Over a week ago I traveled with my family to Emden, Germany, to marvel at Yoga Kula‘s yoga shala, share a Chandra Krama and Pranayama & Restorative Yoga Workshop and spend time with our family together.

Of the three founders of the Yoga Kula Emden, Rosa Friesenborg was one of my first yoga students here in Groningen, this was about 2010/2011. In 2011 Rosa moved to Emden, getting her qualifications and certifications to practice as a psychologist while she also started to share yoga and build up a little yoga community there. In 2013 she started a family. Now she is a mother of three and works as a psychologist.

The last time I was in Emden was five years ago, when Rosa invited me to teach a Chandra Krama (Moon Sequence) for her community. Then Rosa was still sharing yoga in a space she rented in town.

Meanwhile… 

Over the last six years, I also regularly saw the other two founders of the Yoga Kula, Anita Berendsen and Sirke Schuster. They frequently joined my workshops in Groningen. And the connection to Emden “grew”. During COVID I saw them online. And Anita also joined my online Mysore Yoga classes and the 6 Months Ashtanga Intensive. 

Eventually I learned that the three of them were planning to found a yoga school in Emden together, a place that was really still missing but can be of so much value to so many in this area.

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Anita, Rosa and Sirke have really achieved a lot. Building and opening their yoga shala took them a lot of patience, dealing with German bureaucracy and lots of hands on building and creativity.

And they really created something very special. Once you set foot into their space, everything just “feels right”. You can sense the care in the smallest of details. Lots of respect to you all, and Jens.

Harmony through connectedness

​​​​​It was such a pleasure to visit and teach in Emden again and witness and marvel at what the three of them put down.

Their slogan “Harmonie durch Verbundenheit” (Harmony through connectedness) really shines through in the way they interact with their students, how the space feels and how they are.

I look forward to my next workshop and visit in Emden!

If you are looking for a place to practice yoga in the North of Germany, a place where the teachers take great care of you, where community is valued and everything about the place just feels right, then the Yoga Kula is your place. 

What I also really appreciated was that I could take my whole family along, everyone was warmly welcome. Next to the workshops we enjoyed sharing warm meals, watching the kids play and just time together.