What yoga has brought me
” It is unbelievable, what has happened to me on stage and off since I started to listen to my body, make friends with silence, deepen my breath and tap into my natural energy!”
My Road to Yoga…
…has had a strong influence on me as a performer, creator and communicator. I have been practicing yoga since 1995 and teaching yoga since 2003. I love to teach. I love to demystify the body and give people a feeling of aliveness (back to them). I teach mostly in english, but speak dutch fluently and a little bit of French
I have a very wide training with physical movement which allows me to approach the body from many perspectives. I studied Martha Graham modern dance technique (her breathing exercises were based on yoga) and kinesiology, anatomy. In Los Angeles i studied general Hatha yoga and Bikram yoga for 3 years.
From 2002 ’til 2005, I’ve practiced and trained to teach Ashtanga yoga and from 2008 ’til present, I have continued to study and train in Anusara yoga.( A very long in-depth study of yoga philosophy, therapy, and bio-mechanics.) in 2017, I became certified as an © Anusara -inspired teacher. I have over 1,000 + hours combined of yoga training and over 3,000+ hours of teaching.
About Voice and Breath:
I am a professional singer and have studied the effects of the voice and breathing on one’s energy as a form of strength and a subject of healing.
Vocal vibrations can stimulate and open blocked energy channels which can lead to healing.
Alongside a yoga asana practice, singing and chanting creates a unique blend to go into profound depths of the relationship between body, breath, voice and mind: the makings of a memorable journey to yourself. A journey to your highest vibration – LOVE!
Since 2014, I’ve found a beautiful way to combine Yoga & Music by organizing Savasana Concerts in which I often speak/ sing/serenade my students and audiences at yoga studios and festivals.
My classes :
Through all of these trainings and years of teaching I have learned to understand all different body types . And taken from each of them something useful. I offer in my classes options so that less experienced and more experienced can work at their own level. I find this helps people listen to their body and start making choices that suit them. This way, you learn to follow different levels and know when to take a break and when to push forward.
Flow/Vinyasa class expects that you have a certain amount of physical experience and basic yoga asana knowledge, a slower class will be the one for beginner’s .
While I guide you through various Hatha yoga poses (asanas), pranayama (breathing) techniques, and correct alignment, I am very busy awakening you to yoga philosophy, your observer, your intuition and that feeling of wholeness & aliveness that belongs to your daily experience.
Themes that I find most repeating in my classes are: Authenticity, Truth, Gratitude, Compassion, Patience, Peace, Joy and Love
About me and yoga philosophy:
The word Yoga means to me “oneness or Union”. Hatha means” body”. Having been active all my life, it is logical that I find my way to oneness through my body; through the physical: through Hatha Yoga. After years of training our minds, no one has trained us to listen to the body, to cultivate the rest of us: to learn that foreign language that speaks to you in vibrations, pulsations, and temperature differences.
So we are walking around , most of us, as a brain on legs. The body is tight, closed or numb. The mind leads and we obey. We push, we pull , we have pain, we push through, we take a pill. On and on and on. “Keep going”, says the mind. But here’s a newsflash! The body is the more intelligent of the two. Don’t tell your brain this. It doesn’t like it. One of my teacher’s said, “when the heart/body serves the mind there is always suffering, when the mind serves the heart there is joy.” I’ve discovered that this is really true. The intelligent body is constantly receiving and processing signals, telling you when you are safe, and when to pause, when it’s hungry, when it needs excercise, when it needs to fly, when it needs to ground, to rest, to be quiet.. But we have such highly developed minds and such underdeveloped kinetic awareness that we don’t understand why we are always so sick, or why we are so tired, or why we are so unhappy, It doesn’t help that our society promotes this kind of living. The less aware we are, the more people can get us to do things that aren’t good for us. We are in a sort of survival mode. No one wants that. We want to feel ALIVE.
The most valuable lesson I see for myself (and for us all ) on the yoga mat and off is to work on the 3 A’s (in this order): Attitude, Alignment & Action. When I follow this, my life is flowing more easily.
Hatha for most people, is the first door into Yoga. We are such an active society. I am the same. but gradually, I discovered the other forms of finding oneness: yoga, meditation (silence), chanting mantras (singing) ,bhakti (devotion) and karma (selfless action). To get to know our spirit, the journey to self awareness is never ending and so unexpected that I think this is why we have so much time on earth to reach it.
This is where I am from my Yoga after all these years .. everyone’s journey is unique. Let’s practice together and you will discover as you go. : )
See you on the mat.
Namaste, LK
