Liina is originally from Estonia, where she started practicing yoga over 20 years ago. She comes from a business background and her “no pain, no gain” attitude slowly but surely was leading her towards a burn-out in her late 20s. The only constant in her hectic lifestyle was yoga, which gradually was sprouting questions and longings that she had not felt before. In 2007 she took a sabbatical and traveled through India and Asia. By the end of that year, she found herself at a yoga teacher training course in Byron Bay, Australia. She’s never looked back since! She started teaching in 2008 at Byron Yoga Centre, and since then has completed approx. 3000 hours worth of anatomy, fascia, yoga philosophy and meditation trainings. She has been living and teaching in Berlin since 2014, yet is currently sharing her time between Berlin and Italy, where she is building a sustainable off-grid homestead based on permaculture principles.
Liina’s approach to yoga is non-dogmatic, grounded both in the extensive study of various movement and meditation modalities and in her own personal journey. Her classes aim to empower, encourage exploration and offer a safe space to connect more intimately with both – the visible and the invisible, the form and the formless, the mundane and the mystical.
In recent years somatics has become central to her teaching. Put shortly, somatics is about mind-body-nervous system integration and increasing self-awareness through movement. The small, slow, gentle movements are guided and felt from within (rather than emphasizing external alignment) and are aimed at helping to engage the muscles more functionally (restoring the body’s innate wisdom) and at re-learning to relax the muscles (releasing chronic tension patterns). Liina blends somatics with yin yoga, flow and restorative yoga for an experience of greater ease, freedom, strength and empowerment that comes from being aligned from the inside out!
vinyasa (somatic) – en
Liina’s somatic vinyasa classes are unrushed, creative and inclusive, aiming to cultivate strength and fluidity along with greater freedom of movement. The sessions use therapeutic somatic techniques of gentle and small rocking, sliding and gliding movements guided by felt sense to land in the sensory awareness. The somatic warm-up prepares the body for a creative flow that encourages everyone to feel into their own unique anatomy and inner alignment.
yin yoga – en
Yin is a call to be present with what is, to not rush for solutions, to slow down and drop inward, it is to be with the unknown… surrendered. In a yin yoga practice the simple floor poses, held for a longer pause with curiosity and awareness without forcing or pushing, become containers for self-inquiry and self-regulation. The slowness and stillness of the practice help to cultivate our capacity to meet, be with, make contact, feel and allow what’s arising internally – be it positive, negative or neutral. Most yin sessions also include some slow and gentle somatic movements, which invite you into your felt sense and the feel of the body, whereby subtle signals from the body guide you on “how” and “where” to move.
classes
fri 15.45-17.00 / en/ vinyasa (somatic)/ all levels/ Studio Sonne & online
fri 17.30-19.00/ en/ yin yoga/ all levels/ Studio Sonne & online