Yoga has been a part of my life for a pretty long time now, but if I had to pick specific moment in time to call the ‚beginning‘ of that journey, I’d probably say it was about two years ago.
It was a tough time for me emotionally, and for some reason, I don’t really remember, I started meditating pretty much daily. Then I found (I think it was Boho Beautiful’s) Yoga videos on youtube.
And before I knew it, I was addicted. Not in an unhealthy way, I just did it. Every day. No exceptions. I didn’t even think about it, I just made the time.
Came back from partying at 5 am? Got on the mat for an hour. It was amazing.
I’m absolutely certain that Yoga was one of the main reasons I even got through that year.
It was a space that I created just for myself, a bubble of bliss where nothing bad could ever happen. And if they happened outside, I just left them there. My mat was my safe space, my sanctuary.
So after finishing high school, I decided to go to India for a few months and live at an ashram (/childrens home/ old peoples home/ they have a bunch of animals too haha).
The woman running the Ashram is actually a really old friend of mum’s so I already knew her and the whole experience wasn’t nearly as scary as it would’ve been otherwise.
The place itself is soo beautiful, but I’m gonna make a whole post (or a few? idk haha) dedicated just to the ashram.
Ok so anyways, that woman, Traude, had actually done her Yoga Teacher’s Training course with Sivananda in Neyyar Dam (Kerala) and kinda gave me the idea that maybe I could do it as well.
It sounded exactly like the type of thing I’d be interested in; lots of indian philosophy, Bhagavad Gita, asana classes obviously, and a whole lot of other cool things, so I just went ahead and booked a 1 month TTC for the following January.
At the ashram, I did Yoga almost every day (partly to prepare for my TTC), often even before sunrise.
Theres not many things that can get me out of bed at the ungodly hour of 5:30 am, but sunrise yoga on top of the cow shed, overlooking the jungle, rice fields, mountains, feeling everything wake up around me, listening to the birds (ahh I could go on forever) is most definitely one of them.
this is a short video i took one morning.
I went back home for what was supposed to be a few weeks over christmas, but long story short, my whole jaw got super infected after getting my wisdom teeth removed so I ended up having to stay a couple of months. That stung (and hurt like hell trust me those pus-removing (?idk the medical term haha) surgeries were no joke)
Plan changed, new plan: do my TTC in Uttarkashi, (which is in the Himalayas, how cool is that?? I was suuuper excited). There’s an entire section on the blog dedicated just to the TTC, so you can check that out here if you’re interested.
I went to Indonesia right after my TTC, (favorite place in the whole entire world cry), and in Ubud, where I started out, Yoga is huuuge.
I went to a couple classes here and there in Bali and Lombok and up until the point where a friend came to visit me in Bali, which was about three months or so into my time in Indonesia, I actually managed to stay somewhat consistent with my practice. It just became sort of difficult for me when I didn’t have my own room anymore, so I started doing less and less (which I regret soo much, i just know how much better I feel even when I only do 5 minutes but hey not all is lost I can always start again. )
So that’s pretty much where I’m at right now, back in Vienna, with a space to myself(praise the lord), trying to finally get back into it and maybe even start working part time as a yoga teacher?? (fingers crossed)
Life’s exciting.
Thanks for reading friends:)
P.S: I thought it might be fun to keep updating this, since my Yoga journey is never going to be over. So, this is part 1, written in October 2018.