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RAIN Meditation Berlin — Learning to Sit With What Is

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Most of us have been told at some point to sit with our feelings.

But nobody really explains what that means.

Do you just… wait? Does it hurt? How long? What if the feeling gets bigger instead of smaller? What if you can’t even find the feeling in the first place — you just know something is off, something is heavy, but it won’t quite come into focus?

This is where RAIN comes in.

RAIN is a meditation technique developed in the mindfulness community and deeply shaped by the teachings of Tara Brach, whose work has been a profound influence on my own practice. It offers something rare — not just a way to observe your inner world, but a gentle structure for actually moving through it.

The four steps are simple:

R — Recognise what is happening

A — Allow it to be there, without pushing it away

I — Investigate with kindness and curiosity

N — Nurture yourself through it

Simple to describe. Not always easy to do alone.

What happens in a session

A private RAIN session with me lasts around 20 minutes of actual meditation, but we don’t just jump in. We begin with a gentle conversation — you can say as much or as little as you like about what’s present for you. There is no pressure to explain yourself or to arrive with everything figured out. Sometimes the most honest thing you can say is I don’t know, something just feels stuck.

From there I guide you through the meditation, step by step, at your pace. My role is to accompany you — to help you find the feeling if it’s hiding, to stay with you as you move through it, and to make sure the Nurture part, which people so often skip, actually lands.

After the meditation we take time to digest. Sometimes something unexpected surfaces. Sometimes there’s just a quiet. Both are welcome.

What RAIN is — and what it isn’t

RAIN meditation is not therapy. I am not a therapist and I don’t work as one. What I offer is companionship and structure — a safe, unhurried space in which to meet yourself a little more honestly.

For that reason I gently ask that you don’t bring your most acute or traumatic material to these sessions. RAIN works beautifully with the everyday emotional weather — anxiety, sadness, self-criticism, grief, frustration, the unnamed heaviness of a difficult season. For deeper trauma, a trained therapist is the right support.

Going deeper — the RAIN course

For those who want to learn the technique properly and make it their own, I also offer RAIN meditation courses where we take each step slowly, building understanding and practice week by week.

And if you’d like to introduce RAIN to a younger person in your life — I wrote the first children’s book on RAIN meditation, with a foreword by Tara Brach herself. You can find it at www.magicofrain.com 🌧️

A private RAIN session is offered as part of my private practice alongside Alexander Technique, Yoga and Mindful Touch. If something is stirring and you’re not sure where to start, just write to me. Sometimes that first email is the hardest part — and after that, it gets gentler.

👉 [Book a private session or get in touch here]

About:

Pinelopi began her yoga journey in 1999 and founded English Yoga Berlin in 2010. She holds a 600-hour Hatha Yoga Teacher Training and completed a 1,600-hour Alexander Technique Teacher Training in 2023 under Jörg Aßhoff — one of the most intensive trainings of its kind.

She has studied Yoga Anatomy with Leslie Kaminoff, trauma-informed practice with Legacy Motion and Linda Thai, and ways of applying Internal Family Systems for Social Transformation with Steffi Bednarek. Her meditation work is deeply inspired by Tara Brach and the RAIN technique, which she brought to life in Magic of Rain — the first children’s book on RAIN meditation, with a foreword by Tara Brach herself, to be published in 2026 by Books That Save Lives.

She teaches because she believes it is not what you do in life, but how you do it that matters.

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Mindful Touch — When the Body Needs to Be Met

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Some days words are not enough.

You can talk about what’s happening, you can understand it intellectually, you can even meditate on it — and still something remains. Something held in the shoulders, the chest, the belly. Something that thinking hasn’t quite reached.

This is where Mindful Touch begins.

What is Mindful Touch?

Mindful Touch is a gentle, hands-on session that I offer as part of my private practice. It emerged not from a training manual or a certification course, but from necessity — from moments with students where I could feel that what they needed wasn’t another instruction or cue, but simply to be met. With presence. With care. With aware, unhurried hands.

It draws naturally from my Alexander Technique training, which is at its heart a hands-on practice — using touch to invite the nervous system to let go of patterns it has been holding, sometimes for years. But Mindful Touch is softer than a lesson. There is no agenda, no correction, no goal. There is only attention and response.

