I joined Leika’s teachings 2 years ago – I came to the first class being not in the best physical shape, lacking full body-awareness and being quite down emotionally as well as spiritually. I did not have clear conscious expectations about the classes before joining them but intuitively I knew I am at the right place. Instantly after the first class I realized how lucky the small town of Hemsedal is to have such an experienced, charismatic, creative, authentic and compassionate yoga teacher/facilitator. And I was not new to yoga at that time to say so – I had been attending classes of very diverse teachers in Vilnius, Victoria, Bali, Amsterdam and other places – I knew how important a teacher and her/his personality is in yoga (otherwise you could just do yoga alone) and I had a good basis for comparison.
In those 2 years I was attending live classes, online classes, had private sessions with Leika. One; on a physical level there are definitely positive changes in my body awareness, in how I walk, how I put my feet when I walk (I have flat-feet and Leika explained me very well how to deal with that), my posture, my attention to different signals coming from my body. I highly recommend to take a private lesson or two so that Leika can feel and understand your body, give very good and personal advices for your practice.
About classes and how they run - first of all, Leika’s classes are never boring, both – physically and mentally. She always has a topic to share and keeps the focus on it during the class while we making asanas, and I love it. It facilitates a deep awareness of body, it’s processes and connections with mental, emotional and spiritual self as well as with nature and everything around. The asanas are also very dynamic – no class is the same and it is so much more than just physical activity. To me, when I am open and ready to embrace it, I feel that every such class is like a trip and I like that I can bring something back from it (like a souvenir!) and apply those findings in my everyday life.
I find that online classes have very similar effect, except that in case I have a private space and am alone, there is more freedom in my movements. Plus, I can add my own music in the background, which might be nice sometimes :)
I also attended a private healing session with Leika – she helped me to cope with my breathing disorder, which I knew was not caused by a physical illness or etc. I’ve been having the disorder for already more than 5 years (since the birth of my child) – sometimes, and usually when I am driving, I have an annoying feeling that there is not enough air or an urgent need to control my breath, breathe more deeply. Sometimes those attacks can take for hours and it was very difficult for me to escape those loops. All the doctors kept saying that this is caused by anxiety and knew that there should be a more suitable for me solution of this problem than 3 years of psychotherapy :) What Leika did during this healing session was facilitating in triggering that state of disordered breathing and gently guiding my awareness towards the roots of that “attack”, after some time in this state and guidance I finally let go my lungs and diaphragm to self-regulate the breathing and this was a very real and emotional experience to me. I still have those “attacks” but now it is much easier to cope with them thanks to Leika’s guided session because now I have this experience imprinted in my body and brain of calming myself down, every time I can use the same pattern of meditative awareness for letting go the control in my breathing and I have been exercising that since then. A heartful (and lung-ful ;) ) appreciation goes to Leika for this journey!
Vaida Karaliunaite, Space Nerd, Webdesigner, Marketing Advisor, Artist, mum and nature lover.
