Search Results for: meditation

Soundwalk & Flow

hands Weds, 30 July, 2014
18h to 21h
Location: HeileHaus eV
Back house, 2nd Floor
Cost: € 15 (7€ or more reduced income)

This workshop blends together several traditions – Vipasana Walking Meditation, Vinyasa Yoga Flow, Chi Yoga, and audio artist Hildegard Westercamp’s “Soundwalking” practice of listening and observing our environment.

A warrior flow sequence will be followed with a silent walk outside, returning to the room into relaxation and ending with writing / reflection. The workshop will run for three and a half hours with a short break.

Yoga Berlin Kreuzberg Prices

We are freelance yoga teachers that offer different styles of yoga.

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We are committed to providing accessible and high quality yoga classes. Our yoga school in Berlin also offers private classes, business yoga, workshops, and yoga for special events.

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I’m No Barbie-Girl

By English Yoga Berlin 27.05.14 27.05.14 Uncategorized

Mighty Juli The trajectory of yoga over the centuries has seen a variety of different practices, styles, and approaches. What was originally a method of exercise for elite, higher-caste men in order to sit longer in meditation to achieve enlightenment has been co-opted and altered for western consumption. We’re working on a more in-depth blog about this, so keep posted! But right now, I’d like to address the dichotomy in contemporary western yoga of body-image.

In our contemporary western understanding of what yoga means, we express terms like “union” or “connection” – to describe the approach of connecting mind and body, and sometimes soul. This is a very different approach than the traditional practice that Patanjali outlined of seeing the body as an abject material object to discard on the way to god-like status. Western yoga has adopted a mind-body approach whose history leads all the way back to the ancient greek philosophers, and is inspired by the American movement of transcendentalist individualism, illustrated by the romantic poetic works of Walt Whitman and D. H. Lawrence, and philosophies of Emerson and Thoreau.

Through these influences, westernized yoga had the potential to liberate us from the constrains of western culture’s obsession with attaining the perfect body ideal. It was headed on that track. Instead, through an explosion of commercialization beginning at the end of the last century, it has fed right into it. Today in the west, the most common image of a yoga practitioner is a skinny, feminine white woman in an impossibly-twisted position, wearing skin-tight trendy clothing. Where does that leave the rest of us who could benefit from a yoga practice that professes “freedom” and “body love?” Is freedom only available for those who can afford to purchase its accessories or strict food regimes, or for those who are impossibly flexible or skinny, or those who fit into racist standards of beauty? In her essay published in the book 21st Century Yoga: Culture, Politics, and Practice: A critical examination of yoga in North America, Melanie Klein writes about how she first got interested in yoga to help heal from the negative body-image that led her to anorexia, and then later as yoga bloomed into a full-forced commercial industry with yoga models at the forefront, she found it feeding back into those old thought patterns.

The industry behind the commodification of yoga is selling an impossible body-image back at us in order to sell more products, and make us feel dependent on material goods by creating feelings of low self-worth amongst yoga practitioners. I’ve heard other yoga teachers say that they don’t drink beer because it gives them a thick belly, or they talk about fat-burning yoga classes. It’s a shame that a practice that is supposed to be about loving one’s body has come to such body shaming proportions. The culture claims that fat is unhealthy, but they ignore the fact that so many people starve themselves, or exercise vigorously, or modify their bodies in order to look more like the image they see in magazines. In the west, we are taught to have control over our bodies, not love them. I love good food, and refuse to count calories. I also like to drink a few beers now and then. I refuse to comply with ridiculous expectations of what I should look like as a yoga teacher. At one point in my life, I tried to live up to these standards, but never succeeded, of which I’m glad. We can’t all look like Barbie, no matter how hard we try. I personally feel that carrying a little bit more weight feels healthier and stronger to me than when I was much skinnier. And it’s a misconception that bigger bodies cannot be flexible or strong. I’ve seen people much bigger than myself do a fierce ashtanga class.