Sessions take place fully clothed, on a massage table or sitting — whatever feels right for you.

Each session is different because each person is different. I follow what the body is asking for rather than what I think it needs. Sometimes music accompanies us. Sometimes silence does. Sometimes a session begins one way and becomes something else entirely — and that is exactly right.

People who have found their way to Mindful Touch have often arrived at a moment of transition, exhaustion, or quiet overwhelm. Not crisis, but the particular tiredness that comes from carrying too much for too long. From not having been held, in the broadest sense of that word, for a while.

You don’t need to explain what you’re going through before you come. You don’t need to know what you need. You just need to be willing to arrive, and to let the session find its own shape.

Details

Mindful Touch sessions last 50 minutes and are offered as part of my private session practice alongside Alexander Technique, Yoga and RAIN Meditation. If you’re curious and not sure if it’s right for you, just write to me — I’m happy to have that conversation.

👉 [Book a private session or get in touch here]

About the Teacher

Pinelopi began her yoga journey in 1999 and founded English Yoga Berlin in 2010. She holds a 600-hour Hatha Yoga Teacher Training and completed a 1,600-hour Alexander Technique Teacher Training in 2023 under Jörg Aßhoff — one of the most intensive trainings of its kind.

She has studied Yoga Anatomy with Leslie Kaminoff, trauma-informed practice with Legacy Motion and Linda Thai, and ways of applying Internal Family Systems for Social Transformation with Steffi Bednarek. Her meditation work is deeply inspired by Tara Brach and the RAIN technique, which she brought to life in Magic of Rain — the first children’s book on RAIN meditation, with a foreword by Tara Brach herself, to be published in 2026 by Books That Save Lives.

She teaches because she believes it is not what you do in life, but how you do it that matters.

Resourcing Course

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January 8th to February 19th, Thursdays 8.00 pm to 9.15 pm

Interested in bringing resourcing workshops to your organization? Contact me to discuss tailored workshops for your team or community.

What helps you navigate overwhelm?

A resource is anything that helps us manage or move through feelings of overwhelm. Resourcing happens naturally—we do it automatically and subconsciously. Because of this, we often don’t recognize when an action is actually resourcing, and we may even criticize ourselves for engaging in activities that seem unproductive or superfluous. Yet, these resources are what guide us back from states of fight, flight, or freeze.

In this course, we will explore our personal resources and learn how to bring them from the subconscious into conscious awareness. Along the way, we’ll delve into one interpretation of the nervous system known as polyvagal theory and see what we can take from it to use in our daily lives.

How does the course work?

The course consists of six classes, beginning with an exploration of the resources you already have. We’ll then dive into the concept of the Window of Capacity—how it feels, what affects its size, and specific resources for navigating the flight state, the fight state, and the various freeze states. Often, we only have resources for our “go-to” state, like freeze, which can leave us unbalanced. Each class will include a short presentation, followed by experimenting with different resources together—like wall push-ups, running on the spot, shaking, rocking, harmonizing, or the 5-4-3-2-1 grounding technique, which uses the senses to bring you back to the present moment.

The goal isn’t for me to prescribe which resources you should use but to create a space for you to try them out and share in small groups about what worked to bring you back into your window of capacity. We’ll also look at the edges of the window, exploring what happens there and how it can offer an opportunity for growth through discomfort.

When?

January 8th to February 19th, Thursdays 8.00 pm to 9.15 pm. There will be no class on January 29th.

For whom?

This class is open to anyone who is curious about different ways to navigate overwhelm. You do not need any previous knowledge to participate, just a sense of curiosity and exploration.

Where?

This class is both given at the English Yoga Berlin studio (Görlitzer Str. 39, Kreuzberg) and online.

The class will also be recorded and available to stream on the following weekend (Saturday or Sunday). The recording will be taken down after the weekend.

What to bring?

Bring comfortable clothes, a journal and a pen, and anything that you consider a resource.

Mats, blankets and chairs are provided at the studio.

Where I’m coming from:

It’s important to say upfront that this course is not a substitute for therapy or medical advice. I am not a therapist, neuroscientist, or medical professional. What I offer comes from my own experience and what I’ve learned, particularly through Linda Thai’s course on Somatic Embodiment and Regulation Strategies, which has been a huge influence on my understanding of these topics.

