Photo by Julien Sarkissian
Interview by Hali Tsotetsi
Ola’s energy is bursting with love and authenticity. She is sincere and truly cares about her students. To her classes, she applies a contemporary, flow and progressive method of training. Through her travels, which you can see on her social media, she inspires us through with experience and passion.
1. How long have you been teaching?
I started sharing the practice of yoga when I discovered the Iyengar style, 10 years ago. I was training then in a circus space and my fellows would need a therapeutic guidance to complement the intense workout. Since then, it has been a constant research, both learning and teaching.
2. What motivated you to start teaching and what have you learnt from teaching?
Yoga targets my ideals of a harmonious living, regarding humanity and nature, it embraces it all and beyond. It is a way of living and a self-imposed discipline guiding conscious choice-making.
Sharing it with the people makes me feel at the service of something greater than myself.
I then become and endless channel of this energy that nurture my own Existence and teaches me to adapt to any situation, find a resilient attitude and innovative solutions to cope life and keep on smiling.
3. What is something that you have learnt from a fellow teacher?
I learn constantly from many inspirations around me. I spend quite some time in this part of my life with Mathieu Boldron, my current boyfriend and a teacher I admire. I observe his way of doing, and love the simplicity with which he speaks of complex topics. He is a great influence to structure my flow, simplify my own thoughts and clarify my poetic expression.
4. How many times a week do you practice?
I practice everyday, even though I have no routines in my life. As a nomadic yoga teacher, it is hard to settle anywhere but my body became my temple that I can kneel within anywhere, anytime.
5. Who inspires your practice?
I am grateful to each of my teachers and, to mention Mathieu Boldron again, who founded the Yinyasa methodology, a clever sequencing for awakening the sensitivity. Also, Simon Oliver Borg who developed the Synergy yoga, to develop a physiotherapeutic approach to the aptitude of Surrender.
6. Why is it necessary for you to practice?
Having a practice in Life helps to ground and fly at the same time. Yoga is my anchor to avoid dispersion and my greatest possibility to canalise my genuine expression. It helps me to observe where I am and understand mechanisms that are beyond rational thinking: I can feel better and develop thereby my intuition.
Yoga is a pillar to sustain my vital energy and to cultivate my freedom, factors which improve my “bubble of reality”. I believe that building a consistent practice opens the door for the full potential to express.
7. What message do you like to spread through teaching?
“Everything begins with an inner Smile”.
That is my teaching intention. I like to explore the qualities of the body and play with the textures. I work through the movement, for the body to be the vessel of the soul.
The research is about this state of “energy optimisation”, where everything lies in its place, a feeling of Plentitude. And I welcome what comes on the path, because there are many paths to reach the Essence, the Breath.
8. Where are you currently teaching?
I teach in Paris for the next weeks, then take my annual pilgrimage to Asia (Goa and Bali in Feb/ March). Back to Europe in Spring time, I will notably hold amazing retreats on the magical island of Ibiza, Spain in May, July and September.
Besides that, I am involved in different festivals:
* Women Spirit Festival, Paris, France in March.
* Nowhere festival, the local burning man in Monegros, Spain in July.
* Barcelona Yoga Conference, also in Spain in July.
* Arava Yoga Festival in an oasis of the Israeli desert in November.
My calendar is often updated on www.olajasyoga.com
9. How has yoga helped your character develop?
Yoga helps me to be me, furthermore, this little dot connected to a greater constellation, with my own strengths and vulnerabilities. By taking the distance of the observer, I can easier gain clear-sightedness, assume my decisions and walk a clean path.
9. What has kept you practicing all these years?
Yoga is a never ending journey that goes with us until the end (of the physical layer at least, but who knows beyond that).
At every stage of my life, I discover complementary ways of motion that influence my perceptions and my overall being. All those experimentations give me always more substance to nurture my yoga on the mat and expand my practice field.
10. What would you tell your self when you started teaching yoga?
Nothing in particular, it was one step more on the Self discovery, among other things and it is pretty incredible to see where it brought me. So only from the walked distance, i can say “Waaaaoow, Gracias”.
11. What are the best ways to start teaching at a yoga studio?
Take classes, meet the community and be yourself.
12. Why is breath so important in your practice?
Breathing is the common denominator to any practice, it is a door between the conscious world and the subconsciousness, the link between Life and Death.
13. What is your FB name? IG name and twitter?
FB: Ola Jas Yoga www.facebook.com/olajasyoga/