Tag: yoga classes in Berlin

Aug 22nd Community Class with Sara Hauber

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

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

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

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

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

Cost: sliding scale, 5euro – 10euro

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

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

Audio Relaxations: Free, Online, Accessible. Enjoy!

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Enlish Yoga in Berlin

As yoga teachers, we see a lot of stressed out people, and we have the privilege of watching the profound transformation that can be brought about by an hour or two of practicing yoga. People leave our Berlin yoga classes with brighter eyes, straighter posture, deeper breathing, an easy smile and a calm, clear mind. Guiding people through this transformation is one the best things about teaching Yoga.

One of our goals, as teachers, is to offer students tools that they can use throughout their daily lives–not just in classes or on the yoga mat. We believe that intentional relaxation tools can be learned in classes and then practiced regularly at home, to the great benefit of the practitioners and everyone around them! Once we have learned the skills, we need to practice them, just like a new language or musical instrument. The more we practice, the easier it gets, and the more you practice intentional relaxation techniques, the more you will notice subtle but powerful changes in your everyday life and in your body.

To this end, we have developed an online library of audio recordings that you can use in the privacy of your own home, to practice your intentional relaxation skills. The recordings are taped copies of 20 minute relaxation sessions that we give at the end of our English-language yoga classes in Berlin. Each recording consists of a short introduction, a progressive relaxation exercise, a visualization exercise and some aural stimuli. Every recording is different and they are all the products of our own creative processes, dreams, lives and yoga practices. They are anti-copyrighted: you are welcome to share them, but please do not make money off of them—a lot of personal energy and time has gone into each visualization and we’d like to keep them separate from the money economy!

The first page contains 5 free recordings and is available to everyone online, free of charge.

After that, if you are interested to have more, send us an email and we’ll send you the password to the password-protected page, where you can access the entire library. If you are a regular English Yoga Berlin student, then you are automatically entitled to access the library: listen out for the monthly password after your next class!

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!

Berlin Yoga: Terminology Tuesday

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Enlish Yoga in Berlin

As yoga becomes part of our daily lives, so do the most commonly used yoga words begin to enter our every day vocabulary.   I find it beautiful when different languages merge, overlap, get reclaimed and used by people of all cultures. In these globalized times, English is no longer a language just for the English speaking nations, but it is the language that most peoples of the world use to communicate with one another, the language that makes it possible for people of totally different cultures and realities to meet, to communicate, and to fascinate each other.

In my Hatha Yoga classes in Berlin I choose to teach yoga in English. I love to see people from different corners of the world come to our Berlin yoga studio to practice yoga together. I use a lot of Sanskrit yoga words accompanied by an English translation while I teach.  Sometimes though, because of Sanskrit having such a different pronounciation to English, yoga students don’t always learn the words correctly or their meaning. That is why I started Berlin Yoga: Terminology Tuesday, a blog where I explain the basic words used during the yoga class.

This week’s words are Anuloma Viloma.

Anuloma Viloma – is also a form of Pranayama or breathing technique.  Anuloma literally means “in a natural order or direction” and viloma means “produced in reverse order”.  The Anuloma Viloma breath requires one to breathe in through the left nostril and breathe out through the right, and then to reverse that process, breathe in through the right and exhale through the left.  The natural way to breathe for a healthy person who practices Pranayama changes every 1 hour and 50 minutes.  There is always one nostril that is predominant and can breathe easier then the other, and after that time-frame the predominant nostril changes. By practicing Anuloma Viloma we are balancing out that effect.