Hatha Yoga classes are Back after summer break

After a wonderful summer holiday, Pinelopi has returned full of new energy and happy feelings! The Hatha Yoga in English Classes are starting again on September 5th!  This year there is also a mindfulness and yoga weekend retreat dedicated on presence, scheduled from the 15th of September to the 17th of September.

 

Pinelopi’s classes are a mix of Hatha yoga asanas (yoga poses), grounding techniques, pranayama (breathing exercises), pratyahara (practice of detachment), yoga nidra and meditation. She is an injury conscious yoga teacher and is a firm believer that yoga is for everybody and any body. She believes that no one should ever be in pain during class. All yoga poses can be adjusted so that one is still stretching, growing, strengthening, challenged, without experiencing pain or triggering old injuries.

Yoga, for her, requires becoming conscious of where you are at physically, emotionally, spiritually and what means you have available at this moment. Once the practitioner identifies this, yoga will work from there to release blocks and open up one’s spirit to new ways of seeing the world and receiving its’ gifts.

Join her at one of her regular Hatha Yoga weekly classes starting on Tuesday September 5th, 2017:

Monday

Tuesday

Thursday

9:45-11:15
Hatha Yoga

18:00-19:30
Hatha Yoga

18:00-19:30
Hatha Yoga

20:00-21:30
Advanced Hatha Yoga

Pinelopi specializes in Hatha Yoga. Her yoga Kreuzberg Berlin classes are open for and welcoming to beginners. She offers Berlin business yoga, pregnancy yoga, and private yoga classes for people struggling with chronic pain. In mid-September she will be offering her first English speaking yoga and mindfulness retreat dedicated to presence.

The Benefits of Small Yoga Classes

Making yoga in Berlin more accesible

Small yoga classes in Berlin

Practicing yoga is a personal experience. We go deeper into ourselves to become more aware of how our bodies move, what our thoughts are, how we feel and what we need in the present moment.

Distractions while practicing yoga can pull us out of the moment, create negative thoughts or feelings, or cause us to injure ourselves. And while a meditation or yoga practice teaches us to become better at being present despite distractions, this may be difficult to do for beginners or experienced yogis alike.

A room packed full of people can easily create distractions. The proximity of others, their scents and sounds, or even our own minds making comparisons, can pull us out of our focus on the self. A private practice at home may seem like a solution, but listening to a teacher’s guiding voice helps to keep us present and less caught up in our own thoughts. It also helps us to relax and just follow.

In a practice room with less people, a yoga teacher is able to be aware of each student and give more attention where needed. They can see when you are doing something that could injure yourself and correct it or give individualized modifications. Often, in small studios, the teachers also get a chance to talk to students before the class to check how they’re feeling that day and if the student has injuries or issues to be aware of during certain exercises. At English Yoga Berlin, we also check in after the class to see how it went for the students, answer questions and gather any feedback for the next class.

At our yoga studio in Kreuzberg each student has about 3 meters square of space they can be in by themselves for their own practice. With this space, there’s no worry about hitting another student or falling into them if you lose balance. Yet students have commented on how intimate it feels and that there’s a sense of community at our space. With less people in the room, it’s much easier to recognize others, gain trust, and become aware of the interconnectedness between ourselves and others while sharing space as we move through our own individual yoga practices.

Often, small yoga classes are offered at higher rates than fuller classes, but at English Yoga Berlin all of our classes offered at regular rates (or sliding-scale rates for community classes) with a maximum of 10 students in the room. We offer Hatha yoga, Vinyasa Flow, Classical yoga and Restorative yoga classes in English at our collective studio in Berlin, Kreuzberg. Our teachers are injury conscious and will be happy to assist you before and throughout the class with tailored variations for your yoga poses. We believe that the increased awareness that we cultivate in our yoga classes together with the suggested variations for your unique body, make a difference both to practicing yoga in daily life and to the yoga benefits you take with you after class.

A Tired Mama’s Yoga – Part II

In the previous blog,  A tired mama’s yoga – Part I , I talked about the difficulties of practicing yoga while being the mother of a small child. In today’s blog, I d like to give an example of one of the multitasking practices of yoga and mommyhood. It’s this specific practice, I think, that has kept me the most in tune with yoga.

