Tag: Berlin Yoga

Four Yoga Poses for Back Pain

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Many people discover Yoga during the process of trying to treat back pain. Back pain is a very common problem in our society and can be caused by diverse sources. It can stem from simple muscle tightness, chronic postural problems, bad working conditions, structural misalignment in the skeleton, emotional stress or any number of other imbalances in the body.

 A regular, personalized Yoga practice can go a long way in helping to relieve back pain. We are careful to keep our Berlin Yoga classes small enough so that every student can freely ask questions about their own body. It’s important that your practice is tailored to suit your needs–every back is different! Make sure that you let your teacher know about your specific issues. For example, Yoga for a slipped disc is very different from Yoga for tight hamstrings. 

 Here are some tips for using Yoga to treat the most common back ailments.

Downward Dog is a wonderful posture for strengthening all of the paraspinal muscles. It also helps to stretch the hamstrings and calves, which, when tense, can contribute to lordosis in the lumbar spine. It’s very important to have a straight back as you practice Downward Dog–so start with bent knees and, as your legs warm up, you can experiment with straightening them. Sliding the shoulder blades down the back and rotating the upper arms outwards will keep your shoulders broad and strong in the pose.

 Cat/Cow is a gentle vinyasa that helps the spine warm up and releases tension in the back. Make sure you move slowly, deliberately and with your breath. If you have neck problems, keep your neck steady and your gaze on the floor. Otherwise, you can let it move with the rest of your spine. As your back warms up, notice where the bend is easiest to accomplish in your spine and then gently bring the movement into the stiffer parts of your back. This will help achieve more mobility in tighter parts of the spine.

Child’s Pose is a great release for the lower back. Bringing your knees together under your belly will bring your spine into neutral. Letting them rest wide apart is a deeper hip opener but involves more flexibility in the lower spine. Choose whichever variation works best for you, rest your forehead on a block or on the floor and then breathe and relax.

 Abdominal Work is best performed while lying on the back. This way, the floor can support the pelvis and the lower back. This makes it easier to work the abdominal muscles without straining the spine and strong, long core muscles are a key part of back health. Start gently, lifting the legs one by one (with the knees bent if need be), and then build gradually towards longer holds.

 As always, listen to your body. If you feel any pain, stop, rest and ask for a variation from your teacher.

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

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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

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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

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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.

Bhakti: The Dance of Love & Detachment

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“Your heart must become a sea of love. Your mind must become a river of detachment.”

Sri Chinmoy

 

It may seem somewhat counter intuitive that many spiritual practices believe that the only way to find deep love and connection is to practice detachment. Detachment or ‘non-attachment’ basically teaches us to free ourselves of any addict-like behavior. This behavior can come in the form of the consumption of material objects or the treatment of others as if they are objects to be consumed by our desires or to fulfill our needs. This type of self absorption can actually keep us from seeing things around us and appreciating them for their inherit value. By freeing ourselves from attachment to material objects or desires (practicing healthy detachment) we can actually open the way for deep attachment and interconnection to the rest of the world- the earth, other human beings, and animals.

Many spiritual practitioners call this recognition of the interconnectedness of all living things, seeing the “divine”. The practice of Bhakti helps us to see the ‘divine’ or the ‘beloved’ in every living thing and to honor it through devotion.

What is Bhakti?

The Sanksrit word ‘Bhakti’ encompasses a multi-layered meaning of Love. Bhakti is not just about ‘love,’ but Capital-L ‘Love’: faithfulness, devotion, zeal, sharing, caring, belonging, worship, homage, and faith. Bhakti means to give unconditional Love and servitude to the universe, to serve others compassionately, to give of oneself whole-heartedly, without expecting anything in return. Bhakti is an active practice because some kind of action is required for others to feel a sense of belonging and feel cared for. Action is needed to devote oneself to the betterment of human-kind.

