Yoga is for EVERYONE and you start exactly where you are!
In this kind of practice there is no competition with the self or others. Instead the practice facilitates awareness, acceptance of what is, and joyful movement toward what is possible. Yoga´s most fundamental goal is offering a path to living a more mindful and wholehearted life and is intended to be taught as a system that combines ethics, practice, discipline, study and surrender. The minimum result of yoga is not flexibility and strength, the minimum result is you become a decent human person.
It is not about what it looks like, it is about what it feels like
It is about exploration, not endurance
It is about feeling better, no matter where that begins for you.
I offer Ashtanga Vinyasa based and Vinyasa Flow classes as well as Restorative Yoga and Yin Yoga, all of them with a focus on tuning into your body and connecting to your breath. Thanks to my own experience of physical inflexibility, starting yoga with 38 years, and knowing how your body and mind can develop in only one year I can now help people to ease their fear and teach them how to patiently progress towards more flexibility in their bodies and their mind. My goal is to offer each student something they can take away and add to their personal yoga practice (Self Practice) or encouraging them to develop it.
“Body not stiff, mind stiff” – Sri K. Pattabhi Jois
Apart from yoga I also teach meditation, Pranayama and chanting mantras. As a yoga teacher that values the ethical principles of yoga – the “yoga off the mat”, I focus on passing on the wisdom of “The Yoga Sutras“ and other yoga philosophy and psychology in workshops and by integrating them in my classes. I have also immersed myself into the ancient eastern healing practices of Thai massage and Reiki.
my yoga classes
Take just a few minutes and spend it with yoga. The rest of the day will be better.
To know yoga it must be tasted through practice (like an apple´s taste can not be described theoretically). There are so many different styles of yoga. All are different. None is better than the other, rather some might be more appealing to you. They simply are ways to move our body. What the asanas (postures) really do is they invite your mind to stay calm, stable and lucid under demanding conditions. Actually, the asanas are a kind of dynamic meditation. They require your full attention, focus and awareness.
“Each practice session is a journey. Endeavour to move with awareness and enjoy the experience. Allow it to unfold as a flower opens up. There is no benefit in hurrying. Yoga grows with time. Every day is different. We must breathe deeply and remain detached. Asanas are not the goal. They are a vehicle to access a deeper internal awareness and to create space where you were once stuck. Practice and patience may be the greatest tool to assist in our journey down the scenic path of Yoga that winds through all facets of life.” David Swenson
NEW +++ YOGA - VIDEOS FOR BEGINNERS
YESTERDAY. NOW . TOMORROW
there is something good about everything: the COVID-19 lockdown finally gave me the time to edit my first YouTube Videos.
It is a 3-part series of Yoga sessions for Complete Beginners plus and introduction on HOW to practice yoga.
Everything you need to start yoga today 🙂
Thinking you´re not flexible enough for yoga is like thinking your not dirty enough to take a bath 😉 yoga is not about flexibility in your body but about flexibility in your mind.
In my beginners classes I wish to ease the fear for beginners and opening up the ways to feel and explore your body and understand the principles and basic postures of yoga and how to practice them correctly and without harming.
Start where you are, lose your fears and doubts, embrace imperfection and practice sensitivity to your body. Learn the basics of yoga.
“Yoga is an internal practice, the rest is just a circus.“ P. Jois, founder of Ashtanga Yoga.
YOGA FOR BEGINNERS
YESTERDAY. NOW . TOMORROW
Thinking you´re not flexible enough for yoga is like thinking your not dirty enough to take a bath 😉 yoga is not about flexibility in your body but about flexibility in your mind.
In my beginners classes I wish to ease the fear for beginners and opening up the ways to feel and explore your body and understand the principles and basic postures of yoga and how to practice them correctly and without harming.
Not long ago I was struggling with many physical restrictions on my own body, so there is a deep understanding for all persons who feel inflexibilities in their body.
All my classes are taught with a positive attitude to Ahimsa (non-harming) but in my beginners classes there is a special focus on that.
Start where you are, lose your fears and doubts, embrace imperfection and practice sensitivity to your body. Learn the basics of yoga.
“Yoga is an internal practice, the rest is just a circus.“ P. Jois, founder of Ashtanga Yoga.
YIN YOGA & RESTORATIVE YOGA
They’re both gentle and suitable for all levels – from total newbies, to experienced practitioners, to recovering athletes and seniors. They’re both a lovely way to reconnect with your spirit within and they teach you to FEEL.
