There are different sources of stress that effect the bodymind, one of them being social injustice. Studies show that socially more vulnerable groups like People of Color or LGBTIQ+ people are therefore at a higher risk of developing stress-related illnesses like heart diseases, sleeping disorders, chronic pain and so on.

Energetically, stress cuts our connection to the ground, gives us tunnel vision and a floating feeling by challenging our healthy boundaries.

This yoga session will focus on re-establishing a nurturing connection to the ground/Earth and on sensing our inner spaciousness. Through playful awareness of gravity and bodily orientation in space-time we aim to find the ground that carries us with stability and lightness and confirms our right to exist and to take up space in the world under our/your conditions. Humming exercises not only aim at soothing the Vagus nerve but also at connecting us to a network of vibrations so that the individual opens up to the possibility of embodied social justice.

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Born in 1980 on a small Austrian farm, Silk is a queer/non-binary yoga teacher and student of somatic methods and Hara Shiatsu. They had an early intuitive interest in meditation and exploration of the nature of consciousness. The first hatha yoga classes they attended highlighted on a personal level the need for including the very materiality of the physical body to find deeper connection within. On a more social level they revealed a lack of awareness in the austrian yoga world on topics like gender diversity, whiteness and different body privileges for a deeper connection beyond the mat. 

Over the years - following Scaravelli inspired yoga teacher Veronica Wunderlich and completing a 4-year yoga teacher training in 2015 led by Dagmar Shorny and Ria Hodges in the tradition of T.K.V. Desikachar/R. Sriram - Silk benefitted tremendously from the nervous system regulating and trauma healing effects of asana, pranayama and meditation but equally from those shared, regular spaces of awareness and care-full self-explorations they found in some yogic communities and differently, in queer activism. 

Training with body therapist Iris Koppelent, Sensit Somatics founder Maja Zilih, various Feldenkrais and BMC sessions and others keeps them grounded and curious in a complex and often overwhelming world. 

Silk teaches at Prana Yoga Studios Vienna, holds a masters degree in Social-Cultural Anthropology and International Development and enjoys making yoga and body work more accessible to queer people and all human beings with a heart and soul.

 

Silk Graf

graf.kater@gmail.com