In Memoriam: Alix Angelelli

Message from Sahajananda: Honoring Alix—Prayers and Unity in the Heart Beloved sangha, On September 23, 2024, a gentle soul, our dearest Alix Angelelli, took flight from this world, leaving behind the grace of her precious, unforgettable fragrance of love, beauty, and purity. Those who had the chance to meet her, know that there are no […]

Stephan Lakshman Oesterreicher

Stephan was born and raised in southern Germany and began his spiritual journey early in life, learning meditation during his teenage years. Upon finishing school, he booked a one-way flight to India, where he committed himself fully to the study of mystical traditions such as yoga and meditation. In 2007, he met Sahajananda in Thailand—an […]

Adam Caplan

Adam Caplan began practicing yoga in high school as a means of improving flexibility to enhance athletic performance. What started out as an experiment with a supplemental stretching routine eventually evolved into a conscious quest for Truth. Motivated by the feeling that “there is something more out there,” Adam studied and practiced many different styles […]

Adam Thomas

Adam started practicing yoga in 2014. He found stability in the practice after completing a 10-Day Hridaya Silent Meditation Retreat in 2016. During this retreat, he connected to a deeper aspect of his being which inspired him to gradually turn his life more towards yoga and meditation, integrating life into spirituality. Adam served as a […]

Hridaya Hatha Yoga for Men in England,

Adina Riposan-Taylor (Saraswati Devi)

Adina is a Saraswati Devi, an introverted Leo who has dedicated her life to Self-realization, helping and guiding others and bringing the Truth into the world. Adina has studied meditation since 1992, and yoga since 1998 – after years of spontaneous yoga practice and introspection through her entire childhood, the feeling of “being guided” from […]

Allie Reece

Allie Reece first started practicing yoga as a way to clean up her mind and heal her heart. From the beginning, she intuitively knew that yoga would help but she never imagined that she had stumbled upon a sacred jewel that would change her life forever. With practice, Allie improved her focus and concentration, and […]

Andreas Daum

Andreas Daum is a meditation and hatha yoga teacher at Hridaya Yoga and currently serves as the Program Manager of the school. In 2014, he started to teach the Module 1 Intensive at the Hridaya Yoga Center in Mexico. He then led 10-Day Hridaya Silent Meditation Retreats during the summer season. Since then, he has […]

Anneke Louise

Passionate about people, international connectivity, and what drives us to evolve, feel empowered, and inspire others, Anneke started her career supporting entrepreneurs to create sustainable solutions to health, clean energy, and food security issues. This work took her to Asia (where she fell in love with yoga), the Middle East, and, eventually, East Africa. Working […]

Arjuna

Arjuna grew up behind the Berlin Wall and followed an academic career until taking his first Vipassana course in 1998, which made him realize what there really is to explore – the essence of who we ultimately are beyond all appearances. Getting into Yoga soon after and studying different styles while traveling the world for twelve […]

Ava Irani

Ava Irani first came across spirituality through a Buddhist teacher by chance (as it usually happens) in Sydney, Australia when she was 22. Although she was always thirsty for something greater, more profound, her entire life, she wasn’t ripe for any spiritual path until she came across Master Behram Ghista. Through his simple ‘self-help’ discourse […]

Beata Kucienska

While looking for meaning, I studied clouds, lightning, children’s stories and secrets in the eyes of cats. I came to Mexico City for one year to work as a volunteer and stayed ten years because of love. Mexico turned out to be a universe impossible to understand and my heart expanded by learning to love […]

Writing from the Heart Online Sessions,

Burkhard Langemann

Burkhard Langemann has a passion for the integration of spirituality and science. A unified understanding of Eastern and Western Philosophies is the focus of his personal practice and academic research. He holds a Master’s Degree in Psychology and Alternative Education from the Free University of Berlin, where his thorough exploration of Ken Wilber’s Integral Theory […]

