Katerina - Kaostubhi is a passionate registered nurse who started practicing yoga in 2010. At that time yoga challenged her at the physical level, provided more body flexibility and strength, especially during her long running sessions. She soon discovered some other benefits from doing yoga, a positive mind and greater emotional stability in her life. She devoted more of her free time to learning and discovering yoga which resulted in less time for her regular running sessions. However, she knew that it was the right thing to do. Being an avid running enthusiast, she swapped hours and hours of being squeezed in sweaty trainers for hours of spreading fingers and toes wide on the mat, whilst being at one with her breath. This may sound bizarre to a beginner. Well, there must be something about yoga!
After 5 years of regular yoga practise, both guided and self-directed, she wanted to know more about yoga and develop her own practice to a greater level. In order to achieve this, she travelled to India to experience yoga discipline in its original environment. Katerina successfully completed her first 200 hour teacher training course under the close eye of her guru Ganga Devi from Himalayan Yoga Institute where she respectfully received her professional yoga name Kaostubhi.
Her yoga journey has continued and she further gained 200hr teacher training with Teach Yoga School in London. This training provided extensive knowledge about the anatomy and physiology concentrating on a proper body alignment and body mechanics. Thanks to this course, Kaostubhi discovered a passion to teach intelligent powerful classes with a focus on a body precision and a body awareness. She extended this course and completed BWY 500hrs yoga teacher training with Yoga Therapist and Pilates Teacher, Elena Voyce PhD. Kaostubhi’s thirst for knowledge gave her a chance to also become a Certified Instructor of the Oxygen Advantage Techniques. These include powerful breathing methods to exceed your personal best, improve your sport performance, cure asthma and other respiratory disorders. The discovery about the power of breath took her back to India where she completed another 200hr yoga teacher training in Prana Kriya Yoga with Yogi Ashokananada School. She also completed there 10days of Vipassana Kriya Meditation course.
As an experienced nurse she has found that there is a strong connection between the mind and the physical body and that one does not work without the other. 'We tend to deal with patients who have an illness to be cured or treated but often neglect the holistic approach. The well healed surgical wounds may not always be an indicator of a strong healthy body and mind'. Once Kaostubhi discovered the power of yoga and meditation, she wanted to present yoga as a spiritual and physical tool to bring the sense of real happiness into lives of others. In addition, to liberate the self of negative emotions and free of physical pain. Yoga creates space on the physical level. It loosens the joints, tones the muscles, increases the lung capacity, regulates blood pressure and improves posture and spinal alignment. Furthermore, yoga creates a space within our mind brought on by steady, regular and mindful breathing. Our two brain hemispheres are stimulated by the flow of air travelling through the nostrils thus creating mental balance. Once you become physically flexible, you grow to become more perceptive and mentally flexible, free of negative thoughts.
Kaostubhi's nursing job caused her some health issues. In her early thirties, she was suffering from lower backache and severe headaches related to physical hard work and a high level of stress. Since she started practising yoga regularly, her health problems started to ease and eventually disappeared completely. Yoga didn't help her only on a physical level, but also has provided a key tool how to live without mental pain.
Kaostubhi's aim is to share the incredible and life-changing experience of her transformation. She wants to use yoga for a spiritual and physical enhancement for both herself and her pupils. She believes that once we start listening to our bodies and find the connection between body, mind and spirit, that anything is possible.
Vinyasa flow yoga class