Julia Elena - Mantra chants - English subtitles - // yoga teacher & singer

Hi, I am Julia Elena. I am a yoga teacher, singer and mother of an 11 year old daughter. I started practicing yoga almost 11 years ago and stumbled into a Power Yoga Class with Qbi, which really got me going from the beginning. It was the first thing that really kindled something in me after my time as a professional dancer in a Dance Company. Yoga shows me how to handle myself better, helps me to accept my flaws and my moods, which vary from day to day. Yoga practice takes me exactly as I really am and the good thing is that I always feel a lot better after practice, no matter how I got in. I am a teacher, but on the other hand I am also a student, which I'll always be. The communication between my students in regular classes and from the teacher trainings is very important to me. I learn so much from and through them. My most exciting/moving yoga moment was when my daughter mastered the crow pose. Crow pose is an armbalance, which in sanskrit translates to "Bakasana" and is an advanced pose. But kids are more open to try new things than adults and it was really great to see, when she mastered the asana. Even with straight arms! I would not be at this point in my life, teaching yoga, giving teacher trainings, if I wouldn't have my daughter. She molded me into the person that I have become right now and that makes me very happy. I feel very connected to nature. My brothers and me have spent a lot of time outside, playing, as my mum didn't want us messing in the house. And growing older I feel more appreciation towards nature, trying to live sustainably and enviromentally sound, also transmitting this to my daughter. My love for music manifested itself in my life, as I started out dancing Ballett at the early age of six, and ever since has been a very big part in my life. I started out singing when I was an exchange student in the U.S., where I participated in the Musical Choir at Highschool. My project -- Julia Elena -- is a mantra project. In Yoga we use mantras to focus our mind. Mantras can be sounds, bijas (seed syllables), whole sentences, names of hindu gods, which you whisper speak, sing or just repeat to yourself internally. They transport a very special, own kind of energy. We recorded two albums, Mantra Chants and Mantra Chants 2, which are available for download or as a CD. I love being on stage and I am looking forward to the shows that are coming up the bigger ones at (Yoga) Festivals and the smaller ones at Workshops and especially at Yoga Classes, where the connection is much more immediate and the energy is really tangible -- I love all the mantras that we have recorded, but there is one mantra that is a little more dear to me, the Ganesha Mantra. Ganesha is the hindu god with the elephant head and his mantra is: Om Gum Ganapataye Namaha. Ganesh, the elephantgod, is in charge of all new beginnings, comebacks and he helps you to remove obstacles out of your way, which I think is very sympathetic, and this makes it my favourite mantra.