As you may imagine, I usually do the research on the yoga studios in town, sometimes via Google searches or word of mouth, and get in touch with them regarding my blog. But in some few cases, I have the honour of getting a proactive contact note from a new studio. And in one particular case, it happened to be a studio just meters away from my place! Needless to say, I was excited to try out a class there.

This new location in central Wiedikon (think meters away from Gelateria di Berna) is called HEART motion lounge and offers yoga, pilates and “spiral dynamic muscle chain training” – sorry, can’t explain yet what that is, but sounds intriguing! Fátima is the yoga teacher who offers a variety of classes including meditation and yoga nidra (“yogi sleep”). I chose the Yang & Yin class on Monday, a concept which I had tried before in other studios and enjoyed a lot.

The studio is a small, intimate, delicately decorated room that probably accommodates around 6-8 mats. In our small group of 3 yogis plus Fátima, we had space, freedom and intimacy in the practice. Just before class I learned a lot about Fátima’s background as a Zurich resident and yoga teacher and meditation and awareness trainer. Her eyes sparkled as she spoke about her love of meditation and her passion for mindful practices! And I could certainly notice her devotion throughout our 60-minute class 🙂

The yang & yin concept is to first engage the body with powerful, masculine, “yang” movements, before slowing down and giving way to softer, restorative, “yin” poses. We started the class with a brief meditation, and warmed up the body with sun salutations. The flow was slower, more focused, with an emphasis on precision and awareness of the sensations created in the body by each pose. We practiced twists, lizard poses and pidgeon poses, and throughout the class Fátima pointed out with great precision where we should be letting go more – as usual, it was where most of the tension accumulated…

I sensed the majority of the poses was focused on opening the hips. Well chosen area as I feel we usually carry a lot of heaviness, contraction and stress in this part of the body. Our slow flow combined poses standing, sitting and laying down, so all dimensions were catered to. Given it was not my first yang & yin class, I really appreciated the different interpretation of the concept, and now, upon reflection, I feel we did a great variety of poses without feeling it. The soft transitions and the focus on awareness that Fátima preached about were so effective!

Time flies when you’re relaxing in yin poses 🙂 that’s certainly what I thought when the class came to an end, and I sensed how my whole body had recovered after a manic Monday workday.

I’ll certainly be back to HEART motion lounge for another caring yoga session (maybe next time with nidra), plus I have to investigate what “spiral dynamic muscle chain training” is all about!… And ask if I can shorten it to SDMCT 🙂

Stay tuned and aware, fellow yogis ♥