YOGA
CLASSES & INFORMATION
Yoga Classes
Community practice is valuable, but this cannot happen without a dedication to self first. The richest reward comes from watching students take the knowledge, and mindfully and respectfully, make it their own, integrating it into a lifestyle approach, rather than a personal training session.
The magic of having a yoga practice is that it cultivates consciousness from the physical body to the more subtle energies. And so a cultivation towards liberation blooms through experiencing your body, your breath, and a diligent intention to synchronise the two. In this way having a physical practice really has the potential to be a form of inner alchemy, when you commit conscious service to it.
My approach is creative, practical, and adaptable. I incorporate engaging elements from Core conditioning, Moon sequencing, Yin and rehabilitation. I am of service to you, to empower you with enough of your own skill-set, to be able to use the practice as a tool, to assist you on your path towards personal growth and contentment.
Only within our body, with its heart and mind, can bondage and suffering be found, and only here can we find true liberation.
(Gautama Buddha)
BEGINNER
Condition and Flow – Beginner
Overview: Ashtanga-based Primary sequencing and vinyasa flow mindfully combined with isometric conditioning, and core stability.
Level: Suitable for all experience levels and all bodies.
Duration: 60 – 90 mins.
Feel: Heat building / Energizing.
This is an invigorating and accessibly challenging flow that will help build up joint integrity, shoulder strength, core stability and introduce you to your inner resources of physical and mental endurance.
We start off on the mat activating and synchronising our breath, energy-locks and gaze to set up an integrated and stable core foundation. We then move on to combining these ancient asanas/poses with up to date, sport-specific informed joint functionality, and muscle mobility.
In each class we systematically move through Sun Salutations, synchronising breath and movement, to experience the meditative aspect of what is quintessentially Ashtanga Vinyasa. You will learn the first few standing postures, a balancing posture, some seated and supine postures, some back-bending and finishing postures. Each class is finished off with a yin hold and Savasana.
INTERMEDIATE / ADVANCED
Condition and Flow – Intermediate/Advanced
Overview: Ashtanga-based Primary sequencing and vinyasa flow mindfully combined with isometric conditioning, and core stability. *Includes Jump-backs, Jump-throughs and Handstand-building techniques.
Level: Suitable for practitioners with previous Vinyasa flow experience.
Duration: 60 – 90 mins.
Feel: Challenging / Heat building / Energizing.
This is an invigorating and challenging flow that will help you to build on existing joint integrity, shoulder strength, core stability and further develop your inner resources of physical and mental endurance.
We start off on the mat activating and synchronising our breath, energy-locks and gaze to set up an integrated and stable core foundation. We then move on to combining these ancient asanas/poses with up to date, sport-specific informed joint functionality, and muscle mobility.
In each class we systematically move through Sun Salutations, synchronising breath and movement, to experience the meditative aspect of what is quintessentially Ashtanga Vinyasa. This class focuses on isometric push-up holds. You will learn the standing postures, some untraditional add ons, balancing postures, some seated and supine postures, and some back-bending and finishing postures. Each class is finished off with a yin hold and Savasana.
ALL LEVELS
Moon Flow Yinyasa – All Levels
Overview: A Chandra-Krama inspired moon sequence vinyasa flow, mindfully combined with the phases of the moon.
Level: Suitable for all experience levels and all bodies.
Duration: 60 mins.
Feel: Replenishing and energising flow.
This is a nourishing flow that will plug you inwards, stabilise, consolidate and ground you energetically. This flow focuses on softening and yielding to the breath, and the natural pull of gravity within our bodies, in the joints, organs and muscles.
Our bodies are made up, on average, of between 60-70% water. With this in mind the moon’s gravitational influence on our inner ocean, as well as our earthly one, is something easy to lose touch with in our busy lives.
As we move through this flow you will cultivate the ability to tap into the stiller, deeper and more subtle energy resources connecting you to something greater than just the physical energy of your body.
ALL LEVELS
Core Conditioning – Handstands and Lightness
Overview: A weekly core strength cross-training and conditioning circuit that combines isometrics, with cardio and drill-repetition.