I’d like to be able to say that I’m never ashamed of my body, but I am not outside the influence of societal pressure. There are some days when I look in the mirror and wish my belly was flatter, my legs less hairy, but most days I let it hang out, completely unfettered. And I love it the most when I walk into a yoga class and see it filled with people of all shapes, shades, sizes, and genders. I hope that my bodily expression is something that helps them feel more comfortable in seeing something of themselves reflected in the person guiding them through the class. My kind of yoga is one where people can work towards feeling comfortable residing in their bodies and minds, not controlling them, but feeling good about themselves as they are, and letting go of oppressive ideals and expectations.

Juli teaches Vinyasa Flow and Restorative Yoga at English Yoga Berlin.

The Shatkarma: Yogic Cleansing Methods

By English Yoga Berlin 27.04.14 07.08.18 Uncategorized

Yoga is more than just yoga poses. In the classical tradition there are eight aspects of yoga, of which the first are cleansing processes: methods to remove toxins and sluggishness from the body’s organs. In sanskrit, this branch of yoga is called Shatkarma (Shat = six and Karma = processes) and, as its name implies, they are six in number. In anticipation of our Spring Cleaning Workshop, we bring you a brief description of each of the Shatkarma.

1) Neti: Jala Neti, the process of rinsing the nose with salt water, is very popular today. It is widely recommended by doctors, and you can find Neti pots in most large pharmacies and grocery stores. Another variation, Sutra Neti, uses a waxed string for the same purpose.

2) Dhauti: This is the collective name of several methods used to cleanse the entire gastrointestinal tract, from the mouth to the anus. Some of these techniques also cleanse the respiratory system and remove bacteria from the eyes, nose and ears. One of the most important of these methods is Shankhaprakshalana, the intestinal cleanse.

3) Nauli: A powerful practice where one massages all the internal organs, stimulating the digestion, balancing the endocrine system, increasing enenergy and activating the body’s natural detoxifying mechanisms.

4) Basti: A technique for washing and strenghtening the colon. It removes excess bacteria, stool and gas from the lower intestines.

5) Kapalbhati: This is both a Shatkarma and a Pranayama (breathing technique). Kapal means Cranium or Forehead and Bhati means Light or Splendour. Kapalbhati is translated as “Frontal Brain Cleaning” and is a technique for invigorating the whole brain. This is achieved through a physiological connection between the breath and the cerebrospinal fluid.

6) Trataka: Steadily gazing on one point. It relieves eye ailments, making the eyes clear and bright. It also improves a whole range of physiological and mental functions. Used in the treatment of insomnia, depression and anxiety, Trataka improves the memory and concentration. In our classes, we practice Trataka on a candle flame, but virtually anything can be used as the object of concentration.

The Shatkarma are simple enough to practice, and there is a wealth of information on the internet, both in English and in German, but most of these practices should definitely not be attempted without the guidance of a qualified teacher. We at English Yoga Berlin have been teaching these methods at regular two-day workshops where you can learn the most important methods from each group.

Relaxations

Welcome to our online collection of yoga meditation! We offer these guided visualizations with the intention of helping you relax, sleep better, feel more alert, know yourself more deeply and generally improve your quality of life.

What is stored on this page?

yoga meditation can calm the doors of your mind

This page houses our collection of audio files, recorded at our studio for yoga in Berlin Kreuzberg. Each file contains a different guided relaxation, and each relaxation has a different theme or concept behind it. The relaxations are written/created/reworked and delivered by an English Yoga Berlin teacher. The ideas and the images are inspired by a variety of sources: our teachers, our dreams, the art and music to which we are exposed and, of course, the relationships, challenges and lessons that are part of teaching yoga and meditation!

These relaxations are licensed via a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License. That means that we would be very happy if you can share them with friends and family, or adapt them for your own use! We ask only that you attribute the recordings to their source, and that they not be used commercially (ie, not be used to make money).

How to Use These Relaxations…

Before listening, we suggest that you spend 30min doing some gentle Yoga asana of your choice. This will help release tension from your body and deepen your breathing and concentration. Some relaxing Pranayama, such as Anuloma Viloma or Bee Breath, will also be helpful. If you have trouble with visualization, we suggest 10min of Tratak beforehand, to sharpen the visualization skills and help clear the mind.

When you feel ready to listen, we suggest lying comfortably on your back (or on your side, especially if you are pregnant!). You can also sit upright in a chair, if this is more comfortable. Please make sure you feel warm and comfortable, so that you won’t have to move during the relaxation.

