Finding myself today in a rental house, in the town I was born in but left more than 30 years ago, in a country that I left behind more than 20 years ago, to be honest, that was not my idea of starting the second part of my life.
And yet, here I am.
Within me there has always been that 'double' feeling of wanting to travel, see the world, experience things, live on different places and the need to have a place of my own where I can create stillness, be only with myself and have all my earthly belongings.
And after living almost 8 years of the first : working in tourism, always changing countries and addresses and living out of a suitcase, I now have been living the past year in the routine of a rented house. An everyday cleaning job to pay that rent. But more importantly, that delicious feeling of complete rest. The luxury of living alone in a house with a garden and all your 'stuff' present.
This peacefulness created space in my head to focus on something else than 'where will I be in 6 months' - question, and Yin Yoga became my subject to focus on.
Teaching, reading, studying. In September 2020 I went to Zurich, Switzerland for a deepening Teacher training 'Traditional Chinese Medicine' and hopefully next month, in May 2021 I will be enjoying a Teacher Training 'Myofascial release'. And in the meantime because of my awakened interest in Acupuncture and Acupressure, I dived into the theory and practice to be able to include AcuYin within my classes. Hopefully in the future there will be more possibilities for other trainings as well.
In September I started to give regular Yin classes on a beautiful location in Roosendaal and even though it was a difficult time to start (summer and Corona) I managed to build a small group of regular students and this makes me really very happy, it gives me the possibility to spread the healing effect that Yin Yoga has on body & mind and it still is a delight to see how Yin enters the heart of my students, how pleasantly surprised they are when they feel the effect, how Yin is being embraced and how the Yogis start to practice Yoga in a functional instead of an aesthetical way. A few months later I started renting another space, in the center of Roosendaal to be able to also teach classes in the evening hours. Unfortunately mid-December the Netherlands went in lockdown and as we speak, it is still not possible to teach live lessons but I know this will very soon change for the better.
All bad things always also have a good think come out of it because due to the closing of spaces to teach 'live' I focused on online classes that went surprisingly well, it is certainly different but I do find that Yin is not that difficult to teach online because everyone should anyway be able to follow a class with their eyes closed. Yin focuses on the processes that go on inside your body. The best thing about the online teaching was that it gave me again the connection to 'abroad'. Joining my classes were students from USA, Canada, Australia, Scandinavia, Morocco, Jordan, Israel, Germany, Spain, Greece - that really is amazing !
One thing to thank technology for ;-)
And with that in mind, I will continue teaching online after the lockdown here in the Netherlands ends, on Wednesday evenings at 8 PM. So if you would like to join see info here : https://www.solakiyoga.com/themed-yin-yoga-class-en
But, to be completely honest, I also miss the travelling and being abroad a lot. Connecting with new people and (sometimes lost) friends and acquaintances will never be enough for me; I am a travelling spirit that wants to be free and fly like a bird. I want to go n journeys again and take you with me: Praying for Covid-19 to disappear completely so the world will open up again and I can take you with me on my journey into the desert in Jordan and definitely my retreat in the south of Spain will take place mid-June. Combining hikes with yoga in beautiful rural Spain (for more info see https://www.solakiyoga.com/events/yang-hikes-yin-yoga-retreat). There are still a few spaces left !
2020 prepared me for the big change : Marion became Solaki Yoga and is looking forward to again being able to go abroad and exploring some new place or enjoying a place to return to because it has become a magical one.
Join me, in Roosendaal 'live', online on Wednesdays or on a beautiful location somewhere in the world. It would be a pleasure for me to share my love for Yin.
Marion Solaki Yoga.