I believe that while experts can offer valuable insights, you are the person who knows your own life and experiences. As an embodiment guide, my role is to share what I’ve learned and experienced on my journey and to create a space where we can explore and experiment together. The real power lies in each of us taking charge of our own lives, discovering what works best for us, and applying that knowledge in ways that feel meaningful and practical.

Prices:

  • Live or Online: 70€ (including 19% VAT) for the six-class course

Pinelopi embarked on her yoga journey in 1999, completing a 600-hour Hatha Yoga Teacher and Vedantic Philosophy Training course in Valencia, Spain. She founded English Yoga Berlin in 2010, and now has over 15 years of experience as a full-time yoga teacher.

She deepened her knowledge by studying Yoga Anatomy with Leslie Kaminoff. Additionally, she trained with David Moore and attended his “Injury-free yoga” workshops, integrating the Alexander Technique into yoga poses. This comprehensive training enriched her expertise in both fields.

In January of 2023, Pinelopi achieved a significant milestone by becoming a certified Alexander Technique teacher. This was an intensive training for 3.3 years, totaling 1600 hours of dedicated study with Jorg Aßhoff.

Pinelopi’s ergonomic consultations integrate anatomy, Alexander Technique, and yoga’s mind-body understanding. Her holistic approach optimizes well-being in the workplace through comprehensive guidance.

She has completed training in ‘Understanding Trauma for Safer Spaces’ with Legacy Motion and ‘Somatic Embodiment and Regulation Strategies’ with Linda Thai. She learned fromSteffi Bednarek ways of applying Internal Family Systems for Social Transformation. Her meditation philosophy is deeply inspired by Tara Brach, particularly the RAIN meditation. She is also the author of a children’s book, ‘Magic of Rain,‘ which introduces the RAIN meditation to children and their grown-ups. It will be published in 2026 by Books That Save Lives.

New Svastha Flow Yogatherapy Courses

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Our Queer Yoga and friends Svastha Yogatherapy classes on Sundays at 4pm CET have a new format!

From September 2025 the class will be offered in Course Blocks, each class building upon the next.

Yogatherapy cat
Illustration by Esma melike Sezer on Unsplash

The classes continue as hybrid sessions, both in-person at our lovely backyard garden Kreuzberg yoga studio, as well as live online. Occasionally, a course block may be offered online only when the teacher is away from Berlin.

From now on, the classes will be recorded – with only the teacher viewable and no participants. This way, you will never miss a class!

Registering for a whole block offers you:
1. A significant discount of around 12€ per class.
2. A reserved spot in-person for every class in the block.
3. The Zoom link to use if needed.
4. A recording of the class.

Dropping-in for a single class is still possible at the new drop-in rate of 18€.

Here are more details about the prices and payment policies for the Svastha Yogatherapy Queer Yoga classes.

The Healing Power of Opposing Sensations: My Yoga Nidra Journey

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Last Thursday, one of my students asked if we could explore a longer session of Yoga Nidra. While I regularly incorporate Yoga Nidra techniques into my relaxation segments, a dedicated Yoga Nidra class invites participants into a deeper journey—one that explores the fascinating space between our conscious and subconscious mind. This practice is often called the “Yoga of the Mind” for good reason.

What is Yoga Nidra?

Yoga Nidra guides us into a state of conscious deep relaxation—a place where we remain aware while experiencing profound rest. One of its most powerful techniques involves experiencing opposing sensations, which offers valuable insights not just on the mat, but in life itself.

The Practice of Opposing Sensations

During a Yoga Nidra session, participants are guided to experience contrasting physical sensations. The facilitator might ask you to invite heaviness into your body, making that sensation fully alive in your experience. Then, you’re guided to transition to lightness, bringing that equally alive. The same approach applies to other opposing pairs: cold/hot, pain/pleasure.

This practice serves a deeper purpose than simple relaxation. It teaches us not to get stuck in a single sensation or emotional state. Our neural pathways tend to follow familiar routes, even when those routes lead to discomfort. By practicing the shift between opposing experiences, we develop greater flexibility of mind and emotional resilience.

