What brought you to Koh Phangan?
I was working before in Germany at a pharmaceutical company for the last fourteen years as a chemistry engineer. I was also a yoga teacher, teaching in a free time Hatha Yoga class and a ‘Fly with Me’ course (Acro yoga and Therapeutic Flying). When I turned forty I decided that I wanted to know more about yoga and the world, so I quit my job, took all the money I had and bought a one way ticket to Singapore. This was two and a half years ago.
By chance, some of my friends told me to go to Agama, I wanted to spend two weeks there but spent three months and since this time I have been coming and going, Koh Phangan won’t let me go.
In Phangan I finished a thai massage course, tantric courses and many others, became a therapeutic yoga teacher and I still learn and explore the world and give my knowledge to this day.
Explain to us what is the difference between normal and flying/acro yoga?
The main difference is that ‘normal’ Hatha Yoga is an individual practice, Flying (Acro Yoga) requires at least two people. Acro yoga is a combination of thai massage, acrobatics and yoga and was founded about ten years ago.
It’s divided into solar performance and lunar performance, solar is where both of partners are acting, one down as the ‘base’ and one up called ‘flyer’. It’s like exploring the body and the world, each other as a greatest miracle and dancing together.
You do asanas and change, it is communication without words and performing movements, going from one asana to another, together and coordinated. One partner is ‘yang’, supportive and stable, responsible and caring and the other part, flyer, is giving trust to the base and dancing, like the yin part of yin and yang, masculine and feminine.
The magic of flying yoga is when it’s melting together, taking care of each other, you can experience love, increase emotional intelligence and enjoy the movement.
Lunar performance or therapeutic flying, applied in the air, uses gravity as a main tool for releasing, decompressing, twisting and gives inversion and restorative feeling. Bases (givers) will guide the flyers (receivers) into the inverted flying position on their feet and manoeuvre the flyers through some passive assisted stretches and massages using gravity. Flyers are most of the time completely passive and they learn to let go of their tension from the whole back, abdomen, shoulders and a neck.
But the main sameness, yoga means connection, union and you could practice any kind of yoga you feel attracted to using different ways for your physical and spiritual development.
Do you have to be experienced in traditional yoga to do this?
No, this is not a requirement.
What kinds of benefits can you get from doing flying yoga or flying massage?
You get amazing results, it is a full-body, holistic workout with benefits for all levels, physical, energetic, emotional and spiritual.
Lets starts with physical benefits. Flying yoga is an excellent whole body workout, giving you stretch and strength, power, energy and relaxation. The main mechanism is a gravity tool. In the inverted position, relaxed or being active on the hands and feet of your partner, in the body this changes the circulation of the blood and lymphatic liquid. The inverted postures in yoga claimed to give you longevity and cure of many diseases, opens our biggest energetic channel, our spine.
A lot of the poses and moves of flying thai massage focus on spinal elongation and traction, relaxing, giving movement to the spine, and increase the resistance of the intervertebral discs, as well as flexibility and strength.Your spine is elongating, giving space for your intervertebral discs and relaxing all your muscles. All day your muscles are contracting, so this relaxes it.
When I started learning thai massage I realised the importance of moving the energy along the channels (meridians/sen/nadis) throughout the body. This could remove all energy stagnation which produce pain and feelings of not being ok. This practice by moving the energy through the whole body by every massage, starting from the feet and finishing by top of the head, is missing in classical lunar performance of acro yoga.
This simple but effective principle of thai massage increases a lot of the effects of therapeutic flying, from the other side, working with a gravitation and elongation of the spine increases the amazing effects of the thai massage.
It gives benefits also for givers, it is a nice difference from other types of massages. The hamstrings of the bases will open up and get a good stretch. They also strengthen their whole legs, core, shoulders and arms, learn to stabilise and balance from the core. It is very grounding practice, improved body mind connection and heightening energy levels.
It is excellent for couples, even if they have been a long time together, they start to hear each other, sometimes after a long time living with each other, on a different level, the needs of others and understanding. This opportunity of positive and healthy touch helps to cultivate more open and compassionate communication towards each other. For both of them it’s practice of developing emotional intelligence, listening not only with the ears, but also with hands, feet and the whole body. The whole body becomes the expression of unconditional love and the symbol of balance, the balance between strength and softness.
So this is particularly good for couples, what about single people?
