Ashtanga yoga is for all
– and it's not dangerous

All physical activity can cause injury if we don’t take care of ourselves and each other. This goes for football as well as for Pilates – and yoga. Ashtanga is a style of yoga that demands something of us, but it also rewards us, and that’s something the ego enjoys: quick results. And this is where things can go wrong – just like in football: if we let the ego run the show we end up pushing ourselves beyond what our body can handle, exposing ourselves to pain and injury.

In Ashtanga practice, our breath is with us every step of the way. Each movement is paired with either an inhale or an exhale. The breath is the link between our body and our awareness, and when we feel it becoming strained, a moment arises where we can pause and make a conscious choice: Can we stay where we are and use the breath to find ease in the posture, or have we gone too far and need to let go a little?

It’s not football or yoga that causes damage to our body – it’s our lack of patience and the ego’s ambition that ruin things for us. It’s not what we do, but how we do it and with what mindset.

“Practice, and all is coming”—tomorrow is a new day, a new practice, a new and entirely unique downward-facing dog. Let’s not allow our ambitions to destroy our opportunities for the future. If we patiently stick with out practice it and repeatedly return to our yoga mat, working mindfully to (re)build a connection between our body, breath, and mind, it will inevitably create change in our lives.

My teaching is rooted in Ashtanga yoga but it is free from traditions and dogma. We work with sequences and postures from the primary series in the Ashtanga way, but in a form where everyone can participate without harming themselves. Step by step, we work gently toward something good…

The yoga space

A room is not just a defined number of cubic meters of enclosed air. A room can be a shared space we nurture together – a power bank we recharge with energy every time we step into it and live out our practice. A space is something we care for and cultivate.

Yoga is a practice that both demands and develops our concentration, and the space we inhabit greatly influences our focus. That’s why, at Funder Kaas Yoga, you’ll step into a beautiful room, dedicated and designed for one purpose: the practice of yoga.