My Personal Journey with Pain and Pleasure

Yesterday’s longer Yoga Nidra session revealed something remarkable about my own healing journey. Years ago, when practicing opposing sensations, I found certain transitions particularly challenging. I could easily access heaviness but struggled to experience lightness. Cold came readily, but warmth was elusive.

Most notably, having lived with chronic pain for much of my life due to being born with a club foot, the sensation of pain was all too accessible. I could summon it vividly, but when asked to transition to pleasure, I found myself stuck—unable to release the pain and welcome in something different.

The Healing Path Through Savoring

My healing journey has taken many forms. The Alexander Technique helped me address much of my physical pain. Through meditation, I gained understanding of the negativity bias we all carry—that tendency to notice and dwell on the negative while overlooking the positive.

A practice that transformed my experience was savoring. Savoring isn’t about toxic positivity or denying life’s difficulties. Rather, it’s the deliberate act of pausing when experiencing something beautiful, allowing that experience to fully register in your awareness.

When you see a stunning sunset, savor it for a few extra moments. When you taste something delicious, pause to fully appreciate it. When someone shows you kindness, let that warmth linger. This practice doesn’t negate pain—pain exists AND beauty exists. Savoring simply strengthens our capacity to fully experience the positive when our world so often emphasizes the negative.

A Moment of Recognition

Last Thursday’s class revealed how profoundly I’ve changed. As we moved through the opposing sensations practice, I noticed I could still access the traditionally “negative” sensations with ease, but something was different. The opposing “positive” sensations appeared just as quickly and with equal or even greater intensity.

The shift was most dramatic with pleasure. Images flooded my awareness—my daughter’s eyes, a delicious pizza, swimming in the sea, singing in community, receiving a gentle caress, gazing at a starry night, laughing without reason, crying in someone’s arms, and dancing freely. Years of savoring practice had created a rich internal library of pleasure that now came forth effortlessly.

In that moment of practice, I realized how much healing has occurred within me over the past decade. The contrast between my current experience and my previous struggles highlighted the distance I’ve traveled on my healing journey.

Beyond Emotions

This practice of opposing sensations offers something profound: it teaches us to navigate our emotional landscape with greater freedom. By developing the ability to move between different emotional states rather than becoming trapped in one, we gain a certain neutrality toward our emotions.

This neutrality doesn’t mean becoming emotionless—far from it. Rather, it means we’re no longer at the mercy of our emotional states. We can experience them fully while maintaining awareness that we are more than any single emotion. This awareness creates space to move beyond being defined by our emotional world and connect with the deeper aspects of ourselves.

An invitation

If you’ve never experienced Yoga Nidra or worked with opposing sensations, I highly recommend exploring this practice. Whether you’re carrying physical pain, emotional wounds, or simply the weight of daily stress, the simple act of practicing transitions between opposing experiences can gradually reshape your relationship with yourself and your world.

The journey to healing isn’t always linear, but sometimes—like during last Thursday’s practice—we’re gifted with beautiful moments of recognition that show us just how far we’ve come.

Pinelopi embarked on her yoga journey in 1999, completing a 600-hour Hatha Yoga Teacher and Vedantic Philosophy Training course in Valencia, Spain. She founded English Yoga Berlin in 2010, and now has over 15 years of experience as a full-time yoga teacher.

She deepened her knowledge by studying Yoga Anatomy with Leslie Kaminoff. Additionally, she trained with David Moore and attended his “Injury-free yoga” workshops, integrating the Alexander Technique into yoga poses. This comprehensive training enriched her expertise in both fields.

In January of 2023, Pinelopi achieved a significant milestone by becoming a certified Alexander Technique teacher. This was an intensive training for 3.3 years, totaling 1600 hours of dedicated study with Jorg Aßhoff.

Pinelopi’s ergonomic consultations integrate anatomy, Alexander Technique, and yoga’s mind-body understanding. Her holistic approach optimizes well-being in the workplace through comprehensive guidance.

She has completed training in ‘Understanding Trauma for Safer Spaces’ with Legacy Motion and ‘Somatic Embodiment and Regulation Strategies’ with Linda Thai. She learned fromSteffi Bednarek ways of applying Internal Family Systems for Social Transformation. Her meditation philosophy is deeply inspired by Tara Brach, particularly the RAIN meditation. She is also the author of a children’s book, ‘Magic of Rain,‘ which introduces the RAIN meditation to children and their grown-ups. It will be published in 2026 by Books That Save Lives.