If you want to learn more about these techniques, you can read more about Yoga Nidra, here and here.

If you are a regular English Yoga Berlin student, you can access our password-protected database of relaxations here.

If you are not an English Yoga Berlin student, you can access our selection of free relaxations here.

**Please note that the audio files only work if you have a Flash plug-in and Javascript enabled.

Enjoy!

Endometriosis and a Personal Approach to Healing

By English Yoga Berlin 12.02.14 26.09.16 Uncategorized

It wasn’t until my 30s that I started realizing there was something off about my menstrual cycle. I’d always had pain during the first few days accompanied by heavy bleeding, and often experienced what is called ‘breakthrough bleeding.’ But it gradually started to get worse, until there were months when I was bleeding every day of my cycle. With the advice of a friend, I went to see a naturopath, who prescribed homeopathic medicine (specifically, venom from the snake, Lachesis). I was open to trying it, but after about half a year, I felt no change for the better, and out several hundred dollars. In the meantime, I moved 5000km to another city for graduate school.

At this point I’d had a yoga practice on & off for about 8 years. After I moved, I made an effort to continue my yoga practice and
discovered many more different teachers and styles of yoga than I had before. I felt that my practice had been good for me ‘physically.’ I became more aware of the pain I was experiencing and was able to ease it a little during my menstrual cycle. But I didn’t recognize the healing benefits until much later on. I continued to struggle with menstrual cycle problems, and had now built up a lack of trust towards naturopathy. So I tried allopathicremedies – the birth control pill was advised for hormone balancing, even though I didn’t need it for contraception, and I had several invasive surgeries. After the second surgery to remove ovarian growths, a biopsy showed that it was endometrial tissue. That was when I got the diagnosis of endometriosis. But the hormone therapy didn’t seem to work: the tissue kept growing, albeit perhaps slower.Endometriosis is a rather common illness, affecting approximately 10% of people with female reproductive organs, and perhaps more who show no symptoms. The allopathic methods of treatment vary from mild hormone treatment to organ removal surgery. Sadly, I know several people who have had full hysterectomies, and yet still experience the return of growths. Growths root down onto other organs or muscles, making them difficult to remove completely and can cause lung collapse, kidney failure and/or extreme pain. Endometrial tissue can often even grow on the scar tissue from previous surgeries! Hormone therapy such as IUDs or contraceptive pills can slow the growths and relieve some pain, but not always. Sometimes androgen hormones are recommended to induce menopause. One person I know had tried this method twice and still experienced the return of the growths and painful menstruation.Often, pregnancy and subsequent breast-feeding can act to “re-set” the adrenal system so that endometriosis may not return. Menopause may see an end to more growths, but the ones that have already rooted down may continue to grow. There has been some evidence to show that even people without ovaries and a uterus may develop endometriosis on the prostate. It is seen by the medical system as a woman’s disease, making it difficult for male-identified people to receive proper treatment.

Having no success with allopathic or naturopathic methods, I began to investigate the alternatives. My personal approach to healing began when I decided to become a yoga teacher and delve deeper into my practice. I read this book that recommended a strict endometriosis diet and followed it dogmatically for one year. And I tried out many other modalities – body talk, the sadhana practice of kundalini, myofascial massage, acupuncture, mindfulness meditation and medicinal roots. I sought advice from elders and spiritual practitioners. A couple years ago, I had yet a third surgery – recommended because of something that looked cancerous but turned out not to be. All of the methods I had tried became too much for me to keep up a regular practice with, it became a stress to try to keep up the discipline of the diet. And I wanted to do other things than focus on my body all the time! But I learned an awful lot through experimenting with different things and I eventually found what worked for me.