Chris Van Der Weide

Chris works as a movement and dance facilitator around the globe. She facilitates women’s groups as well as tantra and dance workshops. She also works as a freelance performance artist. Through the years, she has had the privilege to study with some of the finest spiritual/movement pioneers in the world, and consequently incorporates aspects of […]

Carmen Prema Mitroi

Carmen has taught yoga for over 30 years and is registered as E-RYT 500 by Yoga Alliance. Her teachers include Sahajananda, Simona Trandafir, Master Mantak Chia (Universal Healing Tao), Ma Laoshi (China), and Master Chris Luth (US Tai Chi National Champion). Carmen’s avid curiosity and quest for excellence led her to earn a Master of […]

Craig White

Craig is originally from Northern England and has been practicing yoga and meditation since 2007. During his first 10-Day Silent Meditation Retreat with Sahajananda in 2010, Craig experienced a deep peak experience that changed his life. During the practice of meditation he felt like his chest was being ripped open and an endless stream of […]

Cristina Espinosa

Cristina Espinosa has been practicing hatha yoga since the age of 15 but her interests include  mountaineering, African dance and photography. She grew up in Mexico City and the need to connect to the natural forces of life guided her to study Biology. Working with NGO’s and trying to save the jaguar and other endangered […]

Deidré Baatjes

My name is Deidré, and I am a fellow aspirant on the spiritual path. I was born and raised in Cape Town and lived abroad for 16 years, most recently serving and studying in heart-centered spiritual communities in Latin America between 2012 and 2019. My purpose is to anchor Light and help others discover theirs […]

Déborah Blin

Déborah discovered yoga in 2014 while living in San Francisco and working at a little theatre company. She started her practice exploring different schools from Vinyasa to Iyengar, and then Integral Yoga, slowly opening the way to a more spiritual and profound approach of Yoga and kindling in her a curiosity to learn meditation. Her […]

Om Mama Yoga: A Complete Online Prenatal Yoga Course,

Diane O’Donovan

Diane is Irish and was raised as Roman Catholic. Her mother had cancer and left her body when Diane was only 18. This heartbreak has led Diane to question God, life, and death since 1998. She has continued to heal and search for the meaning of life while supporting others of all ages do the […]

Dominik R. Graef

Dominik, a Taurus, was born and raised in the beautiful countryside of Southeast Austria. After watching a documentary about Shaolin monks in elementary school, he became fascinated by the power of spiritual practice. At an early age, Dominik began to explore and practice energy work. Through his practice and by studying plant medicines, reading inspirational […]

Dominique Didinal

Dominique is a Hridaya Yoga and Mystical Dance teacher as well as the founder of WanderWomenClub, a virtual sangha (online tribe) for female spiritual seekers who love to travel. Dominique is incredibly grateful and indebted to Sahajananda, Antoaneta, and all of the teachers that have passed down the wisdom and beauty of the Spiritual Heart to […]

Emma Carruthers

Emma trained as a Hridaya teacher in 2012 and now owns and runs The Hermitage Retreat Center with her partner Severin and baby Benzra on Lake Atitlan, Guatemala. She is a deep admirer of Ramana Maharshi and a passionate practitioner of Self Enquiry. Emma coordinates the individual retreats, dark retreats and group retreats at The […]

Esther Greter

Esther Greter grew up in a little village in the heart of Switzerland where she spent most of her time in the fields and forests of the area either on the back of a horse or adventuring with her dog.  She remembers that even at a very young age she was struck again and again […]

Georgian Cernat

Before finding yoga, Georgian earned a bachelor’s degree in Psychology, became a massage therapist, and trained in martial arts, kickboxing, swimming, basketball, and chess. Inspired to begin studying yoga by his uncle, he practiced for seven years at MISA (Movement for Spiritual Integration into the Absolute) in Romania. He spent a further four-and-a-half years residing […]