Photo by Fern

Photo by Fern

After not managing to practice yoga in the traditional way, I found I have to use whatever time I have to practice. Half a year ago I realized that sometimes I would spend over an hour putting the baby to bed at night. First I’d sing her lullabies, and then I would just stay there by her side making a wo wo wo sound for her to fall asleep. One day I thought, why not change this sound to my beloved Om and use this time to meditate? At the beginning of the meditation, I felt too tired to even sit up straight. Slowly the Om got more powerful, and my back started to straighten on the chair. At the end I was very surprised to feel so incredibly energized again – something had been able to break through to the new parent tiredness.

I started practicing every night again. I started liking the bed time ritual even more. Is it an uninterrupted practice? By no means. Sometimes I have to help the baby lie down again, or hold her because she is having a hard time… sometimes I have to sway her back and forth and continue with the Om standing up. Sometimes I finish the meditation and I realize that she is still awake, has been holding on to her sheet, and has been listening to her mama s om in absolute serenity for the past 20 minutes. Whichever way the meditation goes… I always feel I’ve benefited at the end of it.

I realize now, that we’ve created a mutual dependency. The baby needs the Om to fall asleep and I need the obligatory sit down time to meditate. If my internal mama duties didn’t oblige me to be by her side at bedtime, I would probably just lay down on the couch feeling too tired to do anything else that day. Fortunately she still needs me to fall asleep, and I benefit massively from this fact. Have I created a sleeping crutch for my child? Maybe. Lots of people say it s much better for children to learn to fall asleep alone. But, then again, what kind of a sleeping crutch is it? I’ve thought a lot about this. Is it such a bad thing to get her used to the Om before falling asleep? There are hundreds of documented benefits of meditation and the vibe that meditations creates for the people surrounding the medidators. I believe she is benefiting from this. Maybe through this practice I m even teaching her how to meditate before she falls asleep. That s a falling asleep habit that I am very happy to give her for her life. A habit that will strengthen her throughout.

 

A Tired Mama’s Yoga – Part I

Yoga Mom

Yoga Mom

Since I became a mom last year, the ability to do yoga in a concentrated grounded way dissipated. You could say it’s the lack of space. The baby’s play area is where I previously would practice and now is covered with cute toys that make noise during my sun salutations. Or maybe it’s the absolute lack of time. Yes, I imagined how little time I’d have. But somehow, I always thought I would find that one hour for yoga. I was mistaken. Or maybe space and time are not nearly as important as fighting through the tiredness of those sleepless nights and lack of alone time. As soon as I would start on the relaxation, I’d fall asleep. Yes, there are many obstacles to yoga as a mom.

So how can yoga and mommyhood coexist?

Well yoga, for me, has had to transform. It’s traditional disciplined form that requires alone time and quietness is totally incompatible with my present life. It has had to become a playful, in-between tasks, light type of yoga. My new yoga practice includes things like observing myself wash plates in a non-judgmental way, meditating while putting the baby to sleep, teaching the body parts to my toddler while doing a sun salutation, learning the animal kingdom through asanas, and calming the mind down by pretending to be a bee.

Does this yoga give the same benefits to that of the grounded focused yoga? Probably not. The only way of getting that focused space now, is to physically remove myself from my home and attend a class. My yoga teacher used to say “an ounce of practice is worth more than tons of theory”. This light transformed yoga is the one that’s available to me now. This is my ounce of practice. If we all were to wait for the circumstances to be absolutely right in order to practice yoga, then we’d probably never get started!

Yoga is a life companion. As our lives change it’s practical application will also change with us. But yoga’s essence will remain stable, present, and loving – guiding us through the changes of our lives like a loving parent.

Pinelopi teaches Hatha yoga classes in English at our collective studio in Berlin, Kreuzberg. Our teachers are injury conscious and will be happy to assist you before and throughout the class with tailored variations for your yoga poses. We believe that the increased awareness that we cultivate in our yoga classes together with the suggested variations for your unique body, make a difference both to practicing yoga in daily life and to the yoga benefits you take with you after class.

Thursday Night Community Meditation

blue!

drop in meditation at english yoga berlin

We’re excited to announce our newest community yoga initiative for the Berlin yoga community: a donation-based, rotating meditation class, every Thursday night at 20h15.

What?: Community Meditation

Where?:  Our Kreuzberg yoga studio, directions here.

