Author: yogashraddha

For the past month I’ve been teaching yoga to more or less the same group of girls at the refugee centre of Fedasil for non-accompanied minors outside Brussels. The majority in this group is from French-speaking Africa, and some are from the Middle East. Some are veiled, some are bareheaded with impressive braided hairdos flooding Read More

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. Read More

Dear friends, Welcome to my new website, yogashraddha.org. It is a very small step for mankind, indeed, but a biggish one for me. Let me share with you how it came about: On the Mussoorie Express night train from Old Delhi railway station to Dehradun, I was lucky to share the sleeping compartment with Swati Read More

When the moon is full here in Provence, it’s brimming. She (I think of it as a female planet) illuminates our east-facing house from behind the ridge on the other side of the valley.  The treetops on the ridge are backlit like the bristle of a black wolf. When I take the dogs out for Read More

The other day, seeing a not-very-appealing version of my self-image on the screen, my first reaction was not: ”Oh, the beauty of imperfection”. It was rather very un-yogic: ”colour your hair, lose a few kilos!” Then I read an article about a Japanese ceramic artist, (very skinny he was, too) and his Kintsugi repair work Read More

I remember it as a reprimand in return for some outrageous thing that I had just uttered, but just like “Pull yourself together!”, it has a deeper meaning, which is now dawning on me.  The capacity to listen to yourself is a strong step towards a meditative state. Listen to yourself when you are sitting Read More

Good sleep after a certain age is not a given for many of us. It requires work and good tools. They’re not all in your medicine cabinet and believe me, I’m no stranger to the occasional pill, especially ahead of a long journey. However, since I’ve developed a more profound yogic breathing practice, pranayama, I know Read More

Coming back from a long trip requires adjustment. I spent three November weeks in India, feeling quite lonely sometimes between the practices and lessons. They were not at all geared towards teacher training but more a matter of personal development at the Iyengar centre called Yog Ganga in northern India, in the state of Uttarakhand, Read More

”The longest journey is the journey inwards.” This quote by Swedish UN secretary general, Dag Hammarskjöld, 1905-1961, rings true most days, but not on the cusp of leaving for India. As I pack my bag with coal tablets and mysterious ointments, notebooks and drawing pad, I am more acutely aware of a long outwards trip Read More

Some of you may not know who Bruce Lee is. I haven’t been a big fan of the fighting movies he starred in, but let’s say that Bruce Lee was a ferocious beast on screen. He died aged 33 in 1973. Apparently, he’s still known to today’s teenagers half a century after his death. The Read More