Gayatri-Verena Primus: My Philosophy
The beauty of Yoga is that it can change as you do.
I have been practicing and teaching Yoga for 20 years. My experience led me to prefer teaching Yoga privately and on a one-on-one basis. These are just 4 reasons why!
- Yoga is in it’s nature not a group activity, but traditionally it was primarily taught and learned in a one-on-one student-teacher relationships– and practiced alone!
- An individualized Yoga program can be developed /practiced
- A better quality of Yoga teaching is provided
- The Private Yoga Training format and policy encourages regularity and consistency
My approach to Yoga as teacher
I advice a regular and long-term practice of Yoga for the best benefits and also the greatest fun.
Yoga is an ongoing journey, with no particular end point. It grows with you and changes within the course of your life.
As teacher, I can guide the student through the different Yoga asanas and styles so he or she can slowly learn the full range of Yoga. With the growing knowledge and practice of Yoga, a student can form his or her own regular self-practice and learns how to adept and adjust the Yoga practice to his or her daily needs.
There are many ways to practice Yoga
There are many styles, levels and approaches. Yet how one practices decides if it is Yoga or simple another form of physical workout.
My opinion is that all Yoga styles are valuable.
The Ayurvedic principle of healing “Everything is good for somebody at a certain times in a specific dosage,” also applies to Yoga.
As each person is different, so is the way one prefers to practice Yoga. As one continues to change in life with it’s different stages and requirements, so does one’s Yoga practice.
- Daily needs vary: One feels differently each day and during each phase of ones life. There are days one feels more tired and stressed and needs a slower rejuvenative practice. There are days one is full of energy and feels ready to flow through the postures, excited to be challenged at bit more.
- Seasons vary: Ayurveda describes that each season brings it’s qualities and in order to stay healthy through out all the changing seasons of a year, we need to adept to each season by the way which foods we eat and what qualities we bring into our daily lives. This wisdom needs to be applied to our Yoga practice as well. In the heat and dryness of summer for example, one needs to practice a more cooling and calming Yoga sequence than in the rainy and wet months of autumn.
- Life cycles vary: There are also times in our lives when we need more grounding, other times when we need more movement. There are times when we need to learn how to focus and therefore practice to go into the precisions of each Yoga posture and there are times when we cannot be bothered and just like to move and breath and enjoy it all.
- Age varies: A teenager who has a lot of excess physical energy for example, needs a different Yoga practice than a woman who has a baby and a toddler to take care of. Am I right?!
- Needs vary: A woman has different needs during pregnancy than after the birth. A Yoga teacher/practices that can adapt to these different needs is a pure blessing. Whereas a Yoga practice that doesn’t honoring these special physical, emotional and mental needs can also be harmful to both mother and child.
- Health varies: The way one practices Yoga when one is at the height of one’s physical health and youth is different than one who is recovering from a sickness or is still sick or aging or even dying.
The practice of Yoga is your lifetime companion
No matter how old you are, where you at, who you are with, what you are doing and how you are feeling, you can always practice Yoga. Yoga always brings more vibrancy, joy, peace and stability, if practiced properly. And Yoga always brings more health and youth if one’s constitutional needs and seasonal changes are taken into consideration.
Yoga is Yoga.
No matter what the name is that is put in front of it or who teaches it, Yoga is Yoga.
One can approach Yoga from the more physical and energetic aspect through asanas and pranayama as practiced in the traditional Hatha Yoga system. One can practice the moral and ethical aspects to Yoga that can help lead a meaningful and peaceful human life. One can also focus on the meditative and contemplative aspects of Raja and Jnana Yoga. One also can focus on the more devotional aspects of Bhakti Yoga or on the more action and work orientated practices of Karma Yoga. Or as Swami Sivananda recommends; practice all four paths of Yoga simultaneously!
As one progresses in the practice of asana and pranayama one can have a look at all the other aspects of Yoga as well and see how they could be useful to enhance one’s life.
There is not ONE Yoga. Yoga is it ALL.
Just how one chooses to discover it and apply and practice it in one’s life varies.
As your life’s journey takes you to different places so does the journey of Yoga.
I as a Yoga teacher can guide you through the different aspects of Yoga and show you the way if you choose to do so.
Yoga is my Life
I ( almost) love Yoga more than anything else in my life. (apart from my two sons and husband) It has been with me since I first “woke-up” and went onto “the search.” I walked the path of Yoga in different intensities, with different teachers, with different gurus in many different ashrams and countries, through many different relationships and life situations. Yoga didn’t liberate my mind but it brought me to the doorstep.
And even now Yoga is still with me. Through my two pregnancies, two births and my recovery months afterwards. I don’t sit in an ashram anymore or practice Yoga on a holy Shiva mountain, but a midst toys and breadcrumbs on the floor in an overcrowded living room.
It is with me as an ongoing practice and reflection. I keep learning and researching the depths of each pose and how to teach it, everyday anew. Each new student challenges me and teaches me to find new ways to teach Yoga!
What is left is gratitude and this together with my technical, philosophical and practical knowledge I can share with every student who chooses to embark on an individual Yoga journey with me.
Om Gayatri