How to Practice Bhakti

There are many ways to practice Bhakti: choosing veganism, caring for a small child, protesting for the rights of asylum seekers or smiling at a stranger because they look sad are just a few examples. And because it is an active practice, Bhakti has the potential to be revolutionary. It can affect the practitioner’s way of seeing other people and themselves, thereby shifting how they interact with everything in the world around them. Acts of kindness, caring, empathy, respect and service are the ways of showing devotion and deep Love towards the divine, or towards the interconnectedness between all living creatures. The practice of Bhakti requires intense focus on and concentration towards (giving space and listening to) other living creatures outside of the self. It requires examining how to serve them with honor and respect.

By utilizing aspects of Bhakti, it is possible to develop kindness and Love towards other living creatures.Heart-opening yoga postures (back bends, twists, reversed hand locks) and meditation on the heart chakra along with Anahata meditation, (chanting YAM while visualizing a 12-petaled green lotus), can assist in connecting with Bhakti, as well as asking oneself the simple question:

“What can I do to help others?”

 

Ayurveda Workshop Sunday 21st July

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What is Ayurvedic Healing?

In our last blog What is Ayurveda, we talked about the main parts and purposes of this ancient healing modality. Once you find out what are your doshas and have an idea of both your prakurti and vikruti, it may be time to start using this new understanding of your personal make-up to improve your overall health.

photo by Fern

Ayurvedic treatments are varied but may include any and all of the following: custom food plans, daily routines, herbal remedies, poultices, pranayama breathing exercises and yoga as well as other therapies such as oleation, massage and chakra balancing. (It is important to note that Ayurveda is not meant to be a substitute for Western medicine. It is best used as a complement to the allopathic system.)

We are excited to be hosting Yasmin F. Gow this Sunday (July 21) at our yoga studio in Kreuzberg as she presents an Intro to Ayurveda workshop. This workshop is designed to help you to deepen your understanding of yoga, help you choose the best kinds of asana and pranayama practices for you and help you to further love, appreciate and listen to your own unique body.

Ayurveda and Yoga: The Ultimate Blend
“As a yoga teacher, studying Ayurveda and becoming a certified Ayurvedic practitioner has changed everything for me, from the way I eat to the way I teach. My understanding of yoga, its Eight-Limbs, and its healing process has deepened through the study of Ayurveda. Not only am I happier and more aware of my own personal needs, I am also increasingly sensitive to the needs of my yoga students and Ayurvedic clients. Ayurveda has shown me that no one diet or any one yoga practice is necessarily good for everyone. Success and healing lie in the art of creating a tailor-made routine for the individual and simultaneously empowering that individual to observe his/her own natural rhythms and make his/her own conscious choices to lead him/her towards health and happiness. In teaching yoga, I call this approach Sustainable Yoga for Long-term Happiness (SuYoLoh).”

-Yasmin Gow

Date & Time: Sunday, July 21, fom 13:00 till 16:30
Teacher: Yasmin Fudakowska-Gow
Cost: 20 € (15 € for current English Yoga Berlin students)

About Yasmin
Yasmin F. Gow, ERYT 500, has taught yoga for over a decade. She is also an accredited Ayurvedic practitioner and the producer of five yoga DVDs. In 2010, she completed 108 days of 108 sun salutations and became the first woman to break the Guinness World Records™ Record for the longest yoga marathon lasting 32 hours. This initiative raised thousands of dollars for charity and was featured in publications worldwide, including India’s national newspaper the Times of India. A former studio owner, Yasmin currently offers Ayurvedic consultations, leads workshops internationally and mentors others to reach great heights.

What is Ayurveda: An Introduction to Balance

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Ayurveda is a healing modality indigenous to India. Often referred to as the ‘sister science’ of yoga, it has been practiced as a medical system for more than 5000 years and is still highly effective and widely used. The word Ayurveda means “science of life” or “lore of life” in Sanskrit. The guiding principle of Ayurveda is to promote health through the balance of the five natural elements— earth, water, fire, air and space (ether). 

