Reflections on life, yoga and Copenhagen

I have not had a chance to blog for a variety of reasons but since writing is kind of therapeutic for me I decided to come back to it. Over the past week I decided that I would like to focus on my own yoga practice and growing it for a while. I would also love to teach but simply think that I need to cope with my own emotions and feelings which I can hopefully work out through the practice of not just asana but also intensified meditation and pranayama as well as some other activities.
The past week has been the first time in months that I didn't feel drawn to my mat or to practice in general. On the contrary I felt as if everything was a drag including my practice. I guess that's quite normal but it was a good reminder that this must be what a lot of people feel and as a teacher it's always useful to put yourself into your students' shoes once in a while. It's quite interesting though because there was not one class or attempt at doing a few poses that didn't leave me feeling better afterwards - still the feeling of having to force myself to get on the mat rather than feeling the urge to practice remains... My big consolation is that everything feels like I need to bring myself to do it right now- especially getting up in the morning. And that's also not something I usually struggle with- quite the opposite - my usual self has energy and likes to get out of bed in the AM. But I fully believe that these feelings will start to subside and eventually I will find back to my old strength or maybe some scars will remain and will be good reminders of things that others struggle with. Lately I felt drawn to some Buddhist teachings and have to say the wisdom that I am reading about reminds me a lot of the yogic path so I hope that I can combine the two and get some inspiration for the future. It's intriguing that the Buddhist propagate the noble 8 limbed path - very similar to the 8 limbs of ashtanga yoga.
While I'm still lacking energy I have been contemplating taking another teacher training- this time following the tradition of kundalini yoga. Yet there are some practical considerations that come with that- turns out teacher training is a lot more expensive in Germany and also, it often takes place a little outside Munich so it's not as convenient as it use to be in NYC. Another tradition that I would be curious to learn more about is yin yoga - or restorative but I'm not sure I'm ready to teach either one of these styles. I guess time will tell and hopefully I'll figure out what I'm most drawn to.
Similarly, I feel like I should be making plans to travel as traveling is the other passion that usually lifts me into a much better place. Yet, for the first time in my life, I thought to myself - what difference would it make? But then again, if you're going to feel melancholic you might as well do it in a nice and sunny place, right? That's what I had planned for my return to Munich during the summer - I figured if I'm going to move back I might as well do it during the nicest time of the year but then the weather was kind of acting up this summer and there hasn't been a whole lot of sun. That's why we're all hoping for a golden fall season now...
At least we got off to a good start of the travel season with a weekend trip to Copenhagen - a city I had never visited before. And I have to say it's well worth visiting - lots of water, by the beach and beautiful old buildings. Unfortunately the weather also wasn't great but in spite of the clouds and the rain, you could see why Copenhagen often gets rated as one of the cities with the highest living quality in the world... Yet, you would need to earn in Danish Krones to really take advantage of that. Quite amazing how much more expensive things are in Copenhagen than in other places in Europe. As far a I hear, the price levels might only be topped by Norway and possibly Switzerland...