Resourcing for Changemakers- a 10 week course

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Offered by the School of Unlearning Berlin

Practical skills for Activism Fatigue

Let’s be honest: things seem to be getting worse. On the mat or on the massage table, I see a lot of repetitive stress and overwhelming anxiety about the state of the world. We are all tired and yet, I truly believe, there is still so much we can do….

For this reason I am working with the School of Unlearning Berlin to create resources for changemakers – to support those of us who are trying to make this world a little less scary and confusing and a lot more equal for all of us. But we need to get to the root of our issues and we need to do it together.

What is Resourcing for Changemakers?

Resourcing for Changemakers is a 10-week course providing advanced tools for resilience by bringing together a diverse community of changemakers to practice a more resourced (supported) and relationally healthy (boundaried) kind of activism. 

This course will help you to:

  • Contextualize our individual struggles – we are in this together 
  • Heal internalized systemic oppression 
  • Resource everyone in the context of relationship 

This course is for you, if you…

  • want to change the world but are frustrated with the current models 
  • feel there is a missing link between personal and collective responsibility
  • understand that we can’t apply simple solutions to complex problems
  • are exhausted by how dysfunctional relationships negatively affect impact work
  • believe that diverse input is key to designing alternative futures
  • wish for dogma free ways to expand your perspective in this time 
  • sense that there is grief inside any process that would produce a real shift
  • are brave enough to face your own blind spots 

Format & Facilitation for Resourcing for Changemakers:

Led by 8 facilitators, this 10-week Resourcing for Changemakers online program explores embodied approaches to personal and collective liberation through 2.5-hour sessions. Together, we’ll address the main exports of the Empire (systems of oppression) while working through them in a safe(r) relational container. I am honored to be co-facilitating 6 of the 10 sessions in this course and to learn alongside my incredible co-facilitators.

When?

This course will take place online from:

10-weeks online, Sept 15 – Nov 17th: Mondays 1-330pm (Berlin time)

  • Session 1:  Welcome + Setting the Circle
  • Session 2: Resourcing our Nature
  • Session 3: Window of Capacity 1 (Understanding the Nervous System)
  • Session 4: Window of Capacity 2 (Understanding the Nervous System)
  • Session 5: Intro to the Empire 
  • Session 6: Patriarchy & Organized Religion 
  • Session 7: White Supremacy & Capitalism 
  • Session 8: Grief Circle (only evening session*)
  • Session 9: Empire Antidotes Session 
  • Session 10: Closing + Integration Session 

Price:

350-550 Euro (sliding scale pricing based on financial resources.) 

How to Register for the course:

Please fill out this short survey with your interest or send us an email with your questions at schoolofunlearningberlin (at) gmail (dot ) com

Summer Hatha Yoga Retreat on Presence

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Email Pinelopi : pinelopi (at) englishyogaberlin (dot) com

Thursday June 12th, 2025 15:00- Sunday June 15th, 2025 14:00

We warmly invite you to join us at this retreat for three intentional days of presence and mindfulness in community.

How often do we find ourselves planning ahead for who we wish to become, or looking back with regret or nostalgia for what once was, while bypassing what simply is? Presence means fully inhabiting the here and now. Even when the present moment feels uncomfortable, anxious, or undesirable.

True presence means embracing both the flowers and the compost—the beautiful and the difficult aspects of our experience. Being present with what is doesn’t mean accepting or condoning the causes that created our circumstances, but honestly allowing ourselves to be with reality as it unfolds in this world of juxtapositions:

  • A world filled with both love and fear
  • A world containing beauty alongside pain
  • A world where anxiety and peace coexist

We invite you to spend these days in presence together. Come as you are, from wherever you find yourself on your journey. Arrive with an open heart and eyes full of wonder for the world in all its mystery.

Where?

Rosenwaldhof  – This Yoga retreat “Presence” will take place in a beautiful place in Brandenburg, 1.5 hours South-east of Berlin, on the river Havel, surrounded by nature.

