Home of Functional Yoga
Last time I wrote about the life energy Qi, about Yin and Yang, about the energetic effect of food and described through a practical example how you can use food to relieve symptoms. Yang is the energy (Qi) and Yin the matter. This time: Damp. What is Damp? Damp: unknown within Western medicine, but within […]
We asked “our” sangha members what do they think is the importance of a sangha. Here is what they said đ
Joe Barnett writes about how his understanding of what a sangha is grew and developed.
âFeelings come and go like clouds in a windy sky. Conscious breathing is my anchor.â Thich Nhat Hanh When I was born, I was diagnosed with asthma. During the ďŹrst couple of years of my life, I was more in than out of the hospital. I still remember that I had to sit in the […]
Ehud interviews Joachim Meire, a yoga teacher and breathwork instructor, about breath. Joachim published a book called “Adem” (Breath) and is the owner of YogaLoft studio in Gent.
In the upcoming series of columns, I want to give you an insight into the workings of the nutritional teachings of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). TCM is a huge concept of thought with all sorts of different interpretations and elaborations. It will never be fully complete, and it may rub shoulders with your own ideas. […]
By now you probably know that we at The Fat Yogis and The Functional Yoga Teacher Training, as the name suggests, teach functional yoga. And you probably also know that functional yoga is not a style of yoga, like Ashtanga, Vinyasa or Yin Yoga, but an approach to its practice. What is the foundation of […]
Marcel talked about the functional approach with Kathy Paez, who is teaching functional yoga trainings, wrote a book about Yin Yoga and is an assistant to Paul and Suzee Grilley.
On Thursday, the 26th of May we held a memorial ceremony for our dearest friend, teacher and colleague at YogaToday studio in Weesp. This is the recording of the event.
On the 18th of May Anat left her body. She is still here with us in everything we do, guiding us, teaching us, cheering us up, inspiring us. And we know that many of you feel the same. We are truly moved by this amazing community – so many joining the daily bijas, so many […]
This time The Fat Yogis (Anat, Marcel and Ehud) are talking between themselves about discomfort.
Comfort, that stealthy thing that enters your house as a guest, then becomes a host, and then a master Khalil Gilbran I paid attention to the stories my mother-in law used to tell, on how little everybody had during and just after WWII. On her birthday, during the last winter of the war, she got […]
Anat and Marcel spoke to Bernie Clark, author of Your Body Your Yoga and Your Spine Your Yoga to hear about his insights about the spine. Bernie has been teaching yoga and meditation since 1998. He has a bachelor degree in Science from the University of Waterloo and combines his intense interest in yoga with […]
Anat Geiger writes about the known and less known reasons for the spine being the center of yoga practice.
Anat and Marcel asked Suzee Grilley about her view on the chakras and the practice of chakra meditation and discovered that the roots of her practice lay in her early 20’s as a dancer and who are her basketball heros. Suzee Grilley had a long career as a professional dancer, touring the world. She began […]
When Anat asked me to write a piece about Chakra Meditation for The Fat Yogis newsletter, I jumped on the invitation with a YES in all caps. Anat and I have the same teachers: the Grilleys. We have studied with and assisted the Grilleys for many years now: functional anatomy and subtle energy, mantras, philosophy […]
Marcel and Anat interviewed their beloved teacher Paul Grilley about the Bhagavad Gita. Paul talks about the Gita in the context of the Mahabharata, the connection with Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras and much more. Paul Grilley is the founder of Yin Yoga and wrote A Yogi’s Guide to Chakra Meditation (Marcel wrote a little review on […]
âOn this path effort never goes to waste, and there is no failure. Even a little effort toward spiritual awareness will protect you from the greatest fear.â A Helpful Reminder It is hard to choose one quote from the Gita, there are so many great ones. They are poetic, beautiful and, to me, more than […]
Anat and Ehud took about half an hour to talk about karma, sharing some of their thoughts, ideas and questions about this system. Anat also wrote a blog about karma and has a talk about it and Marcel interviewed Venerable Steve and recorded a class around the theme.
Marcel had a very nice talk with venerable Stephen Carlier who shares his thoughts about Karma with us.
Venerable Stephen had been a buddhist monk for the last 41 years. He currently resides at The land of the medicine Buddha in Soquel California.
For more than two decades I have been studying and teaching yoga, deepening my philosophy studies progressively as I go. At the center of these teachings is the concept of karma, an incredibly elegant and poignant way to understand suffering, gain, loss, praise, blame, success, failure, all the sometimes maddening ups and downs of our lives.
Marijke Pfeiffer has been an acupuncturist for the last 40 years and is co-founder of CIG Amsterdam and of TCMA, Traditional Chinese Medicine school in Amsterdam. In this interview Marijke talks about the different aspects of Chi, common Chi-related problems like low energy and burnout, and some of the things needed to keep your chi […]
Prana, Chi, Energy. Anat Geiger writes about the stuff we are literally made of but is still often regarded as esoteric.
An interview with Dr. Jaap van der Wal Ph.D. Fascia isnât just an arbitrary part of the body, fascia is a complex and vast communication network within the body that influences every aspect of our development – physical, emotional and spiritual. Marcel and Anat interview leading fascia expert and embryologist Dr. Jaap van der Wal. […]