothes, pillows, jewellery, equipment, yoga mats in all shapes, colours and materials. If you want, you could spend a lot of money on yoga. Yoga is actually considered to be not very expensive.. Didn’t it always says that you just need to roll out your yoga mat and then you can practice anywhere in the world? Of course you can. But like everything, yoga has become a huge industry with incredibly beautiful and expensive products.
Yoga is a lifestyle and it has always been. But so far, this has meant the inner orientation of the heart and mind and the correct mental attitude and not the superficial appearance…
Many styles, one yoga
I watch and experience the yoga classes. Yin Yoga, Bhakti Yoga, a Mantra Yoga class, Ashtanga, Flow, Fascia Yoga, Jivamukti, Anusara, Fitnessyoga: the range is wide… For 45 minutes each I experience one yoga style after another. Some are calmer, others are accompanied by instruments and vocals, the next one becomes flowy, then it is somewhat acrobatic and meditative. But as different as the styles are named and seem, they all have in common the physical workout with asanas, the integration of breathing and a meditative relaxation at the end. In India, all directions would be called Hatha Yoga. So a yoga in which we find through physical work and breath work to ourselves. Here yoga has many namesand many of them becoming big brands.
Yoga individually and personally
Barbara Noh teaches us to go deeper into prevention through a rocking technique with the buttocks bones and explains that we are only a small part of something bigger and can therefore be more relaxed towards our lives. Patrick Broome focuses on a yoga that everyone can practice without risk of injury and everyone according to his physical capacity. He explains that the yoga asanas have to adapt to our body and not our bodies to the asanas.. All people and bodies are different and so different and individual is the asana of each of us.
Dr. Ronald Steiner also responds to the question why we do yoga: “We do yoga to feel good.” Consequently, the asanas must also feel good. Ronald teaches Ahstanga yoga, which he learned from his teachers Pathabi Jois and Iyengar in India and adapts it as a sports doctor and therapist to the modern medically acquired knowledge. Yoga is changeable and has always evolved since the beginnings of yoga and adapted to the needs of the human being. So there are many asanas, such as the triangle, for example, only have been existing for several decades!
And finally…
I like Christine May’s fluent yoga class and feel childlike joy at Kai Treude’s Bhakti mantra class. At Yoga Nidra, as always, I fall asleep and relax a little more during the Thai Yoga Massage workshop – one of my highlights at the Yoga World.
TheYoga World is intense. I get a lot of input from very good yoga teachers for my own practice and classes, think my part about the “hip” development of yoga, taste myself through the healthy and new vegan organic products and make estimated 300 downward facingdogs in the three days. All in all a nice yoga weekend, I think.