What is included in the yoga retreat “Presence”:

  • Presentations, discussions and exercises on “Presence”
  • Guided Meditations
  • Five yoga sessions
  • Nature Walks
  • Star gazing and bonfire
  • Painting from nature or Mandalas
  • Mantra chanting
  • Delicious vegetarian/ vegan meals, tea, coffee and fruit

Pricing & Registration

Total Cost: 434€ – 569€

Price depends on accommodation choice and includes all activities, meals, and lodging

Price Breakdown:

  • Yoga Tuition: 215€ (paid to Pinelopi via Smart-eg)
  • Food: 159€ (53€/day for 3 days, paid to Rosenwaldhof)
  • Accommodation Options (3 nights, paid to Rosenwaldhof):
    • Single room with private bathroom: 195€ (65€/night)
    • Single room with shared bathroom: 135€ (45€/night)
    • Shared double room with private bathroom: 135€ (45€/night)
    • Shared triple room with private bathroom: 105€ (35€/night)
    • Camping option: 60€ (20€/night)-

Payment Details:

  • Deposit: 50€ (non-refundable, to secure your spot)
  • Early Registration Discount: 15€ off if you register before March 31st, 2025
  • Payment Schedule:
    • Deposit due at registration
    • Remaining tuition payment due by May 15th, 2025 (to Pinelopi via Smart-eg)
    • Rosenwaldhof will contact you 3 weeks before the retreat for accommodation and food payment

How to Register:

Since space is limited, register early before the spots fill up! To secure your spot please write to:

Email pinelopi@englishyogaberlin.com specifying your preferred accommodation type and send a 50€ deposit.

Worried about canceling due to corona or illness?

I completely understand. You could purchase a “Reiserücktrittsversicherung” (travel insurance) that can reimburse you in case of sickness. In the unlikely case that I get corona and am unable to come, you will get the tuition money back and can still go and enjoy Rosenwaldhof, the lakes and forest, and the wonderful food and accommodation.

About the teacher:

Pinelopi embarked on her yoga journey in 1999, completing a 600-hour Hatha Yoga Teacher and Vedantic Philosophy Training course in Valencia, Spain. She founded English Yoga Berlin in 2010, and now has over 15 years of experience as a full-time yoga teacher.

She deepened her knowledge by studying Yoga Anatomy with Leslie Kaminoff. Additionally, she trained with David Moore and attended his “Injury-free yoga” workshops, integrating the Alexander Technique into yoga poses. This comprehensive training enriched her expertise in both fields.

In January of 2023, Pinelopi achieved a significant milestone by becoming a certified Alexander Technique teacher. This was an intensive training for 3.3 years, totaling 1600 hours of dedicated study with Jorg Aßhoff.

Pinelopi’s ergonomic consultations integrate anatomy, Alexander Technique, and yoga’s mind-body understanding. Her holistic approach optimizes well-being in the workplace through comprehensive guidance.

She has completed training in ‘Understanding Trauma for Safer Spaces’ with Legacy Motion and ‘Somatic Embodiment and Regulation Strategies’ with Linda Thai. She learned fromSteffi Bednarek ways of applying Internal Family Systems for Social Transformation. Her meditation philosophy is deeply inspired by Tara Brach, particularly the RAIN meditation. She is also the author of a children’s book, ‘Magic of Rain,‘ which introduces the RAIN meditation to children and their grown-ups. It will be published in 2026 by Books That Save Lives.

Closing the Loops

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Have you ever felt like you couldn’t shake off a stressful experience, even after the moment had passed? That lingering tension could be your nervous system stuck in an incomplete stress cycle. In our „Understanding Trauma for Safer Spaces“ training, I was introduced to the term of “closing the loops” as a way to complete a stress response cycle. It’s a gentle yet powerful way of thinking that helps the body resolve unfinished stress responses. It is important to close loops.

How does it work?

Our nervous system is designed to handle stress by activating certain responses—like fight, flight, or freeze—and then returning to a state of calm once the danger has passed. When we return to that state of calm we have closed a loop and have returned to homeostasis. However, modern life, with its constant demands and unresolved traumas, often interrupts this natural rhythm. When the nervous system can’t complete its cycles, it can leave us feeling stuck in states of hyperarousal (anxious and on edge) or hypoarousal (numb and disconnected). Somatic practices, yoga, the alexander technique and meditation offer accessible ways to gently “close the loops” and restore the body’s capacity for resilience.

