Welcome to Yoga Shraddha
Dear friends,
Resilience – the capacity to bounce back – is one of the major benefits from consistent yoga practice. This word is not easily translated into Sanskrit. In order to build your resilience through yoga, you have to practice regularly, have faith in the process, and trust in your practice. That faith, confidence, and devotion translate as Shraddha in Sanskrit, which is why I named my platform YogaShraddha.
I came to yoga with the help of my daughter Kristin. I had been looking for a discipline to ease the lingering pain in my right leg after an accident in my 20s. Kristin found me a Hatha yoga class in a small crummy studio with a bamboo bookshelf and basic facilities close to home, and I felt at ease from the start.
After some five years of regular practice there, I started my first teacher training over two years, to go deeper into the discipline, but not with the aim of teaching. We studied the Patanjali sutras and asanas. I later continued with two teacher trainings over the course of 5 years with François Raoult. I have continually trained with different teachers and have recently found great pleasure also in reciting mantras with great teachers.
My official stamp from Yoga Alliance is E-RYT500 which means I’m an Experienced Registered Yoga Teacher, allowed to train other yoga teachers. I have spent most of my professional life as a journalist with a degree in History of Ideas and Russian from the University of Stockholm University.
I moved from Stockholm with my husband and our two small children to Brussels in 1989. I continued my journalism career as a correspondent and columnist for Nordic papers and the Belgian weekly ”The Bulletin”. My published books are about the European Union and dogs, another passion of mine.
I train in an Iyengar studio in Brussels as well as in my home studio. I also go to India to train. I enjoy teaching yoga to beginners and also taking on people with specific needs, like lower back problems, knee surgery, headaches, depression and anxiety, and I believe yoga can offer relief.
Since 2018 I have taught a weekly class to refugee minors in a centre outside Brussels. I have developed a programme for teaching these kids. I call it Resilience and Peace of Mind.
While I teach small groups and provide private classes at my home studio, I teach larger groups in a club in Brussels in a beautiful space with a wooden floor. I also organise retreats in our home in Provence and have led retreats outside Brussels.
I look forward to engaging with you via this platform or in person.
Warm regards,
Emily
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.