When?: Every Thursday, 20h15 till 21h

How Much?:  Donation-based (between 5e and 10e recommended, no one turned away for lack of funds)

Each of the EYB teachers offers a specific style and knowledge–our collective specializes in hatha yoga, vinyasa yoga, classical yoga and restorative yoga, and, in addition, some of us offer acupressure, self-massage, thai yoga massage, tratak and other yogic techniques in our yoga classes. An integral part of our yoga classes in Kreuzberg, however, is the practice of yoga nidra and other forms of meditation. Western yoga is often dominated by yoga asanas (yoga poses), and we feel, as teachers, it is important to offer students a wider variety of yogic traditions. While movement is an amazing tool for calming and focusing the spirit, breathing techniques and meditation can offer unique yoga benefits for the body and mind. Meditation is one very important and simple way to integrate yoga in daily life.

We are hoping to share this diversity of yoga knowledge with the wider community through our new Community Meditation Class. Every week, this 45-minute session will be taught be an EYB teacher or a visiting teacher. The class will be offered on a donation-basis (between 5 and 10e recommended) and consists of a different style of meditation each week, depending on the teacher and their specialization. It may include some gentle yoga postures, depending on the teacher, but will be a primarily non-physical class.

English Yoga Berlin is a collective of teachers that specialize in offering community yoga in Berlin. We offer yoga for beginners through advanced. If you are searching for yoga in English in Berlin Kreuzberg, check out our schedule.

 

Yoga and Self-Acceptance

iamtheseer

Some people think that yoga is about self-improvement. Although this is not an entirely crazy concept, it is essentially misguided, and also a rather dangerous attitude. The problem with self-improvement is that it follows the assumption that somehow, we are not good enough, or that constantly struggling to make ourselves better is a precondition to living a fulfilling life. This is like putting the cart before the horse.

Self-improvement, like positive thinking, anger management and so many other devices of the prosperous self-help industry, are superficial and ineffective ways to deal with our neuroses. They may work for some people, some of the time, but they often suppress other problems that will eventually manifest themselves in one way or another – for example, as an explosion of the repressed feeling, or as psychosomatic disorders. In the best of cases, they treat the symptom, while doing little to eradicate the disease.

It’s true that yoga leads to self-improvement, but this is more of a side effect. And, like so many things in life, it is blocked if we obsess about it (hasn’t it happened to you, that only when you give up desperately wishing for something, does it finally happen?).  In any case, real self-improvement doesn’t come about without self-acceptance. And self-acceptance is impossible without self-knowledge. Self-Knowledge… now that sounds closer to the point of yoga –IF there was a point to yoga.

But let’s stay with self-acceptance.

“Love your neighbor as you love yourself”, goes the old wisdom. But how about loving ourselves like we love our neighbor? I dare say that we’re all excellent friends. We take friendship as seriously as any other job: We comfort our friends when they need a shoulder to cry on; we encourage them when they need a little confidence boost; we celebrate with them when they achieve some success. We love them and cherish them unconditionally. How many of us can say that about our relationship with ourselves?

And the irony is that self-acceptance would make us even better friends. Our attitude towards ourselves influences our attitudes towards others. Self-acceptance translates into a more tolerant attitude to everybody around us; it frees us from comparison and competition and allows us to have a more harmonious relationship to our environment. Make this experiment: Next time you find yourself criticizing somebody else, stop for a second and ask “What is it about myself that I’m unhappy with?” If you’re honest with yourself, you may discover that there is some self-dissatisfaction triggering the criticism.

Self-acceptance is not the same as self-esteem. It goes rather deeper. While self-esteem represents one’s judgment of one’s worth; self-acceptance doesn’t consider worth as being the question. Self esteem is an appraisal of our value, while self-acceptance is an unconditional admission of adequacy. Self-esteem considers our virtues and achievements, while self-acceptance embraces all facets of ourselves. Self-esteem still allows for narcissism, arrogance and immature perceptions of self, while self-acceptance dismantles all these traps of the ego.

But, I don’t want to accept my flaws, I want to change them!

Despite all the yoga asanas we do, the yoga classes we attend, the meditation we undertake, despite all the therapy and all the self-improvement, true self-acceptance still eludes us. In my opinion, the reason for this is precisely our obsession with making ourselves better. The focus is all on how yoga benefits you, or how therapy makes you better. Why can we not relax for a moment and stop trying to improve everything about us? Why can we not accept that we will never be perfect?  –OK fine, even if we can’t stop pushing ourselves to be better and better, we need to realize that the best way to move forward this is to accept where we are right now.

