My name is Maya and I am a mindfulness and yoga teacher.In my teaching practice I like to draw upon all my yoga and meditation experience, choosing rather what’s the best for my clients then keeping to one particular style. It’s a mix and match yoga practice aiming to provide a holistic mind-body practice to anyone who is wishing to do yoga. My style is deeply inspired by: Iyengar Hatha Yoga which focuses on alignment, precision and endurance, uses props to help with a better understanding and practice of each posture;Kriya Yoga which brings gentle exercises and focuses on breath (pranayama);Yin Yoga which introduces deep, mindful stretching;Chair Yoga which helps me to adapt practice to all the different bodies and unique needs that my clients have.Thanks to my background in yoga I teach both in gyms/health clubs and provide private classes for people with special needs, adapted to their level of fitness.
“You do not need to seek freedom in a different land, for it exists with your own body, heart, mind, and soul.”
B.K.S. Iyengar
With Yoga you can:
- make your body stronger, more flexible and agile
- release stress accumulated in muscles
- train your mind to be more peaceful and focused
- increase your body awareness
- improve your mood
- become more resilient
- learn how to decrease an impact of stress on your wellbeing
- be a healthier and happier version of yourself.
How did my ‘yoga story’ begin?
Was it with my first dhanurasana (bow pose) taught by my auntie when I was a kid, or with the first meditation during karate class? Or maybe from the first ‘compassion class’ when I have been told that animals have feelings too? In some ways, many elements of yoga were in my life long before I started practising it and I would say that in my case all the roads led to yoga. The main roads were: philosophy, meditation and bodywork.
In philosophy, my main interest was an ethical question of a ‘good life’ – what does it mean to live a good life? This question directed me to mindfulness and the practice of zazen and vipassana meditation. From martial arts (karate and kalaripayattu), I have learned that the aim is to be strong enough to be confident and able to choose peace over fighting. Also, that working with your body is ultimately working with your character. When I was twenty I discovered that there is something that ‘has it all’ and its name is yoga.
After 10 years from my first yoga class, I enrolled in Yoga Teacher Training with Shiva Yoga Peeth in Rishikesh, India. Being curious by nature I explore different styles of hatha yoga, kriya yoga and mindfulness. I’m learning how to employ them in my own practice and the teaching as well. I experienced many of yoga benefits and I hope to help more people come closer to their goals whether it is a more agile body, kinder and happier heart or sharper and more focused mind.
My qualifications:200 RYS Hatha Yoga Teacher Training50 RYS Chair Yoga Training50 RYS Yin Yoga Training15 RYS Kriya Yoga24 RYS Kids’ Yoga Teacher TrainingB.A. and M.A. in PhilosophyM.A. in Sociology of EcologyDiploma of Art-TherapyCourse in Positive Psychology
