My Yoga journey

My Yoga journey

February 17, 2020 katloveyoga Comments Off

My Yoga journey

My journey started when I was just 6 years old. My mum sent me to a hippie kids camp that consisted of daily Hatha yoga, burning holy agnihotra fire, meditation, mandala drawing and vegetarian permaculture. I attended those every summer for a minimum of 2 weeks until I was 12. I really loved those holiday camps and throughout the year, I continued to take Hatha classes, twice weekly with my mum. It really installed the seeker program in my brain. It continued to grow in my search for myself, from then on. My first retreat was a week-long Iyengar yoga. I was 10 years old and it was really tough experience.

When I was 13 I fell into a really bad crowd. This experience made me quit most of the good habits, exchanging them for less favourable ones like partying, cigarettes, alcohol and drugs. The next 5 years was quite intense. I was still a seeker but I was using the inadequate tools for self-discovery.

Long story short, due to some innate wisdom and help from my loving mum I managed to kick the bad friends and take control over my addictions. This was when I brought Yoga back to my life. I took some classes first and then started doing my home practice. I really struggled with being consistent for the longest time. Between 18 and 28 years old my practice was very irregular, going from a month of daily practice to 3 months with none, etc.

When I was 28 I started to study Yoga and its physical, mental, emotional and spiritual benefits in more depth. This motivated me to start thinking about Yoga Teacher Training to really and fully instal Yoga into my brain. 1,5 years later (Jan-March 2019) I completed my RYT 500 hours training at Shiva Yoga Peeth (now Multi Style Yoga School) in Rishikesh, India, following the Yoga Aliance standards.

I have learnt so much about my own body and myself. I studied in depth the yoga science, anatomy, pranayama (breathing techniques), meditation styles, yogic cleanses and much more. This experience made me stronger, calmer, more flexible and more connected to myself. Since leaving school I’ve spent a lot of time thinking which is the best way I can share my knowledge. I started volunteering and teaching yoga for free, to a lady with cerebral palsy, who is in a wheelchair, which helped is enabling me to develop my own style of chair yoga.

One day in contemplation I realized, that since the training, my PMS symptoms greatly improved and the length of time in which I experienced them, shortened which was incredible because I struggled with week-long PMS for years. But there was another surprising side effect. Throughout most of my life, I struggled in one way or the other, with my self-image and confidence. Since returning to regular practice, I noticed that I seem to have more love and compassion towards myself. When I realized that, I started to look at actively using yoga to deepen the self-love, acceptance and appreciation towards myself.

Because of this, I’ve decided to focus on a further study of the benefits of yoga for women. How to adapt the yoga practice to their unique bodies and monthly (menstruation, pre-ovulation, ovulation and premenstrual phases) as well as their life cycles (child, teens, grown-up, pre and postnatal and menopausal).

I teach Hatha and Yin style, as well as chair yoga. Focusing on connecting the breath and movements and bringing in positive internal and external change using the practice, affirmations and creative visualisations.