The four areas that we can have an influence over are our bodies, emotions, thoughts and energy.
And all four of these areas influence each other.
The first time I really became aware of this was when I was eleven years old, when my father showed me some simple exercises I could do to correct my hollow back – exercises that I did religiously every day. After a few months, my hollow back and my posture had improved significantly, and I had also developed a six pack, much to my delight. What I found more fascinating than the external change was the internal one brought on by the change in body structure. I couldn’t put my finger on it, so to speak, but the way I perceived the world was different to how it was just a few months before. I felt different – and the change was good. All of sudden, I saw a way to shape and optimise myself and my life. This was the start of my inner journey.
One of the many methods I have encountered on my journey is Ashtanga yoga. I have had a burning passion for Ashtanga yoga from the very first time I learned about it, a passion that continues to burn strongly today.
In the first decade of my Ashtanga journey, it was virtually all I could think about. I travelled from workshop to workshop, tutor to tutor and spent time in Mysore with Sri K. Pattabhi Jois, the most influential guru of modern-day Ashtanga yoga. True to Pattabhi Jois' motto, “Do your practice and all is coming”, over the years my practice has also opened me up to other perspectives and methods that have had a retroactive influence on my practice and my teaching.
While I used to travel all the time, partly to learn and partly to experience the diversity of our world, I have become more settled in recent years and currently live quite a structured life between practice and teaching.
The inner journey I began at a young age is not over, but one thing I can say with absolute certainty is that I love what I do.
The first time I really became aware of this was when I was eleven years old, when my father showed me some simple exercises I could do to correct my hollow back – exercises that I did religiously every day. After a few months, my hollow back and my posture had improved significantly, and I had also developed a six pack, much to my delight. What I found more fascinating than the external change was the internal one brought on by the change in body structure. I couldn’t put my finger on it, so to speak, but the way I perceived the world was different to how it was just a few months before. I felt different – and the change was good. All of sudden, I saw a way to shape and optimise myself and my life. This was the start of my inner journey.
One of the many methods I have encountered on my journey is Ashtanga yoga. I have had a burning passion for Ashtanga yoga from the very first time I learned about it, a passion that continues to burn strongly today.
In the first decade of my Ashtanga journey, it was virtually all I could think about. I travelled from workshop to workshop, tutor to tutor and spent time in Mysore with Sri K. Pattabhi Jois, the most influential guru of modern-day Ashtanga yoga. True to Pattabhi Jois' motto, “Do your practice and all is coming”, over the years my practice has also opened me up to other perspectives and methods that have had a retroactive influence on my practice and my teaching.
While I used to travel all the time, partly to learn and partly to experience the diversity of our world, I have become more settled in recent years and currently live quite a structured life between practice and teaching.
The inner journey I began at a young age is not over, but one thing I can say with absolute certainty is that I love what I do.
My chronological story
1979
Read a yoga book my father had on the shelf for the first time and tried to follow the instructions. Unfortunately, the book was not suitable as an introduction for beginners and so I gave up after two months.
1982
Initiated by exercises from my father, I started to immerse myself in a physical/spiritual process of transformation.
1991
Having gained access to better books, I started studying asanas (Rishikesh series/Sivananda Yoga) according to Andre van Lysebeth and books by BKS Iyengar.
1992-1996
Tao Yoga according to Mantak Chia (in Vienna, Zurich and Thailand) – I continued studying asanas and their practice myself.
1996
I started my teaching career
1997
1 month – Sivananda Yoga teacher training (Bahamas)
1998
First contact with Ashtanga yoga (Koh Pha Ngan,Thailand)
1999
2 months of Ashtanga practice with Rolf Naujokat (Goa, India)
2 weeks of intensive pranayama – Sivananda (Neyyar Dam, India)
1 month – advanced Sivananda yoga teacher training (Bahamas)
2000
3 months of Ashtanga practice with Rolf Naujokat (Goa, India)
10 days of Vipassana Meditation (Jaipur, India)
Switched my teaching focus to Ashtanga yoga
2001
3 weeks primary and secondary series workshop with Sri K. Pattabhi Jois (New York)
7 days of teacher training with David Swenson (Vienna)
2002
3 months with Sri K. Pattabhi Jois (Mysore, India)
2004
1 month of Ashtanga practice with Rolf Naujokat (Kho Pha Ngan, Thailand)
2004-2007
Lived in Asia – worked as a teacher in China, Thailand and the Philippines.
2005
first contact with Kundalini work according to Don Hanson (Bodhgaya, India), followed by further workshops until 2017
2006-2009
Courses at the Onenessuniversity (Varadaiahpalem, India)
2011-2015
Annual retreats with Mooji (Jnana Yoga) (Portugal)
2013-HEUTE
Gymnastics/Calesthenics training
2015-2017
Workshops with Dr Joe Dispenza
2017 & 2018
Retreats with Isha yoga (Sadhguru) (London & Coimbatore, India)
1996-HEUTE
Continuous learning thanks to all my students, whose physical diversity and possibilities, flexibility and strength, difficulties, talents, personality and development, attitudes and life reflections, experience and intuition, enrich both my teaching and my own practice.