23rd and 24th week - when life kicks in...

Dear everybody!

Lately, I have realised that I miss yoga in my life - I teach every week and started reading a book, but I didn't do much yoga the last coupe of weeks, because I still thought I had to do the Light-on-Yoga-project. The truth is, I really love yoga, when I do it together with other people - in a class! I don't like to do too much yoga alone... So, I didn't - for weeks. And I started missing, doing yoga...

So, here's my decision for this reeeeeeeeeeeeally complicated problem: I will stop the project here and will just enjoy yoga for what it is for me - a group-experience, a field of experiments, something that I have to find out about on my own (without Mr. Iyengar...). Maybe I will go back to the project, but for now, I really need to be free!

I will thus not post about my experiences with the project anymore (the very sad part!). I whish you all the very best in the world, love and lillies and beautiful skies and warm rain and that you find your very own way of being happy!

Much Love!
Ursi

22nd week - change the world...

I've been and still am very moved by the protests going on in Turkey these days. I did my first yoga-teacher-training in Istanbul and know many people in the city, so I get a lot of first hand information from them, which I'm very grateful for. Most of my turkish friends are yogis. Those are the facts you have to have in order to understant my last week(end)...

I've been wondering lately - and especially now with the protests in Turkey - how I as a yoga-teacher can make a difference in the world. How does yoga relate to the world off the mat? Not only are the protesters in Istanbul organising "Yoga in Gezi Park", but I found some really interesting projects like the Township Yogi project (https://www.facebook.com/TownshipYogi) or Off the Mat, Into the World (https://www.facebook.com/offthematintotheworld/info). And then there is of course the necessity to get our own brains working and to think of the things that we want for the planet and the creatures on it.

Of course, every yogi has their own lifestyle, but I feel that we as a community are more open to alternative ways of thinking and living than e.g. the community of boxers (no offence! ;-)...). I just wonder how we bring this openness to use in the world! 

What do you do to serve not only your body but also the planet?

Please share! :-)

21st week - teacher's manifesto (almost) ;-)...

I really don't like that my last week's post is coming this late - it gives me a little bit of much-needed routine these days to write my blog every sunday usually, so these last few days were obviously a long way from routine...

I took on some new hours as a yoga-teacher - yet another place, yet other people and yet some things to learn! :-)

It's very new to me to be a teacher and now that I do have some experience, I feel that I feel more and more at home in the role of a TEACHER. I'm not just that girl that tells people how to get into those weird poses and how long to hold them, I'm somebody they can relate to, too!

I can tell, when they enter the studio and see me - some of them seem to be proud to know my name, some of them seem to take in the things that I say (for example that girl who buys two big bottles of water after class, because I just had said, they should drink "shit loads of water today"). It's kinda nice, to know this now - and it's also something that we as yoga-teachers (or others who work with teaching) have to deal with...

If we take it personally, we will miss the point! We are not here to be liked or loved even, we are here to acompany people on their ways. We might not even know how we do it, and that's ok, but I strive to not take it personally - neither the praise nor the critique.

I'm my own person with my own path - I will strive to know more and to be rooted deeper in the philosophy and to be even more emphatic, and I want to try "to stand in my own light". I will try to be fully me, not more, not less! And then let go of fear of not being liked...

Light and Love! :-)

PS: pics to follow ;-)

20th week - the big difference...

"Do something different" - that's what the tantra philosophers say, at least! The yoga-poses have changed in the last two weeks - something different! :-) From standing- I'm now moving into the weird hip-opening poses and deeper into inversions. Yey!! :-) So, from a yoga point of view, I'm getting something new these last few weeks!

In life, something new, that recently happened was a visit from old friends from home - it's nice, to have people around and very refreshing! And in this case it was something new, but also something very familiar - I was enjoying a little vacation from everyday life with people, whom I feel truly at home with! PERFECT!

And it all reminded me of something (and I think, that's what the tantricas say as well): life is not so bad! And if we feel, it is or if we feel, there's something VERY SERIOUS going on that should be resolved, because it's going to end really badly and have very severe consequences, maybe the right thing to do is, to step out of that thinking and do something different! Take a break from all the seriousness in life, to enable us to go back to it - and deal with it in a different way. Or maybe to watch problems solving themselves, while we do nothing.

Maybe, life is too short? Maybe, we don't need to do THAT pose today, if it freaks us out? Maybe, it's the right thing to not work hard or to not suffer for happiness? We don't need to be that catholic, right? ;-) Maybe, it's healthier and happier to just be happy - and if we can't find that, we can always DO SOMETHING DIFFERENT! :-)

19th week - coming to terms with life...

