have you ever struggled with pain?

If you have, you know how much it can rob. You become tired, nervous, unfocused, need to rest and retreat.

I know this very well. I have struggled with pain all of my life. As a child, mainly from migraines due to my untreated scoliosis. So much that I used to eat Advils like Smarties (they even have a sweet coating...).

For the past 12 years, I have been on a very long journey of searching and regaining my health, which I barely shared with anyone, apart from my allergies at the time (which are mostly gone now), because they were a very unavoidable topic in any social situation. Imagine the being invited to someones grandma’s home and having to explain why you cannot eat her cake.. it is not the easiest thing to break her heart.

However, I never talked much about my pain and other symptoms. Rather, I kept it hidden - even ignoring it as much as I could for myself and kept doing all the things I had been doing. Because I felt I had to, but also, because some weeks I felt better, and others I wasn’t and the mind here is a very tricky thing that makes you forget your suffering. When you feel better, you believe all is well and be better soon. Additionally, it is hard to find a doctor who is willing to go on a search with you or a person to believe and support you.

I started to notice that something was wrong with my body after taking 1 and another double round of antibiotics and an added viral infection. My knees and ankles were swollen, extremely painful and stiff. I couldn't bend my knees completely for 6 years. A finger that kept swelling and turning red, and changing pains in my body made it hard to move and do anything. Extreme fatigue and inability to concentrate, among other things.

I went to many doctors and alternative practitioners over the years. I tried many different approaches to healing (I really tried their treatments and didn’t stop half way). Nothing they tried on me had any positive effect. Some weeks I would felt fine, and other weeks would be horrible, where I would spend most of my time on the couch or working from under a blanket.
It has taken me many years to figure out on my own how to manage my health, how to reduce the symptoms, and how to regain my mobility AND still be able to build my projects.

Now, I have finally learned that I have an autoimmune disease that comes in flares.

For the past 12 years, I have been learning about health, nutrition, exercise and mobility every day because of this story. Along with my university degrees and work in the fashion industry and later in the art industry, I have been learning about health and healing with an unquenchable hunger. Even now, I am enrolled in seminars at the TU Munich on functional anatomy, physiology and pain management.

I want to share my knowledge with you.

During the past almost 6 years that I have been teaching yoga, I have done it in a very strala way. Very open, very much focused on the experience and flow as before, I have had some disturbing experiences in the past, where yoga was taught in a very imposing way that made me feel bad physically and emotionally.

Over the past few weeks, I have been working on a new approach to my classes, with more focus on healing, pain, flexibility and strength, taught in a way that allows you to learn more in depth, in addition to the feel-good experience.

xxx

Alexandra