15th week - to eat meat or to not eat meat, that's the question...

There was a time in fall when I did much more yoga than nowadays, hard, sweaty yoga - and I had SO MUCH fun with it! :-D I really really loved to be so strong and healthy - plus I loooooved to see the effects all the yoga had on my body! ;-)
I always wanted to get back to that strength, but somehow, the strength and power were gone missing... And then I got sick a lot too (we're talking about weeks here!...)! And that started to REALLY bother me at some point! I was feeling weak all the time! It was SO annoying! Something had to be done!!!

So, my thoughts took me through all kind of aspects of life - and ended up circling around food. I realised, I didn't take in a lot of proteins, which is why I started to eat meat again. I'm not a full-on vegetarian, I just happen to not eat a lot of meat, because it's a dead body and that just creeps me out at times! And I really do admire vegans for their big contribution to a healthy planet, but I just can't be that consequent with food anymore (I have a lot of intolerances, which keep me kind of busy in that area...).

But... I really like meat and it's nourishing for me right now! And my chinese doctor always tell me to eat beef!

What are your oppinions? Or experiences? I'd really love to read about that! Thank you! <3

And here's this and last weeks new yoga poses:

 Salamba Sirsasana

Makarasana

 Dhandurasana

Bhujangasana I

 Supta Konasana

Parsva Halasana

 Mahamudra

Janu Sirsasana

 Dandasana

Paschimottanasana

14th week - God and yoga and all that...

My flatmate recently asked me a very stunning question, which she asks herself every evening: When did you feel connected to the divine today? Just that day I had taken on a new job as yoga-teacher and had been really worked up and nervous beforehand.

But the first class went really really well and my favourite moment - which is also the moment when I felt connected to the divine - was when everybody was lying in Savasana. I knew, I had done a good job and I was happy and grateful. Someone once said, God works through you as you - and that's how I felt! It was brilliant!

I also feel this connection to the divine when I do yoga - it is after all a spiritual practice! To me, yoga is a way of praying with my entire being. A way of being involved with myself, others and God.

It seems to be a strange concept for some, to "feel connected with the divine", but what f.ex. about the feeling of gratefulness? Did you have moments in your life, when you wanted to thank somebody, but there was no person to thank? That's when we instinctively feel, that there is something bigger than us.

How do you feel about yoga as being a form of prayer? I'd love to read your experiences! :-)

PS: pics to follow :-)

13th week - the gold-digger

After having been sick last week, I got sick again this week (I know, it's getting a little rediculous ;-)...), BUT was well enough at times to do yoga! And, Oh boy!, how wonderful it was!!!

Do you know the feeling, when you do something you love and every action in it feels like eating the best chocolatecake you've ever tasted? That's how my yoga practice felt this week! Just a big fat yummy! I just LOVED to move my body and bend it and strengthen it - and of course, I was thinking about how to recreate this feeling in yoga or any other situation in life. And also, what do I tell people, so they can experience yoga like this?

And here's what I've come up with:
In life or in yoga, when we savour something, our senses are in it. How does it feel, when I touch my hands to the yoga mat? What does this dish smell like? How does it make me feel inside, when I listen to that piece of music?
And I think, we have to be in a safe spot! Nobody can enjoy a great sunset, when feeling insecure or pressurised. Off the mat, my safe spot would be my home - you sure have yours, too! ;-) On the mat it's crucial to have a teacher whom we can trust! And as a yoga teacher, we want to create a safe environment for our students (clear language, everybody does everything at the same time, connect to each student,...) - so they can come to our class and go digging for their own yoga-gold! Or was it chocolate? ;-)

PS: Mr. Iyengar suggested for me to repeat the poses of week 11 - so no new pics! BUT there's going to be a lot of new poses next week - yay! :-)

12th week - life is what happens to you...

There is this quote by John Lennon "Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans". Well, this week my plan was to have a daily yoga practice - and the life that happened to me was a flu that kept me in bed for the entire week. I managed to do yoga once before getting sick, but that's it.

So I was left with all those nice pictures of yoga poses in my head - and a body that tought me a serious lesson in patience and the rhythm of life! And I realised that sometimes life isn't spectacular, amazing or exciting - it just is! And that's wonderful too! We can tell, when we look around and see all the spectacular, amazing and exciting things life has created over millions of years!