After my weird fuck-yoga-fuck-life-mood of last week, I was happy to watch myself healing again this week. I found happiness in doing yoga and spending time with my loved ones - and one more time I found that katharsis is sometimes much needed to get perspective...

Not only did I do yoga to be happy again, but I also sat down and - with the most open mind, I had available at that moment - I asked myself: What is it that you REALLY want for yourself in life? I was ready to do ANYTHING - even if it would have meant that the yoga-thing was just a weird phase...
And I found out that yoga, YOGA ! is the one thing I want to be doing in my life - I want to do it, I want to teach it, I want to read about it, I want to travel with it! How wonderful! :-)

Sometimes in life, we come to points, where we need drastic questions to get back on track - almost as if we would grab ourselves by the shoulders and say: "Hey! Look at me! WHAT is it, that you WANT?" It can be scary - we can be put in a position where we need to change things or even hurt people. And yet there's nothing more valuable, than coming to terms with ourselves! How else would we enable ourselves to live from our very own truth?!

In yoga, those moments of "WHAT is it that you want?" come in a different shape: they say "BE WHO YOU ARE! BE HONEST!" Moments where we are asked by our body to accept and come to terms with where we are at right now. No hyperextention to get into a difficult pose, no sluggishness to not have to work so hard - we are where we are. And wherever we are/who ever we are is GOOD!
(And so are all the people around us, but that's another chapter...)

And here are some pictures from the weeks 16 to 18, that I still owe you ;-):

Urdhva Prasarita Ekapadasana

Utkatasana

 Ustrasana

 Chaturanga Dandasana

 Urdhva Mukha Svanasana

Adho Mukha Svanasana

Virasana

Parsvaikapada Sarvangasana

 Poorvottanasana

18th week - fuck yoga...

The last week was weird... I had several melt-downs and was tired a lot and I only did yoga once. I felt like hiding from the world and eating and not talking to strangers. Really, really weird!

I know these low feelings from my past and know that the only way to be happy again is to not stress about them. So I don't. And so I did yoga once and I did the things I had to do this week and I kept in mind, that at the end of the day, I would be able to go to bed and recover from whatever has been going on that day.

And I knew that I had to focus on gentle thoughts! Thoughts like "You'll be fine!" or "You can trust the world and life!" - and one that's also been quite important: "Focus on your own path! Other people have their own issues and abilities and you have yours!"

The thing is, whenever I'm feeling low, it's perfectly easy to start seeing all the perfection in other yogis or all the great lifes other people have or all the goodness in others, compared to my - of course - horrible badness!
So, I tried to lean back and feel the feelings in my heart - and there I found feelings of motherly care and love and the ability to carry myself through the hardness. And to open up and let others be there for me! And this is truly the gold that I dug out this week! :-) <3

PS: guess what - the need to hide does not allow for picture-time, so fotos of 16th to 18th week are to follow! :-)

17th week - the body, the body...

Something happened this week... After a year of travelling and moving to and getting settled in Copenhagen and meeting new people and basically starting a whole new life abroad AND letting go of so many places, people and things (and again, basically a whole life) in Vienna, I felt the desperate need to be stuck. In ONE place!

This week I LOVED yoga, because it brought me back to that ONE place, that will never ever go away as long as I live - my body! :-)
Oftentimes, we perceive our bodies as problematic - they don't look the way, they should look; they get sick; they get old - and in the end, let's face it, they even die and vanish!
And oh, the joy we would have, if only our bodies would be thinner, fitter, healthier, have better hair, thighs, eyes, whatever... And at some point in the future, when we will be perfectly happy with our bodies, THAT'S going to be the time, when we can be truly happy...

This week, I realised two things:
Firstly, there's ALWAYS going to be something! So, we better learn to love our bodies the way they are! (And studies show, that yoga helps with this ;-)!)
Secondly, the body is our link to the world! No body, no experiences! And when I say no, I mean NONE AT ALL! So, whatever happens, we wouldn't experience it without our body! And that's brilliant!! It means that ALL the things that happen are gifts, that our bodies give us - the happy moments, the sad moments, the joyfull moments, the desparate moments,... everything! Don't you start loving your body on a totally different scale?! :-) ;-)

Picturewise, I'll go for the "begging for pitty"-version of my day of yoga on the beach in Denmark ;-)

getting ready

Cobra

Downward-facing Dog

Standing Backbend