My YOGA Journey of Love and Passion

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Why am I writing about Yoga? Yoga is my life. I still remember how I attended my first Yoga class in Kassel, Germany in 2013. I was a full time student at the time. A friend of mine from University asked me if I would like to join a Yoga course with her. I was very much into fitness because I always loved physical activity and I had seen crazy Yoga postures of super slim athletic bodies in underwear on Instagram.
I came with wrong expectations. The teacher only showed us super easy postures and relaxation techniques. We had to breathe through one nostril and then through the other, or focus on a point between our eyebrows. To be honest, I found it super weird. And then she tried to persuade us not to drink alcohol, never to take drugs and to become a vegetarian. I didn't understand why she was behaving like this. She made me feel like a teenager, with a mom trying to tell me how I should live my life. Furthermore, I didn't feel physically exhausted after her class, so I decided that Yoga was not for me.

 Years later, in 2015, I had a mental breakdown, almost a burnout. I gave up my whole career as school teacher, desperately looking for a new direction for my life and a happier future. I decided to make sports and physical activity my career and started my Fitness-trainer education in Berlin. I learned about coaching, nutrition, fitness classes and anatomy. At the same time, I worked out in the gym almost daily, constantly trying to become more fit and slim and strong and flexible. I wanted to get the perfect body and become a role model. That was when Yoga and the Instagram photos came back to my mind. I wanted to try Power-Yoga, to become more flexible. I practiced advanced Asanas on my own, using Youtube videos and a Yoga-App on my smartphone. As it really improved my strength and flexibility, I started enjoying it a lot and wanted to do more of it. I began to love it!

 During nine months of working holidays in Spain I was lucky to find a job with two Yoga-Teachers and Yoga-Teacher-Trainers. I worked in their garden, decorated the house, looked after the daughter and got private Yoga classes. Then I found a job as a volunteer in a Yoga-Retreat in a different part of Spain. Running a Yoga-retreat, living and working hand in hand with four Yoga-teachers from different parts of the world, I discovered how much more there is to learn about Yoga. The more I learned about it, the more I loved it. Meditation became my new source of peace and happiness and Yoga my passion and my way of life.

 From then I started reading and studying every free minute about Yoga philosophy, implementing my knowledge in every part of my life and meditation as much as I could. 24 hours of practice. 7 days a week. Instead of going to the cinema with friends or partying and getting drunk in the weekends I preferred to wrap myself in a blanket and read my Yoga-Sutras or to sit and meditate or practice Asanas on my Yoga mat. 
It changed my lifestyle, my relationships, my thinking and my faith in myself and in all good in the world. 
I started believing that everything happens for a good reason. That we are all able to create our own reality and happiness. My whole attitude towards life changed. I started doing what I love and living my dream. 
It brought me to where I am now.

Currently, I am happily experiencing India. Where Yoga has its origin. Where people need the inner peace of mind to deal with the chaotic, overcrowded traffic, with air pollution and with stress at work. Where Yoga is present everywhere: in the ancient scriptures, in the colorful mythology of mighty Gods and Goddesses and in the Bhagavad Gita (comparable to the Bible, but for Hindus).


Here in India, Yoga still has the deeper meaning of a way of life to achieve "union of body and soul", "stoppage of the fluctuations of the mind" , "equanimity of the mind" or "concentration" and liberation.

Maharishi Patanjali summarized all knowledge and guidance about the Yogic path in his book "Yogasutras" 2500 years ago and it still contains all the wisdom to live a content, peaceful life in a healthy body with healthy relationships.

 I just finished my 900 hours Yoga-teacher training in Mumbai and I can't wait to share some of my knowledge and thoughts about Yoga with you all in this blog.
It has the power to transform lives!!! So please keep on reading about the eight limbs of Yoga and start practicing!





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