Tag: yoga in Berlin

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.

Why Should We Care About Self- Care?

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Self-care is a contemporary psychological concept that has become more and more popularized over the past decade. It is a loose, individually-defined term that encompasses any activity that you undertake in order to increase or maintain your own emotional and physical wellbeing. It also includes strategies to self-soothe, and to celebrate yourself.

Photo by Fern

So, in more concrete terms: self-care is whatever you do to ”fill up your tank”. Eating well, taking a nap, playing with your pet, spending some time in nature, doing some artwork… Self-care is essential but it shouldn’t feel like a chore. It should be something that makes you feel good afterwards, that leaves you feeling rested and, well, cared for.

What Self-care is Not

 But it is easy to misunderstand the difference between what gives a temporary fix and what is truly classified as self-care. It is different for everyone but there are a few basic truths. Self-care is not compulsive. It’s not eating till you can’t feel anything anymore, or drinking till you black out. These things might help you numb uncomfortable feelings, but they won’t leave you feeling good afterwards. Self-care is also not indulgent. It’s not about going on a spending spree and then dreading getting your bank statement in the mail. Again, this might give you a temporary feeling of freedom, but you’re going to feel angry at yourself afterwards.

Self-care and Yoga

So what does yoga have to do with all of this? Well, first and most basically, gentle, relaxing physical activity releases endorphins that calm the mind and the body and leave you feeling great. Breathing deeply does the same thing. Visualizations stimulate your imagination and allow you to release unconsciously held fears. So, as a regular practice, yoga will absolutely help you to feel better, and will do it quickly, too.

 But perhaps more interesting are the subtler and longer term effects that Yoga has on people and their capacity for self-care. As you start to relax long-held tensions and re-arrive in your body, you begin to realize lots of things about yourself. You begin to see that you have boundaries, that you are sensitive to the world around you, that you deserve healthy relationships and healthy surroundings, and that, in fact, you can make choices about your life. You get better at realizing what you need, articulating it and making it happen. You realize that you can trust your gut and that you can leave bad situations whenever you need to. In short, you become better at self-care. This is why Yoga heals people so dramatically.

 So, contrary to what advertising and marketing companies will tell you, self-care is not something that is going to cost you a fortune in expensive mysterious techniques in exotic locations. It’s something that only you can discover and practice for yourself. And if becoming a more centered, conscious and honest human being is selfish, perhaps it’s all time we started.

What does self-care mean to you? 

Eight Steps of Classical Yoga Part 2

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strengthen your ability to concentrate at english yoga berlin

The different parts of the practice of yoga are indeed dynamic. As we discussed in Eight Steps of Classical Yoga Part 1, your yoga practice can adjust to your needs and your experience level. Each part is at your disposal whenever you need to manage your health, deal with some aspect of your daily-life, overcome some limitation, or go deeper in working with yourself. The following are steps 5-8 of a classical yoga practice.

 

Step 5: Develop a calmer attitude towards your outer and inner environments.

How can we become independent from mental disturbances? How can we learn to achieve a more tolerant outlook towards ourselves and others? How can we learn to accept that which we cannot change? Through Pratyahara, you discover that there are actual things you can do, systematic practices that offer you the possibility to act from your own center, even in adverse conditions. Based on a precise knowledge of how the mind works, these methods teach us to work with the mind, rather than fight it.

 

Step 6: Learn to return to the relaxed state throughout your daily life.

To be relaxed is not simply to be momentarily free from conscious worry. True relaxation requires something more than just flopping on a sofa and listening to chill-out music. It is a measurable state that has a profound healing and reinvigorating effect. The practice of Yoga Nidra, opens a door into deep states of relaxation that will benefit you long after you do it. And, perhaps more importantly, this guided method trains you to let go of tensions at will, whenever you need to, in the midst of daily activity.

 

Step 7: Strengthen your ability to concentrate.

Many people have already experienced that concentration is something that can be trained. After you have released tensions and become more calm and clear, concentration will be easier. But yoga also offers specific methods that enable us to strengthen this ability and to become concentrated whenever we need to be. Through the practice of intense concentration (Tratak), you learn that concentration involves no strain or effort, but that it is a relaxed state in which your attention remains easily fixed on an inner or outer object of your choice.

 

Step 8: Increase your awareness and get closer to yourself.

To be aware and present is to experience life fully. This becomes possible through your work with meditation. There are as many meditation methods as there are temperaments, and they are available for any degree of experience or personal preference. Many traditions use the breath or the body as meditation objects, others employ elaborate rituals to occupy the mind. One meditation technique doesn’t need to exclude another, but can be complementary to it. Through persistent practice, you become conscious of what hinders you, you become more fully yourself.