Endometriosis is an immunodeficiency illness, attacking the body when it’s low on other resources, so I focused on trying to keep healthy. I also became convinced that stress causes endometriosis by the physical tightening of muscles around the pelvis. The practice of mula bahnda (the root lock) brought more awareness for me about what was going on in my pelvic area. During menstruation I now try to focus on letting go of any tightness, sometimes even doing exercises to push out any stuck endometrial tissue. And I am also careful not to do inversions during heavy days. I continue to make smoothies out of spirulina (for immune boosting properties), maca root (for adrenal health), and trying to not let stress overtake my life, while keeping a balance of having some fun, expanding my limits and moving beyond my comfort zone once in awhile. I occasionally get some pain and breakthrough bleeding, and then I know it’s my body telling me to slow down. So far, the growths have not returned, and I’m still years away from menopause! It may not take becoming a yoga teacher for you, but I know there’s a way that you can heal yourself too.

Juli teaches Vinyasa Flow Yoga and Restorative Yoga in our Berlin Kreuzberg studio. She continues to explore self healing with yoga and encourages her students to do so, too.

December got you wrapped up in stressful knots?

By English Yoga Berlin 16.12.13 17.06.15 Uncategorized

Whether you celebrate Kwanzaa, Hanukkah, Christmas, Yule, or Dōngzhì, or no religious-cultural festival at all, the month of December in the Northern Hemisphere can be a stressful time of year. Winter is starting to hit hard, the hours of light dwindling down to their shortest, and the temperature is dropping. Additional stresses can wear us down; such as family or work social obligations, exams, deadlines, trip-planning, depleting finances, and attempts at tying up our own loose ends or goals for the year. Our hibernation impulse kicks in, and we want to stay inside where it’s warm and snack on comfort food.

Acknowledge your stress

Sometimes we can get so caught up in all these activities we don’t realize we’re wearing ourselves down or getting irritated in the process. Once you acknowledge and recognize that stress is indeed affecting your mood or sleep cycle, you can give yourself permission to slow down, take breaks or drop things with less priority. It may seem counter-productive to schedule more things in, but adding some regular breaks, and things that are for ‘you’ to your schedule, will make the other stressful items on your list seem easier. You can look forward to the little present you give yourself – your Friday evening acupuncture session or swing dance class.

Eat Hearty Warm Food

Being on the go all the time can deplete our resources and zap our body of nutrition. It’s more important than ever during stressful times to eat well. There are a lot of sweet treats around this time of year, which fill us up without providing nutrition. Depending on where you live, you might also feel more dehydrated because of cold weather. Also, according to Ayurvedic nutrition, our bodies need more Vata energy during the cold winter months. They recommend eating more heated root vegetables, rather than raw salads. You can save time by making large batches of soup or stew. If you spend most of your time away from home glass jars can provide a DIY alternative to a thermos in order to carry around your delicious hearty lunch.

Breath and Movement

Outdoor activities in the cold can be quite exhilarating if you’re prepared for it. Wrap yourself up in a warm scarf and wear loose clothing made with natural fibres. One misconception most people have in countering the cold is to hunch their shoulders up by their ears and round forwards. This actually makes us colder! If you open up your chest and drop your shoulders down, your lung capacity increases and allows more oxygen to enter and warm up your body! If you breathe deeply and slowly or take slight pauses as you hold the breath in, it helps to keep the warm air in longer. Keep your body moving by riding a bike or walking quickly. And when you reach your destination do some gentle stretches to come back to the warmth of the inside temperature.

Regenerate

A regular yoga or meditation practice helps to recuperate us from stress. Keep going to your yoga class, despite your busy schedule. Or even add a new one!

Take advantage of our special offers this month at English Yoga Berlin – bring a friend for free to our slow and rejuvenating Restorative and Classical yoga classes.

And remember, as the daylight hours grow shorter, the actual Winter Solstice on December 21st is approaching, which means the daylight hours will start to increase again!

And as the New Year is shortly upon us, so is our new yoga schedule for 2014.

Honouring your limits and restoring balance: A new restorative yoga class, and a guest teacher!

By English Yoga Berlin 01.11.13 23.06.15 Uncategorized

This Thursday, Natalie Kakon joins us as a guest teacher in our community class: “Unwind and release; allow your stress to slip away by yoking to a feeling of infinite space within the body. Learn how to expand your chest and lengthen your spine with the support of blocks, blankets and chairs. Bring your body back to its individual balance while connecting to a deep sense of relaxation. Join us for a restorative, yin practice.”

