FEEL.your. SELF.
Yoga teaches an approach of kindness and curiosity that creates a safe space for true intimacy. Embraced by an ancient philosophy that thrives towards wholeness and unity rather than performance and achievement, practicing asana is an exciting rendez-vous with yourself. While we are sweating our way through Dogs, Cobras and Crows, when we are balancing in Halfmoon Pose or falling out of Handstand yet again, wether we are getting all wild or real quiet - on the mat we get the chance to truly get in touch with our innermost self.
OWN. YOUR. TRUTH.
Yoga gives us the tools and the courage to hold space for our true feelings, including those we like to hide from or that we don't allow ourselves to have. Oftentimes we are very good at hiding, banning, prohibiting and censoring to the point that we not only successfully disconnect from unwanted feelings, but from feeling much at all. The yoga practice breaks open the safety mechanisms of our mind and free us for a life of radical and unapologetic intensity.
LOVE. EVERY. MOMENT.
It is this sensual presence, raw and honest, that makes the yoga practice a magical experience. Yoga allows us be touched by our sheer existence. By our heartbeat and our breath, our vulnerability and softness, our strength, passion, longing and joy... The more we can lovingly accept who we think we are, the more we can transform into the shiny, happy badass love warriors we really are.
Special love treat: My yoga & thai massage offer is designed to relieve neck, shoulders & back from painful tension. For yourself or a loved one.
MAHA LOVE BLOG.
In my video blog I share my favorite yoga flows, dance breaks and meditations to practice at home. Plus many tipps from contemporary dance, somatic body work & coaching techniques to help you move with more strength, ease & joy - on and off the mat.
| mahalove blog
*This offer is for women only
Nothing changes if nothing moves, so get your sweet booty up and on that yoga mat! Warning: Yoga can make ridiculously happy...
Jasmine's and Dana's ENTHUSIASM and their LOVE FOR LIFE are infectious. Get a breeze of Dana's fire in this video, part of my interview series on the Yoga Conference Germany 2015 for the online mag evidero.
The HAppyMeSS Path: CelebRatioN.
The happymess in me bows to the happymess in you! In my blog I am sharing my favorite yoga flows, dance breaks, magic mantras and everything else you might need to celebrate the perfectly imperfect being that you are. (Warning: I am a fervent lover of 1980's dance movies, so get ready for some hip rollin' and cheezy vibes. Just sayin'...)
Moving into Magic: My yoga path to happiness
Melanie Lotz found her way to the yoga mat through her FIRST LOVE: Dance. The German native studied Modern Stage Dance at the University of Amsterdam in The Netherlands. Struggling with self-doubts, over-eating and depressive moods since teenage years, Melanie decided she couldn't live up to her own high expectations as a dancer. She quit in the third year of the training and returned to Germany. However, soon enough she missed hanging out on the floor in sweat pants all day long... and was magically drawn to theatre courses at the University of Cologne, where she immersed herself in all acting classes she could possibly find. During this time Melanie took her first vinyasa yoga class at one of the beautiful Lord Vishnus Couch studios - and fell in LOVE! Connecting deeply to herself again through conscious moving and breathing gave her an emotional HIGH, a feeling of wholeness and bliss that she hadn't felt in years. It took another ten years and explorations as copy cat, selling suitcases, tasting public relations, until Melanie decided to start allover again, one more time.
Dance was my first love: After the happiest moments of my teenage years were filled with ballet, modern jazz dance and hip hop classes, I studied modern stage dance at the University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands. A dream come true... however, very soon impatient and insecure ME felt like I couldn't live up to my own high expectations as a dancer. Finally, in my third year of training, I decided to quit. I returned to Germany, first relieved, then more and more heart broken... I missed hanging out in sweat pants all day long... missed moving, sweating, creating and even struggling with all of it... simply missed being close to what I LOVE.
However, dance classes were not under discussion for me anymore, since now of course I was unbearably unfit and "bad". Fortunately I found theatre courses at the University of Cologne and immersed myself into acting classes and voice training, which both can be very physical, however, an intense bodily training was still missing. One day I followed my curiosity and took a first vinyasa yoga class. Aaaaaaaaah...! The conscious breathing and intense connection to the body in flowy, mindful movements felt like dancing, just without mirrors, without comparing and judging:
* PURE BLISS *
It took another eight years until I finally dared to do that yoga teacher training I had openly been flirting with all the while. I was scared to lose another passion by "professionalizing" it, so this time, I entered the training without any expectation as to how "good" I have to be and without any plan to make it a new "career". As a matter of fact, I had no plan at all for my future and for the first time, feeling empty and lost was a GOOD feeling. I had painfully come to realize that all my strategies to live a happy and fulfilled life had so far pretty much failed and now in my mid-thirties I was ready to say: I have no idea what to do. I DO NOT KNOW - became my new mantra.
So I started the yoga teacher training, not so much to find answers, but first of all to find back to joy - without concrete goal, just for the sake of doing what I love. Turns out, THIS is a very good strategy to find happiness - who would have thought!
Do more of what makes you happy.
Stay close to what you love.
What sounds so simple in theory, unfortunately is not quite so easily done. The Yoga Sutras by Patanjali, the foundation of our yoga practice written a couple of thousands of years (!) ago, explain exactly that: The talent of the human mind to produce suffering. However, Patanjali also describes a path out of suffering towards FREEDOM and JOY: YOGA.
I have made my priority to follow what makes my heart jump from excitement