2022 - what a year?!!
Hello Dears!
First of all wishing you all the best in 2023! May the year unfold according to your plans and wishes! May you be safe, healthy, happy, and successful. I look forward to practicing with you this year!
THANK YOU for everything in 2022!
For your practice, support, your trust, your presence, and subscribing this newsletter!
How has 2022 been for you? What would you like to keep and what can you let go of? What are you grateful for from 2022 and what could you have done without?
For me, it’s been a whirlwind!
Last year at this time I was recovering from knee surgery, going to PT and creating chair yoga sequences in my first ever blog/newsletter.
In mid-January, I finished working as a graphic designer in a small packaging design agency in Dahlem and was looking forward to starting my new job as an art director at an e-commerce company specializing in sexual wellness products.
Meanwhile the war in Ukraine broke out and thanks to many of you, I have managed to raise nearly 3,000€ for a Polska Akcja Humanitarna (PAH), a Polish organization helping the Ukrainian refugees crossing the Polish border. Sadly, this crisis is still raging on, nearly a year later…
Let’s hope for positive changes this year!
In March I returned to teaching after almost three months’ recovery from the knee surgery (yaaay!) and in April I started my 300hr yoga teacher training at Yoga Sky, the yoga school and studio in Berlin where I completed the 200hr training in 2016. Taking part in this training is EVERYTHING I needed to continue my journey, meet new wonderful fellow students, reconnect with my teachers, get inspired, and continue my inquiry into my own practice, teaching, and where I want to take it.
June was very mixed. I went to Otranto, Italy, on my very first yoga retreat with the lovely Martina of Wave on Yoga. It was a gorgeous location, near the sea, with amazing food and wonderful company.
As soon as I returned, the art director job that I started in February has continued to be so incredibly soul-sucking, frustrating, and draining that I have decided to leave at the end of the probation in July. I gave my resignation at the end of June and looking back now, I feel it’s been the best and scariest decision I have made so far as far as my career is concerned. Mainly because, from that point on, I have decided to focus exclusively on my yoga teaching and learning and to leave my 15-year long career as a graphic designer (possibly forever) behind. As soon as I made this decision, I feel like doors of opportunity started opening up!
In July I have started subbing yoga classes wherever there was an opportunity. The highlight being that I have started subbing at Yoga Sky! It’s been an incredible honor, pleasure and humbling experience to be able to teach where my teachers teach and to have their students in front of me. I am incredibly grateful for this opportunity.
In addition, I have subbed at vea Studio, Berlin Sportsraum, T9 Frauenfitness, AWO Hellersdorf, amongst other places.
In September I joined the lovely O•YOGA studio in Schöneberg, offering a morning Vinyasa class followed by a prenatal class on Tuesdays. I must admit, the entirety of September not a single person showed up to either of the classes. Luckily, October started seeing a couple of participants for the prenatal class, however, still nothing happening with the Vinyasa. I asked the studio owner if I could move the classes to Saturday mornings starting in November and this was an excellent move! From the very first day, there were new students joining and throughout the month more and more students began to join. By now both classes at the studio are running quite well!
October was full of all sorts of news and adventures! I started subbing classes at Holmes Place all over Berlin and not long after, I got my own class at the Gendarmenmarkt location, which I started teaching in November. Also in October, I visited a dear friend in Melle, Italy - so I had the wonderful experience of going to Italy TWICE in one year! The trip was wonderful, the area is so gorgeous! Unfortunately, around the middle of my trip I tested positive Covid (for the first time). Upon returning to Berlin, I had to get several classes subbed or canceled, the virus hung on longer than I was prepared for - this was a good lesson in patience and just letting go of expectations…
November brought a couple of new classes my way. I have been asked to take over a yoga class in an evangelical high school in Mitte, which was a very different experience, but a very positive one. It brought me back to my high school years and made me wish I had had the opportunity to practice yoga and learn about its roots when I was that young. One major thing I learned from this experience was that teens are generally stressed and exhausted and a restorative or yin practice is just the thing for them!
Finally in December I have subbed many many classes at Yoga Sky, at Holmes Place in various locations, and have continued my classes at Holmes Place, Kreuzergyoga, and O•YOGA.
As I wrote this year-in-review on New Year’s Eve, I could honestly say that I am incredibly grateful for the turn of events in 2022! I am so happy to be teaching yoga and knowing this and knowing how unsatisfied I was in my art director job, just fuels my motivation to keep going and stay focused, even if sometimes things take longer or some opportunities fall through.
So, what’s coming this year?
I am working on getting more studio classes in various studios around Berlin, I will start teaching a business yoga class in mid-January, and am very much looking forward to continuing my education at Yoga Sky!
I will be joining the vea Studio’s March retreat as a participant, which I am very much looking forward to and am planning to join my teacher’s, Nancy Jovanovic’s retreat on Corfu in May.
Otherwise, I am thinking of workshop ideas and am looking at co-hosting a retreat! Stay tuned for more news!
If you would like to see photos accompanying the above review, follow me on Instagram, where I have created this reel with related photos.
Meanwhile, if you are looking for some constructive ideas on goal-setting for this year, take a look at last year’s newsletter.
See you soon on the mat! Please be sure to check the latest class schedule here and for additional classes that I am subbing, follow me on Instagram or join my WhatsApp Yoga group!
Take care, be kind to yourself and others!
xoxo
koko