What?: Restorative Yoga with Natalie Kakon

Where?: At the English Yoga Berlin studio

When?: Thursday, November 7, from 15h45 till 17h15

How much?: Donation based/pay what you can

Our weekly Restorative Yoga class with Juli happens every Sunday evening at 18h in our Kreuzberg yoga studio.

Why Restorative Yoga?

In our everyday lives, we are often encouraged to push further, achieve more, do more, be more social, be more productive, fill our days with activities and take on more work. It is easy to lose sight of our own capacities, our own limits, and we can push ourselves beyond them without nurturing the support structure that we need to maintain a healthy balance, inviting stress, anxiety, injuries or illness. A restorative yoga practice (as well as yoga nidra and other practices that focus on relaxation) can help to rejuvenate the body and mind after pushing too far, thereby fostering balance. Once we know our limits and have nurtured them we can then gently (and with support) test the waters and play at the edges.

Expanding our limits (and moving beyond our comfort zone) can cause great rewards such as opening our minds to new concepts, becoming more flexible or physically strong, and strengthening our empathy towards other people. But it’s not possible to find balance if all we feel is stress, low energy and burn out. Restorative yoga activates the parasympathetic nervous system, which is responsible for nurturing our bodies and restoring them to health. When we are in a rushed and high-energy state, our bodies activate the ‘sympathetic nervous system,’ which is responsible for releasing certain chemicals to keep us going, so that we can react quickly and do more within a shorter period of time – a state of fight-or-flight. These chemicals can linger in the body until the parasympathetic nervous system kicks in to counter them. And we can remain in this state long after the specific things that have caused us anxiety or stress have ended. This is why we sometimes feel that ‘relaxing’ (meeting friends, watching TV, reading a book) cannot rejuvenate us. We may have trouble sleeping or have anxious dreams, which only perpetuate the feeling of urgency, stress, and low energy.

What is Restorative Yoga?

The only way to counter these effects in our body is with complete and total concentrated relaxation. Activities that remove distractions, such as meditation, sitting by a fire, or going for a solitary walk can help. Yoga Nidra and Restorative Yoga are specifically designed to activate the parasympathetic nervous system, so that the body and mind can restore to balance. Restorative Yoga is based on the Iyengar tradition of using props to support the body during poses.

Some of these poses were adapted by Judith Lasater for a restorative practice, so that deep relaxation could occur by holding positions longer (up to 15 minutes) with the support of bolsters, blocks, chairs, pillows and blankets. The body is positioned in such a way that it is totally supported, without the need to either stretch the muscles or use their power. A restorative pose should be very very comfortable and relaxing so that the muscles of the body can decompress, and the mind can completely unwind, fostering the release of chemicals from the parasympathetic nervous system. A restorative yoga class may contain some gentle flow or Hatha poses before moving into the longer-held restorative poses.

The classes we do at English Yoga Berlin incorporate a gentle flow, along with some chair-supported Hatha poses (beneficial for those needing to strengthen their bones and joints because of Osteoporosis or Arthritis). Our community class guest teacher, Natalie Kakon, will incorporate some Yin poses in her class. Yin poses use gravity to help open up the body to deeper stretches, encouraging more flexibility. Yin yoga is about finding the edge of your limit and breathing through it to open up a little more space. This particular combination of restorative and yin poses can be very juicy, as it can support the return to balance as well as gently push the edges all in one class!

Is Yoga Good for Business?: An Interview with Shaleah Dawnyel

By English Yoga Berlin 25.10.13 23.06.15 Uncategorized

Small Business Coach, Shaleah Dawnyel

The classes we offer in Kreuzberg are as varied as the people who attend them. We have artists, activists, doctors, parents and business people. We offer Classical yoga, Hatha, Vinyasa Flow and Restorative yoga to make sure that there is something for everybody. And because we offer affordable classes in English and Spanish, we often attract people from around the world who are starting a new life here in Berlin.

Recently, we did an interview with one of our longest attending students. Shaleah Dawnyel is a small business coach in Berlin who focuses her work on helping freelancers and entrepreneurs to move their businesses forward. She is also one of the biggest supporters of our yoga school as she is constantly sending overworked and overstressed people our way. So, we took some time to ask her why.

What made you start coming to English Yoga Berlin?