Due to the unique qualities of the elements, it is believed that pairing them creates three distinct energetic constitutions or “doshas”. Within the human body, the three doshas are known as Vata, Pitta and Kapha. Each has specific mental and physical attributes and governs certain bodily functions.

What Are the Three Doshas?

VATA is composed of air and space and controls all movement and communication in the body including communication between neurons, circulation, breath, voice, transportation of nutrients to cells and excretion of waste. Vata is also associated with creativity, intuition, open-mindedness and adaptability.

PITTA is comprised of fire and water and is responsible for transformation, digestion, assimilation and production of cell energy. It contributes to our strength, both mental and physical. Pitta is also considered the fire or light that ignites our passion, motivation, ambition, courage and intellect.

KAPHA is made up of earth and water. Its main function is to lubricate and protect. It governs plasma, mucous and adipose tissue, construction of cell membrane as well as growth and development of the body from fetus to adult. Emotionally, Kapha is also about compassion, reliability, mental stability and memory.

Finding Balance with Ayurveda

According to the Ayurvedic tradition, being in a balanced state vs. being in an imbalanced state is based for everyone on their own unique constitutional balance that combines the five elements and the doshas in distinctive proportions. Although we have all three doshas present within us, most people have one or two dominant doshas. This is our prakurti, or essential nature. It reflects our balanced state or optimum health. We also have a vikruti, which is an acquired state, reflecting our imbalances or health concerns. When treating an ailment with Ayurveda, both the prakurti and the vikruti are taken into consideration.

Our Berlin yoga classes are committed to creating an environment where people can live in optimal health and wellness. We feel that Ayurveda paired with yoga can be a wonderful way to practice emotional and physical balance. Finding out how to determine your dosha can be just the beginning. If you are around this summer, check out our next workshop on Ayurveda in Berlin. 

New “Community Class” at English Yoga Berlin

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Accessibility: the quality of being at hand when needed.

English Yoga Berlin offers a Community class

At English Yoga Berlin, we feel that accessibility is an important part of our collective. We want our teaching to be available to everyone who needs yoga: that is to say, everyone who needs more wellbeing, relaxation, self-care and community in their lives. We think accessibility is important because we feel that all people should have an equal right to self-care, health and wellbeing, and because we believe that liberation is a collective process that cannot happen in a vacuum.

“If you have come here to help me, you are wasting our time. But if you have come because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us work together.”  Lilla Watson, Australian Murri Activist and Artist

The Barriers

There are many common barriers to accessibility in yoga as it is practiced in the West. Some of the most obvious factors include scarce money, scarce time, vigorous or rigid asana practice, misunderstandings about what yoga is and other factors can keep people from using this practice to change their lives for the better. There are, however, also many other forms of exclusion at work that may not be so obvious- cultural biases, gender norming, racism, trauma, fat phobia, homophobia and the list, unfortunately, goes on. In short, there are a lot of things that keep people from doing yoga.

The Solution

We believe that the solution is a commitment to dialogue, change and accountability. This means that, in order to become more accessible, yoga businesses need to be actively asking the question: “Who is not here, and why?” We also need to remain open and willing to hear the answers and to try strategies to create more inclusive spaces. Why not Wheelchair yoga? Why not Trauma Sensitive yoga? Why not classes in Turkish or Spanish? Why not pay what you can classes? And once the dialogue is started and the change is initiated, the accountability can come from feedback. Accessibility is a process. It requires continual adjustment, because communities are always changing.

Making yoga in Berlin more accesible

As a collective and member of the Berlin community, we are committed to accessibility. This is not limited to English speakers or to people of a certain economic standing. We are proud that our teachers are as international as our students, and that our student base reflects an impressive linguistic and cultural diversity. We are also happy to offer a small, intimate space for our classes because we feel that this helps to create safe space for everyone. We have worked hard to keep our prices as low as we can while still making a living wage for those committed teachers who bring so much heart and soul to our classes. But we are aware that some students are still experiencing financial difficulties. And so, we are happy to announce that, starting in June, we will offer a weekly donation-based Community Class rotationally taught by each of our instructors.

