About me

‚Sit mens sana in corpore sano.'
My motto - Healthy body, healthy mind.
This is my goal and yoga is my way to get there.

I was born in Munich in 1967. After already successfully working in both a commercial and linguistic capacity for many years, I recently decided to pursue a third career by converting my daily companion of 10 years into my profession.

I started with yoga to fight mobility reduction due to office work and different health problems leading to chronic pain that I was not willing to just accept. I have always liked to move, it has always been in my nature. Here follows a short summary of the experiences which have shaped my life:

• Ten years of ballet
• Spine tumour (benign) at the age of 10, resulting in a plaster bed from head to knee, followed by a corset
• 2 years of physiotherapy, then resumption of ballet
• Floor and apparatus gymnastics as well as jazz dancing
• Standard and Latin dancing, Rock’n Roll
• Rock’n Roll Acrobatics 
• Working out in the gym from the age of 16
• 1 year of physiotherapy after a shattered hand
•  1st car accident
• 2 years of spinal/back exercises
• 2nd car accident
• Acquiring basics of Meridian Exercises according to HP Fischer-Reska
• First yoga literature, starting with daily Pranayama exercises (breathing techniques)
• 1st yoga course, soon followed by regular yoga classes with an instructor
• Intensive yoga course in Thailand
• First experience in teaching as a private instructor in Tuscany (6 weeks)
• Yoga in the Emilia-Romagna (1 semester as both a pupil and private instructor)
• Began jogging on a daily basis
• 2004: Yoga at Lake Balaton (6 weeks as an instructor for a small group of girls)
• Initial training to become a yoga instructor: 1 year-course with Angela Englmann-Scharnagl, Munich  (10/04-07/05)
• Degree: medically certified Yoga Instructor (07/05)
• Additional training in dietetics (with an alternative practitioner)
• Special training to cater for children, pregnant women, people in wheelchairs
• Medical exam in anatomy, physiology, endocrinology and neurophysiology
• 2006: yoga in Apulia (5 weeks, for the first time with a bigger group of seniors)
• Enhancement course: “Yoga sitting on a chair” as seen in many American retirement homes
• Organisation of my first workshop: Synergy Flow
• 2006: first private clients and yoga groups in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Oberau, Hechendorf, Penzberg, Fürstenfeldbruck, Munich and Tyrol
• My focal point and main interest is definitely Hatha Yoga:

• most importantly: to keep an open mind, to be interested, to be looking beyond one’s own nose across borders of any kind
• therapeutic yoga for people suffering from problems with the spine, pelvic floor, hip joints or stress
• yoga for sportsmen and women: agility & flexibility, balance
• trendsetting yoga for healthy, fitness-aware people: yoga in a flow
• business yoga (the office world being my former home): activity and quick relaxation for conferences
• intuitive yoga for crisis intervention
• adolescent yoga: I feel a special bond towards young people (we have even danced our Asanas in public)
• Study trips to India and Rajastan: different religions, gods, cultures, yoga; 2007: Ayurveda & Yoga in Kerala, India

February 2008: Organisation and presentation of the first workshop on hormonal yoga by Dinah Rodrigues