As a (former) computer nerd — well, not really former — I spent far too long glued to my desk chair, and that took its toll. My quarter-century skydiving 'career', with nearly 4,000 jumps on the counter, had also left a very literal mark on my back and my whole body.
At a girlfriend's suggestion at the time, I tagged along to a yoga class. Coming from a macho, jumping-out-of-planes world — and with the idea that yoga was just 'sitting still and stretching on a mat' — my expectations weren't high. I had no idea what a profound change that small step would set in motion.
My first encounter was an Ashtanga class at Antwerp Yoga with Teune van der Wildt — still my great role model, my Guruji. After a single class I was completely hooked. My idea of yoga was swept clean off the table: I had stood there sweating for an hour, every muscle intensely worked, my head emptied, and Teune's passion was contagious. I would never let it go again.
From then on yoga gradually resolved my back problems — and went on to dominate the rest of my life, in a good way of course. As with everything I'm passionate about (IT, skydiving), I wanted to know and experience all of it. Beyond the physical, I wanted to get to know all the other layers of yoga too.
So, alongside my regular classes at Antwerp Yoga, a few times a year I travelled to Thailand, India, Bali, Spain and the Netherlands for trainings and retreats. There I did my first Ashtanga teacher training — mainly to deepen and broaden my own practice.
Teaching wasn't part of my path yet, though for almost a year I gave a weekly class to a private group at a friend's request. But the structure of my life back then — and the searching in me, preferably all over the world — made a weekly commitment difficult.
In the meantime I have two darling daughters, and with them structure came into my life all by itself. In mid-2023 the question dropped out of the blue: did I feel like teaching again? I took a new 200-hour teacher training — Vinyasa this time — and started teaching three times a week, both Vinyasa and Ashtanga. Now, more than 300 classes on, I have the honour of sharing and living the wonderful Ashtanga path together with you.
Hope to see you soon,
Gunter