Level: Suitable for all experience levels and all bodies.
Duration: 45 mins.
Feel: Challenging class set to make you sweat!
In this class you can expect drills, planks, push-ups, holds, burpies, and good old fashioned jumprope. We start off with warm up muscle stretching, joint mobilisation and core activation. We then move onto the circuit section followed by some cool down stretching.
A fantastic maintenance and stamina building class that is sport-specifically aimed at developing stabilising strength for handstands, jump-backs and jump-throughs.
Whether you’re into yoga or not this class is a wonderful ‘regular juice’ or add-on to include into your weekly fitness routine.
PRE & POST PREGNANCY
Pegnancy Yoga – Pre & Post Pregnancy
Overview: Borne from the Ashtanga Yoga Tradition, learn to manage your fear and personally empower yourself though your pregnancy and a conscious birth experience.
Level: Suitable for all experience levels and all pregnant bodies.
Duration: 60 -90 mins.
Feel: Empowering / Nourishing.
This class provides a safe and supported pace for you to connect with your body and baby in a conscious and deeply meaningful way, facilitating a healthy and empowering birth experience.
You will build physical and mental endurance, valuable resources in preparing for both birth and motherhood in general.
These classes aim to build and improve your upper body strength, and core stability, to support you long after birth with the daily demands of having to lift and carry babies. Whatever time invested will equip you with enough knowledge of a self-practice, that you can practice indefinitely after birth, should you choose.
REHABILLITATION / WELLNESS
Restorative/Rehabilitation Yoga
Overview: Empower yourself with enough of your own skill-set, to be able to use a physical practice as a tool, to assist you on your path towards recovery, rehabilitation and equilibrium.
Level: Suitable for all experience levels and all bodies.
Duration: 90 mins.
Feel: Restorative / Healing.
Through the benefit of my personal experience of having had a regular practice whilst working through injuries, pregnancies, and post-surgery recovery , I am able to be very creative, practical, and adaptable enough to tailor-develop a personally specific practice relevant to you. I incorporate engaging elements from Core conditioning, Moon sequencing, Yin and rehabilitation. I am of service to you, to empower you with enough of your own skill-set, to be able to use the practice as a tool, to assist you on your path towards personal growth and contentment.
BEGINNER
Ashtanga Foundation Workshop
Overview: Ashtanga-based yoga made accessible to any body type, fitness level or age.
Level: Suitable for all experience levels and all bodies.
Duration: Variable (see below).
Feel: Self empowering.
- Available as 3 x private 90 minute classes (Online)
- Available as 3 x private 90 minute classes (In-person in Berlin)
- A hosted 6 hour Workshop held one Saturday a month
Perhaps you want to learn how to handstand? Perhaps you want a gentle meditative exercise routine to incorporate into your daily life? Perhaps you want increased flexibility, or a physical practice to maintain during injury or recovery? I will teach you enough of a sequence so that whatever time and energy you invest with me, you will be investing in yourself, after which you will have enough knowledge to have your own self practice for as long as you choose to practice it. I believe in empowering the practitioner.
The richest reward comes from watching students take the knowledge, and mindfully and respectfully, make it their own, integrating it into a lifestyle approach, rather than a personal training session.
Community practice is valuable, but this cannot happen without a dedication to self first. It is a blessing to have students that keep returning, and I enjoy the process of walking through the sequence with them, or just bearing witness over their practice where they are unable to bear witness to themselves. But my richest reward comes from watching students take the knowledge, and mindfully and respectfully, make it their own, integrating it into a lifestyle approach, rather than a personal training session. However, having personal training experience, if a personal training yoga session is what you’re after, I am able to deliver as well. Let me know your expectations and I will do my best to accommodate my teaching style accordingly. I look forward to sharing this transformative practice with you.
My Experience: I have made 2 trips to Mysore so far, and was blessed to have briefly studied with Pattabhi Jois (Guruji), before he passed, in 2005 and again with Sharath Jois in 2008. I have had a regular Ashtanga practice for 16 years, through 2 pregnancies, and after birth, surgery and working with injuries.
Years of experience: 16 years.
