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

16th week - pain and freedom...

I remember once, when I walked into a yoga class there was this girl practicing for the European Yoga Asana Championship. She was practicing deep deep backbends - and she was sweating and looked exhausted. At one point her teacher would tell her to get into yet another deep backbend, and she said "I don't want to anymore!" 

The teacher then said: "When you don't want to, that's when you really need to do it!" I immediately thought, "What a prick!" (and he was such a tough-love-guy too!...)

Now, I still think, friendliness helps in deep backbends, but that's not my point. My point is, that in life as in yoga there are situations we want to run from, though situations we really really don't want to be in. And maybe the though-love-guy was right in the sense of it's important to STAY in these situations to really make a change.

I have to say, I really really like to run. But you can't run from your own body - and mine is teaching me to keep working on my very tight right hip at the moment and work through the pain. That's what yoga is for - you go through the pain into the freedom. And that's what life is for as well! :-) <3

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 :-)