Please understand that this acceptance doesn’t mean agreement. One doesn’t have to resign to a character “flaw” in order to accept it. One merely acknowledges that this is where one finds oneself, today. This is the starting point. Self-acceptance is letting go of struggle, so we can start the process of moving-on.

Although, as previously expressed, the avid pursuit of self-improvement is not an effective solution to our problems, the desire for improvement, the motivation to be better parents, friends or humans is healthy and inspiring. So, will accepting myself make me complacent and stifle my growth? On the contrary: True change is unlikely without self-acceptance.

To accept ourselves we must be aware of our different aspects, and this awareness is essential for change. Simply by experiencing something without being swayed by it we’re able to let it go. It works with everything. You can try it: Next time you’re doing a yoga pose become aware of any tension you have in the pose. Just experience the area where you feel tension, without wanting the tension to go away, without resisting it. Be there – feeling it, accepting it. And notice what happens: the tension gradually, but surely dissolves, or becomes more bearable. Go ahead, try it!

Sounds strange, but it actually makes a lot of sense. By becoming frustrated with something, by analyzing it and judging it as good or bad, we’re actually clinging to it. We’re not letting go. By witnessing something and accepting it, we can achieve the level of detachment that allows us to drop it and move forward. Just think of the addict. Any expert will tell you that an important step in conquering addiction is to accept it. The alternative would be to deny the reality of our situation, and in this denial, neurosis lurks.

A telling fact is that acceptance is the last stage of the grief process as defined by Psychiatrist Elisabeth Kübler-Ross. Without acceptance we simply cannot move on.

How can yoga help?

My teacher, Swami Janakananda asks: “Can you experience and respect the current conditions of your life?”, then he goes on to explain that this is the first step towards transformation. His teacher, Swami Satyananda said: “An important step in yoga is to accept your nature as much as you’re able.”  Satyananda spoke a lot about self-acceptance, and the reason is that acceptance of self is crucial to yoga and tantra. Tantra has even been called the way of acceptance. If you look at many of the tantric methods, they teach us to allow and accept any emotions and thoughts as a first step to letting them go.

So yoga can certainly help with self-acceptance. The mere act of practicing the asanas, of bending your body as far as it wants to go, requires a degree of acceptance that this is as flexible as we are right now. It helps us discover that this flexibility can change from day to day, or from morning to evening. But more importantly, it helps us realize that it doesn’t really matter whether we can reach our toes or not. The posture works anyway.

Acceptance depends on awareness. It is impossible to accept something that we haven’t experienced. And, as any experienced yogi knows, developing the ability to experience is one of the benefits of yoga. For example, when we practice breath awareness – just being aware of the breath, without changing it – we are required to accept the current way our body is breathing, whether is shallow, or fast, or irregular. We soon discover that by simply experiencing our breath, letting it be however it is, it gradually becomes slower, fuller, more rhythmic.

One direct and powerful way to train self-acceptance is through tantric meditations such as Antar Mouna. In Antar Mouna we experience the sense perceptions or the spontaneous thought process, and we learn to keep our mental hands off whatever happens. If suddenly the shrill scream of a baby breaks the peace, that doesn’t disturb the meditation, it simply becomes part of it. If the baby’s scream does disturb or causes some other mental reaction, then that mental reaction too is accepted as part of the meditation. We experience and accept whatever we become aware of during the practice (inside or out), letting it come and go without resisting or clinging to it. If we abruptly feel anger, or self-loathing, or any destructive emotion, then we become fully conscious of it, and allow it, again without pushing it away or holding on to it. We also don’t analyze it or try to explain or justify it (that would also be clinging); we simply witness it come and go.

Whatever we experience in such a way looses its hold on us – by feeling it fully, we exhaust it. It is only those things that we don’t allow ourselves to feel that keep on influencing us.

But here we’re talking about something that one should experience in order to truly understand it. Yoga and tantra are not theoretical or philosophical endeavors, but rather a living tradition that offers us methods for daily life. So, do some yoga and discover how it can help you to stop fussing and start living.