Restorative yoga helps an unhealthy body, or an injured body, restore itself back to normal, healthy, and uninjured. It focuses on restoring bodies with particular ailments. The postures are all passive, hold for long time and require no effort whatsoever.
Yin yoga works deep into the connective tissues to activate change at that deepest level, it challenges you to find peace and stillness in what may be a slightly uncomfortable position and hold that position for 3 to 5 minutes, or even longer for some poses. Mostly on the floor, the postures work into the energy flows, or meridians, of the body.
Yin is a fantastic way to increase or maintain flexibility as it focuses on the areas around the joints. You’ll immediately notice more open hips, softer muscles and a more relaxed mind. In the long run, it will lubricate joints, release the fascia of the body, increase flexibility and positively affect your yang practice.
ASHTANGA VINYASA with AHIMSA
The approach to Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga is based on a specialized sequencing of postures and focused breathing techniques developed by Krishnamarcharya and Sri K. P. Jois. It is an elaborate combination of powerful vinyasas (flows) in between asanas (postures) that are held for 5 deep breaths to allow you to breathe into the posture and create more strength, balance, flexibility and a meditative state of mind through that breathing.
As this style of yoga was originally designed for young men, my approach to Ashtanga Vinyasa is slightly different than the traditional practice. Practitioners nowadays are from all sexes, ages and backgrounds, so my classes are based on the yoga philosophy principle of Ahimsa (= non-harming or sensitivity to the body).
In the beginners class I will guide you securely through the asanas with a lot of cues on alignment and hands-on adjustments. Depending on your level of fitness in the very moment of the class you can practice Ashtanga Vinyasa very powerfully or you can just concentrate more on breathing yourself into the postures, learning how to let go of contractions and restrictions.
Ashtanga Yoga ultimately promotes independence. Once you have learned the routine fully, and the flow begins to unfold naturally, you will require less external input from teachers. And your personal practice will become your greatest guide.
PRIVATE CLASSES 1:1
EVERY BODY is different, so individual attention is vital when you begin learning yoga postures and yoga sequences. Ashtanga is starting to be seen as the yoga for physically gifted people or those who are “out there”. Which is sad and wrong because people are quitting before the internal work even gets started and there are so many ways to gradually build your practice up from zero.
Deepen your practice:
Deepen your practice and knowledge in 1:1 classes, clear any specific doubts you have or learn new postures you always wanted to learn. Boost your yoga-practice with learning about integrating bandas and ujjai breath.
Empower yourself (develop a Self-Practice):
Learn how to set up a simple personal practice (Self-Practice) that allows you to practice yoga independently from expensive yoga classes in studios and establish a daily routine to start or finish your days differently. Being based on a set order of postures, Ashtanga Yoga ultimately promotes independence. Once you have learned the routine fully, and the flow begins to unfold naturally, you will require less external input from teachers. Your personal practice will become your greatest guide.
Meditation,
Pranayama,
Yoga Philosophy
Meditation, Pranayama, Philosophy Workshops
“Just as a bird tied by a string, after flying around in various directions without finding a resting-place elsewhere settles down (at last) at the place where it is bound, so also the mind, my dear, after flying around in various directions without finding a resting-place elsewhere, settles down in breath, for the mind, my dear, is bound to the breath.“ Chandogya Upanishad
PRANAYAMA
Ever notice how soothing a simple sigh can be? Pranayama offers a variety of breathing techniques that are known to reduce stress, aid in digestion, improve sleep, and cool you down.
Breathing is something we do on a daily basis. The body, in a living state, breathes involuntarily whether we are awake, sleeping, or actively exercising. Breathing is living. It is a vital function of life. In yoga, we refer to this as pranayama. Prana is a Sanskrit word that means life force and ayama means extending or stretching. Thus, the word “pranayama” translates to the control of life force. It is also known as the extension of breath. Every cell in our bodies needs oxygen to function properly. So it’s no surprise that research shows that a regular practice of controlled breathing can decrease the effects of stress on the body and increase overall physical and mental health.
MEDITATION
There are as many explanations on meditation out there as there are practices to do it. The goal of meditation is to calm the mind. Our minds are designed to think, it´s what they do, but you can think of your mind as a deep ocean: your thoughts are only the waves on the surface, you can always dive deep into your ocean and find peace there. In Meditation classes I teach you how to do that and how you can integrate simple practices into your daily huzzle to find more inner peace and develop your ability to focus during your day.
