Can feelings as anxiety be a substitute for something we are too scared to encounter? For yoga teacher Frida Starvid anxiety had been a loyal companion for a long time. After hearing about a theory called Affect phobia she started digging deep into herself. What other feelings can hide there under our anxiety?

How can yoga and the yoga community can help us to heal in a world that from time to time undenaibly will be changelling? Through yoga and the yoga community we can, with practice and time, learn to master the waves of life, while simultaneously enjoying the moments when we reach calm waters.

We are not in control. We are governed by reaction and fluctuation. By our own patterns, habits and programming. Can you really say that you are light, free and can you communicate with yourself and others in a way that leave you inspired and motivated? Happy even? If yes, you have got it. If no, then you don't ride the waves of prana. But you could! Here, in this months concluding fourth part on the theme of breathing I'll tell you more.

Breath carries everything. Breath is a life force; we begin our life with a breath and we end it with a breath. The breath, body, and mind all work together. If one of these is agitated, the others will follow. If one is calmed, the others will follow. From the breath we receive oxygen, which nourishes the blood, organs, and cells, and Prana — life force — travels on oxygen. Join this second part in our month of breathing!

Gwyn Williams from Team Yogobe is the founder of the ZenThai Shiatsu practice and facilitator at BaliSpirit Festival since its second edition. In this interview with Elisabetta Crovara he talks about balance, letting go, and the festival.

No matter how rich we are — in money, power, houses, cars, or sex — it means nothing if we do not appreciate and respect life’s pleasures. At the same time, if we live in harmony with spirit and experience the feeling of joy and satisfaction, we will be happy just to be alive. This month we will discover our breath and our power to educate the brain into balance. This is the first blog post of  four. Now, let's begin our journey into the art of breath. 

Meditation is a word that often triggers expectations of how we are supposed to practice it. When I introduce mindfulness meditation to people who are new to the practice, they often respond with a degree of resistance and hesitance.  In situations like this, it can help to approach meditation from a different standpoint, which views it as a life-long practice.

Yohanna Mannelqvist writes about how yoga came into her life eight years ago. Her life in London was glamorous but hectic and she was constantly working, training, traveling, and socialising. Although she was living her “dream” in all areas of life she started feeling empty inside. 

Yogic philosophy claims that we have all we need inside. All the resources are there for us to lead a great life. We have capacity and potential. It is just our stressed and imbalanced minds that tell us we don't have enough and can’t do enough. What we need is balance. But how do we find it? 

A yoga practice is meant to fuse together opposites in order to attain balance, or equanimity. In life as well as in yoga, we want to add what is not there, to find better balance. So if we are stressed, rushed, and on-the-go, we need to add more relaxation, pausing and doing less, in order to get ourselves back into a better flow of life. The most intelligent choice in hectic times is to destress and to restore.

We have taken away many natural pauses in our daily living here in the West. Our fast way of life  comes with the cost of higher and higher tension- and stress levels. We also see many new diseases that are stress related.  I think one part of the answer is to add more pauses and slowing down our pace. For me it is a question of integrity. Of intention. Of asking oneself with what kind of energy I wish to wake up within two years from now. 

Since the start of civilization we have emphasized the active life (yang) in some cultures and the contemplative life (yin) in others. Now we have the opportunity to explore both and find the appropriate balance between the two. But how do we find time to figure out what we need when everything around us is spinning so fast?  What does mindful living mean in a modern world? 

Are you running to fast and tend a bit lost? You are not alone! This is why I would like to invite you to a month filled with yin and restorative. To find inner peace in Christmas time, and a harmonious ending to this year. We'll start these four weeks tomorrow, but get a sneak peak here! 

Yoga teacher Frida Starvid (fd Boström) asks her self if there really are some yoga forms that are better than others or more true? And does it really matter as long as you find the yoga form that suits you and your needs?

What if you should just leave your job and go to the other side of the world to live your dream? That is what Maria Paulsson Rönnbäck did. Here she shares her story about her yoga- and surf adventure in Sri Lanka.