English Yoga Berlin offers yoga in English out of our Kreuzberg studio. We teach hatha yoga, vinyasa yoga, yoga nidra, restorative yoga and classical yoga, and our classes include yoga asanas (yoga poses), pranayama (breathing) and meditation. Our emphasis is on community yoga and we strive to make our yoga classes as high quality, accessible and inclusive as possible, so that all members of our community can share the ways in which yoga benefits modern life. You can learn more about us here.

Heal Yourself Through Writing

Heal Yourself through Writing

Heal Yourself through Writing

~ A writing workshop with Nicole Olmsted ~

When: Sunday Nov. 9, 11h-15h

Where: English Yoga Berlin’s Kreuzberg yoga studio (click for map)

Cost: 30€ (20€ reduced)

 

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“The hand is an expression of the heart therefore writing is an act of love.”
~Nico

The power of storytelling is when we become aware that we create our own reality. It allows us to take responsibility for our life and to make choices towards our authentic self. When we react out of pain, confusion or fear, the story can lead down a hallow road but when we step towards our highest potential we have the ability to lead a heroic tale.

During this workshop, we will dive into techniques to heal your life through writing. We will go over the art of “Morning Pages,” a technique made famous through Julia Cameron‘s The Artist’s Way. We will use focused writing exercises to help shift perspectives of the past and create new ways of seeing your world. We will then recast your story by identifying archetypes to empower your sense of self. Rewriting yourself is part of the healing journey to discovering your greatest story.

About Nicole:
Growing up as a writer, she explored the different stories of life. In her youth, she wrote poetry of the vast beauty of nature and the fantasy of a hidden world. As a young adult, she wrote of romantic curses of young love and the exquisite pain of loss. She wrote what she experienced and what she hadn’t.
It was when she showed up for an Artist Way workshop, that her world began to make sense. It was being dedicated to the creative force and taking responsibility for the life she had written. What she found, is that the journey to your truth, is one of the most powerful stories of all. Now, building community through sharing these techniques and self awareness is part of her devotion to this work.

English Yoga Berlin offers yoga in English out of our Kreuzberg studio. We teach hatha yoga, vinyasa yoga, yoga nidra, restorative yoga and classical yoga, and our classes include yoga asanas (yoga poses), pranayama (breathing) and meditation. Our emphasis is on community yoga and we strive to make our yoga classes as high quality, accessible and inclusive as possible, so that all members of our community can share the ways in which yoga benefits modern life. You can learn more about us here.

 

How to Develop your Personal Yoga Practice

Personal Yoga Practice

Personal Yoga Practice

For many people “doing yoga” means visiting a yoga studio and allowing themselves to be guided through some sequences and routines, without having to think too closely about what’s going on. Maybe it has something to do with our therapeutic culture, accustomed to experiencing well-being as something provided by a knowledgeable professional; or with our old tendency to transfer responsibility – to the doctor, to the legislator, to the child psychologist, to the yoga teacher… But given the popularity of yoga today, it is remarkable how few yogis practice yoga in daily life, on their own, in the quiet of their room.

That’s not too bad for us yoga teachers. After all, if everybody was doing yoga at home then we would struggle to make a living even more than we already do. But somehow, many of us are not comfortable with what we perceive as an unnecessary dependency. We certainly don’t what to stand between you and something as precious and important as your personal practice. Besides, we believe that if you had a regular home practice, you would get a lot more from your weekly studio visits, and make the yoga classes a little more challenging to us teachers.

In this blog we address some of the common questions we hear from people who are trying to establish and develop their home practice. There are no hard and fast answers when it comes to yoga, so please take the following lines as mere suggestions. This is why we include more than one answer to some of the queries. Be experimental – only you can find out what works for you.

Q. When is the best time to practice yoga?

A1. When you have time, naturally.   It makes no sense to rearrange your life to fit your yoga practice; it’s better to arrange your yoga practice to fit your life. So the first consideration when trying to decide a time for yoga is: When is it convenient? Ideally you would do it always at the same time, so that it more easily becomes a routine; but if your day’s schedule varies a lot (i.e. people with rotating working hours) then your yoga schedule must necessarily reflect that. One helpful way to deal with an uncertain weekly schedule is to set your yoga practice in relationship to a regular activity (e.g. after getting home from work, before going to bed, etc). In that way, you ensure that yoga fits in regardless of the actual times at which things happen.

