Always practice with love

“Yoga would be just your thing“ This was the advice of a dear friend more than 20 years ago. After wild and rebellious years as teenagers when our first deep thoughts were arising about the meaning of life …

At the time I was sceptical. I thought,  “real“ and authentic Yoga can’t be found in Europe. As I couldn’t travel to India back then, Yoga was off the cards for the time being.

Ten years after, I met Barbara Nagel in Miltenberg and joined her restorative Yoga-sessions.  Her warm and relaxed style was based on long term experience and the practice of Yoga in the lineage of R. Sriram, student of T. K. V. Desikachar, the well-known son of T. Krishnamacharya.

Then, Yogesh arrived from the city of New Delhi to this small town in Germany, bringing “traditional“ Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga in the lineage of Pattabhi Jois and his grandson R. Sharath directly from India into my life.

Yogesh was different –  no promotion, no fancy Yoga-studio, no props.

Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga with Yogesh – straight, original & intensive!

And with these 3 claims, Yogesh inspired my path of Yoga: “This is no workout – this is Yoga!“ & “Practice always with love“ & “Ashtanga is about becoming an independent Yogi!“

I had a desire to understand the background and to deepen my knowledge of Ashtanga Yoga. So I went to a workshop run by Dr. Ronald Steiner and AYI® (Ashtanga Yoga Innovation). A whole world of Ashtanga Yoga opened up… – so profound, innovative, tradition-conscious and inspiring…!

With his infinite enthusiasm and dedication for Yoga, Dr. Ronald Steiner is continuously evolving new approaches to convey his deep knowledge and experience with the aim to make Ashtanga Yoga accessible for everybody.

Since 2015 I have been continuously studying with Ronald Steiner and meanwhile I have become a 500hrs AYI®-Advanced Yoga-teacher.

In 2018 – finally – my dream came true and I went for an extended Yoga immersion trip.

Firstly, I travelled to the USA to participate in a Yoga teacher training workshop with Andrew Eppler. There I gained wonderful experience and inspirations from the lovely community of Ashtanga Yoga Studio.

I continued my journey to Mysore (India) – the cradle of Ashtanga Yoga.

I spent one month at Mysore Krishnamacharr Yoga Shala and delved into Pranayama and full body Mudra at Guruji BNS Iyengar’s classes. He is one of the last living direct students of T. Krishnamacharya.

Since then, I have been travelling to India every year to study Yoga philosophy with Guruji BNS Iyengar and other Indian Sanskrit-Scholars.

Beyond these intensive Yoga studies, BNS Iyengar conveyed most of all, what it means to him to be a Guruji and what the essence of (Ashtanga) Yoga is – soul education…

Today I know, authentic Yoga lies within every human being.

To experience this afresh again and again and to share this experience is a treasure for me and a matter of my heart.

Namasté

Brigitte