When I completed my yoga teacher’s training in 2006 at Yoga Vidya Speyer, asana, pranayama and relaxation – classical yogic practices – were perfect for balancing my physical, emotional and mental state. Only after entering into married life, moving to India (sometimes it feels like to a different planet) and especially after the birth of my daughter, I felt I needed something more in my practice. I started looking for a deeper fulfilment in all my roles as wife, mother, daughter and mainly as a woman. As usual with more experience in Yoga, I experimented with adapting my Yoga practice to all physical, emotional and mental changes that are present throughout the month. Instead of neglecting these changes like I did before, I started seeing them as a boon or siddhis (powers) that I could use for different tasks and situations. Once I started living in connection with my monthly cycle, I also started feeling a deeper connection not only with myself and my female energies, but also with other women in my life and even my female ancestors. Thanks to this recognition, I started to act more compassionately and kindly with myself and others. I found that ambition, efficiency, consumerism and goal orientation – source of happiness as per the modern society – became insignificant and qualities such as care, nurturing, gentleness, timelessness, flow yet firmness and power started prevailing.
In this course, I would like to gently guide other women back to their connection with their inborn feminine nature, back to the power that each of us has inside. By reconnecting to our divine feminine nature, we create a safe space where old wounds may heal, where contradicting feelings and emotions may coexist, where old can be released and something new and magical created.
Sakti Sadhana – spiritual practice for women consists of 5 main pillars: mantra, mudra, bhakti, saṇgha and yoga nidrā.
Mantra: those of you who know me closer, know, that mantra belongs to my daily practice. I use kirtan to open and feel my heart. I use vedic mantras to strengthen the masculine aspect and discipline.
Yoga Nidra: we practice yoga nidras that correspond to the different cycles in a woman’s life such as cyclic wisdom, pregnancy, birth, menopause, post-menopause including thematic visualisations under the guidance of the daśa mahāvidyā – the 10 tantric goddesses.
Mudra: we use different mudras, hand gestures and symbolic postures of the body to channalise prana, our life force and connect to our soul.
Bhakti: bhakti, the path of devotion is natural to a woman as an emotional human being and the easiest of all yoga path to connect with. We connect to our spiritual heart, who is HER, our inner teacher.
Sangha: sangha means in Sanskrit community or company and in our context, the concept of sisterhood. When a community, a circle of like- minded women come together, just like it has been a tradition in many cultures for thousands of years, old wounds find a safe space to heal and life stories may be expressed and are heard with an open heart and without judgement or competition.
If you are open for something new following your instincts (6th sense or now better saying your heart): something wonderful can start to happen. Over a number of classes practicing soft and mindful asanas, mudras and yoga Nidra I started, feeling my heart, feeling my heart breathing and and how it’s getting connected with my womb. I never thought about being different by being a woman – I felt being a human being, being my self in a suitable female body… This did not change during my motherhood and not during the number of years practicing Hatha yoga. And now the change has begun.
The way Meera teaches the shakti yoga practices immediately touched my self / my heart – I always feel like coming home. Coming home to my female SELF. Meera teaches her Yoga and Shakti wisdom along with a deep understanding of the western and as well Indian world into the whole world along with Asanas, Mudras and Yoga Nidra. It is an international class (thanks to Zoom, a video conferencing technology) with wonderful other ladies from different cultures and countries. I can feel the power of women being connected all over the world.
Thank you Meera