A2. When your stomach is empty.   Having an empty stomach is one of the few rules of yoga practice. So it’s important to keep in mind your eating habits when deciding on a good time for doing yoga asanas. Schedule it before dinner, before lunch, or before breakfast. You can use your meals as a trigger for doing yoga, getting into the habit of hitting the mat before you hit the table.

A3. When there are fewer distractions.   It seems obvious, but it’s worth mentioning. Schedule your practice around your friends’ visiting hours, or after the children go to school, or before your noisy flatmate returns from work. Let your yoga time follow the patterns of your environment and get on the mat when things are more calm and quiet. But beware of waiting for the perfect conditions! A good yoga session doesn’t depend on having a silent environment or on being left alone; it depends more on accepting the conditions as they are and experiencing your reactions without identifying with them. Meditation can happen anywhere.

A4. Anytime you need it.   Remember, yoga is not just bending and stretching on a mat, doing what we think of as yoga poses. You can, in fact, do your yoga in many situations throughout your day: just before an important meeting (coming earlier to the conference room and practicing a bit of pranayama or breath awareness to ground yourself); on the way home from work (sitting with eyes closed and listening to the sounds while riding the bus); during a little break from typing that long school report (doing the shoulder rotation or other upper-back loosening exercises while sitting at your desk)… yoga benefits are as varied as yoga practice, and the possibilities are only limited by your imagination. Use your yoga as a tool to cope with the challenges of daily life. Make it gentle yoga or stronger stuff, and do it whenever you need it.

A5. Rather earlier than later.   If you want to establish a regular yoga routine, it might be best to schedule your practice earlier in the day. This way if some unforeseen event gets on the way of your practice, you may still find an opportunity to do some yoga before the day is over.

Q. How Long and How Frequently Should One Practice?

A.  Whatever doesn’t feel too ambitious.   Any discerning yoga teacher will tell you that it’s best to do a little often, than a lot seldom. One of the biggest obstacles to beginners who want to develop a regular practice is to be overambitious. We want to do two hours daily and reach enlightenment before next year’s high-school reunion. Well, it doesn’t quite work like that. Sure, you may have an iron will and plenty of time to dedicate to yoga, but for most of us, mere mortals, it’s more realistic to start with 15 to 20 minutes, twice or thrice a week. Remember, nobody is making any demands on you; just do enough so that it doesn’t become a burden. Listen to yourself: How much can you manage? How much do you want? This is something you do because you want to – not to uphold some ideal or become your own role-model. And, most importantly: don’t be swayed by a bad conscience or yoga guilt if you have taken a long break from yoga. Just get back to the practice whenever you feel like it.

Q. Where is a Good Place to Practice?

A1. Anywhere.  Just like you can practice yoga anytime (see the fourth answer to the first question), you can also do it anywhere. Lying in bed, just before going to sleep, you can do some rounds of the yogic breath. Sitting in a classroom, waiting for the next teacher to arrive, you can do the neck exercises. Hatha yoga poses are extremely flexible (ha, ha): standing by the kitchenette in a transatlantic flight is one of my favorite places to do the Stretching Palm, and you can do a great Eagle Arms sitting on the train.

A2. When at home, it’s good to have a dedicated space for doing yoga.   It doesn’t have to be a fancy place (I’ve been using the walk-in closet in our flat for some advanced do-in-the-dark meditations), nor does it have to be a zen hall (I often have to push my son’s toys to one side of the play room to do my asana practice). Any space will do, regardless of size and condition – of course, if you plan to do Savasana, it’s probably good that there’s enough room to lie down; if you plan to do the Hello Sun, the ceiling should be high enough to raise your arms; and if you want to practice a more dynamic form, like vinyasa yoga, it would probably be helpful to have a bit of space around you. But you can almost certainly find a space that is good enough, right in your home–just use your creativity.

A3. If you’re lucky enough to have your pick of room for yoga, choose a well-ventilated, non-cluttered space; somewhere relatively calm where people are not constantly walking by. The ability to lower the light or draw a curtain over the windows would enhance the more meditative/healing practices, such as Yoga Nidra or restorative yoga.

A4 Yoga outdoors is not often feasible in northern latitudes, but it’s also a possibility during the warm season. However, you may find that some breathing exercises and advanced meditations are more conveniently done indoors. Make your own experiences!

Q. What Should I Do?

A1. Do what you feel like doing, do what you like.  Your yoga session is no bitter medicine, it’s something you do to feel good, to enjoy yourself. Make it enjoyable and make it yours!