PHILOSOPHY WORKSHOPS
Ethical principles of yoga – how to live a more harmonious life . Ways out of the wheel of suffering . Yoga “off the mat“. What is enlightenment?
How is that we can develop strong and flexible posture practices, deep states of meditation, or advanced Pranayama techniques, yet still leave many deep-seated habits and thoughts untouched?
We can do wonderful arm balances, but our relationships are a mess. We can learn to wind up like a pretzel but have no insight, compassion or wisdom.
In my workshops, you will be given deep insights into yoga philosophy and the conditioning of our mind (“the wheel of suffering“). Learning to free yourself from limiting feelings (“the six poisons“) of desire, anger, delusion, greed, envy and sloth, using them as a means of finding your way back to complete sanity. The Sutras can teach us how to embrace behaviours that give us peace, how to create our ideal mind-set and cultivate insight. In being sensitive to the effects of our actions, we open up to the greater good.
According to Patanjali´s 2500 years old Yoga Sutras, there is an eight-fold path leading to liberation, known as the “8 Limbs of Yoga”. Written in the ancient language of Sanskrit, the “Sutras” are considered to be one of the most important yogic texts to date. They give both a scientific and practical approach for those on a spiritual path.
In contemporary yoga practices we often jump to the third “limb“ of “asana“ and sometimes end up with a fragmented and imbalanced yoga practice because it has no roots. The rooting of a practice occurs when one starts at the beginning with the ethical codes that Patanjali outlines as the stepping stones to further practices. Without the balanced practice of all eight limbs yoga, practice can easily become another form of materialism.
Leaning in these “Sutras” as our ethical guide, and inspiration, we undergo experiments and investigate the inner landscape of our thoughts, feelings, sensations, and emotions. Ethical principles keep us kind, sensitive and balanced in our internal states as well as in our response to the external, they keep us grounded in our world of relationships.
Let us begin here, where we are, surrounded by the situations of our heart.
Our relationships and our beliefs about the world have a direct effect on the deep sensations in our body that link into emotion and perception. Observing sensations closely reveals the vibratory and impermanent nature of things and allows the deconditioning of the mind from habitual patterns of response and association with those same sensations and feelings.
Bodywork
Thai Massage, Chiro Massage & Reiki Sessions
The secret art of inviting happiness, the miraculous medicine of all diseases (the five principles of Reiki):
Just for today, do not anger
Just for today do not worry
Just for today be filled with gratitude
Just for today devote yourself to your work
Just for today be kind to people.
“Every morning and evening, sit in silence, cultivate your heart and do all things from that place of peace that is inside of you“
The founder , Usui Mikao
THAI MASSAGE - a beautiful traditional body work
The benefits of Thai Massages are stress and anxiety reduction and an overall improvement of health and well-being and the body mind connection.
Most people don´t know what a thai massage is like as we might only know it from James Bond movies or as thai prostitution in disguise. Maybe some of you have even received a massage in Thailand and combine it with pain. This is because local people do not really care to adjust the massage to our western stiff bodies and inmobilities.
What you can expect from my thai massage (the so called “northern” or “Chiang Mai style” that I learnt from my teachers) is something you might never have experienced before. A relaxing, releasing, pain – relieving and even healing massage that is adjusted to every single body. If you really let go and surrender yourself totally to the treatment you will find yourself in a state of total relaxation – physically and emotionally – yet totally energized.
A Thai massage includes mobilization of the joints and gentle streches combined with pressure on the muscles and the energy lines of the body for more flexibility and a freeing of the flow of energy. Like receiving a passive yoga session but with the one important incredient: the bliss of touch. A firm but smooth touch unique to Thai massage thus given without oil and fully dressed. More than in a “normal” massage you will find elements of physiotherapy, osteopathy and reflexiology, all linked together in fluent movements like a dancing meditation. A sequence can easily take up to 2 hours, and both receiver and giver can easily lose track of time entirely while being in this marriage of movement, touch and energy.
CHIRO MASSAGE
Full body massage with oil. Chiro-Massage is the manual manipulation of soft body tissues (muscles, connective tissue, tendons and ligaments) to relieve pain, rehabilitate injuries, relax muscles and promoting overall relaxation and wellness.
Depending on the reciever, the massage can just generally relax your full body, but also allows detecting and releasing tensions (knots) by softening your muscles or can work directly on affected body parts (especially in the shoulder, upper back and neck area) if there is acute pain due to strong and hard muscular tensions.
