Ostrava Yoga & Dance Festival

"Try not to stay on the surface, but get deeper."

"Breath in. Do it before you die if possible."

"You can't touch the ground? And who cares?"

... That's what yoga festival in Ostrava was like.

Atmosphere like in a different world

After few hours of festival, I really felt like in a different world. It's because there are many people with the same passion and the same way of thinking ... But also after all those meditations and relaxations, we were all kind of sleepy. So I absolutely forgot how I look like, I didn't care that I wear no make-up, that I have messy hair... Cause nobody cares, nobody judges you, all the people are on the same wavelength, tuned to the same positive energy.

New level of yoga

I have kind of problem with yoga. I think yoga doesn't belong to fitness centers because it's not just a kind of physical exercise. There are instructors which are great "trainers", they can get into the perfect yoga poses, they know a lot about yoga history .. But that's not enough for me. For me, yoga is a way to reach ew"level of spirituality".

And luckily I got a chance to experience this feeling during the mantra yoga class with Iris Homová and Ashtanga yoga with Dalibor Štědroňský. In the begining of the class, Iris said something about yoga being "about the experience." And that she wants us to"get deeper."

Jivamukti jóga s Michelle McNamara

Kundalini jóga

Why can't we breathe

The ashtanga yoga class by Dalibor Štědroňský really gave me a lot.Ashtanga is normally very challenging yoga style so when I went to the class and I was ready to break my body and eventually get to the limit of my physical abilities ... Or that maybe I would be just sitting there and watching others. In the end it was all quite different. The class was still quite challenging but basically the only thing we were doing during the class, was breathing. I would never believe that it's so hard to breathe properly!
The attitude of mr. Štědroňský overall was very interesting. He said things like "You can't touch the ground during forward bend? And who cared? Maybe you'll be able to do it one day. Or maybe no in this reincarnation! Maybe next time.."

Kundalini energy

On Sunday I went to the class of Karma yoga. Well, I thought I was going to karma yoga but there was some mistake in the programme and because of that I experienced my premier of kudnalini yoga. It was very different from what I know from "normal" yoga. This type of yoga focus a lot on dynamic breathing and togethe with special poses, they it akwakes the life force known as kundalini. This magical energy can bring you a lot of energy, health and it can also help you to grow spiritually.

The instructors

This time at the festival, there were foreign instructors like the precious year - american instructor Ruth Lauer-Maneti and a Yogi couple from South Africa, pár Jay Mac and Mish McNamara. All of them were jivamukti yoga teachers.
Unfortunately I didn't have a Chance to experience a class by Ruth, but both Jay and Mish were great. Especially Jay's jivamukti yoga class with mantras chanting was amazing.

Organization

Of courses there were few mistakes. On Friday when I arrived, there were no posters, banners or anything that would navigate me to the"main hall". The program was divided itno six shalas and most of them were quite big so a lot of people could do yoga comfortably. But there was also one hall, which was so super small, that during Yin yoga and Tensegrita we couldn't almost move because of the amount of people crowded in the small room. Paradoxically in this room, there was also a class of Acro pair yoga and arm balancing class ... And honestly I wasn't brave enough to go there anymore.

However these mistakes were invisible in comparison with the overall​atmosphere of the festival. The mood of the whole weekend was just amazing, the programme was very satisfying, instructors and lecturers and organizators were also super nice. I think that this year again sent me to another level of my yoga practice. Last year after the festival I started meditating and this time I fell in love with mantras, I've learned new breathing techniques, and I when Iris told us the story about Sita and Rama, I've decided I'm gonna learn more about Hinduism.