Tag: yoga for queers

Goodbye to Svastha Yoga for Queers & Friends

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Sunday Yoga for Queers

Logo illustration by Henna Räsänen

The journey of my Sunday yoga class began in 2010, shortly after I moved to Berlin. I became the first person to offer Hatha yoga at the former squat turned community health resource center, the HeileHaus. In 2013 I joined the English Yoga Berlin collective. Since then I have offered a variety of classes in our beautiful backyard garden Kreuzberg yoga studio. I taught several restorative yoga labs (6 week courses), Vinyasa yoga, and Queer Yoga Flow. And partnered together with another yoga teacher, Kanchi Wichmann, to offer two classes of yoga for queers on Wednesday mornings. And offered special workshops like this Soundwalk and Flow, which combined my yoga and sound practice.

Community Yoga

In order to build community, and support those with less income in experiencing how yoga benefits the mind and body, I offered sliding-scale yoga classes. I completed an advanced training in Svastha Yogatherapy and was able to support my students in more therapeutic ways.

The time and date of my yoga classes have shifted around. I stuck mostly to Sundays though (sometimes at 4pm or 6pm). And throughout the Covid lockdowns, I continued the classes live online. Since then, I offered hybrid yoga classes (both in-person and live online) to make yoga accessible to those who cannot make it to a studio for whatever reason. The pandemic could’ve shown us how important it is to build and support community. But instead, late capitalist initiatives like Urban Sports Club swooped in to further drive individualism and isolation. A handful of my regular students continued to support the class, trying to keep it going. I am really so very grateful for that! But the struggle continued and it became clear that it was time to move on.

Where can you find my classes now?

I continue to give yoga classes in German on Thursday nights at 7pm with the FLINTA* Sportverein Seitenwechsel e.V. And the Zoom recordings of the last 6-week course I taught at English Yoga Berlin is available for download at a sliding-scale of 30-60€. The course integrates the Chakras with Svastha Yogatherapy. Each week focuses on finding balance and strength in a different part of the body – from the feet to the crown of the head. Contact me if you’d like access to them.

Farewell for now, English Yoga Berlin community!

Hope to see you again somewhere some time soon.

Hugs and Love, Juli

Body Positive Yoga

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pic_bodyposi2This Sunday, Juli will be away and Kanchi brings Body Positive Yoga to our Vinyasa Flow Yoga community class.

When? : Sunday, October 25, 2015 (4-5:30pm)
What? : Body Positive Yoga
How Much? : 12€ drop-in / reduced rate (pay-what-you-can)
Where? : Our Kreuzberg Yoga Studio

Kanchi uses her 20 years of experience practicing yoga to provide Vinyasa Flow or Hatha / Hatha-Flow classes that are designed to provide a safe environment for people of all shapes, sizes, genders and ability levels to experience a yoga asana practice and build a deeper connection with their bodies. All of Kanchi’s classes are queer & trans*friendly.

Why Community Classes?

If you’ve been following our blogs or attending our classes, you know that we’ve been offering sliding-scale community classes at English Yoga Berlin since June 2013. The rising cost of yoga classes in Berlin can deter lower- / no-income people from seeking out a practice that could potentially help them deal with stress and burn-out, or symptoms of chronic illnesses that with less income are harder to treat. We’d like to be able to provide a place where people can learn about the benefits of yoga without worrying about the cost.

Why Body Positive Yoga?

In Juli’s blog “I’m No Barbie Girl”  she outlines the problems of the modern western yoga industry and how it paints a picture of the picture-perfect yogi. This can also be a deterrent to practicing yoga for those who don’t fit that type and who feel they must be flexible to practice yoga. If you’ve ever taken one of our Tantra Yoga classes, you’ll know that yoga is not just about the postures, there’s a whole other world! Literally anyone can practice yoga.

Why Yoga for Queer and Trans* folk?

Also part of body positive yoga is making the space safe for queer and trans* people. When the room is filled with stereotypical “yoga-bodies” and unawareness of heterosexual and cis-sexual privilege, it can make some queer and trans* people feel uncomfortable and unable to focus on their own practice. And often the language used in mainstream yoga classes can be very hetero- and cis-sexist. As queer teachers (Juli and Kanchi), we can take the first step in making the space more queer and trans* friendly.

We’re looking forward to Kanchi’s Body Positive Yoga on Sunday! It’s a great fit for us at English Yoga Berlin and especially for Juli’s Vinyasa Class.