“I peacefully paddle my kayak on the fjord and feel the stillness touch of the water . . . and feel its natural waves . . . and the sea life so close to me, it is a worship of LIFE and my own body and being in close contact with nature. This is what yogaSOMATICS feels like to me too.”
I grew up in Nordfjordeid in Western Norway with 3 siblings and loving parents.
As an active teenage, I enjoyed jazz ballet, handball, gymnastics and loved sports in general. Lucky to live in a beautiful mountain area, staying out in nature was a part of my upbringing . . . with skiing in the winter and all kinds of sea and mountain activities year round.
Then, I found my first Yoga book! As a curious teenage, I tried out the asanas and felt joy and inspiration.
Adolescence gave way to adulthood . . . and my attention moved to studying for my future and eventually dedication to my career as a school teacher. I also became a mother and the joys and trials of raising a family of my own in magical Aurland deep in Sognfjord, Norways longest fjord. I have been a school teacher for much of my life here in this small special little village.
And then yoga came back into view
Years went by . . . my three children grew up and one day, a local young girl asked me:
Do you want to study yoga together with me?
Why not, I thought?
At that moment, I had inherited a little money from my parents and I felt the time had come for me to start a new way for myself to grow into yoga again.
My first step back into yoga was enrolling into a multi-style Yoga Teacher Training program at Axelson´s in Oslo. This gave the on-going opportunity to deepen my knowledge and find the approaches to yoga that resonate with me.
and then I discovered yogaSOMATICS . . .
It was in this 200 hour yoga teacher training that I met Ateeka. She came for a one day seminar to our training to share a little bit of yogaSOMATICS with us. From that seminar, I knew that yogaSOMATICS was something that I wished to deepen into.
I have completed the 200 hour multi-style yoga teacher training and then decided to further my studies with Ateeka in both her 35 hour yogaSOMATICS RESTORATIVE and 250 hour yogaSOMATICS Teacher Training.
It has been exciting to get to know myself better from the outside to the inside, the felt-sense and the experiences of floating into something new and un-formed. It has been a personal journey for me.
It is freedom, not to stay in a certain form, but in my own form or no form at all! Together with a mindfulness practice, this has become my way into more flow inwards.
In my daily life, I do mindfulness meditation and often a yogaSOMATICS flow in the morning before work. It starts my day in a soft way, bringing me into more calmness and balance. I run a little company called www.fjordyoga.com where I teach yoga classes to the local people in my small village.
yogaSOMATICS “crawls” more and more into my classes and is so appreciated by many of my followers now in this little village where I live. The more I feel the effects in my body, the more it feels as a gift to pass on to others. It is kind of magical to share yogaSOMATICS within my “Anne Marie Yoga” I share yoga with others . . . from where I am, moving in my way . . . into myself.
I can describe it as an inner-felt experience in waves, in expansion and involution.
To stay with one self.
One of my favorite past-times is kayaking on the beautiful deep waters of the fjord that lies at my doorstep. I peacefully paddle my kayak on the fjord and feel the stillness touch of the water . . . and feel its natural waves . . . and the sea life so close to me, it is a worship of LIFE and my own body and being in close contact with nature. This is what yogaSOMATICS feels like to me too.
any inspirations to share?
In addition to yoga, I love reading books: yoga books, books about Mindfulness, the breath and healing and body. I am so interested and excited about this beautiful body and how it is to be a human to be nature. and to be a woman. "Kvinner som løper med ulver", (Women Who Run with the Wolves) is my favorite reading these days.
Thich Naht Hahn & Echart Tolle are both great inspirations for me in their videos and books. Viggo Johansen was the first teacher bringing Mindfulness based on Buddhism into my life. More and more, this way of “being” is beginning to be more natural and I recognise that within me.
you can read more about Anne Marie’s wonderful offerings in yoga & nature at her website:
www.fjordyoga.com
and on instagram
@fjordyoga