Winter Self-Care: A Somatic Yoga Morning Practice for the Darker Half of the Year
Three weeks of morning practices with
somatic movement, yin, restorative yoga, qigong,
meditation, journaling and self-inquiry in Berlin and online.
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Dates: November 9–27 Time: Monday–Friday, 8:00am - 9:15am Location: Studio Berg, Wiener Str. 18, Berlin + Online via Zoom Weeks 1–2: Join in person at Studio Berg or online via Zoom. Week 3: Online only - an intentional integration week to practice from home and allow the morning ritual to become part of your own daily rhythm. Price: 195€: in person + online + access to recordings for 6 months 165€: only online + access to recordings for 6 months No previous experience is required. |
What if winter and darkness isn't something you have to get through?
The days get shorter. The light gives way to darkness. Nature is preparing for hibernation. That is the natural cycle of descent into Yin. And yet, most of us are expected to carry on as usual. Stay productive. Make plans. Exercise. Work. Socialise. Keep going.
This is partly why the darker months feel difficult. Not because there is something wrong with winter or wrong with us, but because there is so little room in our lives for the qualities that winter represents: slowness, darkness, quiet, uncertainty, conservation and rest.
This is partly why the darker months feel difficult. Not because there is something wrong with winter or wrong with us, but because there is so little room in our lives for the qualities that winter represents: slowness, darkness, quiet, uncertainty, conservation and rest.
What if we allowed the darker half of the year to have its own rhythm?
This three-week somatic practice series is an experiment in doing just that. For three weeks, we meet every weekday morning before the day gets going. We move, rest, breathe, listen, write and sometimes simply stay still.
Not as another thing to accomplish, improve or optimize. But to spend some time together in sync with the season we are actually in and to honor the wisdom within the natural cycles.
As the writer and mythologist Michael Meade writes: "Instead of outward growth and upward climb, life at times must turn inward and downward in order to grow in other ways."
Not as another thing to accomplish, improve or optimize. But to spend some time together in sync with the season we are actually in and to honor the wisdom within the natural cycles.
As the writer and mythologist Michael Meade writes: "Instead of outward growth and upward climb, life at times must turn inward and downward in order to grow in other ways."
Who is this for?
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This series is for you if you:
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You don't need to be experienced
in any of these practices. You can move at your own pace. You can start exactly where you are. |
What you'll get
- Over three weeks, you'll have 15 mornings of somatic yoga, movement and inquiry with the flexibility to participate in whatever way works for you.
- Join us in person at Studio Berg, with the woodstove lit for you each morning; join the livestream via Zoom; or practice in your own time with the recordings
- All sessions are recorded and available to you for 6 months, giving you plenty of time to return to practices, revisit the series or make them part of your own rhythm long after the three weeks are over.
- We'll explore somatic movement, yin, restorative yoga, gentle flow, qigong, meditation, breathwork, Yoga Nidra, acupressure, The Five Elements and seasonal cycles, writing and self-inquiry, poetry - alongside silence, stillness and rest.
Turning towards the darker half of the year
In Chinese medicine and Taoist thought, winter belongs to the Water element and represents the most yin phase of the year - a time of conservation, depth, stillness and turning inward.
Look at nature in winter. Trees lose their leaves. Seeds disappear underground. Growth becomes less visible. Energy is conserved rather than constantly spent. There is intelligence in this and we are not separate from these cycles.
Our bodies, our lives, our creativity and projects have cycles too. We move through periods of expansion and contraction, activity and rest, clarity and uncertainty. Yet our culture tends to reward us for behaving as though we should always live in an eternal summer.
Look at nature in winter. Trees lose their leaves. Seeds disappear underground. Growth becomes less visible. Energy is conserved rather than constantly spent. There is intelligence in this and we are not separate from these cycles.
Our bodies, our lives, our creativity and projects have cycles too. We move through periods of expansion and contraction, activity and rest, clarity and uncertainty. Yet our culture tends to reward us for behaving as though we should always live in an eternal summer.
This series offers potent inquiries and practices as ways of exploring the larger questions like:
What happens when we begin to question the idea that life is supposed to be a constant movement towards more - more growth, more productivity, more achievement?
How will we live and create if we accept the invitation of darkness, descent and the unknown
as places where life is renewed and transformed, deeper connection is kindled,
and new possibilities can take shape?
What happens when we begin to question the idea that life is supposed to be a constant movement towards more - more growth, more productivity, more achievement?
How will we live and create if we accept the invitation of darkness, descent and the unknown
as places where life is renewed and transformed, deeper connection is kindled,
and new possibilities can take shape?
Three weeks - Winter Self-Care - Coming into darkness
Week 1 Making space for rest
- What does it actually mean to slow down?
- We begin by looking at our relationship with rest, productivity and slowing down.