Everybody needs the feeling of trust, the stability and relaxation, the caring touch, experience love, to stretch and relax. For example, the developed trust is a very relaxing feeling. When you have trust in life you are more stable, less prone to depression or anxiety. There’s a lot of research that shows the benefits of trust in giving more stability and happiness.
It is interesting to explore the movements with the different people, being sensitive how you react on different situations and how mindful you are with yourself and others. I don’t have a partner but I have people I practice with regularly, I am quite sure that you would find enough people who will love to practice with you.
As well some of the practices require a ‘spotter’, that gives the practicing yogis the possibility to do something without a worry of falling. So, already it is sometimes more than just a couple.
When you practice with children or teens, this practice improve the relationship and increase the understanding within the whole family. In Germany I have done the course for the kids from age of three. In this age they are just happy to play with their parents using the whole body, but from age of seven you can go deeper, the relationship benefits in the family can be really amazing.
What are the benefits of flying thai massage and what ailments can this help?
This practice is preventive, it’s good for relaxation and at the same time energising the whole body, and good for flexibility and range of motion, lymphatic flow, mind and body connection and it makes you feel grounded and peaceful.
The moving of energy gives a deep relaxation state, you empty your mind, it has this effect on you. We use breathing to put you in a deep relaxation state but at the same time it releases energy and energises the body.
It is good for internal organs as it uses compression and stretching, these are the benefits and the emotional and psychological benefits are a feeling of trust.
Every session is different and it depends what you need, it can be flexibility of the hips, upper back and lower back and people actually get a few cms longer afterwards!
It is so healthy and essential for your intervertebral discs to get this space, it is different from other massages. It’s very healthy for the hormonal system and the longevity of your brain as the blood nourishes your head.
What classes or groups have you been doing on Koh Phangan?
Every week I do acrobatic yoga as a class at Vajra Yoga Home, anyone without any experience can come. I speak five languages, sometimes to explain things in your own language gives a lot of benefits in understanding.
I also give flying thai massage as a personal treatment. Just get in touch with me to experience the luxury of it. You could find it on Facebook in the group ‘Flying Thai Massage’ with a lot of information and news.
For couples and friends I am preparing a three day intensive course, where you learn it to be able to practice the massage by your own. At the end you would get a book to remember all movements and touches.
For any questions, consultations or friends that want to have private lessons feel free to contact me.
What do you do in your free time on Koh Phangan?
A lot of practicing and learning yoga. Last year I have finished my therapeutic yoga course which was amazing! So I consulting peoples, developing for them personal yoga program helping to improve their health and feeling good.
I experiment a lot with myself. For example I try the raw food diet, and I love the effects on my body and mind. I am learning with the body, which foods have which effect using the mono raw food diet. It means only one thing, one kind of fruit or vegetable at a time. For example you eat a pineapple, you could see it, smell, taste and after digesting receive the effects this pineapple produce in the body. It’s like creating a databank, putting in correlation the food and the effects of it, but the most amazing stuff happens after. The body starts crave the food it needs. It is the incredible feeling to receive what you really crave for, giving you physical and emotional joy and energy for the whole your being.
Two of my friends have started teaching the courses of Agama school in Russian so I could help and support them.
As well, I like to go to have sunrise in Koh Ra, I love sunrise and sunsets, meditating at the Utopia space in the north of Chaloklum, this is my favourite meditative space.
I like to try try all the new stuff that I don’t know, so I plan to do kite surfing.
I love swimming and diving, painting, reading, singing or playing guitar. Depends on the amount of free time I have.
Where do you see yourself in the next five years?
I have no idea in which island or country I will be but I think in five years I will be still doing and teaching yoga. You can’t just do it for one hour a day, it’s a way of life.
I hope to open a school of flying thai massage as I see the benefits of it, it’s a different system with better results than any of its part alone. I hope to have a lot of followers in this and this will help a lot of people.
It is very interesting to gain, but also important to give knowledge.
What is your life philosophy?
The yogic philosophy. Looking forward to understand the world and the purpose of life. The main question is: ‘what for I am living?’, trying to find my own answer.
Trusting of the world and that now and here is the best place and situation for me to live. Being mindful and experience all that’s happening. Everyday we are creating our life and everyday we receive what we have created before.
When I don’t understand anything as it’s not always roses then I use meditation to understand myself and get grounded. Meditation has helped me in a lot of situations.
As Paul Gauguin says, “I shut my eyes in order to see.”
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