 

The only way to truly discover the methods of yoga, and their effects, is through their regular practice. Yoga touches you deeply, but it does so without rush. It follows the natural processes of your body and mind, so that all change is harmonious. By small measures, your practice prompts you to continue to use these methods according to your own situation and the way you live. Our yoga classes in Berlin are taught with the understanding that your exploration should always continue at our own personal pace.

Fall Schedule and Special Offers!

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photo by Fern

The days are getting shorter, the first leaves are falling and there is only just the slightest hint of chill in the evening air, but we all know what it means…

It’s time to do more Yoga, dammit!

To accommodate everyone’s return from their Summer Adventures, we are happy to announce that we will be opening three new classes!

From September 1 onwards, our new schedule will look like this…

Tuesday

Thursday

Sunday 

15h45-17h15

Community Class

18h00-19h00

Hatha Yoga

17h45-19h30

Classical Yoga

 

16h00-17h30

Vinyasa Flow

starting September 15th

20h00-21h30

Vinyasa Flow

20h00-21h45

Classical Yoga

 

18h00-19h30

Restorative Yoga

starting September 15th

  taught by Juli; taught by Pedro; taught by Meg

To celebrate the change of season with our lovely student community, we have 2 Special Offers…

Buddy Pass: Receive a free yoga voucher to give to a friend when you purchase a 5er card or month of classes in September. We know you all love yoga so much that you talk about it to anyone who will listen, so… the voucher is valid until the end of 2013 and can be given to a friend who has not been to one of our classes before. Then they will know what you’re always talking about!

and

Early Bird Special: Sunday yoga till the end of October for only 50euro! Sign up for Sunday classes on or before September 15th and get 7 classes for the price of a 5er card.

Eight Steps of Classical Yoga: Part 1

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Yoga is a system made up of several interconnected parts. These independent elements are related to and influenced by each other. You can use each component on its own, but, when you combine them in the right way, they help each other and their effect is vastly increased. We offer several types of yoga in Berlin including Hatha Yoga, Vinyassa Yoga and Classical Yoga.

Classical yoga consists of eight parts, also called limbs or branches. Each branch contains different methods and techniques that prepare you to take better advantage of the other parts; at the same time, each limb is a whole unto itself, working on a specific aspect of our being. We like to see each of these parts as a step towards being a healthier, happier, and more integrated person.

Step 1: Remove impurities and bring balance to your body.

Shatkarma, the yogic cleansing methods, provide a practical solution to the pollution of modern life. While each of these practices works on specific systems and organs – e.g. nose rinsing (Neti) for the respiratory system, intestinal cleansing (Shankaprashalana) for the digestive system – their effect is expressed in the whole body, both in obvious and subtle ways.

 

The science of yoga considers all the layers of your being.

 

Step 2: Become more supple and fit, while methodically touching your body’s organs.

Asana, the physical poses of yoga, work much deeper than at the mere muscular level; their effect in the body goes further than just making it strong and flexible. Among many other benefits, these poses massage the glands and the internal organs, stimulate the spine and the central nervous system, and positively affect the movement of fluids in the body.

Step 3: Harmonize your breath, and remove finer tensions.

Why work on the breath? Well, breathing is probably the most important thing we do. Anybody who has received a fright, experienced an intense situation or has been in love knows that there is a strong link between the breath and the mind. This link continues to the body. Pranayama, the yogic breathing exercises, offers tools for using the breath as a bridge between grosser and finer layers of our being. After practising exercises like Nadi Shodana for a long period of time, you may get a better understanding of the subtler aspects of your self.

Step 4: Restore your energy levels.

To hold tension, for example, in the shoulders, requires effort from the body. When we remove tensions through yoga, we gain access to that previously lost energy. In order for this energy to be experienced and directed in a harmonious way, we use Bandha and Mudra, special physical contractions and gestures that touch the endocrine system and other important areas of the body. They influence our state of mind and level of activity, while bringing consciousness and energy to the different parts of our self.

Check out our next blog which will outline steps 5-8 of classical yoga practice.

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. 

Tuning in with your Intuition with Pranayama Breath Work – June 30th

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Intuition is the ability to understand or know something immediately without needing physical proof. This knowing is often based on your feelings rather than facts.

We are all naturally intuitive beings. We often have a “gut feeling” on what we need to do in any given situation. We know what the next move needs to be, because it just feels right when we think about it. But then often something happens. A thought comes up, a belief, and then we decide not to listen to our intuition. This is especially common in our western society because we are raised to follow our mind much more than our intuition.

The interesting thing about intuition however, is that is not about the head, is not about figuring anything out with the mind, it comes from a much truer source: the heart.

The heart is an amazing organ. At a physical level the heart is the most powerful source of electromagnetic waves in the body. Recent studies of the Heart Math Institute in California confirm that the heart emits waves that are 60 times stronger than that of the brain. They spread around the body in 360 degrees reaching up to four feet outside the body.

Through the electromagnetic field created by the heart we are broadcasting and receiving emotions, information, like radio waves in a continual exchange with the world. 　Isn’t that fantastic?

