This season at English Yoga Berlin

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“Let the rain kiss you. Let the rain beat upon your head with silver liquid drops. Let the rain sing you a lullaby”. –Langston Hughes

No point mourning the end of Summer. There’s plenty to be happy for this Autumn.

Now that the hot days are winding down, we happily put away our swimming gear and bring-out our favourite scarfs. Whether you get ready for a new semester at school, new projects at work, or the city’s cultural season, we know you’re looking forward for the spectacle of colour and light that comes in the next months.

We at EYB are also looking forward to some exciting new classes and some popular continuing ones, to help you get more clarity, and energy for whatever you plan to do this Autumn.

Yoga Kreuzberg Studio

Yoga Kreuzberg Studio

NEW SCHEDULE
Our Autumn Schedule offers you more opportunities to learn and develop your practice of yoga.

Now you can start the week with Hatha yoga –check-out Pinelopi‘s Monday class at 9:45. Our most popular style is also available on Tuesdays and Thursdays. That’s four Hatha Yoga classes each week.

Classical Yoga Tuesdays. This 105-minute class includes lots of pranayama, meditation and many of the methods of tantric kundalini yoga. Each week has a different focus, so check our page for details. Tuesdays at 8pm.

Pregnancy Yoga comes to EYB! Pinelopi draws from her vast experience as a teacher, yogi and mother to teach this class for expecting parents. Read more about this class. Every Monday at 11:45am.

Juli’s beloved Sunday class continues to bring gentle Vinyasa Flow to the people. Our Juli is committed to making yoga available to everyone, so a tight pocket is no longer an excuse for not reaping the benefits of yoga. Read more about Juli’s classes. Pay what you will. Sundays at 4pm.

Welcome to The Lab! Sundays bring a new experimental window to EYB. Every week we’ll have a different teacher/concept, exploring yoga, meditation, psychology, self-expression, and everything in between. Check our website for week by week details. Pay what you will.  Sundays at 6pm.

 

OUR FAMOUS CLEANSING WORKSHOP IS BACK FOR THE ALLERGY SEASON

Yogic Detox

Yogic Detox

FOR OFFICE YOGIS
To welcome the many internationals arriving to Berlin this season, we are offering a 30% discount on all of our Office Yoga packages. Bring the magic of yoga to your workplace and enjoy less stress and more productivity.

Yoga Exchange

Seeking Barter Yogis

GIVE US A HAND? OR TWO?
We need people for flyering, assisting between classes, child care, and more. Do you want to help out in exchange for yoga lessons? Drop us a line! Only responsible people need apply.

THE GIFT OF YOGA
We have gorgeous new gift cards for those of you who want to turn a friend or relative towards yoga. There’s never been a better time to give clarity and energy to someone you love.

New Prenatal Yoga Class in English – begins in September!

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English Yoga Berlin’s Hatha Yoga teacher, Pinelopi, will be offering Berlin a new pregnancy yoga class in English.

Where: Gorlitzerstr. 39 at the  Kreuzberg Yoga StudioPregnancy yoga at English Yoga Berlin

When:  Mondays at 11.45-13.00 (first class on the 7th of September)

Who:  Pregnant people and whomever is interested in their process.

What: This is a soft balancing class that promotes mental and physical well being. All yoga poses (asanas) are adapted for the pregnant body. Pregnancy is not a moment to advance in the practice of yoga , but rather a moment to use the practice for feeling in tune with the body, listening to its queues, and a way to learn to respect the body’s limits. In this English prenatal yoga class, the students will learn how to stretch through yoguic asanas, breathe deeply during movement, as well as the use of good visualization and relaxation techniques. The class consists of 55 minutes of asanas and 20 minutes of relaxation.

