At Yoga By Pooneh we offer a variety of classes, from Vinyasa, Hatha, Kundalini, Ashtanga, Power Yogo to Restorative & Children’s Yoga. In addition to guided meditation classes. Our practice is deeply rooted in established in the B.K.S. Iyengar and Ashtanga yoga traditions. We offer classes to benefit all individuals, from beginners to the advanced students of all ages. You can find the description of our classes on ybpstudio.com to find the class that will best suit your needs. See you on the mat!
HOW MY YOGA JOURNEY BEGAN
I began my yoga journey a little over ten years ago. I recall the first time I walked into a yoga class at a local popular gym in the upper east side in New York city; I didn’t know what to expect or anything about yoga for that matter. I did my best to follow the instructor’s directions, it was going alright until we got to Savasana and then all hell broke loose. Suddenly, tears began rolling down my cheeks uncontrollably, and I found myself feeling so vulnerable amongst a group of strangers. I simply wasn’t ready to quiet my mind and deal with all the emotions I had suppressed for so many years. Feelings such as anxiety and sadness from the war, loneliness from having left my family at age of fifteen, feeling of fear that if I let go my entire world will collapse before me left me feeling overwhelmed. Well, that experience freaked me out so much so that I did not try yoga again until years later.
A year after having moved to Singapore for work, I found myself in love with the weather and the culture of the people. So, one morning I decided to try yoga again and attended a yoga class near my neighborhood. This small outdoor yoga studio was in a quiet neighborhood, where you could only hear the chirping of the birds or the occasional trickle of rain. Each class had only a few students which allowed for plenty of one of one attention from the teacher which helped my practice significantly. He taught us about the meaning and philosophy of yoga. We spent each class meditating as much as we worked on our asana’s. It was there where I started to learn how to quiet my mind and let go for the first time in my adult life and so I began my journey. That marked the beginning of my journey into self-discovery and healing through Yoga.
Several months later I found myself living in Bali where I launched my new venture into designing my beachwear collection “Jogo beach”. I worked long hours buzzing around on my scooter with my friend Ratna. We would look for fabrics and accessories, then somehow carry all of them on our little scooters back to the factory. We worked in hot weather under grueling conditions but somehow working alongside the kind and wonderful people of Bali creating my own designs and producing my own clothing line made everything pass by in a blink of an eye. There I learned to give offerings to the Buddha every morning alongside people of all ages, the beautiful flowers, and the smell of incents filling the air were simply mesmerizing.
Then one day, on one of my trips to Canggu a friend took me to a yoga studio hidden behind miles of rice fields, a place that I would simply describe as “heaven on earth”. We walked through a luscious garden while being greeted by sweet smiling faces to reach the crystal clear salt water pool where we took a swim. The sensation of the cool, refreshing water on our overheated bodies felt like pure bliss. And before we knew it, it was time to begin our Vinyasa Yoga class. The outdoor yoga studio was surrounded by trees and wild flowers. I remember looking around at my surrounding before the start of the class and thinking “it doesn’t get any better than this”. From then every class I attended lead me deeper into my own thoughts and my inner truth. I began having new revelations of thoughts and feelings I had never experienced before. The feelings of peace and tranquility were entirely new and unfamiliar to me. From there on I was hooked on yoga forever. Since then, I have attended many yoga workshops and meditation classes around the world in places such as India, UK, Germany, Brazil & Nicaragua. And finally, this year I completed my RYT 200 Hour Yoga Teacher Training and begun teaching. Having gone through a revolution and war as a young girl, and having lived in many different countries, I want to bring my collective experiences and global perspective to my teaching and help transform student’s hearts, bodies and minds through yoga.
Pooneh Mohazzabi
May, 2017