Interview mit Christina Metzler — Gründerin YOGA at Lobe
What is your morning ritual?
Real-Life — on some days:
I ignore the alarm, that I set up way too early because I went to bed way too late. I grab my first coffee, I watch my favourite series, my dogs says hi, we go for a walk, I buy me another coffee and we share a croissant. I recognize it's already late. I rush with my 30 year old BMW to Lobe.
This is real — my life as yoga studio owner:
Grab a coffee, and be too late already for everything and just try to focus to be somewhere on time. And Yes, I had times were my mornings were looked like that: Getting up one hour before I actually need to. This hour is a huge present to me. Then preparing my matcha, doing yoga, meditating and finally grab my journal.
What was life like before you discovered yoga?
Oh, that is so long ago, I can’t even think of it. I think I was seven years old. Back then in my home town they called it: Joga. I went there once with my best friend and her mom and never went again. But before Yoga — my first experience with physical therapy as child had a huge impact in my life. I am born with Scoliosis, what basically means living with a huge pain. The muscles and organs are under a huge pressure the whole time. Most of the Scoliosis childs are getting a spine correction through a corsette. Luckily my mum brought me to a doc who believed in a Physio Therapy called Schroth. I went there for 4 years every week. I've learned to control, train and relax all of my muscles and to find the right balance. This is a very strict therapy but I rescued me from pain or a even more destroyed spine. Then with 23 I discovered something that was called ZEN GYMNASTICS in a fitnessstudio in Mainz. Luckily my teacher was Young-Ho Kim. He is the best teacher when it comes to mixing his material art heritage, with dynamic flow and micro adjustments that are helping you reaching your next progress. Since then I've followed Young-Ho Kim with all his practices. He transformed from Zen Gym to Yoga, so did I. He now runs the Inside Yoga Studio in Frankfurt (https://insideyoga.de/)
What I learned from SCHROT and ZEN GYMNASTICS was the fundament of my Yoga Understanding. I still believe Yoga as a tool to connect your body and brain and give you the possibility to heal (mentally and physically).
How did Yoga at the Lobe come to be and did you always know you wanted to open a yoga studio?
Good question! The answer is. NO, not really, but kind of. I always wanted to have a creative/open room and a cafe. I believe if you have a room, everything is possible. In my dreams I've would love to open a small yoga cafe with a tiny yoga room, with lots of colors, with a photo wallpaper of my beloved Palatinate Forest. There is a cafe with huge smoothie bowls and breakfast all day. (P.S.: I love breakfast and granola so much, that I want it around like 24 hours of my day. While dreaming about, I worked full-time as a graphic designer, part-time I pursued my passion: teaching yoga. So I've started a Yoga Meetup Class at a co-working called Ahoy. That was really fun, some of my students are still with me on Mondays class. One day, my girlfriend sent me a PDF one of the Lobe Block Concept and marked that there will be a Yoga Studio with the note, contact Olivia and ask if you could teach there. The concept of the Lobe Block already looked stunning. It's like a green waterfall in Wedding, a community full of creative people, with a lot of garden space and open terraces. I went there with Croci (our dog). Olivia loved Croci. I loved the building and Olivia from the very beginning. The rest is history.
What inspired the 30 Days of Happiness challenge that you started? And which strategies do you find to be most helpful?
It is such a very long story, that I could not tell it here. Through your questions, I really feel the interweaving of actually a bunch of things I brought into my life — melting together:
Me teaching at design schools and the semester theme I choose: “Yes, design can make me happy!”
This Titel in turn was inspired by graphic designer Stefan Sagmeister, who created 7 Rules for this own happiness (https://www.ted.com/talks/stefan_sagmeister_7_rules_for_making_more_happiness/discussion?quote=1838)
After researching and looking at data about happiness, reading about morning routines, journaling, gratefulness, cold showers etc. I wanted to explore my own happiness (and train my mind in a new way) with this 30 day project! I choose 30 happiness methods that seemed simple and effective. Since I know I am laking of discipline sometimes, I needed a bunch of friends to join. So I posted the idea on Facebook and ask for: Who wants to join my #30daysofhappiness Challenge? And I think in the end we were about 20+ ppl and daily new once joined. We did this together and shared our results on facebook, some wrote me letters and send me the results via Mail post or social media, all with the hashtag #30daysofhappiness. The challenge itself made me so happy.
Most helpful I found these 3 methods out of the #30daysofhappiness:
Methode #3 Stehe morgen 1 Stunde früher auf. Nutze die Zeit nur für dich.
Methode #8 Erledige jeden Morgen als Erstes deine wichtigste Aufgabe am Tag.
Methode #18 Lerne jeden Tag etwas Neues.
How do you find peace and balance when you’re feeling unbalanced?
Walking through the woods. And jumping into a lake surrounded by nature. Nothing else in life can give me, what this means to me.
Are you offering any upcoming courses/ practices/ trainings? And where can we find more information?
MI 20:00 Uhr YOGA at Lobe Block
All about: https://www.yogaatlobeblock.de/stundenplan
Outside Berlin Retreats:
The Happy Retreat, Brandenburg, Seminarhaus Taubenblau
all about: https://www.yogaatlobeblock.de/retreats
Prana & Selfcare Berlin Day Retreats:
all about: https://www.makesmehappy.de/berlin-day-retreat
https://www.yogaatlobeblock.de/