my story
from an architect to a yoga nomad
“The teacher appears when the student is ready”… Being a late starter in yoga, it was only 5 years ago that I experienced my spiritual awakening in the mystical mountains of Guatemala at the magic lake Atitlan. I think, Yoga came to me when I was ready to explore it as a way of living rather than a physical workout or a stress relief escape.
“In my “former life” as an architect, working many unpaid over hours a day, spending all my energy on designing and planning another building in Germany I could not see how to escape the ever spinning hamster wheel. But then, after 8 years of office and city life, an urging desire to dedicate my energy to people in need (instead of buildings) finally drew me out of the wheel. I decided to take 9 months off work to go to Ecuador and Namibia to work as a volunteer for disabled children and orphans.
It was this time when I realized how much more life had to offer and how much more I had to offer…
Back in Germany in my architects´ life I went on a trip to Thailand where I bumped into my first yoga teacher, a 55 years old little thai lady named Porn (yes, you read right 🙂 who rented out a little bamboo hut my partner and I were staying in. When she told me she was a yoga teacher I said: “wow, I always wanted to know what yoga was about but I always find myself too stressed to do yoga” (that´s right. At that time,I did not know it was EXACTLY what I needed…). At 6:30 in the morning, under a huge tree, she taught me how to sit straight, breathe right and some basic yoga postures (to relieve my computer-neck pain) while the morning awoke and the birds started singing. What a magical introduction to yoga… !
But back in the city, in busy yoga studios, I was not able to find that same sensation of inner peace again. So I started to learn yoga at home on my terrace outside with a wonderful DVD from Inga Stendel. And I could still hear Porn saying: “sit on sittin´ boe, lenten spyyyy (lengthen spine), lelaaax…”
But it was not until more than a year later when – on a 5 months trip from Panama to Mexico – my partner and I ran into that magical place in the mystical mountains of Guatemala called THE YOGA FOREST at lake Atitlan where YOGA finally got me”. When the fantastic yoga teacher NIKKI started the morning class with “a real yogi is never stuck. He is always at the right place”, for the first time in my life I discovered a “sport” beyond competition and perfection. Where I could just be ME with all my physical restrictions and imperfections…. Only 5 days at this place changed my life completely! It was here I decided to finally pay more attention and LIVE LIFE MORE CONSCIOUSLY.
On the rest of my trip I had the opportunity to join more joyous yoga classes in other hostels. Every class I finished in a very happy and relaxed state and this was when I knew: This is what I want to do: Make people happy instead of wasting my days dunning people for not delivering their work correctly or on time.
So I decided to become a yoga teacher (: ….
… a nomadic yoga teacher. I packed my suitcase, left my home, my safe job and my comfort zone and since then am living as a yoga nomad not knowing where tomorrow will take me. I choose not to live in cities anymore but to be out in nature, surrounded by like minded people, in places where you see the sun rise and go down, where you stop and stare every night before you go to bed, overwhelmed by the black sky and and abundance of stars, where you see and FEEL the moon waxing and waning. A life amidst the power of nature!
The yoga teacher training with Inspira Yoga was beyond anything I was expecting to learn and to become… So right after finishing the training I started teaching on a daily basis as a resident yoga teacher at wonderful remote retreat centers in Spain – “Aventuras del Sur” near Tarifa and “Can Mussol” near Barcelona – and also began to organize and run my own retreats (PEACE YOGA RETREAT) in the breathtaking Alpujarra mountains together with my beautiful yoga partner Ina.
After 6 months of teaching yoga and learning Thai Massage in Sri Lanka and India I realized another dream that would give me more freedom and security out there as a nomad: I bought an old yellow van as my new home, and came back to Spain to set up my first own retreat centre in company with my partner by the time: THE YOGA RIVER, which we run the whole summer season of 2019. What a summer! Doing exactly what I want to do (teaching yoga, giving thai massages, being a host to lovely people), at a wonderful place (Cantabria rocks!) and earning money with it! But life has other plans for me. Unfortunately this partnership didn’t survive the winter…
But when one door closes, another one opens! After another advanced Thai Massage training in India (Auroville) at the beginning of 2020, I was able to spend a wonderful lockdown at the Suryalila Retreat Center, back in Spain. Being without guests we could explore even more how to live as a community, exchanging skills. And luck (or karma?) offered the possibility to me to find my way back to architecture in another, more sustainable way: I could become part of an eco-building team e, building houses with cob (clay, sand, straw) and other recycled materials and even take part in a Permaculture design course (PDC) 🙂
After the lockdown, the Suryalila retreat centre became my home for 15 months. I absorbed everything I needed to know to one day run my own retreats at my own place. I left the place – a safe nest to be, with its beautiful people and amazing landscapes – and once again felt like I neede to learn to fly towards a new dircetion. I knew where my new home would be: In a little alternative village at the still virgin atlantic coast: EL PALMAR.
