In the last few days I have started to get a bit confused with the time and day since it has already a few months that we are in a global lockdown.  Our yoga classes are in Milan, and our last class was at the last week of february... and no, we don't stream online classes. We didn't opt for organising digital classes for a simple reason, the essence of those classes were the human connection, not showing you the asanas.  We live in a time that Google or Youtube can show you in a couple of seconds the complete list of every single Asana, different styles of yoga and sequencing of world-wide famous yogis of all time. I don't believe that I can adapt the flow of sequence perceiving your adjustment to the sequence through skype. A part of that, I believe, and try to adapt every progress plan in a way that every yoga class participant is very soon able to understand the basic asanas and general sequencing. The Magic of yoga is not to show the 1000 years old asana, neither the creative sequencing, but to achieve thebody-mind connection through the healthy vehicle, which is our body: in this unexpected period in which socialisation, routine is cut off, it's the perfect moment for every yogi to organize a 1-person-yoga-retreat: if you can't go outside, go inward! Did you ever had this much time to go in debth in that one Asana that you thought in class we were skipping too fast and you felt like you would need to stay in for a bit more? Have you ever stayed by yourseld to discover your body? without putting it into auto-pilot fallowing the instructor? What is your body/ vehicle really like? How does it feel to be inside it? And what does it need in particular? Did you ever play with your body weight? shifting it from side to side, above and below? Have you ever tried meditating for a bit longer? Have you ever done a Vipasana? Did you consider a fast? How much do you know about anatomy? Since understanding how your vehicle works might really increase your adjustments in your asanas... What about yoga philosophy? Have you ever read Patanjali's sutras? 
And finally, no, we won't be streaming yoga classes, we can send you video clips of whatever you want if you first want to watch something and after watching it practice it yourself, feel free, we would send it to you with pleasure, write to us if you need advice in your practice, if you need a guided meditation or just a chat, but no, our regular classes will not be replaced by online streaming during the quarantine, because if you trust us, we challenge you to this Asana: turning inwards during the Quarantine.
Much love, hoping to see you all soon

It is easy to fall into the dictates of Happycracy as Eva Illouz named her book when you are familiar in the wellness fields, such as for yoga, meditation, mindfulness, art therapy etc. Our contemporary society has come to consider the unsatisfied as incapable. The euphoria at any price is accompanied by hyperculpabilization of those who do not reach it. Pascal Bruckner has wrote Perpetual Euphoria: On the Duty to Be Happy  underlining the same problem: the ideology of happiness that has become a collective imperative:it has become a duty whitch derives to anxiety.We are obsessed with how to be healthy, to have a successful life, etc. But the object of happiness is totally vague, it is an endless quest. Nobody knows what it really is, or what it means to be successful in life. 
Mindful practice of yoga, meditation,arts doesn't bring us happiness in the sense of euphoria_ or better said, it might bring us moments of intense joy, but a steady practice of yoga must bring acceptance: acceptance of life as what happens to us, but also acceptance as our reactions towards life. Our practice should bring us the capacity to discriminate our emotions from our true self, only this will bring us serenity and equilibrium with life's flow. The liberating message of yoga is that we have the conscious power to distinguish ourselves from our emotions, and this is also true for hapinness: we are capable of enjoying a moment of euphoria but we are also mindful enough to understand to accept the feeling and let it go when it's time for it to go. This brings freedom. It preserves the yogi not to fall into frenetic quests of constant happiness. 
A poetry of Melih Cevdet Anday may resume better the complexity to reduce ourselves to emotions...
 ''I saw my father in my dream'', he told us,
''I cried so much and begged,
He didn't understand, maybe he didn't even recognize me. ”
“Of course, my son,  Kirishna the teacher  said.
“If the soul is immortal,
Can it tell about mortal feelings? "

In Tolstoy's What Men Live By? the author reveals us that God made men in a way that we see better the needs of others and should help them.  This is a way to make understand humans that we are all one and united, and we must be compassionate towards others.
​This tale speaks directly to our heart chakra. It stimulates the compassionate energy we all have within. However, it to develop it, we must start by practicing compassion and love towards ourselves and then spread it to our surrounding. Here are some suggestions to inspire a work on the Anahata chakra!