- We'll explore the wider meaning of yin, introduce somatic movement inquiry, and look at the nervous system and its relationship to rest and restoration.
- We'll explore Dynamic Rest - rest that isn't collapse or passivity, but about cultivating a state of quiet wakefulness, embodied awareness and responsiveness.
- The practices will move between somatics, yin, restorative yoga, gentle flow, qigong, meditation, breathwork, journaling and longer periods of rest.
Week 2 Living with cycles
- What changes when we stop expecting ourselves to be the same person all year round?
- We widen the lens to explore seasonal living and cyclicality through Taoist and Chinese medicine perspectives.
- We'll work with the Five Elements, exploring the transition from autumn's Metal phase towards winter's Water phase, and experiment with yoga, qigong and acupressure as ways of relating to these seasonal themes.
- We'll also question the increasingly familiar language of self-care.
- When does self-care become another form of self-improvement?
- And what might happen if taking care of ourselves meant learning to listen rather than constantly trying to change?
Week 3 Integration: Taking the practice home
- The final week is intentionally different. After two weeks of practicing together in the studio and online, we move into an integration week.
- There are no in person sessions this week. Instead, the practices meet you where you actually live - at home, in your own space, within the rhythm of your own mornings.
- There will be more space, less instruction and more opportunity to follow your own experience. The sessions become less about learning something new and more about letting the practices settle into your life.
- You can make your tea. Stay in your pajamas. Look out the window. Practice in the space where you live your life. This final week is about beginning to find out how this way of moving, resting and paying attention can become a more seamless part of your own daily rhythm.
- We'll continue exploring the Water element, winter, depth, instinct, trust and the unknown, while asking how our practice can ripple back into our relationships, our work and the way we show up in the world.
BOOKING
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Booking is handled through Yellow Yoga Berlin
Click below to go to Yellow Yoga event page: Or straight to registration & payment: |
PRACTICAL DETAILS
Dates: November 9–27 Time: Monday–Friday, 8:00am - 9:15am Location: Studio Berg, Wiener Str. 18, Berlin + Online via Zoom Weeks 1–2: Join in person at Studio Berg or online via Zoom. Week 3: Online only - an intentional integration week to practice from home and allow the morning ritual to become part of your own daily rhythm. Price: 195€: in person + online + access to recordings for 6 months 165€: only online + access to recordings for 6 months No previous experience is required. |
Meet your guide
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Hi, I'm Liina
“I know I can do more, but can I do less?” is an inquiry I received from my Restorative Yoga teacher Judith Lasater over a decade ago. It’s been a guiding North Star in my practice, teaching and life ever since. A more recent one that follows a similar “yin-flavoured” inquiry is by my favorite poet (the late and great) Andrea Gibson “I know most people try hard to do good and find out too late they should have tried softer.” My path into this work has been shaped by a deep curiosity about the human body, our felt experience, our connection to the natural world, and the quiet intelligence that permeates every living thing. Over the years, I’ve been an avid learner of yoga, movement, anatomy, fascia, the nervous system, Chinese Medicine and meditation. My own practice and way of teaching have evolved and changed considerably over the last couple of decades. When I started teaching in 2007, I was drawn to dynamic, alignment-focused practices and creative sequencing. Today, at the very centre of my teaching are somatic practices inspired by the Feldenkrais Method, Thomas Hanna’s Clinical Somatics and Tias Little’s S.A.T.Y.A. (Sensory Awareness Training for Yoga Attunement) training. “Soma” is a Greek word meaning “living body,” and the somatic viewpoint considers the body as wise, adaptive, fluid, self-adjusting and self-regulating - and therefore as a potent gateway to possibility and change. Originally from Estonia, I lived and taught yoga in Berlin for ten years. In 2024, I took a bold step towards a long-held dream: to live in deeper reciprocity with nature. I moved to Italy, where my husband, our two dogs, our cat and I are slowly building an off-grid homestead and food forest - learning as we go. |
What past participants say...
I wanted to let you know that for me it was really beautifully interwoven together with so many different practices (yin, restorative, qi gong, somatics, fascia etc. The balance between the practices, the structuring, readings and the learnings were put together wonderfully. Was really a perfect course for the exact right time. Thank you for your time, passion, teachings, for holding that space for us and prompting further personal investigations (this will keep me occupied for a long time I'm sure!). One of which will be trying to remember the up regulating and down regulating tools/practices for the nervous system and vagus nerve as I'm more and more convinced that this will help me recovery wise :)
Raakhee
I so enjoyed the mornings I could join you, especially when I was in the studio.
I had a wonderful experience or realization every morning. You are such an inspiration as a teacher and as a human and I look forward to learn more from you. The Animal Spirit card set immediately captivated me and now I have it at home and am super happy with it.
Lea