A2. Do two thirds of things that you like and one-third of things that you resist.   The things that you like will make you feel good and want to do it again soon; they things that you resist are probably what you most need.

A3. Do asana (physical poses), pranayama (breathing exercises) and meditation or relaxation.  In that order. Limiting your practice to just yoga asanas is like eating from only one food group – would you confine your diet to just carbohydrates?

A4. There are many resources you can tap for inspiration: YouTube, books, DVDs, etc. I would personally recommend my teacher’s book, one of the most concise and complete yoga manuals that exist today: Yoga Tantra and Meditation in Daily Life.

There are still many common questions, which we will try to answer in further posts. If you would like personal advice, or if you’re unsure how this all applies to you, contact us for more guidance.

English Yoga Berlin is a collective of teachers offering yoga in English from our yoga Berlin Kreuzberg studio. We offer hatha yoga, vinyasa yoga, restorative yoga, classical yoga and yoga nidra. We specialize in community yoga and offer yoga for beginners through advanced. We look forward to practicing with you!

Yoga for Cyclists

Berlin is a city of cyclists. The combination of a well developed bike lane infrastructure, wide streets, relatively little traffic and very few hills is a hard one to beat. Perhaps the only drawback to cycling in this great city is the winter—it can get grey, wet, cold and generally miserable. But, as long-time Berliners will tell you, cycling through the winter is a great tool for keeping fit and fighting the seasonal depression that plagues the city from January till April.

We teach yoga in English, so we meet a lot of newcomers to Berlin, and we can tell you that, even if you weren’t a cyclist at home, you’ll probably become one in Berlin! And we think that riding your bike is a meditation style all its own. (Bonus points for singing as you ride.) Because we teach yoga in Berlin, we often end up teaching yoga for cyclists—yoga poses can really help ease sore muscles, lengthen tense calves and hamstrings, strengthen your back, increase lung capacity and generally get your body in shape for biking. Yoga asana are a great complementary practice for city and long distance cyclists.

In this blog post, we’d like to introduce some of our favourite yoga poses for cyclists. Yoga benefits your muscles, your breathing, your endurance and your concentration. It also relaxes you and helps you enjoy your life. We hope these yoga asana help you relish cycling in Berlin even more, and that they provide you with an opportunity to enjoy yoga in daily life.

These postures can be gentle yoga or more advanced yoga—you choose how long and how deep you want the stretch to go. They are also appropriate as yoga for beginners—just move slowly, breathe deeply and practice regularly.

Reclining Big Toe Pose/Supta Panangusthasana

hamstring stretch

Tight hamstrings and calves are almost inevitable when you start cycling. As your muscles strengthen, they’ll probably also become much tighter. Tight hamstrings can pull your lower back out of alignment—and you don’t want to go there! But you can counter this with regular stretching. The safest way to stretch the backs of your legs is while lying on your back.  Forward bends also stretch your hamstrings and calves, but most people with tight legs end up bending from their waist, and this stresses the lower back. It’s safer to start from the ground, and only progress into forward bends if you’re sure you have a strong core, no disc injuries and relatively long hamstring and calf muscles.

Simply lie on your back and extend one of your legs up towards the ceiling. You can keep the other leg lying flat, or you can bring the foot to the ground and bend the knee. With your raised leg, you can either point the toe to stretch the hamstring, or flatten your foot and press through your heel to stretch the calf. You can reach towards your big toe with the arm of the same side, if you like—that’s where the name of the pose comes from—but this takes a fair bit of flexibility. Just holding the leg there will be plenty for most people! Hold it for 1 to 3 minutes, and breathe deeply.

Kneeling Crescent Moon/Anjaneyasana

back bend kneeling crescent moonAaaah, tight hip flexors. A sure sign of time spent sitting—in a chair, or on your bike. Every time you pull your foot up and over the pedal, you’re using your hip flexor. If they get too tight, especially in combination with tight hamstrings and weak abdominals, they’ll contribute to lower back pain. But never fear! You just gotta lunge.

Start kneeling. Tip your pelvis so that your public bones are flush with your hips. (You can practice this against a wall to get the feeling of it. You want to feel your pubis and your hips both pressing forward.) Place your right foot forward, with the thigh parallel to the floor and the knee bent just over the ankle (not beyond). You can put something underneath your left knee if it feels sore. From here, engage your lower belly and draw your torso upwards, towards the ceiling. You’ll soon feel a pulling in the front of the left hip. That’s your hip flexor. Stay for 5-7 deep, long breaths, and then repeat on the other side.

