Last weekend I attended the Yoga World Conference in Munich for the first time and I would love to share my impressions and a rare experience of something I call MAT SHAMING with you. I was invited to teach 2 Masterclasses: my Twist & Shout Masterclass and a Long, Slow, Deep Session which wasn't as slow as I expected because of the 45 minute time frame. What I looked forward to most, next to teaching people who might not know me yet, is always to meet old friends and make new ones. This is what makes these events so special. And of course you get to see, feel, try not only new Yoga Styles but indulge into the variety of Yoga Clothes, food, Herzteil mats, malas and such.
I've been part of the OGNX family for a couple of years now, since the beginning and I am super happy to see this brand of organic yoga clothing grow. We had so much fun in our booth, together with my friend Gabriela Bozic who I only get to see each time I'm in munich, because of our busy travel schedules. But when we meet, we meet from the bottom of our hearts. She is one of the few ladies in Yoga who lives and breathes what she teaches plus we can chat in croatian and laugh about ourselves.
One of the classes I was able to participate as a student was a Spirited Vinyasa Class by David Lurey . We were supposed to meet at the airport but my flight got delayed because we switched from a 'broken plane ' (these were the exact words of the pilot) to a properly working one. Thank goodness Air Berlin/Etihad. David is a very charming, genuine and warm teacher who reminded me that asana isn't intended to be a seat of accomplishment, instead it's more a seat of reflection. If you would like to take a peek into his teachings, check him out on Ekhart Yoga. When I arrived at David's class I experienced the Yang side of the medal: the shadowy, the dark side of human nature. Although we, as a scene, are striving to be better, loving, understanding human beings, there are always possibilites of feeling envy, greed or any kind of frustration towards another person. In this case, I was the person overhearing a rude comment, which I think was a hilarious moment in my life.
Picture this: I borrowed the mat of a friend and I didnt know which mat it was, because I didn't really care. It wasn't necessarily important to me what it was, I was more grateful that she trusted her mat to me. The mat was inside this pretty, casual denim bag and I entered the room, where David was teaching and noticed that, as soon as I found an empty spot, 2 girls where kind of looking at me, maybe realizing who I was. Totally fine. But then, I unrolled the mat and suddenly I overheard the girls saying "...ofcourse she owns the mercedes." I was stunned because of the ridiculousness of the situation. I didn't know the brand of the mat and I would never have thought someone would consider a mat that is rather pricy to be the MERCEDES of yoga mats. I couldn't resist to start smiling and moving happily on this beauty which was a Liforme mat knowing that it wasn't even mine and that I had experienced (falsely accused) MATSHAMING for the first time in my life.
Another class that I got to try, also for the first time, thanks to my friend Lucie Beyer who inspired me, was a FeetUp class run by Kilian Trenkle, the founder of this amazing headstand 'chair' invention. I have to admit to being sceptical at first, because I thought: If you can do headstand freely in the room, there is no use for a 'downlevel'. But I was wrong: there are so many possibilites to practice on, in, with this chair as an advanced practicioner, even more so as a beginner who might be afraid or not able to do headstand.
My friends of SoMuchMore where there too. If you're into any kind of sporty activity and you're in Munich, Berlin, Hamburg or Stuttgart, then you should find out if your favourite studios are SoMuchMore Card Partners!
If you meet me anywhere in the world, you can always hit me up with a Chat and a Chai Latte, just like I did with the super sweet Vegan Blogger Claudia Renner.
Click here to see a short video with impressions of what was going on:
Pic by: Axel Hebenstreit www.lichtseelen.com
Namacray!
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