All Categories

YIN YOGA AND WATER ELEMENT

1/11/2024

5 ELEMENT SERIES
WATER - WINTER - KIDNEYS AND URINARY BLADDER

Winter is the energy of the element Water, the time of rest and hibernation, when nature retreats to build up its reserves for its next cycle of seasons. This is a quieter, more reflective time of year, a time to slow down, to allow the stillness to guide you to the places in your body and psyche you may have neglected. During the darkest time of the year, allow the quiet practices to offer you the rest you need to build an inner reservoir and let these practices guide you into deepening your self-knowledge. This is the time for introspection, as all the answers we seek are within us - we just have to be quiet enough to listen and be empty enough to be filled.

0 Comments

YIN YOGA AND METAL ELEMENT

11/15/2023

0 Comments

5 ELEMENT SERIES
METAL ELEMENT - AUTUMN - LUNGS & LARGE INTESTINE

Metal phase externally is related to the season of Autumn - phase that initiates descent, ending of cycles and letting go, decay and composting, an impulse to harvest, gather and preserve.
Within our bodies, Metal element is related to the organs of Lungs and Large intestine - the receiving of what is pure/essential and the letting go of waste/excess.
The emotion of Metal is Grief - teaching the inevitability of loss and to discern what is essential and precious.
The spirit of Metal element housed in Lungs is called Po - the "soul of the body" or flip it around "the material aspect of the soul"- it stands for our embodied knowing, our "animal wit", instinctual and unconscious drives.

0 Comments

Earth element and Yin yoga

9/8/2023

1 Comment

EARTH element key words through the lens of Chinese Medicine are body, matter, gravity, balance, steadiness, substance, support, nurturing, being grounded, maturity, density, abundance... In Chinese medicine Earth represents the season of Late Summer and transition times between seasons, in our bodies it corresponds to Spleen and Stomach meridian channels and is linked not only to our body's ability to digest food but our overall capacity to be nourished by life, ability to think clearly, metabolise our past experiences.

I love using Chinese Medicine 5 phase wheel as an inspiration for moving with the season. Ancient Taoist alchemists based an entire philosophy and healing system on observing these cycles of change in nature. Each element and season brings forth its own alchemy, offering its gifts but also carrying its shadows. Like a mandala, this cyclical map is both - an expression of unity and diversity, wholeness and interconnection.

The 5 elements are alive both around us and in us;
they describe the movement of all life and all energy and
embody all the qualities we encounter in Nature.
Through understanding the five Elements
we may begin to understand both Nature and ourselves" J.R. Worsley

1 Comment

URBAN SPORTS CLUB - why I'm opting out ...

3/31/2020

13 Comments

This sharing is mostly for Urban Sports Club (USC) members - as I explain my reasons for stopping cooperation with them. However, I believe what I share here does have wider implications on what these times are asking from us, so it might be an interesting read regardless of your knowledge of or status with USC.

In short (for those who don't know USC) Urban Sports Club is a platform - a piece of software - where by becoming a member you pay a monthly fee that grants you access to a large variety of fitness related activities across town. For a user, it sounds pretty amazing, doesn't it? I totally agree! This is NOT the point I would ever argue, I totally support wider access to a variety of movement and health related modalities and teachers. What we - your yoga teachers - want to spread awareness of, is the effect USC has had on our profession and on the yoga scene in Berlin.

This piece is not written to shame or chasten USC-members or teacher/studios choosing to continue working with USC. It is simply to give you enough information and background story, so you can make a more informed decision whether you continue with them or not.
This is simply my own view, story and decision!

13 Comments

SEASONAL YIN YOGA - SPRING EDITION

3/27/2017

12 Comments

After a winter rest, the power of springtime surges through nature - and through us. Spring is an expression of life at its strongest. In spring, those aspects of us that have been dormant over the winter months begin to awaken. Just as nature enters a cycle of renewal, growth and expansion—so does the energy within us. In traditional Chinese medicine, WOOD is the energy of spring and the Wood element represents the liver and the gall bladder. This is the season to plant seeds for a future harvest, to look ahead and make new plans, formulate new ideas, make decisions, and determine our direction for the coming year - and to take action. Here is a closer look into the Chinese wisdom around this season and what it represents and asks of us, the qualities that harmony in Wood element brings forth and some Yin sequences to balance and support the functioning of Liver and Gallbladder.