Downward Facing Dog/Adhomukhasvanasana

downward-dog-juliWhether you’re sitting up or bending forward on your bike, you’re going to need to have a strong back. That means strong shoulders (this also helps protect you in case of accidents: if they’re not strong, the shoulders dislocate more easily when you brace yourself during a fall or impact), strong paraspinals and—very importantly—strong abdominals. Downward Dog, when practiced correctly and regularly, will help you strengthen your whole spine and make it easier to ride without pain.

Start with your knees on the ground and your arms stretched forward. Lengthen and straighten your back by bringing your ears between your upper arms and lifting your bum into the air. Tuck your toes under to give yourself traction and then, slowly and using your lower belly, exhale and push your bum into the air. Keep your back straight and your arms long. You can leave your knees bent if straightening your legs compromises having a straight back. Draw your shoulders down and away from your ears, let your neck be long and keep breathing, whatever you do! The posture will get easier with time.

Eagle Arms/Garudasana arms

EAGLE_ARMSHolding onto your handlebars takes a lot of work in the arms and shoulders, especially if you’re cycling into the wind or uphill. Over time, cycling will help you to develop a stronger upper body. You can minimize pain and discomfort by taking the time to check your alignment on the bike and stretching your shoulders and neck before and after riding.

Sitting comfortably in a chair or on a block, gently bring your elbows, forearms and palms together in front of your chest. Bend your elbows and bring your hands roughly to the height of your gaze. Press the elbows and forearms together and breathe into the space between your shoulder blades. If you want to go further, place your left elbow over your right, and wrap your forearms around each other, bringing your right fingers or palm to the left hand. Drop the shoulders and gently lift the elbows, or make circles slowly with the arms. Don’t forget to breathe. Repeat on the other side.

English Yoga Berlin is a collective of yoga teachers offering yoga classes in Berlin. If you’re looking for yoga in Berlin, we offer community yoga: accessible, affordable and high quality vinyasa yoga, restorative yoga, classical yoga, hatha yoga and yoga nidra. See our yoga class schedule or find the location of our yoga Berlin Kreuzberg studio.

Aug 22nd Community Class with Sara Hauber

Sara Hauber does ShalabasanaWe’re excited to announce that, on August 22nd, our last community yoga class before the summer break will be taught by visiting functional anatomy specialist and yoga teacher Sara Hauber!

If you have frequent back pain and have been told that yoga might help you, or if you’ve noticed that yoga classes actually make your back hurt, then you won’t want to miss our August 22nd Community Class with Sara Hauber, M.A. Sara is a functional movement and anatomy specialist, in addition to being a certified yoga teacher, and she teaches a specialized yoga practice designed to target the common sources of back pain–activating the abdominals, strengthening the back, stretching the hips and relieving the stress associated with an aching back or poor posture. Breathwork (pranayama), yoga asana and meditation will all be included, and the class is suitable for all levels.

The practice will be followed by an optional 30-minute back care lesson, open to all participants who want to join. We will learn the basics of preventative back care and some specific tips on preventing common back injuries in the practice of yoga poses, to help you enjoy yoga in daily life, without pain.

When: Friday, August 22nd, 12h15 – 13h45 (optional extension to 14h15)

Where: English Yoga Berlin yoga studio in Kreuzberg, directions here

Cost: sliding scale, 5euro – 10euro

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Sara Hauber, M.A., is a certified yoga teacher and functional-movement specialist whose mission is to help you overcome back pain and feel great through your yoga practice. Since undergoing complete spinal fusion for scoliosis, Sara has been empowering others to transform their bodies, eliminate pain and change their health for the better. She has taught throughout the U.S. and in Southern Italy, and she’s happy to be offering community yoga in Berlin! Check out her website for more information.

English Yoga Berlin is a self-organized collective of yoga teachers specializing in community yoga and yoga in English in Berlin. We offer gentle yoga, hatha yoga, vinyasa yoga, classical yoga, restorative yoga and yoga nidra. Our focus is on offering accessible, inclusive, affordable and high-quality yoga classes in Berlin. You can see our yoga Berlin Kreuzberg studio schedule here, and read more about us here.