Waiting at London Gatwick airport for my transfer flight from LAX to CPH I start to wright my yogastory. It has been a great 3 weeks in Santa Barbara and I am really glad that the universe brought me to Santa Barbara instead of Alicante 

How did it all begin? Once upon a time there was a need, an almost burned out business developer at IKEA who wanted more in her life. I mean, come on, she had been to a few interesting places and done a lot, but was there not more to experience? And what about the business worlds greedy attitude, making the rich man richer?

No, she wanted out, big time. Googling “yoga,” as that seemed to work for a lot of people, she found www.mudita.se, a small yoga shala in the eco village of Baskemölla, on the southern tip of Sweden.

will this work?

So, she took her motorbike (a Triumph Scrambler) and drove off to yoga class one sunday afternoon in 2009. 100 km one-way, but it was so worth it.

Breathing? Oh my god, what about the breathing. And what was that funny sensation brewing inside? Calmness…? And maybe a bit of happiness after this very first yoga class? (well, ok, it actually was not the very first, the very first was Power Yoga in a cold gym and she really hated it, downward facing dog? Oh my god). But this experience in the yoga shala in Baskemölla was something different, this was for real.

This was day 1 of her 7 year journey following her path of yoga. Many trips to Baskemölla later she started ashtanga self practice and meditation. Do I need to say that she quit her job the same year and went to gardening school? And the yoga just kept going on, everywhere she went, everywhere she lived. Ashtanga, hatha, yin, pranayama, she tried it all.

another trip

A couple of years later she started googling again. Hmmm, ashtanga is good but my shoulders hurt, what is that Bikram yoga? So, this time it was the train to Malmö, 100 km one-way once again. And man was it worth it again! The first class was terrible, she called it fascist yoga, Hitler yugend yoga, but still she was hooked.

So again an era of traveling started. Train back and forth to Bikram Yoga Malmö several days a week. And the practice was great. She felt great, strong, alive and wanted to do it more and more and more.

Back in real life she finished gardening school and moved back to Kristianstad, the town where her friends lived. She also started a totally new career: organic gardening, projects with organic food, Community Supported agriculture and bee keeping.

Finally she started her own small juice and raw food company and gave lectures about different ways to eat. It was great fun, the pay was not as good as in the business world but it was giving and receiving and most important, actually teaching people about a different way of life.

In the midst of her new career and “real life”, she wanted to deepen her yoga practice so she started going to workshops, but there was an urge for more…

how to take the next step?

Yoga teacher trainings where expensive and time consuming but after 2 years of seeking the right training and wondering how to raise the money for it she met Ulrika Biel. Ulrika had just completed the Evolation Yoga teacher training and was about to open her own studio close to Kristianstad.

Ulrika was looking for teachers and was willing to invest in them. The universe did it again! 2 weeks later she was on the plane to Madrid for the first week of teacher training. Madrid was HOT! Really hot and back in Sweden lots and lots happened in real life during her yoga teacher training. She lost her boyfriend, lost her job, got a new job and really started to wonder about the future. Must have something to do with attachment and learning to let go but my oh my how hard it was.

A couple of months later it was time for teacher training part 2 in Alicante. However, one week before the training Evolation informed that the training was moving to California. WHAT, the US? I can’t go there? Or can I? The same evening the shock transformed into a feeling that this could actually be the start of something better.

And it was. 4 days later she was on the plane to California and my was it good. Sunshine, nice environment, really friendly people and a very good learning environment with just two other girls and great teachers.

Transformation continued. By week 2 she suddenly realized that she actually liked teaching! And might become good at it some day. There is something about forgetting everything for an hour, and being able to teach other people and bring them further into their own practice. She even might be able to contribute small extras from her own practice and experience.

this could be forever

And what about work? Would life really need her to work full time and do yoga on the side or would it actually become possible to do what she loved most, every day, full time? Work with yoga and juices, Ayurveda and Raw Food? Yes, this might actually become a reality.

Sooo, at this moment in time she is a fresh yoga teacher, with her brand new certificate in her back pocket and on her way from London Gatwick to Copenhagen.

What is pending in life? Moving to a little apartment near the studio where she is going to teach, waiting for an answer for the new job she applied for (but, does she really want that or is it a distraction from what she really wants to do?), a dinner with her ex boyfriend (yes, attachment is not easy for her).

Sunday afternoon she will teach her first Hot 90 in her home studio. She intends to make it a good one, and all the others after that shall be good once as well.

So, lots might happen the coming days and, as IKEA’s founder Ingvar Kamprad usually told his employees, Glorious future!

Juliette Snijders
London Gatwick, December 4, 2015

evolation

Evolation yoga is devoted to helping you become more Self-centered – in an ego-free way. By combining the powerful physical properties of hot yoga with the awareness-enhancing effects of meditation, evolation’s aim is to make you healthier, happier, and more in touch with that elusive little thing called the Self.