Hannah Naomi Ruebig

Originally from Germany, Hannah is a trained professional dancer, yoga and meditation teacher, and cacao ceremony leader, and offers healing sessions and ceremonies combining all of these skills. After working in politics in Berlin for many years with a longing to bring more solidarity and harmony into the world, Hannah left for Mexico after burning […]

Grace Bryant

Grace Bryant (they/them) offers Hridaya and Hridaya-inspired courses, silent retreats, and coaching based in the beautiful Pacific Northwest, USA. They first met Sahajananda in 2011 in Thailand and immediately knew they was a future teacher. In 2016, Grace participated in the immersive, life-changing HTTC in Mazunte and returned for the 49-day retreat in 2018. Grace […]

4-Day Hridaya Silent Meditation Retreat in the USA,

Ilaria Antonietti

Since childhood, Ilaria has felt a calling in her heart and a connection with the Divine Mother. While she was attending courses at ‘Association ASIA’ in Bologna in 2004, she came across yoga and meditation and this strong experience altered her life path. After graduating in Dams Theatre, Ilaria obtained a Master’s degree in philosophical […]

Ian Wilkes

Ian is a Hridaya teacher, yoga therapist, breathwork and trauma release facilitator, couple’s intimacy coach, men’s work facilitator, and transformational life coach from Vermont, USA. After attending business school and living in New York City as a hotel manager for seven years, Ian experienced a deep longing for truth, healing, and depth and left normal […]

Ian Marshall

Ian is British and completed the HTTC in 2014. He has taught Hridaya Hatha Yoga and Meditation in London on a regular basis at the Jamyang Buddhist Centre. In collaboration with other Hridaya teachers, he has run workshops aimed at connecting people to the Spiritual Heart. He has also collaborated with teachers from other lineages, […]

Hridaya Hatha Yoga Classes in Frome, UK,

Ingrid Goudsmit

Ingrid Goudsmit held a strong interest in Buddhism and Shamanism as a young girl but it was not until 2002 that she started practicing Zen with Jeroen Witkam, a Zen master and Benedictine monk in Zundert, Holland. In 2004, after pursuing a degree and career in Communications, she decided to travel the world where she […]

Jasmin Clark

Jasmin’s spiritual path started at a very young age when she was sent to attend a Rudolf Steiner Waldorf school, where she cultivated an appreciation for the beauty of life, an innocent wonderment of this dream, creativity and an understanding of the beauty of our individual expressions of the Divine. These lessons of her childhood have guided her whole life. She has spent […]

Juliane Bauer

 “Accepting with Love ‘what is, as it is.'” Juliane grew up between the Austrian mountains and the beautiful German countryside of Munich. Since childhood she felt a natural deep connection with the divine consciousness. She studied Art, Fashion- and Graphic design and works as a designer, many years in Florence and now all around the world. 2007 she […]

Juliette Salas

Juliette’s first teacher (from age 2) was her father, Alexander, who led bedside prayers in the dark evoking Jesus, the Divine Mother and the Consciousness of Oneness.  From a young age she has been sensitive to boundaries and barriers that have been placed across religions, cultures and humanity itself.   She is rebellious by nature […]

Karin Nyberg

Karin practiced Vipassana meditation for many years before she began studying Hatha Yoga and Tantra Yoga in Sweden in 2011. When she found Hridaya in 2014 it felt like a beautiful combination of her previous practices—she definitely had a feeling of coming back home to the Heart, falling in love! She has stayed and taught […]

Keith McGuinnes

Keith, a Leo, resides in Boulder, Colorado, in the United States. He grew up in upstate New York, graduating from Syracuse University with a Computer Science degree and subsequently beginning a career as an engineer for IBM. Before discovering the spiritual path, he always had a strong drive to “figure things out,” which early in […]

Kilian Hübinger

Kilian Hübinger is a passionate and heartful teacher of yoga and meditation with over 10 years of practical experience. His classes and lectures are infused with his deep care for every student. He continually aspires to transmit authentic teachings maintaining the purity of the spirit of yoga, constantly pointing back to its original purpose as […]

