This week we got an invitation of other EVS volunteers living and working in Plovdiv. We were discussing about our projects and presented our organization and our campaign to them. Also we were invited to join one of their yoga courses.
The project of the other volunteers is about learning to teach Yoga and martial arts. The first part of their project is about getting educated in these fields of sport and afterwards they will teach children in school.
For me personally attending the training was a good experience also because it was the first time I was doing yoga. The trainer has a very positive charisma and we felt very welcome from the beginning. We made different exercises which intended all to feel the tension of our body. It was a lot about stretching and flexibility. Some of the exercises were quite difficult and we were impressed of the flexibility of our teacher. “Not only when it is about movement, but also when it is about emotion or everything else, we have to try constantly to expand our limits, otherwise our possibilities will get fewer and fewer”, he explained. “Also yoga will help you to get a good body posture.” I feel inspired of his explanations and his aim to help us to get awareness of our body. After every exercise we do we go back to a relaxed standard position, we close our eyes and concentrate on how the feeling of our body has changed. “Many young people face a block in their body so their energy can’t float around. Some people have it in their back and they feel chronic fear. Others have it in their belly and they feel rage. And another kind of people has it in the chest, they feel sad. Yoga helps to release the block and the tension.”
The next exercises are about learning different ways of breathing. I don’t succeed in this exercise because I don’t have such a good understanding and control about my body, but this is a motivation to practice. After that we lay down on our mats and feel the deeply relaxation of the sounds of the flute the trainer is playing.
“We are training with our body but in reality we train our minds. Our minds always wants to do a lot of different things at the same time but yoga helps us to concentrate and to focus only one thing”, our teacher explains.
Words: Philipp