ONE: Lilian dos Santos

Lilian dos Santos

A challenge I overcame: To attend the quality Public University of the DeRose Method, coming from from basic and average public teaching, deficient in Brazil

A dream for my future: Health and well-being for relatives, acquaintances and for me.

A hope for the global community: Better distribution of food, of income like all. Freedom in all countries and basic rights guaranteed for everyone. 

Yay, our gorgeous SwáSthya yoga instructor at Uni-Yoga in Floripa, Lilian made each one of us students feel hugely welcome in the school and the beginners classes.  She introduced us not only to the familiar yoga poses, but also to techniques to take care of the eyes and inner organs,  and to relax the entire body and mind.

One of the intentions of the DeRose Method of yoga is to encourage positive relationships within our communities, and Lilian and Fábio have certainly created a very welcoming atmosphere in the school, where we are always invited to share chai and chat at the beginning and end of every session, and the warm welcome is reflected in the warmth with which all students greet one another.

Lilian, muito muito obrigada por todas as aulas, todos os conversações e todas as técnicas novas!

Sorte en todos seus proyectos.

Um abraço 

:-)

ONE: Fábio Santana

Fábio Santana

A challenge I overcame: To achieve my own business.

A dream for my future: To have many young, healthy and beloved students in my school of the DeRose Method.

A hope for the global community: Understanding and tolerance of differences.  Prosperity.

Fabio runs this branch of Uni-Yoga that I stumbled across here in Florianopolis and temporarily joined for two weeks.  Here Fabio and the other instructors have created a very welcoming space and atmosphere that reflects the holistic approach of the particular strand of yoga that they practise, the DeRose method, which includes an emphasis on positive family and community relationships.  Fabio and his team have certainly achieved this.  I certainly felt very welcome within the school from my first visit to the school, where Fabio gifted me a book 'Yoga é serio' and explained in detail the difference between this particular method and others, differentiating this as a school rather than a gym, and emphasising that all instructors are trained at university level and complete professional development training annually. :

"DeRose Method is a lifestyle proposal focusing on good quality of life, fulfilling human relationships, culture, good dietary habits and optimal health.  Some of the tools used are breathing re-education, stress management, and body techniques to improve muscular tone and flexibility as well as other techniques utilised to achieve emotional relaxation and mental concentration.  All of these tools ultimately aim to increase consciousness and self-awareness."

It was definitely a good decision to sign up to their classes, partly because of the interest of meeting the other students (including another international Kim, this time from Korea) and also because the relaxation of the physical and mental techniques I was introduced to in the beginners classes took the edge off the intense mental strain of the 6-hours-a-day-plus-homework of Portuguese study.  A good compliment! :-)

www.yogafloripa.org

Muito obrigada Fabio, por dar me bem-vindo á escola, foi um prazer conhecer vocês, a escola e a técnicas de DeRose. 

Boa sorte com o desenvolvimento continua de sua pratica pessoal e  a escola.

:-)

Yoga and elephants: Dear Åsa...

Dear Åsa, 

How are you doing m'lovely? 

I've been thinking about you a lot over the last few weeks since arriving in Brazil because I signed up to a yoga school for a couple of weeks to try and get some activity back in my traveling-life.  Are you still going every week to the Thursday yoga classes at the gym?  These classes in Florianópolis were pretty different to the ones we do there in London, being slower, with the idea not to sweat, and including lots of breathing exercises and techniques to massage the inner organs, eyes etc.  It is a technique called SwáSthya taught by a school the deRose Method that has branches all over the world including Kensington.  The good thing about this technique is you could do it anywhere and every day (I was trying one balancing position on the beach the other day) but I think at heart I prefer Ashtanga... or maybe a mix of the two.

I was also reminded of you by a few of these characters spotted in murals around the city, the tambourine-bloke top right for some reason really reminds me of your characters.   And then when I saw this elephant-riding image below I was thinking of your cow-riding fantasies! :-) I went back to try to take a photo of this in the day time but it was obscured by a nut stall.

Missing you lovely Åsa, looking forward to seeing you in the summer!

Sending bug hugs to you and everyone else at the studio.

:-)

ONE: Yanara Teiveira Ribeiro

 Yanara Teiveira Ribeiro

A challenge I overcame: Every day that I wake up and realise that I have overcome another day living in a society like ours.

A dream for my future: To travel the world absorbing new cultures and showing mine.

A hope for the global community: That everyone could do what they enjoyed, without difficulties, being able to delight in all the beauty.

Lovely Yanara is another multi-lingual Brazilian woman.  Having lived in Canada Yanara speaks both French and English fluently as well as her native Portuguese and also Spanish.  Originally from Norther nBrazil she has come to Floripa and is currently sorting out getting back to Uni at UFSC and meanwhile working in the vegetarian Restaurante Simple e Natural opposite Step 1 where we students and teachers  go daily for our mid-morning coffee.

Yanara is gorgeously bubbly and chatty and that first weekend here in Floripa when I'd gone to the Festival Fora de Forma in town it was a real pleasure to recognise her familiar smile amongst the crowd. 

Sorte en todos seus estúdios Yanara, foi um prazer conhecer você.
E também sorte em todos suas aventuras!

:-)

ONE: Miguel Kieling

Miguel Kieling

A challenge I overcame: To learn English

A dream for my future: To travel to Asia.

A hope for the global community: That the global population doesn't grow more and that Nature is preserved.

Our behind-the-scenes organiser, Miguel was my first point of contact at Step 1, and is extremely helpful and supportive of all of us students at the school.  Miguel is also the one to hand me the key to the 2-wheeled delight of the Freedom Machine bicycle! :-) 

There are photos of animals and birds posted above a noticeboard on the left as you enter the school and Miguel mentioned to me that the puffin photo is one he took in Orkney on a visit to Scotland a few years ago.  That's definitely an island that's high up on my list of places to visit, along with Shetland and Iona.  It's funny sometimes that we go so far abroad exploring other countries in such detail when there are beautiful places on our own doorsteps that we still don't know.  Peculiar perhaps, but very common.  (And I remember so clearly on my return to the UK in 2010 the feeling that I needed to explore the UK more, and I certainly made some effort but there is still so much back there to explore!)  Apparently when Miguel was there the man manning the boat on the crossing to the Isle of Hoy was hugely surprised by Miguel's nationality, saying that he hadn't met a Brazilian on his crossing in all 30 years of working it!

Miguel, muito obrigada para todo o apoio.  A experiencia com Step 1 foi fantastico! 

Sorte en todos suas viagems futuras.

:-)

ONE: Maria Andréia Romancini

Maria Andréia Romancini

A challenge I overcame: To finish an advanced course in Mathematics.

A dream for my future: To get to know Europe.

A hope for the global community: Education, health and housing for everyone!

Andréia's lovely smiling face was the first to greet me on the day I arrived at Step 1.  It is thanks to Andréia's expert manning of the reception that the school's schedule of classes runs so smoothly and that we are all placed in our home stays.  Andréia was also the one to invite us all out to the Bar do Boni that second Friday night of my stay in Floripa, where we had the happy pleasure of a live band playing great Samba tunes and plenty company with Andréia's friends to chat and dance with.

                                            Un prazer grande, Andréia!  Gracias por todo.

                            E que desfrute todos suas aventuras pendentes.  Um abraço forte.

 :-)