 

A Brief Introduction to Kundalini Yoga

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What I don’t mean by Kundalini Yoga

When you hear the term Kundalini Yoga, you may think of the white turbans of Yogi Bhajan and his 3HO. As it happens with many yogic and Sanskrit words, Kundalini is a very old concept that is today almost exclusively associated with the movement that first (or most) popularized it. Yogi Bhajan’s is merely one interpretation of Kundalini Yoga, and a very recent one at that: Kundalini Yoga was first mentioned in the Upanishads around 500BC, Yogi Bhajan’s version dates from 1968.

Born to a Sikh father and a Hindu mother, Yogi Bhajan took the teachings of his yoga guru, Swami Dhirendra Brahmachari, and amalgamated them with the Sikh doctrines of his spiritual leader, Maharaj Virsa Singh. So one could say that Yogi Bhajan’s yoga is a marriage between the Hindu and Sikh traditions (hence the turbans). He wasn’t the first to introduce Kundalini to the West (John Woodroffe did that in the 1910s), but he was the first to remove the secrecy that had surrounded these practices since the dawn of time. He was also extremely successful at spreading his teachings through his controversial Healthy, Happy and Holy Organization (3HO).

Kundalini Yoga has been closely associated to many yoga traditions for centuries, and is a fundamental aspect of Tantra.

What I mean by Kundalini Yoga

According to the tradition in which I was educated; the Tantra of Swami Satyananda, Swami Sivananda, and their teachers all the way to Adi Shankaracharya in the 8th Century; Kundalini Yoga is the science of awakening powerful dormant energies in our body.

Yoga understands man as a group of five interconnected layers, each more subtle than the previous. They are the containers of our true self. These layers are:

1. The Physical Layer

2. The Energy Layer

3. The Mental Layer

4. The Wisdom Layer

5. The Bliss Layer

The physical layer is what we know as the body. The mental layer includes our automatic thoughts and feelings, as well as the experiencing of our senses and our instinctive impulses. The Wisdom Layer, also known as the higher mind, contains our intuition and intellect, our capacity for judgment and our awareness. The bliss layer is thus called because it is experienced as a permanent state of spiritual bliss; a consciousness of completeness.

And what about the energy layer? This is the realm of aNadis subtle life force that animates our whole body. Eastern models of man agree that the body is permeated by energy channels (called Nadis in Yoga, and meridians in Chinese medicine). The energy that flows through these subtle channels, the Qi of Qi-Gong, the Chi of Thai Chi, the Prana of Pranayama, is the stuff that Kundalini is made off.

In the yogic model, it is said that there are thousands of channels moving prana through the body. Of these, three are most important: Sushumna, which runs along the spine, from the perineum to the crown of the head; and Ida and Pingala, which run in a weave alongside Sushumna. Ida and Pingala cross Sushumna at several points, at each of which we find one of the major chakras (see image).

So what is Kundalini? It is a latent energy that resides at the root of Sushumna, in the location of Mooladhara chakra. This energy can be awakened and made to ascent along the main nadi, lighting up our chakras like a Christmas tree. This event, known as Kundalini awakening, activates currently silent parts of our brain and our energy body, endowing us with all sorts of fantastic powers and abilities. This is the goal of Kundalini yoga.

Before we awaken Kundalini though, we must first purify the nadis, then awaken the chakras, and finally prepare Sushumna for the passage of this energy. This is a process that takes years, even decades, but along the way one reaps the many benefits of this sort of practice.

With only a few months of practicing the Kundalini techniques, one starts becoming aware of the prana flowing through the body. This awareness increases our perception of self, allowing us to be more conscious of our posture, our mental fluctuations, and even our normally unconscious radiation. Working with the chakras quietly develops abilities that we never thought we could cultivate, like our intuition, our receptivity and our ability to communicate beyond the words we use.

Personally, I don’t care about raising my Kundalini this year, but I have found in the practice of Tantric Kundalini yoga a ready tool to live a more plentiful and satisfying life. Furthermore, the methods of this ancient science can be used for all sorts of therapeutic and practical reasons, or simply to get more energy (stamina) and mental strength.

