When you have your own room or yoga studio everything is there; candles, incense, pillows, covers, blocks - and you don’t have to do anything else but arrive and take your space and teach. The people know where they like to place themselves, who they prefer to have beside them and little tricks to help them through a class, such as standing at the back of the room to have support for when you do any balancing poses or to put your legs up in Shavasana.
But! To travel doing yoga is something I enjoy immensely! I like to see and learn from people and studios I haven’t seen, I like the curiosity, the questions I get - and I like being a totally new and untold yoga-story. I take pride in preparing myself very much. In checking in with the people I encounter in class, the entire culture of the city I’m currently in to be able to adapt my teaching to the class at hand. It keeps me focused, agile and eager to “keep up” the way I teach and convey my thoughts.
I am very quality conscious. I think I'm very annoying student to have because I know what I want in a yoga class...... so I try to make sure that do and deliver a good job when being a Yoga Nomad. I like to connect with teachers from other schools and types of yoga, I'm curious and happy to see and try other things. I try to support new teachers and teachers-to-be as best I can, because I find it such a thrill to see others succeed and do good!
This August I went to teach in KarmaKarma Yoga, Düsseldorf, Germany - a studio owned by Riccarda Kolb, a teacher I encountered in Domburg, Holland at a yoga retreat with my dear friend; Riccarda was her certification teacher and I'd read about her, her teaching style and her way to master a class. I was intrigued and looking forward to meeting her.
She caught my interest as soon as I talked to her! She found my thoughts and way of connecting very familiar "You remind me of my sister!", she said with a smile and I felt very welcomed into her world.
Riccarda teaches Vinyasa flow. Now, I'm certified as a Vinyasa teacher but my heart beats for the slower more meditative forms of yoga like Yin, Restorative and my own Moving Meditation Yoga, because I find the calm and time your mind gets as important as the workout other types of yoga can give you. And I was challenged! Having arthritis, lower back problems and a slight dysplasia I had my work cut out for me!! But I loved it - and I felt seen and taken care of with her, sending me mere glances and encouraging smiles. I felt safe to do the class and encouraged to do it in my way. "When I grow up, I wanna be like her!", I thought when Shavasana came.
We kept in contact af the retreat and I send her an email telling her I would love to work with her, traveling in to do a yoga class, to see her studio and to learn even more from her. And 6 months later I was invited as a guest teacher for her certification class, to do 2 Yin yoga classes - and generally hanging out with her, sharing beer & good food, laughs and ideas.
The students were amazing and knowledgable, had really good questions and were exited about the "work-in" Yin class I offered - and the studio had advertised me so well ("You have to come to Fleurs class! She's a Viking with the soul of an elf!") that the room was full and I didn't even had space to put down my mat! What an experience!!
The classes I did in Düsseldorf made me think even more about the advantages about being a Yoga Nomad and I wrote them after returning home, expressing my hopes and ideas of a future collaboration for us. Now I've sent it out and I'm leaning back, hoping it will land in my lap...... and if not, so be it! I will be forever grateful for everything this weekend taught me.
You haven't experienced KarmaKarma Yoga? Based around Düsseldorf? Well, then I can only recommend it; they teach classes every day - yes, also weekends - and they cover traditionel yoga as well as new yoga styles and mixtures of movement and breath work. Some classes are also available online. They are experienced, hard working, heartfelt and authentic.
You're thinking about doing a yoga teacher training? Then check https://www.karmakarma.de/Ausbildung/vinyasa-yogalehrer-ausbildung-mai-2023-1.html
Riccarda will start a new YTT in October '23, and you can choose to do it online or In Real Life. If I ever wanted to do another YTT, this is certainly the one I would choose; she's working with Ayurveda, old Indian philosophy about nutrition and how to do the best for exactly your body - and the workshops on energy work and sequencing you can also book separately, if you want to develop as a teacher.
If this has caught your interest, contact KarmaKarma Yoga here https://www.karmakarma.de/kontakt.html
Thank you, all Yogis and Yoginis at KarmaKarma Yoga - I hope to see you again!
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