‘When practicing Asana, Pranayama and meditation, while cultivating awareness beyond myself, traditional Yoga feels very complete as it stands on its own. I am not overwhelmed with looking, and searching for something else. Great tranquility and relief comes with knowing and experiencing this.’
Curiosity brought be to attend my first Asana when I was eighteen years old.
Although there were many changes in the methods and teachers, the Yoga practice, in and beyond its physical aspect, soon took a firm rot in my life.
After 12 initial years of a regular practice, I took a 500hrs. Yoga Teacher Training at Brahmani Yoga in India in 2008. This is where I met my Asana teacher Julie Martin, and my philosophy and meditation teacher Emil Wendel.
Right after the completion of this training, I began teaching classes in Iceland under the guidance of Ingibjörg Stefansdóttir.
I returned to India in 2010 and during the next four consecutive years, Julie Martin mentored me in the art of teaching at teacher trainings.
I am grateful to Julie for transmitting her great enthusiasm and honed skills. Since then, I have been instructing regularly at teacher training programs modules of Asana teaching and technique and Pranayama/meditation: in India at Brahmani Yoga, in Bali at Intuitive Flow with Linda Madani (for seven years), and at Yoga Arts with Louisa Sear, with whom I still work today.
Attending Emil Wendel’s delightful philosophy lectures, the history of Yoga and his Pranayama and meditation sessions during these many years has not only opened a door to the vast world that Yoga encompasses – from the practical to the mystical – but also given me important tools to perceive the shifting nature of all things: I feel better equipped to dwell in the ebbs and flows of life.
I am very grateful to my first meditation teacher, Shenyen, who showed me the depths of mediation back in 2005 at Tushita, Dharamsala and who like a Tibetan windhorse led me to my heart teacher.
I have also attended courses led by Clive Sheridan, Rolf Naujokat, Richard Freeman, David Swenson, Louisa Sear, Rachel Hull, Judith Laster, Jodi Boone and meditation retreats at Zen monasteries. I honour all my teachers for their generosity in sharing their skills and methods.
Today, my Yoga is inspired by my heart teacher and life partner Emil Wendel. I feel grateful to be a student of the beholder of such wisdom and kindness.
I feel confident that I am in a position to share the essential tools and the background of Yoga in my retreats, and teach the aspiring Yoga student the skills to eventually establish a solid self-practice or become a teacher him or herself.