In his Classical Yoga lessons at English Yoga Berlin, Pedro teaches many of the Tantric Kundalini methods, such as Shambhavi Mudra, Agnisara Kriya, and various powerful pranayama techniques .

Childbirth Has Its Own Plan

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Berlin Prenatal Yoga Classes in English

photo by Fern

Historically, we humans tend to be creatures that like to plan. We like to know what will happen and how. We want to be prepared for everything. But when it comes to birth, especially when it’s our first time birthing, it is natural to be full of doubts and worry. One of the ways to deal with this worry is a tendency to over-plan. We make elaborate intricate detailed birth plans, we communicate them to our doctors or midwives, and we attach ourselves dearly to them.

Is that wrong? Not necessarily. But it is limiting. The more attached we are to a specific plan, the less flexibility we will have in the moment. If even one thing goes out of plan, we might have a panic, a massive disappointment and even go as far as disassociating ourselves from the rest of the birth – meaning that we would not be present at the birth of our child.

Should I not have a birth plan at all? The problem does not lie in having a birth plan or not having one. It’s about the over attachment we give to our plan. Sure, you can choose a way you would like things to go. And, probably, you should choose a way you would like things to go, so that when you are given a choice you know which choice to choose. You can have an idea of what it is that would suit you best. But you need to keep in mind, that birth has its own plan. And the challenge as a birthing parent is to be able to be flexible and remain present during the process.

Fortunately, in Berlin, you get many birthing choices. You can birth at home, in a Geburtshaus, in an anthroposophic hospital or a conventional hospital. All these choices offer their own philosophy to birthing. But regardless of which you choose, there tend to still be fears bubbling away in the subconscious. Will it be a canal birth or a caeserean birth? Will an epidural be needed or will you manage through the pain? Will it be an orgasmic birth (and no, this is no joke, they actually do happen for a few lucky ones!)? But the truth is you do not know what will happen during childbirth. As you do not know what will happen during life. Birth has its own plan… regardless of how much we try to pre-plan it.

So what if we took all that focus from trying to predict what kind of birth we will have, and put it into learning how to have flexible minds and how to be present at our child’s birth regardless of what will or will not happen? In our Berlin prenatal yoga classes we will explore techniques of how to keep an open mind during birth. We will use mindfulness techniques to learn how to be present during childbirth and parenthood. We will learn relaxation techniques, that when practiced often enough, will come natural to us in times of need. And although we will use lots of visualization techniques and positive thinking to keep us calm and grounded, we will try to not get over attached to only one way of birthing.

Our new English prenatal yoga class in Berlin starts in September 2015. Pinelopi has taught Hatha Yoga in English for 8 years now and pregnancy yoga to private students at home. After having being pregnant in 2013, she is now ready to offer pregnancy yoga to a small group at our Kreuzberg yoga studio.

The Benefits of Small Yoga Classes

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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.

Pregnancy- A Time of Transition

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photo by Shaleah Dawnyel

photo by Shaleah Dawnyel

There is no doubt. Most people think that pregnancy is a magical moment. It’s the moment that a new human being is preparing their entry into the world. It’s a moment a new parent is getting born. It’s the moment that things get shifted in the psyche to make space for the new. Magical? That’s most probably an adequate word to describe this time. But don’t confuse “magical” as a synonym for smooth, easy, happy, light. It’s wonderful when these attributes can also describe your experience, but mostly pregnancy is a time of massive transition. And transition is usually difficult, exciting, full of challenges and uncertainty.

It’s important to acknowledge this other aspect of pregnancy too. It is not just your body that gets stretched to make room for this new human being. It is also your psyche and spirit. Space, both physical and energetic, becomes an issue in your life. Transition is often accompanied with uncertainty and worry. This is normal. This is how transition works. It’s ok to feel overwhelmed by it.

This is where prenatal yoga can help. Pregnancy yoga promotes mental and physical well being and balance which is vital during times of transition or uncertainty. Learning how to breathe during pregnancy will not only help during pregnancy but in the many moments of parenthood to come. Creating a sankalpa and returning to it again and again will help you focus in the positive change you wish for your life. Learning how to listen to your body will help you accept your body and its’ changes, and will be of great value during childbirth. Prenatal yoga visualization techniques will help bring serenity into your present life and serve as an anchor of focus during childbirth.