12 Comments

How to use props in Yin yoga? Restorative versus yin yoga

4/22/2016

1 Comment

I was posting yet another Yin video on my YOGA ONLINE section and wanted to say a few word about when and why use props in a Yin practice, but then realized that it was going to be more that just a few words.
Since I teach both yin yoga and restorative yoga I often get a question about how are they different - as both are (very) slow and seem to require a wide arrangement of props. So I'll look at the two practices from the point of view of props:

1 Comment

WHY SLOW YOGA?

7/21/2015

3 Comments

Why slow yoga?

Recently I find myself, more than ever before, explaining why I teach what I teach. Why slow yoga?
Maybe the lack of slow practice offered is a Berlin thing - a typical big city phenomenon when an overload of options, stimuli, experiences to consume, places to see and people to meet sends us spiraling off in thousand different directions (off our center). Or maybe it is my own evolutionary thing - my personal quest for ways to slow down cannot BUT reflect in my practice and in what I want to share with my community.

3 Comments

HOW I BECAME A TEACHER...

3/30/2015

1 Comment

We don’t receive wisdom; we must discover it for ourselves after a journey that no one can take for us or spare us.

~ MARCEL PROUST

This is the last part of a trilogy where I'm looking into the synchronicity that has influenced and redirected my life and some major choices I've made. The first story is about me discovering yoga, the second one about me becoming the explorer of inner and outer landscapes and the final third one looks into the random circumstances that had to line up for me to become a teacher.

1 Comment

HOW I BECAME A NOMAD AND A SEEKER ...

2/3/2015

1 Comment

Travel is more than the seeing of sights; it is a change that goes on, deep and permanent, in the ideas of living.” ~ Miriam Beard

The nagging reminder: "there has to be more to life..." was always there like a subtle wake-up call. As I was re-evaluating my life and questioning the choices I was making, my focus was still very much turned outward. The only way I knew how to measure success, the level of happiness or being a good person, was in comparison to those around me and based on the criteria set by social standards. So I kept pursuing my career (to be successful), I kept my radar open for the perfect man (to make me happy) and was doing my best to please people (to be viewed as a good person).

1 Comment

HOW I BECAME A YOGI ...

1/19/2015

0 Comments

Writing is easy. You just sit down and bleed (Hemingway).
I ran across this quote, when for the hundredth time I was hushing down a voice that from time to time urges me to do just that - sit down and write (read bleed). In some bizarre way, the acknowledgment that there is some shared sense of suffering, anguish and release in the process of writing gave me the last push.

0 Comments

YIN YOGA AND WATER ELEMENT

5 ELEMENT SERIES
WATER - WINTER - KIDNEYS AND URINARY BLADDER

YIN YOGA AND METAL ELEMENT

5 ELEMENT SERIES
METAL ELEMENT - AUTUMN - LUNGS & LARGE INTESTINE

Earth element and Yin yoga

URBAN SPORTS CLUB - why I'm opting out ...

SEASONAL YIN YOGA - SPRING EDITION

How to use props in Yin yoga? Restorative versus yin yoga

WHY SLOW YOGA?

HOW I BECAME A TEACHER...

HOW I BECAME A NOMAD AND A SEEKER ...

HOW I BECAME A YOGI ...

LIINA'S BLOG

Categories

SOMATICS * YOGA * MASSAGE

YIN YOGA AND FASCIA TEACHER TRAINING

RETREATS IN ITALY, ESTONIA AND GERMANY

SIGN UP FOR LIINA'S NEWSLETTER

5 ELEMENT SERIESWATER - WINTER - KIDNEYS AND URINARY BLADDER

5 ELEMENT SERIES METAL ELEMENT - AUTUMN - LUNGS & LARGE INTESTINE

Categories

Subscribe to my free monthly Newsletter

SOMATICS * YOGA * MASSAGE ​YIN YOGA AND FASCIA TEACHER TRAININGRETREATS IN ITALY, ESTONIA AND GERMANY

SIGN UP FOR LIINA'S NEWSLETTER

5 ELEMENT SERIES
WATER - WINTER - KIDNEYS AND URINARY BLADDER

5 ELEMENT SERIES
METAL ELEMENT - AUTUMN - LUNGS & LARGE INTESTINE

SOMATICS * YOGA * MASSAGE

YIN YOGA AND FASCIA TEACHER TRAINING

RETREATS IN ITALY, ESTONIA AND GERMANY