My name is Sandra. Since 15 years my homebase is Stavanger on the southwestern coast of Norway. This is where I enjoy the stunning outdoors, practice Yoga, give massage and work as a breath coach. I am a mother of two, a wife and I gratefully call my job one of my greatest passions in life (as long as I am not doing my tax return)!

 

My journey as a yoga instructor started in 2009, after I finished the 200-hour Vinyasa Yoga Teacher Training in Berlin, Germany. Back then I was about to finish my PhD in climate research and I joined the training just out of personal interest and to counter the effects of the very cognitive and sedentary lifestyle I had at that time. So initially, teaching wasn’t on the agenda but it somehow just happened and I am grateful that the whole process felt very organic. Since then I have participated in several trainings, workshops and courses. In 2010 I started immersing myself into massage and I now have several years experience in giving treatments in Thai Massage, Tulamassage and Tulayoga. While pregnant with my first child in 2016 I joined a Prenatal Teacher Training led by Uma Dinsmore-Tuli at Yogacampus, London. Most recently I added Breath Coaching to my repertoire (accredited by the Yoga Teachers College® ).

 

As a student at heart I have a deep passion for learning. I consider my education a lifelong journey, on which I continue meeting very inspirational people, teachers and teachings. I have a strong interest in yoga-therapy and I love making Yoga accessible to everyone, irrespective of age, injuries or limitations of any sort. This is also why I prefer keeping the group size of public classes small. You can be sure that my attention is yours, I can be sure nobody is left behind.

 

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YOGA & THE "WHY" BEHIND THE "HOW"

 

​Yoga is right there for you and welcomes everything you bring to the mat, a baby-bump, a broken leg in a cast etc... You don’t have to change or get anywhere before you start. This exactly is what I love so much about the practice!  I often like to think of the practice as a river flowing through changing landscape, sometimes wild and rough, sometimes quietly meandering. Throughout the years I changed focus and direction several times in response to changing circumstances in my own life. My own practice and style of teaching are pretty eclectic and experimental and I owe a lot to my lovely students. Their topics and questions keep me inspired and searching and remind me over and over to take good care of my beginner’s spirit, which is easily lost along the way.

 

Very often the initial motivation to start Yoga is a bit one-sided, we want to become stronger, more flexible ect. All of this certainly happens along the way.... Yoga improves the posture, balance, strength and coordination; it enhances joint mobility and flexibility. Similar to massage, the contraction and relaxation of muscles during all twisting and bending stimulates the transport of blood and lymphatic fluid, which helps support the circulatory and immune system. But Yoga has the potential of going much deeper and to become a quite comprehensive system of self-care.

We learn how to pay proper attention and in doing so we can see more clearly. And slowly, gradually, we begin to see our less obvious weaknesses and strengths. We see our habitual responses to difficulties, our likes and dislikes and eventually we are able to identify our typical reactions that do us more harm than good, both in the way how we move and think. Through deepened insight and understanding, Yoga empowers us to make more sustainable choices and we become better architects of our fortune and future. ​If practiced with this understanding, Yoga affects all aspects of life and the boundaries of the Yoga mat begin to blur.

 

I teach Vinyasa Yoga, a flowing form of Yoga where each pose builds and gives way to the next. The pace can vary from dynamic to quiet and slow, depending on the overall goal and tone of the class.Vinyasa translates as “to place in a special way”. Rather than being randomly ordered the poses are sequenced in such way that one pose prepares for the next or counterbalances the previous one. Vinyasa Yoga can be regarded as meditation through movement where we aim to move in the rhythm of our breath, using the body as a tool to playfully explore our habitual pattern of movement and thought. During the experience of flow body and mind are yoked together in the same time and place. This can induce moments of timelessness where we are completely and totally immersed in the activity – a focused state where challenge and effortlessness meet one another.

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Leave your competitiveness somewhere else, come to explore, breathe and play!