Happy Navratri!
Today is the first day of the nine days festivities dedicated to Durga Devi battle against Mahishasura. The Goddess Durga symbolizes purity and strength, whereas Mahishasura represents egoism. Each of us constantly do live this battle in life. In a world where feelings are more constant then our own nature (if you come to think about it, love, joy, anger, lust, greed, fear,etc. have always existed in a constant manner and we do experience all of these feelings) ,we are brought to find the strength and purity to overcome harming sensations. 
From today until the 19th of October Navrati will be celebrated around the world.  
It's a great occasion to start a smooth detox, dedicate yourself these days to clean your house, nutrition, body and mind. You could start your first 3 days with a soft Tratak meditation ( gazing a candle, starting by visualizing the burning of the negativities in your life), blessing your house by smudging white sage. Try ritualizing the moments of shower and don't skip your dry body brush! Reduce your online times, take long walks...Make it a whole, detoxify your life as the battle of Durga. 
Then, the 4th day is dedicated to Lakshmi, the goddess of spiritual and emotional wealth, prosperity and fortune. In these days  , you could use mindfulness while you cook for your friends and family, enhance the ritual of cooking with the loved ones, and sharing, give value to ethical eating, share vegan biological food with the sceptics.
 The last 3 days are dedicated to  Goddess Saraswati, the deity of knowledge and arts.  This is the moment you could turn back into yourself, dedicate time for arts, discovering yourself through dance, music, painting, crafts. Create anything which accomplishes you, learn from what you create. Why not trying a mandala with flowers and pigments ?
Namaste!
​Meric

Try this quick sequence twice first thing you wake up in the morning for 21 days and you will discover a new You who is actually a morning person!
It's a fast and effective sequence which loosens and tones the complete body!

 

We all have heard about the famous ''continuing the yoga out of the mat'' quote. Maybe it's easier to tackle the question case by case... A good way to start this is to recognize the attitude helping us to achieve our goals on the mat and keep it out as well. For example, for most of the people the problem to come to the Crow Pose is that they are not really conscient about the alignment mistakes they do such as the position of the wrist, fingers,elbows, the inclination of the arms and legs, the focus on when and which muscle to squeeze and where to switch the intensity. This Asana is not the most strength/flexibility demanding Asana, but it requires a lot of focus and self awareness; the yogi should be able to feel each part of his/her body at that moment and control it. Ans this is one of the major reasons one should focus on if he/she chose yoga instead of some other activities. 
 Soon, this awareness becomes a habit, and one improves also the posture, knows how to handle the body in particular situations etc... And this is why they say ''Yoga brings light to every corner of the body''. And this could be one thing to start out of the mat: Facing the dark corners of our own personalities. Having the will & strength of facing the untamed parts of ourselves, the parts which needs to  be trained and refined; so in a reaction of anger, jealousy, bitterness,etc... instead of shifting the responsibility to others, choosing to face it and as we do when learning to come to the crow pose,  understand our weakness and focus on the alignment, on each part of the situation, on each movement & action until we come to our aim & it's perfection. 
 This is just a simple illustration of how the practice of yoga gives the taste of moving energies on the mental level as well. Once the yogi starts achieving his/her Asana goals, soon understands the trick to change his/her life as well.
Wish you a week full of awareness, 
Namaste,
​Meriç

Lately many of us has at least once in a while the FOMO syndrome (fear of missing-out). Which in a good amount could be stimulating to perceive your one's  needs and life and encourage to take action for their realisation. However, lately, most of the FOMO sources are mostly influenced by the lives of others. Social media is playing a big role in this; seeing photos and check-ins of friends in cool parties, exotic vacations, posts about their latest success and living in a society where more or less everyone is expected to race for the same objective. So the irony is that we are all racing for the everything: We race  to be fit like an athlete, we race to be young and beautiful like a model, we race to be culturally uppdated as professor, we race to be as social as a night-life organizator whithout thinking about the fact that each of these people chose one path to focus on and that's why they succeeded. The very popular saying ''find what you love and let it kill you'' stands for this situation; find a few passions in your life, and burn with it: develop your skills with patience, life-long, if on the road you meet something else, it's ok, continue that way, the first one was meant to lead you there. But don't jump on everything, blindly, at the same time, just because you saw that the last 5 instagram posts were in that way...So if ever you feel like your stressed of missing out, just ''get out of the situation'', go to a park, look to a tree, and breathe, take a 5 minutes meditation about the power of being rooted to a few duties in life, and notice it's importance &perfection. At that moment you will know that it's ok to miss out what is a bit_superficial...
Namaste,
Meriç