But yoga and meditation are not the only way. In our resourcing course we will explore additional ways of closing loops. And some also involve running, dancing, singing, shaking and even loud vocalizing. We will explore together what ‘safe’ feels like to you, and what a state of being stuck in hyper- or hypo- arousal also feels like. Our goal is for each participant to find their own ways of releasing these states. Furthermore, our goal is to become very familiar with our body’s signals.

Why Closing the Loops matters


When we take the time to explore our nervous system, we’re not just healing from past stress. We’re building our capacity to handle future challenges with more ease. Closing the loops is a practice of compassion. It is an acknowledgment that we deserve to feel safe and whole in our bodies. By noticing when we are stuck in a flight, fight or freeze state, and consciously using a resource to bring us back to our window of capacity, we can nurture our ability to recover from stress, connect with others, and experience life differently.

Pinelopi embarked on her yoga journey in 1999, completing a 600-hour Hatha Yoga Teacher and Vedantic Philosophy Training course in Valencia, Spain. She founded English Yoga Berlin in 2010, and now has over 15 years of experience as a full-time yoga teacher.

She deepened her knowledge by studying Yoga Anatomy with Leslie Kaminoff. Additionally, she trained with David Moore and attended his “Injury-free yoga” workshops, integrating the Alexander Technique into yoga poses. This comprehensive training enriched her expertise in both fields.

In January of 2023, Pinelopi achieved a significant milestone by becoming a certified Alexander Technique teacher. This was an intensive training for 3.3 years, totaling 1600 hours of dedicated study with Jorg Aßhoff.

Pinelopi’s ergonomic consultations integrate anatomy, Alexander Technique, and yoga’s mind-body understanding. Her holistic approach optimizes well-being in the workplace through comprehensive guidance.

She has completed training in ‘Understanding Trauma for Safer Spaces’ with Legacy Motion and ‘Somatic Embodiment and Regulation Strategies’ with Linda Thai. She learned fromSteffi Bednarek ways of applying Internal Family Systems for Social Transformation. Her meditation philosophy is deeply inspired by Tara Brach, particularly the RAIN meditation. She is also the author of a children’s book, ‘Magic of Rain,‘ which introduces the RAIN meditation to children and their grown-ups. It will be published in 2026 by Books That Save Lives.

New Beginnings: What’s Coming in 2025

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“I have had to learn to invite my broken heart to dine with me at the table. It is meaningless to run now. My broken heart is not a judgment or a crime. It is a detailed record of how I have tried to meet the violence of the world with as much openness as possible.”

-Lama Rod Owens

Dear friends,

As the world feels increasingly insecure, it can be hard to know how to respond. We believe in thinking with our own minds; standing up for love, kindness, and unity; reaching out to care for each other; attending demonstrations for a fairer world, and actively resisting “othering.”

At the same time, navigating overwhelm in healthy ways is more important than ever. At our little studio, we aim to create a space where people can come together, co-regulate, feel safe(r), and unwind—a pause to reconnect with your thoughts, beliefs, and body.

In the months ahead, we will continue to offer our work and love to you. Here are a few new ideas to help us all navigate these challenging times. Thank you for being part of this—we look forward to coming together in the year ahead.

With gratitude,

* Pinelopi and Juli *

Resourcing Course.

In January we begin a new six week course on becoming aware of which ways we navigate overwhelm.This course is designed to help you understand and navigate the basics of your nervous system. Together, we will explore the states of fight, flight, and freeze, and learn to identify the personal resources that help us return to our window of capacity. From January 9th to February 20th.

Click here to find out more

Magic of Rain.

We are happy to announce that the pre-sale of our book Magic of Rain is now available worldwide! Through this heart warming story and illustrations, children get introduced to the RAIN meditation and how to go through feelings without repressing, avoiding or dismissing them. A quality we believe is needed more than ever in 2025 and beyond!

Click Here to Find out More

What is Community Yoga?

In this thoughtful blog, Juli explains why we’ve chosen not to partner with Urban Sports Club, highlighting how such platforms contribute to high participant turnover and hinder meaningful connections that foster a community. Our grounded, personal approach—centered on care, time, and commitment—creates a space that hyper-commercialized platforms simply cannot replicate.