Another 15 months later, after spending all of my available energy on it, I finally found a small piece of land that I could afford to buy (with a lot of help from may mom and a special friend). No water, no electricity, but an old shipping container to sleep in, an FULL OF POTENTIALS:
TIERRA PAZ (land of peace) is my new baby, my new project, and hopefully one day soon will be MY OWN YOGA RETREAT where I can welcome friends and strangers to BE, connect, dream, watch the stars, listen to the ocean and the cows on the neighbor field and feel the PEACE that this place is offering. A lot of work and sweat lies ahead, whoever wants to come and join the process is very welcome 🙂
And every day I realize: I am the richest person. just without money
Living nomadic means following my path and being in the flow. It means to be able to say “yes” to creative opportunities and to the world. When you give space and trust, things reveal themselves.
My journey has just begun and I am still exploring this way of living more consciously. I enjoy the hunger for studying and learning, the state of being a teacher and student at the same time, getting to know beautiful people (guests as well as members of the communities of the retreat centers), walking barefoot, the joy of turning my world upside down while practicing handstands and the luxury of pure peace in my self practice while sharing these simple and profound practises, passing on joy and happiness to others.
“I’m rowing a boat i know it’s gonna float so I go in the waters deep“.
1979 born in Karlsruhe, Germany
2006 – 2017 working as an architect and project leader in different offices in Germany
2014/15 Volunteer work in Namibia and Ecuador
09 2017 RYT 200 with Inspira Yoga London (Ashtanga Vinyasa based)
12 2017 Thai massage, Medios Seminare
11 2017 – 03 2018 resident yoga teacher at Aventuras del Sur, Tarifa, Spain
03 – 05 2018 resident yoga teacher at Can Mussol retreat center, Fonollosa, Spain
05 2018 PEACE YOGA RETREAT, Sunchild Yoga, Almejijar, Spain
05 2018 Reiki training, 1 Level, Asociación de servicios Reiki, Madrid
06 – 09 2018 yoga teacher at Mattengold, Stuttgart, Germany
09 – 11 2018 Volunteer at Suryalila Retreat Center, Villamartin, Spain
12 2018 – 03 2019 resident yoga teacher and massage therapist at Niyagama House, Galle, Sri Lanka
03 2019 Thai massage training in Auroville, India with the Sunshine Network Auroville
06 2019 PEACE YOGA RETREAT, Sunchild Yoga, Almejijar, Spain
06 – 12 2019 co-founder, host, yoga teacher and thai massage therapist at THE YOGA RIVER
01 2020 advanced Thai massage training in Auroville, India with the Sunshine Network
01 2020 Foot Reflexology course at Quiet Healing Center Auroville, India
03 2020 – 05 2021 living and working at Suryalila Retreat Center, Spain
since June 2021 living in EL PALMAR, realizing my biggest dream: building my own Yoga Retreat place
Testimonials
“What a wonderfull week! Thank you!!! You´re a person so light, so beautiful, gentle, sensitive, generous and determined. I really liked your way of teaching us how to meditate and to see yoga differently. I learnt a lot during this week and it determines me to do that I want and need to do. I would like to develop more on the beauty of this retreat but I´ve this feeling that the words are too unwieldy. I´m totally with you in your projects and I wish you the best! I hope to see you again in Paris or on the other side of the world. For a moment of silence or a real chating. Take care of you Pia. Bisous, Valentine” – Valentine Bechu, France
my yoga
Peace begins with You
“Yoga has always been, and continues to be, subtle and impossible to express literally, but there is something naturally appealing about the yoga postures to all types of people. Yoga is far nicer than anything we could have wanted or bargained for.“ – Richard Freeman.
Yoga to me is: No judgement, curiosity, peacefulness, something I never felt before, being at peace, stepping out of the speed train of unconscious living, acceptance of what is, mind + body, surrender, embrace weakness and vulnerability, this very moment, awareness, mindfulness, impermanence, impErfections, self-practice, self-study, balance – flexibility – strength – patience, a“sport“ beyond competition and perfection, stability and ease, just BE…
“The yoga pose is not the goal. Becoming flexible is not the goal. Standing on your hands is not the goal.
The goal is to create space where you were once stuck. To unveil the layers of protection you´ve built around your heart. To appreciate your body and become aware of the mind and the noise it creates. To make peace with who you are.
The goal is to love.. well.. YOU!
Come to your yoga mat to feel; not to accomplish. Shift your focus and your heart will grow.“ Rachel Brathen
Yoga truly heals you from the inside out and helps you develop the qualities that are already rooted deep in your self such as openness, love, compassion, wisdom and clarity.