Voice of the Heart: Chanting and Yoga Retreat in Spain (and Spanish),

Kirsten Reiss

Kirsten studied Architecture and Art History in Berlin. She later founded a development aid organization and traveled extensively in Asia and Latin America. In 2001, she discovered yoga and began a dedicated practice in a Sivananda Yoga Ashram in India. This experience was followed by a comprehensive three-year education in hatha and kundalini yoga with Swami Vivekananda Saraswati which […]

Krista Novakowski

Krista began her studies of Yoga and Meditation in her homeland of Canada. She has always been fascinated with the potential of awakening to our Essential Nature. She began her studies with Agama in 2006 and lived in the yogic community in Thailand until 2011 studying Hatha and Kundalini Yoga and Kashmir Shaivism. In the time she was […]

Kyle Brooks

Kyle’s spiritual seeking and aspiration to find a deeper Truth began when he was just a 15-year-old boy studying Buddhism in England. After traveling to Peru in 2013 to work with plant medicines, he met Sahajananda. Kyle connected very deeply with the teachings during his first Hridaya Silent Meditation Retreat. He decided to come to […]

3-, 6-, and 10-Day Hridaya Silent Meditation Retreats in Chiapas, Mexico,

Latifa (Alejandra Fonseca)

Latifa has aspiration for spiritual growth has inspired her to deepen in the yogic and tantric teachings. The need of Self-understanding and healing brought her to have her first approach to spirituality and non-dual teachings from a group of essenian mexican healers from Cuernavaca. With the essenians Latifa discovered her passion for natural healing, the mysteries of the […]

Lindsay Samuels

After practicing yoga and meditation for several years, when Lindsay encountered the Hridaya practice of focusing on the Heart she discovered a deeper purpose in life. In 2013, Lindsay attended a hatha yoga teacher training course in Baja California, Mexico and later taught yoga and personal retreats in Costa Rica. She completed the Hridaya Teacher […]

Maeioum Martínez

Hello! My name is Maeioum Martínez, I was born this lifetime in Mexico, I speak Spanish and English. I was blessed to have a mother who was into metaphysics so the spiritual dimension of life was part of my vision since I was a child, and it became apparent for me that nature has many […]

Malgorzata Szostakiewicz

Teacher, Meditator, Explorer, Woman. Her Home is where her Heart is. In 2013, Gosia (short for Malgorzata) took a major turn to free herself from preconceived ideas of what life should look like. She took a career break from a successful corporate life to find her true passion and a new recipe for life. The […]

Marco Trabucco

Marco is an Aquarius born in 1978. He began the practice of yoga over two decades ago with the teachings of Paramahansa Yogananda and Kriya Yoga, deepening his studies of Indian philosophy in many years spent in India. He a long-time student of Hatha Yoga, Tantra Yoga, Kundalini Yoga, Advaita Vedanta, and Kashmir Shaivism. He […]

Maribel González Tato

Maribel spent several years working for the most important Law firms in Spain as an International Tax Advisor after receiving a Master degree in business Law. Though she enjoyed this experience she felt something was missing and after a few months of yoga and meditation a deep calling prompted a huge life change and transformation. […]

Molly Nixon

Molly Nixon is a 2015 graduate of the Hridaya Teacher Training Course. She and her partner Kyle are dedicated to serving the Heart by supporting refugees in crisis. She has shared a post on our blog exploring the dance between global awareness and inner peace. Molly has spent the past 18 months volunteering with refugees […]

Naomi Carla White

When Naomi first discovered Hridaya Yoga through a 10-Day Hridaya Silent Meditation Retreat in 2011, she had the profound feeling that she had finally come home. At that time, she was about to embark on further university study back in New Zealand, but maintained a quiet confidence that her path would lead her back to […]

