“What kind of yoga do you teach?” This is usually the first question I get when I tell someone I’m a yoga teacher. And every time I struggle to give a straightforward answer. The reason for that is that I have been practicing yoga for almost half of my life now. And it hasn’t been a straightforward path.
I started doing Hatha yoga in my twenties back in Bulgaria. Then, when I moved to Paris in my thirties, I got hooked on Ashtanga. I loved the energy and the structure so much that I did my first teacher training in that method in 2013 and taught it for a while.
Then I moved to London, got pregnant and took a pregnancy yoga teacher training. It showed me that a single method can’t possibly serve everyone and anyone at any given moment. I realised I needed to study more.
So I took a 300-hour training and many more after that. I dove into anatomy, explored women’s health, and got fascinated by somatic movement. I redefined for myself the point of having a yoga practice in the first place. The practice serves me, not the other way round.
Studying outside the field of yoga also had a huge influence on me. Becoming a Thai yoga massage therapist showed me just how connected everything is: all the parts of our bodies, and the energy that flows through us. In the last couple of years I’ve also been studying somatic psychotherapy which taught me that our very physical bodies are actually an expression of our life stories, of our connections with other people, our emotions, norms and values and much more. It’s been a revelation.
So I don’t have a style anymore, I have some principles
As I’ve learned more and more, I’ve stopped teaching a single ‘style’ of yoga. Now, my work is guided by a few core beliefs. These are the principles that show up in every class and every private session I teach:
Teach what you practice: Both my yoga practice and my teaching are driven by my curiosity so I teach the practices that I do and understand. If for example I become interested in how yoga can help the lymphatic system, the knowledge that I acquire and the practices that I start doing for myself will naturally find their way into my classes.
No two people are ever the same: I believe that we are the only experts in your own bodies. So I won’t be telling you what you need to feel or which one is the right shape of a yoga pose. There is no medal for great performance at the end of class. My class is an invitation to explore, to try novel ways to use your body and to observe your sensations, feelings and responses.
Change is inevitable, so let’s get ready: It’s what you start to notice when you consistently come to your mat. Nothing is ever the same. We change, our circumstances change. So the question becomes what do we need to cultivate within ourselves to meet that constant state of flux. My answer is: we can use the tools of yoga to build resilience, self-awareness, and a grounded centre. This can have a transformational effect of how we experience life. Teaching these tools is my ultimate goal in each and every class.
Photo by Yan Krukau