If you or someone you know needs yoga, but are currently unable to afford a full priced class, please pass this information on. We honestly think that yoga on an individual level can change our collective and community experience, ultimately changing the world. We look forward to seeing you on the mat!

Spring Cleaning with Pranayama

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Photo by Fern

Breathing is the first thing we do when we are born, the last thing before dying. Our breath is the main vital force that keeps us alive. So, it is a good thing to ask: How is your breathing doing? Besides the fact that of course you are alive, how are you breathing? Are you exploring your breath in its full potential?

At the English Yoga Studio we invite you to experience a very particular and ancient modality of the Pranayama Breathing technique. A powerful exercise that will help you unblock tensions lodged in your body, this work is designed to help you to connect deeply with your vital creative energy. A real resource of wellbeing, this is an opportunity to relax, learn more about yourself and open the way to big fun and inspiration in your life!

 

Join our first Pranayama workshop and breathing circle on Sunday April 28, at our Yoga Studio in Kreuzberg.

Time: 16:00 – 17:30

Teacher: Rakel Sosa

Cost: 20 €

Click here for more details about this and other Berlin yoga workshops.

Yamas and Niyamas, Part 3

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Yoga in Berlin is about more than just physical exercise. It’s about the multitude of benefits you can receive from consistent practice. Although we never push doctrine on our students, our Hatha and Vinyasa Yoga classes do incorporate a traditional understanding and awareness about how yoga can really change people´s lives when they are off the mat.

In our last blog about the non-physical benefits of yoga, we talked about the pillars of wisdom or ethical guideposts set out by Patanjali as a foundation for practicing yoga (aka the Yoga Sutras). The first being the Yamas and the second being the Niyamas. The Yamas are ethical principles about attitudes and behaviors that cause suffering (greed, dishonesty, violence, etc). The Niyamas (the second limb) are the attitudes and behaviors that yogis can work towards.

Step One: stop the behaviors that cause you to suffer.

Step Two: cultivate ones that bring you peace and happiness.

Saucha

This Niyama is often translated into English as purity or cleanliness. Those words have a lot of judgmental, puritanical cultural baggage in the West, so the way we like to explain the concept of Saucha is ‘lucidity’ or ‘clarity’. In essence, cultivating Saucha means trying to keep your space, body, mind and spirit free of clutter and garbage so that you can perceive and act with the most clarity possible. Some yogis interpret this Niyama through strict dietary observances (no meat, no alcohol) or with spiritual rituals (dawn meditation, intensive asana practice every day etc.) In our English Yoga classes, we interpret it to be about maintaining a dialogue with yourself about how your surroundings/diet/thoughts are affecting you, and striving to maintain a feeling of openness and clarity.

Where could your life benefit from a good ‘spring cleaning’? What relationships, lifestyle habits, thoughts, choices make you feel icky? How could you begin to clean up these areas?

Samtosha
Samtosha means contentment or satisfaction. Again, this can be a difficult Niyama for Westerners to understand because it sounds very close to passivity or acquiescence. But it’s more subtle than those concepts. Samtosha is about cultivating an attitude of equanimity. Yogis who practice for a long time begin to realize that all of reality is fluid, linked, and unchangeable. Underlying life’s ebbs, flows, births and deaths is a basic, unchanging whole experience. This is also the basis of modern physics: energy moves but it cannot be created or destroyed. Cultivating Samtosha means cultivating an attitude of acceptance of constant transformation and contingency. In Asana, cultivating Samtosha means accepting your body for what it is or is not on every given day, and knowing that ”you” are indeed much more than ”your body”!

Can you think of a time in your life where a big change seemed like a total disaster- but you now see that it was for the best? What changes are you afraid of now? Can you imagine accepting those changes, and even welcoming them?