Read the blog here

Time Change Announcement.

Pinelopi is moving her classes to begin half an hour earlier on Thursdays. We hope this will be a delightful change for most of you, since it means earlier nights, especially during the cold winter months.

Check the schedule here

Yoga retreat, Presence *

Our next Hatha Yoga retreat will take place in Rosenwaldhof between the 12th and 15th of June, 2025. We are looking forward to spending time together practicing yoga, meditating,doing mindful walks in the forests, swimming in the river, gathering around the bonfire.If you’d like to participate, send me an email to ensure you’re among the first to receive registration details

Write Pinelopi an email

Nurturing a Community Yoga

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English Yoga, 10997 Kreuzberg

At our cozy garden English yoga in Berlin Kreuzberg studio, we nurture a community yoga environment, away from the hustle and bustle of busy city life.

Are we “post”-pandemic yet?

When covid came into our lives four and a half years ago, safety measures were put in place to protect the most vulnerable of our populations in nations that could afford it. In Germany, we went in and out of lockdown several times. At English Yoga Berlin we held classes online. And when we could, began to have classes in person again, with masking and testing requirements. There was a promise of protection with all of these measures, and the world slowed down in order to accommodate them. We took fewer flights, we only traveled when absolutely necessary, a lot of us worked from home and took more time for our hobbies, our friends or families.

In 2022, we saw the release of all covid measures in Germany. This was supposed to get the economy moving again. But it also left vulnerable people to fend for themselves amongst an ever more increasingly individualistic mindset. And also ignored the fact that long covid is pervasive and affects people who also may not have had pre-exisiting conditions. It seemed to me that people were flying MORE and buying more to fill a void. This is also the landscape that platform-based businesses like Urban Sports thrive in.

Why we are not with Urban Sports Club

Platform-based subscriptions allow the end user to access a range of services from a variety of different sports facilities, yoga studios or gyms. Like true hypercapitalist fashion, the options seem endless. You can be a tourist and try out different things, without committing to a membership in one place. It’s flexible, easy, cheap, like Amazon.

But what does it look like for the provider? Before USC was around, there were smaller platform-based subscriptions around, one of them called SoMuchMore. But they got bought out by USC, as did the others. There was a time when English Yoga Berlin had some classes with SoMuchMore. We gave it a try. Naturally, the income per participant was much lower, but we could live with that. But the real impact was on the community. With more random people dropping in, the feeling of a community yoga dispersed. It felt like tourists who just leave their trash everywhere, because it’s not their city, they don’t care. It began to feel more and more like a service to be used (and exploited), rather than a place where participants could come to as a retreat from the chaotic overconsumptive city, pressures from work, microaggressions, family responsiblities, etc.

We aim to provide a safe(r) space where people can feel supported in a community, in order to grieve, breathe deeply, manage chronic pain, and come back to themselves. And not in a navel-gazing neoliberal definition of “self-care” way. But rather in a way where one could truly feel at ease and relaxed and supported. This cannot happen when there is a constant shift of people dropping in who don’t care about the space or the community.

Safer Space

How do we nurture a Community Yoga?

  • We keep our class sizes small.
  • Pinelopi offers predominantly yoga courses, rather than drop-in classes, and offers group Alexander Technique sessions, meditation courses and resourcing of the nervous system.
  • Juli prioritizes queer and trans* folks in the Sunday afternoon queer yoga classes, which are offered on a sliding-scale.
  • Juli also continues to maintain some covid measures. Since quick tests are still readily available and not expensive, testing is requested when attending in-person. And participants are asked to stay home if showing symptoms of potentially contagious illnesses.
  • And Pinelopi organizes group events, such as visits to the anatomy museum, end of year dinners, and retreats.
  • Many of our classes and courses are offered in a hybrid form – both in-person and in the studio. This minimizes the risk of exposure, while also allowing people to participate who either have symptoms or are too vulnerable to attend a group session.
  • Additionally, more and more participants are taking the initiative to offer their gardens, services, time, and care to one another—an inspiring step that reflects a deepening sense of community, far beyond what anonymous hyper-capitalist workout programs can offer.