My true wish and purpose in life is to help create a better world with more love, solidarity and peace. This is also why I left my safe job as an architect and became a yoga teacher. Because there is so much more to yoga than the sheer “sport”, it is a lifestyle of not harming and of living more consciously. Since my first yoga lesson I knew I wanted to share the peace and happiness I experienced during and after every yoga class. I felt an urging desire to become yoga teacher myself so I could pass on these very feelings.
Learning about the yoga philosophy convinced me that through yoga – the mind-body connection AND the ethics of yoga as the stepping stones to the practice – I can continue living my dreams and principles: making the world a better place in starting at the very beginning of changing people’s attitudes from ego-centered or indifferent to caring and compassionate beings 🙂
“Yoga is an internal practice, the rest is just a circus.“ Sri K. P. Jois, founder of Ashtanga Yoga.
I feel blessed being a late starter, having discovered yoga only 3 years ago (at 37 years old), as I feel able to understand the whole sense of it and not having started it earlier, trying to improve asanas (postures) and flexibility without knowing about the DEEPER LAYERS OF YOGA. I feel I have reached a certain level of maturity that opened the doors in myself for letting the full idea of yoga in. Being able to feel and embrace impermanence, vulnerability and honesty.
When I started yoga I was struggling with a lot of physical restrictions, just to find out that flexibility begins with our mind. This is also why I still have a strong relation to beginners or people who feel too inflexible or old for yoga or to the “I been sitting in a chair all my life” body. I love giving people hope that putting in time does give results, knowing what my body (and mind) was able to learn in only one year, and thus igniting the spark of passion for yoga (not only as a physical practice). As Pattabhi Jois said, “do your practice, all is coming.”
To ease the fear for beginners and open the way to feel and explore their body I teach yoga with a positive attitude to “Ahimsa“ (sensitivity to their body) but also have the knowledge and experience about the right alignment and appropriate adjustments encouraging also the experienced yogis to find their own edge.
my vision
You can not save the whole world, my dear…
… my mother used to say to me… and I can´t! But I can bring my and others awareness to it and act mindfully. Where attention goes, energy flows! To change the world we ALL have to wake up, and we all have to help each others to wake up. And that´s what yoga is. Nothing is more holistic and more effective.
“When a person responds to the joys and sorrows of others as if they were his own he has attained the highest state of spiritual union. The Bhagavat Gita, chapter 6, verse 32
You are what you give! By choosing the name PIA LOKAH YOGA I want to integrate my mission that from time to time we should remind ourselves WHY we actually are on this planet and what footprint we want to leave behind when we leave this world (“Lokah”). Looking back from the end of your life: what do you want to see? Think twice, and your actions start to become more selfless. The Dharma of human beings actually is to help each others. And that is what we should do!
For the last 20 years I travelled through many third world countries on my holidays, mostly Latin America, and every single travel grounded me and corrected my perspective on life, showing me how privileged we were! Everyone is SUFFERING in a certain way, but being aware of the conditions other human beings have to live in helps to make us more humble, more grateful and less greedy. Yoga “off the mat” can help you out of your own sufferings – your habitual conditioning – and empowers you to be able to treat everyone – including yourself – with more love and patience so we can finally contribute to make the world around us a better world.
Teaching yoga is a strong tool to make the world a better place. As a student, yoga can teach you how everything else changes when you come from a place of empowerment, when you practice loving kindness and compassion, when you shift your focus to protect life and speak up for the weaker ones. In the yoga philosophy, there are powerful ethical principles that help you finding that strength. Life is a tiny gap between birth and death. So in this gap be HAPPY and try to make others happy.
My journey has just begun, but my vision is to one day be able to support wholesome projects like MAMMADU (a house for orphans in a township in Namibia) with my RETREATS, YOGA CLASSES and WORKSHOPS.
Until then I want this website to be a place of peace and support, a tool to unite people and wholesome projects that I love and recommend in my LINKS OF LOVE and I would love everyone (yes, YOU!) to actively take part in growing this platform. So if you have any project you think is worth publishing here please GET IN TOUCH.
“Limitations live only in our minds. But if we use our imaginations, our possibilities become limitless.” – Jamie Polinetti
“We ourselves feel that what we are doing is just a drop in the ocean. But the ocean would be less because of that missing drop.“ Mother Teresa (1910 – 1997)
Testimonials
“Dear Pia, thank you for opening up the world of yoga to me. I have had the most wonderful experience and learned so much new stuff I will bring with me, and look further into when I´m back home. Thank you also for your openness and warm heart. You are really a wonderful person. Good lick with your next projects and your life.”- Julie Bøhn, Norway
Lokah
Samastah
Sukinoh
Bhavantu
what are you waiting for?
May all beings
everywhere
be happy
and free