We will be offering a new English prenatal yoga class in Berlin starting September 2015. Pinelopi has taught Hatha Yoga in English for 8 years now and pregnancy yoga to private students at home. After having being pregnant in 2013, she is now ready to offer pregnancy yoga to a small group at our yoga studio in Kreuzberg.

What is Karma Yoga and How Can I Practice it?

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Karma is one of the most famous and, at the same time, misunderstood Sanskrit words. But its meaning is quite simple and unambiguous: Karma = To Do. All action is Karma. Of course, there is also the so-called Law of Karma, which is one of the most beautiful and universal laws, recognized both by science and metaphysics: Everything happens in pairs –cause and effect, action and reaction. And this is what people usually refer to when they use silly expressions like “Bad Karma”. Yet, in its widest sense, the word Karma means the sum aggregate of who we are; the result of all our actions, thoughts, and feelings. Swami Vivekananda compares each individual action (thoughts and feelings too) to a single blow of the sculptor on stone. Karma, in this sense, is the resulting sculpture: the sum of all the blows. Who we are.

“We are responsible for what we are; and whatever we wish ourselves to be, we have the power to make ourselves. If what we are now has been the result of our own past actions, it certainly follows that whatever we wish to be in future can be produced by our present actions; so we have to know how to act.”
(Swami Vivekananda)

marx engels

For the purposes of this post the word Karma takes is most basic meaning: Action. And so Karma Yoga is the yoga of action. Or the pursuit of self-knowledge by doing. And what is it that we should do? Anything that needs doing! Karma Yoga allows us to become more conscious by carrying-out our daily duties and tasks. Sounds great, doesn’t it? But it’s not that simple. Work or action doesn’t in itself lead to self-knowledge. Only work that is performed with awareness and detachment, qualifies as Karma Yoga. The work itself is not even that important; how we do it is what counts.

When we act in the attitude of Karma Yoga, we become conscious of our reactions, of the mental expressions of our work. Do we become frustrated with failure? Are we over-eager for the results? Do we manifest impatience, insecurity, carelessness? Through Karma Yoga we can access this knowledge about ourselves, while remaining centered. We don’t get swayed by what we discover, we simply experience. Through this practice we let go of expectations, mental or physical blockages and anything else that makes us dependent or repels us.

Do you want to try it? Next time you set down to do your work, remain present and aware, keep returning again and again to be fully in what you’re doing. Be conscious of all the tendencies of your mind (boredom, restlessness, etc.) and let them be — just do your work and be the witness of everything that happens around that.

Becoming a Karma Yogi doesn’t happen overnight. But if you’re sincere, and you stick to it, you will start noticing some very strong effects with only a few weeks of regular practice. Whether you do house-chores or sit at an office; whether you’re a volunteer, and intern or a high-flying executive; whether you’re happy with your work or not; Karma Yoga is a ready and useful tool to become more you than you are now.

DIY & Community Yoga

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What is DIY?