Niamh Kavanagh

The romantic surroundings of Celtic nature during Niamh’s childhood evoked reflections on the wonders of our existence. Though this echoed throughout her life, it wasn’t until 2000 Niamh became fully conscious of her spiritual path, at which point she embarked on a transformative journey. Involved in an artistic background at the time this significant transition […]

Nicholas Currie

Born in Canada in an intentional community called L’Arche, Nicholas has always felt a deep calling towards community living and a life dedicated to service. In 2007, while traveling in India, he first stumbled upon the deep tradition of Yoga at a school called Agama and then began an intense sadhana (spiritual practice) which began […]

Nirav

Nirav met Sahajananda in 2007 during a Hridaya Silent Meditation Retreat in Thailand. Hridaya was a practice that Nirav found to be very intimately close to his heart and soul. The practice awakened him to a deeper knowing in his soul and introduced him to something that he had never before experienced in such a […]

Om, Ricardo Cristovao

Om (Ricardo Cristovao) was born in Portugal, star sign Aquarius, in 1979. Youngest son of 10 children, he always had many influences and visions of what life is and what it should be, but was never satisfied by these small definitions of Life. Since a very young age, he felt that he was a Jedi, a user […]

Paige Munro

Australian born and raised in the Outback, Paige has always felt deeply connected to the earth. She has a background in psychology and counseling, and is a perseverant seeker of Truth. She first fell in love with Hridaya during a 10-Day Hridaya Silent Meditation Retreat with Sahajananda in 2012. Since then, she has returned again […]

Ori Dahan

Originally from Israel, Ori is a spiritual mentor and transformation facilitator. He is here to illuminate, empower, remind, and celebrate all that is Real. And, to decondition, point at, face, uncover, and drop all that isn't. Ori supports and activates deep transformation in the lives of others, and has been doing so for years. For […]

Radha Iveta

Radha is a Hridaya Yoga teacher and meditation practitioner who has spent many years living in our community in Mazunte, Mexico learning directly from Sahajananda. Inspired by the depth of the teachings, Radha has held space for hatha yoga classes, 3- to 10-Day Hridaya Silent Meditation Retreats, and meditation workshops around the globe. Currently living […]

Hridaya Hatha Yoga Classes in New Zealand, 9-Day Heart Awakening Silent Meditation Retreat in New Zealand,

Paulina Gostomski

Paulina’s curiosity towards yoga started as a physical exercise around 2003. However, everything shifted when she did her first 10-day silent retreat in 2011. Since then yoga, in all its facets, is at the very core of her life and all else revolves around it. She has participated in and taught silent meditation retreats, yoga […]

Hridaya Retreat in Spain,

Patrick Föllmer

Patrick's spiritual development began in early childhood in a Christian family in the former East Germany. In 2014, out of curiosity, he participated in his first 10-day silent retreat at the Kamala Center in Brasov. Sahaja's teachings and practice led to an immediate experience of the unconditional love of the Spiritual Heart and awakened his […]

Rosanna Osterlund

Rosanna Osterlund has been a seeker since childhood, but it wasn’t until she started traveling in 2011 that she began to find answers. A natural caretaker and giver of love, in 2013 her journey finally turned inward when serendipity led her to try meditation for the first time and a little fire was kindled in […]

Sean Goldberg

Sean first came to yoga in 2006, though he has spent much of his life in Self Enquiry. His search started at a young age due to an intense yearning to understand what happens when we die. Over time this search led him to Hridaya and Agama yoga, first in Thailand then India and Mexico. These […]

Sabina Macintyre

Sabina has been exploring different styles of meditation since first coming across buddhist teachings in 2004. Deeply inspired after completing a ten day Hridaya Yoga meditation retreat in 2017, she halted her legal career and dedicated herself full-time to the practice of hatha yoga, meditation and karma yoga for the following two years. Sabina completed […]

