Vinyasa Yoga Justine Time offers short-term or long-term yoga and meditation immersions, can you tell us about your philosophic approach towards yoga?
I founded Vinyasa Yoga Justine Time in 2016. Vinyasa Yoga Justine Time offers short-term or long-term yoga and meditation immersions. I approach Yoga as a Philosophy, an Art and a Science. My intention is to go far beyond the benefits offered by asanas, the postures. Yoga on the mat, yoga outside the mat.
The immersions I guide are meant to be extremely complete and address the human being as a spiritual being living a human experience, as Teilhard de Chardin coined the expression. These immersions are guided in Spanish, English or French. They offer serious work in yoga and meditation. They are not holidays with a bit of yoga but the exact opposite: a clear focus on yoga while we’re enjoying some special free time.
These immersions are also initiations to silent meditation, as well as yoga practices adapted to all levels and other activities, depending on the sites where immersions are organised. All the food is vegetarian and we only work with associates who share the ethics of yoga, meaning a conscious behaviour towards all kinds of beings. It means, for instance, that we only work with partners that are environmentally conscious. We mean to understand and ensure the transmission of the depth of yoga as a way of life.
My goal about yoga and meditation during the immersions imply that participants get a set of tools available to be used in their daily life after the immersion is over. I wish to train independent yoga practitioners who are later able to practice on their own. My intention is doing so in a very kind and loving atmosphere so that our participants feel they're being pampered and nurtured through the process. I also teach yoga to my young students at the primary school where I have been teaching over the last ten years.
Give us 3 ways in which you are aiming to ensure the transition of the depth of yoga as a way of life?
- First of all, I do not separate yoga from meditation. Yoga is, according to me, active meditation and what the western world calls “meditation” is “still meditation” or “meditation without movement”. I encourage all my students to meditate all the time. During weekly classes or special retreats, meditation sits on the front row. I try and help them realise they will walk this earth in a lighter manner if they integrate the habit of meditation on a daily basis, as it happened to me. Despite the difficulties of life, the sadness, the anger, the violence, we always have space which is open for meditation.
- Also, I offer daily classes which always integrate readings and thoughts, so that the students understand yoga is an art, a science and a philosophy. My classes encompass meditation – as I said- as well as the use of mantras, some readings, always a special theme, a specific musical selection, as well as several types of yoga, such as Vinyasa Yoga, restorative yoga or yin yoga. I intend to create a special sensorial and sensitive experience for my students, in order to inspire them! Given this, my goal as a teacher is to empower my students so that they can practice on their own. If they feel free to practice on their own, at home or wherever it means they have integrated the depths of yoga as a way of life.
- Finally, I work with specialists from other disciplines in order to make it clear that Yoga is open to everyone. I have worked, for instance, with a dancer and choreographer from Mozambique. His name is Manyanga Como and we offer together with a Yoga and African Dance concept which allows the students to connect with their body, their soul and their heart, through the practice of dance and yoga. I have also worked with musician Elie O with whom the creation of yoga sequences is especially wonderful for the student as well as the performer or myself. I believe creativity is a way to ensure the transition of the depth of yoga as a way of life.