Photo by Fern

Photo by Fern

I call myself a DIY-practitioner, but the term “DIY” means different things to different people. The term is an acronym for “Do-It-Yourself” and can encompass many different tasks or fields in an approach of taking matters into one’s own hands. My dad is a DIY home repair kinda guy. This came from his rural immigrant background of a hard-working interconnected community without resources or proximity to hire professionals. If you needed your roof fixed, everyone in the community came together to help you do it and shared their skills. As an artist who grew up in a globalized metropolis, DIY means something different to me. I am influenced by self-published ‘zines, punk music and handmade films. More so than just because of economic necessity (but also that), this DIY approach is about autonomy – having my voice heard in a world that privileges the perspectives of white men and their so-called ‘universal truths.’ If I was to wait to produce films after gaining approval from the status quo, I’d be holding my breath until I die. I take matters into my own hands, and use what I have at hand, to create my own films on a significantly reduced budget, saying what I want and how I want. My films will not likely get screened at big festivals, as my production budgets are low, but getting my perspective out into the world can have an emancipatory effect on me and other people in similar situations. And like my father’s, my approach to DIY is also dependent on an interconnected community. I trade resources and skills within the various queer and film communities I am connected to, and organize screenings of others’ work as they do for mine, as well as often working collectively. I could not do what I do without a community. In this way, I think the term “DIY” is a misnomer, and others have felt this too, coming up with “DIO” (Do-It-Ourselves) and “DIT” (Do-It-Together). I stick with the term “DIY,” as it’s been with me for a long time.

Why Community Yoga in Berlin?

photo by Fern

photo by Fern

My approach to yoga feels similar to me. I began practicing yoga about 18 years ago now at bigger studios, but then eventually found that more ‘community-based’ yoga centres suited me better, like Open Door Yoga in Vancouver. I learned a lot there, and really thrived in the community feeling – cleaning and washing blankets in exchange for unlimited yoga classes. I joined the English Yoga Berlin collective in 2013. I enjoy the autonomy of running a collective consensus-based business with other like-minded yoga teachers. We offer small yoga classes (up to about 10 people) so that we can give more individualized attention, which reduces the likelihood of injuries from happening, and helps to support yoga students with chronic pain or other difficulties that might not get addressed in larger groups. We aim to create a community around our yoga classes, though each of us teachers are individuals and have different approaches to yoga – we come together with this concept. We also aim to keep our prices affordable, though even these might be out of range for some people, and during periods in my life I have definitely been in the same situation – and could be again. I would love to offer free yoga classes, and if I were independently wealthy I would. Teaching and sharing what we know about yoga to others takes our time, rent, administration costs, and expensive education, and though I have strong views about it and fight against it when I can, we live within a capitalist system where we are required to earn money to survive. My approach to counter capitalism and make yoga classes more accessible to people with low/no income is to offer sliding scale classes. Some of us earn less or have less/no savings, and this is a way to recognize that and support those who can’t afford to attend a regularly-priced yoga class. If you earn more or have savings, you can pay a bit more to help subsidize someone who pays less. These ‘community classes’ are offered with the same quality and attention as all of our classes, each ending with a guided relaxation using yoga nidra techniques. Because of my personal commitment to a DIY approach and creating interconnected communities, as of this month all of my English yoga classes in Kreuzberg will be offered as community classes. You are welcome to pay the regular prices if you choose – become a registered monthly student, use a 5er card, etc., but the sliding scale option is always open to anyone who attends.

Juli teaches Vinyasa Yoga and Hatha Flow Yoga in Kreuzberg, Berlin.

Jennifer Lung at English Yoga Berlin

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As we rework our schedule, we welcome Jennifer Lung to guide our last Community Yoga Class in Kreuzberg on the Friday 19:30 slot.

Jennifer Lung teaches at English Yoga BerlinJennifer is a 500-Hour ERYT (Experienced Registered Yoga Teacher).  She has been teaching from Northern California to Berlin, since 2008 in a style that ranges from dynamic vinyasa flow to statically held postures and restorative. Her accessible classes are popular with all levels as she provides modifications and options throughout the session.

Jennifer is passionate about guiding students to discovering their own journey and tapping into their highest true potential. She is a lifetime student of yoga and also serves as a karma yogini at various yoga centers and ashrams. She also holds a certificate in Thai yoga therapy from Ritam Healing Arts and is a professional vegan chef with a self-published cookbook, The Bhakti Kitchen – A Yogic Way to Vegan Cooking.

When:  Friday 29th May, 19:30

Where:  English Yoga Berlin

We remind you that, although we are stopping this specific donation based yoga class, there are more donation based yoga classes that we offer at English Yoga Berlin.

A Tired Mama’s Yoga – Part II

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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.