And through some blessed human beings life brought yoga to us, too! :-)

And so life works within us and around us - as disease, as a flower or as this yoga pose that we couldn't do some years ago and that is now so normal to us. Life has it's own pace - even if we're busy making other plans! How good to know!

11th week - being in the pose...

A wonderful teacher of mine once said, when we make a pose for the first time, it's oftentimes hard to really BE in the pose. Not because of physical pain, but just because the body doesn't fully understand how the asana works. There are some poses in the last some weeks, that are very new for me - and I can feel my body AND my mind going "uhm, what??!", when I do them. (For deeper understanding please check my facial expression on the Parighasana-pic ;-) ...)

Still, as they say, it gets easier over time, for both mind and body, and I start to feel more and more at home in these poses. So repetition helps ;-) (even though I still catch myself rolling my eyes at Mr. Iyengar's weird ideas sometimes ;-) ...)

In life off the mat the "uhm, what??!"-feeling cought me last week after my final return from Istanbul. I could feel, that I was not BEING in my life for days, feeling foggy in the head and being very unproductive...

We all experience changes in life sometimes, that are so severe that our mind and body need time to settle in to them. Sometimes, we can just do what has to be done and not really be there for a while. What yoga teaches us here is, that with patience and repetition or daily routine we can grow back together with our life and find ourself again.

This week's poses are:
Utthita Trikonasana, Parivrtta Trikonasana, Utthta Parsvakonasana, Parivrtta Parsvakonasana, Virabhadrasana I, II and III, Ardha Chandrasana, Parsvottanasana, Prasarita Padottanasana I and II, Padangusthasana, Padahastasana, Uttanasana, Parighasana, Urdhva Prasarita Padasana, Paripoorna Navasana, Ardha Navasana, Salamba Sarvangasana, Halasana, Karnapidasana, Ekapada Sarvangasana, Jatara Parivartasana, Savasana;

Parivrtta Parsvakonasana

Virabhadrasana III

Ardha Chandrasana

Prasarita Padottanasana II

Padangusthasana

 Padahastasana

Uttanasana

Parighasana

Karnapidasana

Ekapada Sarvangasana

10th week - special announcement

Last sunday I finished the 200-hours Chris Chavez Path to Teaching Teacher Training in Istanbul. There are so many emotions! I'm happy and sad and grateful and exhausted and excited and in love (with a whole bunch of newborn yoga teachers ;-) ...) and overwhelmed.

I want to use last weeks post (which is a little late due to the training and travelling :-) ) to thank all yogis and yoginis who were part of this! I'm so grateful to have met you all and to have shared this experience and to see the world through your beautiful turkish (and some dutch, swedish, german and russian!) eyes ;-) It was a real treat for me to be part of us! We ROCKED it!!

Thank you also to Chris! I'm truly inspired and have grown so much over the last year due to your caring, dedicated and fierce teachings! Thank you so much! And since we are now colleagues I take the liberty to say: "Crazy monkey right back atcha!" ;-)

Much Love to all of you - and to all the women and men who were or still are bringing yoga into the world!

9th week - change and consistency...

After 3 days at home I hit the road again! Right now I'm in Istanbul on yoga teacher training with Chris Chavez (BIG recommendation! :-) ! ). It feels a little crazy for me to be away from home all the time - specially, because my home is also very new! Jep, new city, new country, new language and everything! :-D So, there's a LOT of change going on in my life...
Inspired by Chris I started wondering what was constant in my life. What is the grounding element, that I can take with me wherever I go whatever I do?

For me, it comes down to a strong connection with myself - in times of craziness I get silent and just FEEL... What am I really feeling right now? What are the emotions that are there? Usually, the real emotions have much less drama in them then the anticipated ones. :-) Oftentimes, I find love - for myself and others.

In yoga - as I told you guys last week - my drama builds up when there's a balancing pose to do. And I realised that I do the exact same thing automatically in order not to fall: get still, feel what's really there (not the 'I can't do this'-drama-version' of it ;-)...) and just be with myself!

Stillness works ;-)

I'll post all the missing pics after my return home! I promise! :-)