The stress of my international move is what originally prompted me to come to the studio. I was looking for some way to handle my anxiety about being an expat-freelancer who was starting over from scratch here in Berlin. But when I moved from LA, I had the wrong idea about yoga. I thought mediation was a bunch of crap and therefore I thought yoga was too. It’s a big industry where I come from where people are often trying to prove how holy, bendy and yoga trendy fashion conscious they are. When I discovered English Yoga Berlin, it totally changed my perspective.

What’s so different about our yoga classes?

EYB classes are always so nurturing, supportive and challenging. They aren’t filled with esoteric babble but rather a lot of practical wisdom. And the yoga teachers are not only knowledgeable but down to earth. They teach me to explore my personal limits and then to support myself once I have found them. This is a hard thing in life and business: knowing when to push and when to accept things as they are. The difference between go time and wait time is illustrated so clearly every day on the mat and it has helped me enormously to be able to identify what time it is in this big life transition.

How has your yoga practice helped you in your work?

I have learned to breathe through discomfort. This has helped me during difficult meetings. I have learned that every day I have a different capacity for things. This has helped me with effective time management. Yoga Nidra shows you how to visualize things in a relaxed state. This has taught me to achieve my goals with less striving effort. By learning to respect my own limits, I have actually become a better business person. I don’t ignore my instincts like I used to, but instead respect them as I know they are giving me valuable information about the current situation as it is unfolding. I don’t take situations with clients personally anymore because I have the benefit of the kind of perspective that regular yoga practice creates. When you become an audience to your life and work, you become exponentially more effective in everything you do.

What advice would you give freelancers and entrepreneurs who are thinking about starting yoga?

Do it. Seriously. If I was to give you just a short list of all the potential benefits of regular yoga practice it would include: more restful sleep, more energy, better focus, less stress and relief of back pain etc. In addition to this, I have noticed that with my small business clients and myself, the emotional and psychological benefits are exponential! Many freelancers and entrepreneurs over-work themselves because they simply don’t know when to stop. They continually struggle with understanding what is “enough”. Over time, this causes burn out. Any time we access and accept what is really going on inside us and use it- things have the potential to drastically improve. Regular yoga practice has helped me to manage anxiety, cultivate more creative thoughts and put them into action, increasing my self-confidence. By learning when to stop, I have become more effective in my “go time”.

But one word of caution- don’t just go anywhere for yoga. Go somewhere you feel good. Shop around if you have to because it’s an individual experience that should bring you what you personally need. English Yoga Berlin has small classes that make me feel like I am being simultaneously cared for and challenged. I look forward to being in the studio every week and I am truly grateful for their contribution to my life and work!

Coming Out of Yoga Nidra

By English Yoga Berlin 17.10.13 23.06.15 Uncategorized

Elegance and Shadows by Fern

Yoga Nidra is a powerful technique, evolved by Swami Satyananda Saraswati from ancient tantric scriptures. To those who have practiced it, Yoga Nidra is experienced as a deep relaxation. But, although this method induces complete physical, mental and emotional relaxation, it is much more than that.

In the Tantric tradition, Yoga Nidra is viewed as a Pratyahara method; a way to turn our awareness away from the external impressions. During the process, our consciousness is constantly moved through images, symbols, states, and different parts of ourselves. In this way we are led to fully and consciously experience these internal objects, making the mind more flexible and able to deal with impressions.

But due to the deep state of relaxation and meditation in which the mind is plunged during Yoga Nidra, it is important that we come out gradually from the practice. Passing too suddenly from the deep state to waking consciousness could temporarily jolt the mind and produce unpleasant feelings of irritation or even headaches.

Most of your Berlin yoga classes include some Yoga Nidra at the end of each practice. We feel that this is a great way to end a class filled with active asanas, breathing and other meditative techniques. But it is very important to closely follow the instructions for ending the practice; gradually moving the awareness outwards and opening to the sense stimuli. We recommend listening to the sounds, feeling the tact of the floor or clothes against your skin and opening your eyes very slowly before you look around. Before you do anything else, it’s good to experience your surroundings: the room, sounds, light, people, objects; everything around you, as a whole. This will ensure that you receive the maximum benefits from the practice and are able to transition back into the rest of your day.