Hridaya Hatha Yoga Classes in England,

Severin Geser

Severin is a passionate meditator, astrologer and practitioner of Advaita Vedanta, and continues to study these subjects from his home in Guatemala. In 2013 he completed the Hridaya teachers training and in 2014 he built a beautiful retreat center, The Hermitage Retreat Center, on Lake Atitlan, which offers individual retreats, dark retreats, and long group […]

Sophie Weiser

Sophie Weiser is a 2015 Hridaya Teacher Training Course graduate from Berlin, Germany. Her struggle with the disconnection and perceived emptiness of the art world brought her to Hridaya. It was in Mazunte that she rediscovered the feeling of coming home and realized how much this connection was needed back in Berlin. Upon her return […]

Tamara Coughlan

Tamara’s thirst for depth, questioning, and inquiry has taken her around the world many times, through retreats, communities, and deep inner work and she continuously finds herself back teaching and facilitating from her Heart. From Love. She completed the Hridaya Teacher Training Course in 2013 to deepen her own practice and to open her heart […]

Weekly Drop-In Hridaya Hatha Yoga Classes in Australia,

Tara (Giselle) Trimmer

It was death that finally brought Tara Trimmer into the path of service. One day, she found herself at a point in her life where she was continuously daydreaming about all the things she would do once she finished what she thought she was expected to do by society and, ultimately, by the mind-construct she […]

Tiffany Nicholson-Smith

Tiffany Nicholson-Smith, a radiant yogini, lover of life and devotee to service, brings her clarity, abundant energy and aspiration for truth into everything she commits herself to. Her interests span the globe and all aspects of life, encompassing any teachings and knowledge that will contribute to the growth of her heart and always with a consideration […]

Naveen Radha Dasi

Naveen Radha Dasi has been practicing Hatha Yoga and meditation for ten years. Since completing her 500-hour TTC in 2017 at Hridaya Yoga (Mexico), she has served as a teacher and community leader, guiding. She has participated in numerous silent meditation retreats, including long periods in solitude. A trained classical musician and enthusiastic bhakta, she […]

A Taste of Stillness: 3-Day Yoga Retreat in Rishikesh,

Uma Esmeralda Ritstier

Since stepping on the path of Hridaya in 2013, the Heart has been Uma Esmeralda’s guide. It taught her to trust and open more and more to what is here right now. It has been a journey of going deeper in the quest of “Who am I?” and seeing how the magic of life unfolds […]

Turiya Ma

Turiya is a devoted explorer of Truth. Following the calling of the Self, Turiya continues to reveal ever more subtle layers of the being. There was a deep churning of recollection when Turiya crossed paths with Hridaya Yoga Mexico in 2015, where she lived, served, and practiced over an intense period of two years. Since […]

Hridaya Meditation Sessions in England, 6-Week Niyamas Intensive in England, Extended Hridaya Yoga and Meditation Sadhana in the UK,

Veronica Godeanu

Veronica Godeanu, born under the sign of Leo, graduated in Forestry from the University of Brasov, Romania. She has been practicing yoga since 1991 and teaching yoga since 2004. Veronica worked as a translator and editor for several journals, including Mystery Magazine, Yoga Magazine (1998-1999), and Elixirum – The Magazine of Naturism and Spirituality (2001-2004). […]

Weston Wood

From childhood, Weston felt a yearning to explore and challenge the world he lived in. At age 18, driven by a dissatisfaction for materialistic society, he began exploring the earth, observing culture and lifestyle on six of the seven continents. Upon discovering meditation in 2009, the realization finally appeared that the greatest exploration to be […]

Vira Maria

“The wound is the place where the Light enters you.” –Rumi Vira is dedicated to the great healing and expansion of the sacred human heart, with all its deep scars, sensitivity, and unbounded power. Vira completed the Hridaya Teacher Training Course in 2016, is trained in Emotional Release Massage, and participated/assisted in the Priestess School […]