USUI REIKI - Treatment for the improvement of body & mind
A treatment is based on transferring the infinite universal energy to the receiver (you) by laying on hands and feels like a wonderful glowing radiance that flows through you. Reiki treats the whole person including body, emotions, mind and spirit creating many beneficial effects that include liberating blockings, allaying pain, balancing your immune system, relaxation and feelings of peace, security and general wellbeing. Reiki helps the body to recover its natural capability to cure itself.
How does it work?
The quantum physics tells us all matter is energy in different levels of vibration and that energetic blockages provoke a state of imbalance that – in the human body – result in maladies. In Reiki, the practitioner (the giver) transmits universal energy – “life force energy” – to the receiver that then flows through the different acupuncture meridians and energy centers – called the chakras – of the body. In these channels the energy flows through the whole body and (just like medicine) goes to where it is most needed. The meridians are linked to the glands which control our hormonal system Using Reiki energy stabilizes the the body energy helping it to recover or to improve its state of balance and wellbeing. If one’s “life force energy” is low, then we are more likely to get sick or feel stress, and if it is high, we are more capable of being happy and healthy. While Reiki is spiritual in nature, it is not a religion and will work whether you believe in it or not. If you struggle to grasp the idea of universal energy, just think of the treatment as if unconditional love and relaxation is given to you by the therapist.
After treatments over long periods of time many have reported “miraculous” results. It has been effective in helping virtually every known illness and ailment. It also works in conjunction with all other medical or therapeutic techniques to relieve side effects and promote recovery.
While Reiki is not a religion, it is still important to live and act in a way that promotes harmony with others. Mikao Usui, the founder of the Reiki system of natural healing, recommended that one practice certain simple ethical ideals to promote peace and harmony, which are nearly universal across all cultures.
“I recently attended a 3 day retreat where Pia was volunteering and offering various massage therapies. I signed up for the 90-minute Thai massage and it was earth-shattering, like, seriously. I have NEVER experienced a massage like this. I was in a state of bliss for hours afterwards. Honestly, you need to try this!” Ben Thomson
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Webdesign – let me empower you
Design is thinking made visual… Having been working as an architect for many years I still have a great passion for designing. If you need a website and you like mine, contact me… 🙂
I will provide you with all the information you need to get started and my way of working is to empower you as much as possible as to reduce my working hours and your investment. At the end you will be able to manage your website on your own and make any needed adjustments. Here is another example for a basic, low priced website I made: www.yogasolares.es
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Lokah
Samastah
Sukinoh
Bhavantu
are you ready for the journey?
May all beings
everywhere
be happy
and free
I recently attended a 3 day retreat where Pia was volunteering and offering various massage therapies. I signed up for the 90-minute Thai massage and it was earth-shattering, like, seriously. I have NEVER experienced a massage like this. I was in a state of bliss for hours afterwards. Honestly, you need to try this!
Dear Ben, wow, thanks for that compliment. It was my honor to serve you. thank you.
I am not usually one to leave comments but I make an exception on occasion. I met Pia during a weekend yoga retreat last weekend and she gave me the most amazing massage in my life. In addition to being an amazing yoga instructor and masseuse, she is a lovely person. Pia is so easy to talk to and very knowledgeable. Most importantly she is amazing at her craft! If you are considering taking a yoga class or getting a massage, I 100% recommend Pia!
I had a strong pain in my back and I felt very tense. Pia gave me a Thai massage and immediately I began to feel better and much more relaxed. Without a doubt the best message I have received in my whole life. I am deeply grateful for all of Pia.
Thank you David! You are a great human being and masseur as well. Bliss hands 😉 Grateful for all of you, too!
Barbara Schmidt-Rohr from Hamburg 30.11. 2021,
ich traf Pia in El Palmar in einer Yoga Klasse, und bat sie um eine Body-Work-Thai Yoga Massage, da ich eine verletzte Schulter hatte…
und war begeistert,
das ist eine wundervolle, den ganzen Körper mitdenkende Arbeit und Pia macht das sehr erfahren, einfühlsam und von Herzen kommend, wer auch immer eine Chance hat sie auf einer Matte zu treffen, sollte das unbedingt tun! Highly recommended
Danke, liebe Barbara,
ich hoffe, es hat Dir vielleicht eine kleine Tür zurück zum body work geöffnet. Ich hoffe, Dich bald hier in El Palmar wieder zu sehen.