We are all such incredibly intuitive beings. We don’t even need to develop our intuition. We just need to re-learn to listen to our emotions, see how intuition talks to us and most of all, once we get the message, TRUST IT!

In our next pranayama yoga session here in the English Yoga Studio in Berlin, we will be using the pranayama breath work technique to open a new layer of the heart center and connect to our source of intuition. We will be working on feeling how your intuition talks to you. And what beliefs are stopping you from following it.

From my personal experience I can say, the more I follow my intuition the more I thrive in life. So I invite you to join us in this pranayama gathering that has the potential to put you right on track with that most juicy part of yourself.

Our next Pranayama workshop is on Sunday June 30, at our Yoga Studio in Kreuzberg.

Time: 16h00-17h30

Teacher: Rakel Sosa

Cost: 20 €

Places are limited.

For any question concerning this workshop you can contact us at: pranayamabreathwork@gmail.com

Yoga Summer Schedule at English Yoga Berlin

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The summer brings changes every year and 2013 is no exception!  Since many of our students will be traveling to their far away lands during the summer months, we will be offering a reduced schedule for the months of July and August.  In September, when the temperatures fall again, the leaves start changing color and people are back to their routines we will open more classes again to accomodate everyone’s return to the beautiful city of Berlin.

Till then, we wish you all a beautiful summer! A summer full of relaxing moments, many sun salutations to the glowing sun who has finally graced us with its presence,  a couple of swims here and there, and lots of yoga whenever you find yourself in Berlin!

Here’s  our summer schedule for the months of July and August:

Tuesday

Thursday

 18.00- 19.30

Hatha Yoga

 18.00 – 19.30

Classical Yoga

 20.00- 21.30

Vinyasa Flow

 20.00 – 21.30

Classical Yoga

Yamas and Niyamas Part 4

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The final installment in our 4 part series about Yamas and Niyamas would not be complete  without talking about passion, self-reflection and surrender. In part one of this series, we talked about Patanjali´s limbs of classical yoga practice and started to explore the ethical guideposts within them (aka the Yamas). In part two of Yamas and Niyamas, we spoke about aspects of self-control with regard to possessions, sexuality and energy. Part three covered clarity and calm with regard to your inner life–the first installment of the Niyamas.

The Yamas and Niyamasa are ethical elements of practice, and they are what takes yoga from the level of physical exercise to a deeper, potentially life-altering point. All aspects of human life can be touched if a person is able to understand and practice the deep implications of yoga. Once again, 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 to cultivate happiness and to improve their lives and environments.

Tapas
“Tapas” is an attitude of passion and commitment. Some people think of it as discipline, or austerity. The word actually comes from the Sanskrit verb ”to burn”-so Tapas is all about fiery consistency. I think that we often get this mixed up with difficulty and striving. I prefer to think of it more as a gentle flame that inspires us to keep going, even when the tasks at hand seem very, very mundane! Think of doing your family’s laundry, or having the same conversation again and again with a friend who is struggling to understand something about themselves. Tapas brings us to do these things with patience, engagement and dedication.

What areas of your life and practice feel repetitive or lukewarm? Could being more present and engaged with these areas make you feel more excited about them?

Svadhaya
Svadhaya means active self-reflection, or study of the self. This doesn’t mean egotistical navelgazing. Rather, it’s about learning enough about yourself to see that you are part of something much, much bigger. Asana practice brings the body and mind to a place of quiet, so that we can experience our union with everything. Western Science calls this web of interbeing ´ecology´. The Yogic scriptures call it ´reality´. Both are correct, and Svadhaya is a practice that allows us to recognize this.  Svadhaya is an attitude that helps us to transcend projection, isolation and other illusions that come standard with a human body and mind.

How does yoga help you ”see” yourself in different ways? Do you have other practices that nourish this ability?

Isvara Pranidahna
The last Niyama is Isvara Pranidahna, which means ‘surrender’ or ‘faith’.  Simply put, this Niyama is about chilling the fuck out. Isvara Pranidahna means that you do your best, in the moment, with the tools you have, and then you release your attachment to the outcome. As the Bhagavad Gita says, “the future is none of your business, so don’t worry about it!” Focus on doing your best in the present moment, and leave the rest for another day.

Do your expectations and worries about a particular project or relationship hold you back from enjoying it fully in the moment? If you take a trial run at not worrying about controlling that thing, even for a minute or two, how does it feel?

Our Hatha yoga in English is a discipline of non violence that is about practice and experience, rather than dogma or rules. We offer yoga in Kreuzberg for all levels of physical ability. We believe that yoga in Berlin and around the world should be nurturing to your body and soul. And as we become happier and more balanced as individuals, we can go out and make our world a better place. We are happy to offer you a home in our sangha and hope we can offer you a place of belonging, growth and rest.

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.