Private Classes and Treatments
Private Classes and Treatments are only available by contacting us directly and making an appointment.
Our practice is in Reinickendorf, Berlin. In person treatments and private yoga classes are only available in this area - however private yoga classes are also available worldwide online via Live Streaming.
Email us at info@embodhiment.eu or call us at +49 159 0611 0228 to book your appointment. You can also use the booking form in this window to send us an email.
We look foward to hearing from you!
Booking Form
Ashtanga Yoga FAQ’s
What is Ashtanga Yoga?
Ashtanga yoga is a dynamic, flowing style that connects the movement of the body with the breath. The method stresses the importance of daily practice of a set series of movements. There are six series of Ashtanga yoga sequences, which the student progresses through at their own pace.
How is Ashtanga Yoga accessible to me?
I currently teach Primary sequence only. Through the benefit of my personal experience of having a regular practice whilst working through injuries, pregnancies, and post-surgery recovery , I am very creative, practical, and adaptable enough to tailor-develop a personally specific practice relevant to you. I incorporate engaging elements from Core conditioning, Moon sequencing, Yin and rehabilitation. I am of service to you, to empower you with enough of your own skill-set, to be able to use the practice as a tool, to assist you on your path towards personal growth and contentment.
Origins of Ashtanga Yoga
Ashtanga yoga is named after the term given in Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras for the eight-fold path of yoga, or ashtanga, meaning “eight-limbed” in Sanskrit. It was Sri K. Pattabhi’s belief that the asana “limb” of yoga must be practiced before the others could be mastered. The practice was developed in Mysore, India where Sri K. Pattabhi Jois taught and set up the Ashtanga Yoga Research Institute.
Why choose Ashtanga Yoga?
The magic of this practice is that it cultivates consciousness from the physical body to the more subtle energies. And so a cultivation towards liberation blooms through experiencing your body, your breath, and a diligent intention to synchronise the two. In this way this practice really has the potential to be a form of inner alchemy, when you commit conscious service to it.
How Ashtanga Yoga works
There are several key principles that underlie the practice of Ashtanga yoga:
- Breath: It is recommended that postures are held for five breaths or more, if possible.
- Drishti: For every posture in the series, there is a set of drishtis, or gaze points.
- Vinyasa: This is the breathing system that connects every movement in the series with the breath.
- Bandhas: The practice should be carried out with the bandhas, or “body locks,” engaged in order to ensure that the breath is also correct and energy is built up and generated rather than expelled.
- Daily practice: Traditionally a six-days-per-week practice is encouraged, with Saturday as the rest day. The days of the full and new moon should also be taken as rest days, and women may also refrain from practicing during menstruation. HOWEVER balance is also an intrinsic part of yoga. I personally recommend a 4-5 day p/week practice. Leaving room for loved ones and human contact is also part of your Sadhana.
What does Sadhana mean?
Sādhanā is a generic term coming from the yogic tradition that refers to any spiritual exercise that is aimed at progressing the sādhaka towards the very ultimate expression of his or her life in this reality.
What does Sādhaka mean?
A Sādhaka is someone who follows a particular Sādhanā or a way of life designed to realise the goal of one’s ultimate ideal, whether it is merging with one’s eternal source, or realisation of one’s personal meaning/purpose/contribution.
What you can expect from a private Ashtanga Yoga session
Ashtanga yoga classes are often taught in the “Mysore style.” In this style, practitioners are encouraged to memorise the sequence they are working on, then individually work through the sequence during the class. The teacher then adjusts and supports, rather than guiding the individual’s practice. The student sets their own pace consistent with their ability, but practice in the company of other students and with the encouragement of their teacher. They should master each pose in the sequence before they move on to the next. In private sessions you will of course be practicing on your own with me there as your facilitator.
Whilst ashtanga yoga is traditionally considered a vigorous, orderly practice, I teach it in a way that is accessible to your body type and skill level.
Who is Ashtanga Yoga suitable for?
Ashtanga is suited to students who are motivated, seek routine, are disciplined, and want to incorporate a dynamic and regular yoga practice into their daily lifestyle.