My students are a motley crew of young and old, strong and delicate, and everything in between. I often meet students one-on-one or in groups in my home-studio or through online classes. I also organise guided weekend retreats and workshops for small groups of students.
Personal Practice & Home Lessons
While I have learnt yoga from different schools, I feel at home in the yoga tradition of BKS Iyengar. It has taught me to see yoga as a rigorous but joyous discipline, requiring assiduous practice. To help my students acheive their maximum potential, I also provide home lessons at their residences.
One of the most rewarding experiences of my life has been teaching yoga to young refugees via Fedasil, the Belgian structure for asylum seekers. One of my goals is to use the trinity of breath, mind, and body to help them relax profoundly at the end of each session.
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Messages From Students
I came into yoga only recently, after a pleasant meeting with Emily, and after many years of exercising different sports (tennis, swimming, horse-riding). I see it as a discipline as any other sport and enjoy the flexibility and grounding it has gradually given me in exercising them. Now yoga has become an indispensable part of my well being and I look forward to the sessions in Emily’s home-studio or through online classes. Her knowledge of yoga is extraordinary and it nurses my body and soul.
Véronique Bagge
I was intimidated by the idea of doing yoga but after my first class with Emily I was looking forward to doing more. I especially liked that I managed an inversion and this was something else that I’d hope to do more of but I am grateful to Emily for allowing me this experience.
Sonia Jemmotte
Emily is an extraordinary teacher. What I particularly love about her, in addition to her technical skills and method, is her authenticity. She has a beautiful energy that she conveys in her teachings that I find truly inspiring. She also pays great attention to detail and knows how to approach each of us based on our own needs, challenges and skills.
All along, she never judges us and teaches us not to judge ourselves. Having followed her classes both in person and online for the past few years, I feel that it has been a beautiful journey where I have personally evolved in my practice and taken great pleasure in being part of her group of students.
Francesca Scassellati Sforzolini
Practicing yoga with Emily v Sydow at YogaShraddha has helped me understand and appreciate the different aspects of yoga. In Emily I found a teacher that cracked open the mystery of yoga in a language I could relate to. Thanks to this, I now regard yoga to be a perfect union of strength, balance, flexibilty, breath and mindfulness making me feel calm, focused and relaxed in everyday life.
Grete Ringdal
I’m a complete fan of Emily’s yoga. I warmly recommend her classes; none of my friends who took up classes with her have regretted their choice. When I started working with Emily, my yoga experience became a pleasure. She explained to me that this was my own journey, not a competition with others nor even with my own body. I like the diversity of her classes, the meticulous preparation, the concentration on various postures or body parts, the changing levels of difficulty, and the relaxation that always
follows the work.
Emily offers firm but always sympathetic guidance. She recommends the use of props to facilitate exercises. She is very responsive to comments and specific requests, and creates a friendly atmosphere. The classes with Emily have significantly lowered my level of stress and allowed me to concentrate on my own progress. I now look forward to my classes, which is a most welcome change. I can better relax and enjoy the moment, which was far from being a given for me. And I have felt encouraged to venture into retreats.
Veronique Arnault
As someone utterly unversed a decade ago in the ways of yoga, I couldn’t have found a better introduction to it than with Emily, whose long experience and study of the practice have guided me since then. Aside from the obvious benefits of stretching and learning how to control one’s breathing, I’ve gained a better sense of physical balance and body-awareness. All thanks to the variety and rhythm of her yoga sessions, tailored to the age bracket and abilities of each class she teaches. So whether you’re young or old, fit or out of shape, sessions with Emily are a fine way to enter the stream of yoga.
Brooks Tigner
Letters by Emily
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Gunas – Nature’s Different Qualities
According to yoga philosophy there are three gunas, characteristics or qualities, that inhabit everything around us, both living creatures and objects. For humans, the trick is to find a balance between the three, for a harmonious coexistence in Nature and with ourselves. The gunas often need to be recalibrated, in order to retain this balance.…
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The Russian Dolls
Once when I was little, my father brought home a doll from a business trip. It was a Russian doll, the wooden kind that is divided in the middle across the abdomen, and painted. The doll is hollow and contains another, smaller doll, which contains a yet smaller one, and so on, until you reach…
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Intuition
I spent this past weekend with the Indian yogi Suryans Thakur, who was teaching a workshop in Brussels. Sandra Hasson, a yoga teacher with whom I have trained, opened her beautiful studio Yama Yoga for the event. Suryans teaches in the Iyengar tradition, which I like, with full use of props and detailed alignment, but…
