This week we met up with one of our first, and most active app users.
Even before the launch of the SPRT Mireia followed our journey, and now she uses the SPRT App to advertise her free yoga sessions. So we caught up with her to find out her story and what motivates her to give back to Berlin, her new home, for free!
‘Yoga helps you accept your body, yourself and also other people. It challenges you to keep going, to keep practising and to find a better version of yourself. It gives me peace with my inner self and also peace with the environment I’m in.’
The girl behind the yogi.
Mireia has always been passionate about keeping active but pushing herself too much at gym meant that she became overworked and struggled to keep loving the training routine she was in. In turn, she focused on yoga more and more. Her journey developed slowly, it didn’t happen overnight and she said to us, ‘I think every little decision I made, every ‘yes’ and every ‘no’, brought me where I am today.
Two of Mireia’s biggest takeaways are that yoga has taught her to be patient, especially with her body. And secondly, once yoga became a part of her life consistently, her mental and physical stress extremely decreased.
From then to now…
Mireia’s studies lead her to Paris for 3 months where she did yoga practically every day and started teaching others for the first time. In Paris, she found that classes were unaffordable and therefore out of the reach of many people. By the end of her time in Paris not only had Mireia gained valuable experience teaching yoga, but her initial total of 2 students had grown to a full class.
Keep going!
‘Everything is a work in progress, you can always improve in one asana (yoga pose). Otherwise, what would you work towards? It would be extremely boring, right?’
Mireia spoke to us about her ‘mind over matter’ approach and said that ‘sometimes the body is strong enough, but it’s our minds that don’t let us. Even she is learning new things and developing her technique constantly, she let us in on the fact that she’s working on her forearm stand at the moment. She explained, ‘Saying that you’re not flexible enough for yoga is like saying you’re too dirty to take a bath (this is the quote I have on SPRT app ? )’ Everyone should give it a go! What might be easy for some, might be difficult for others. This is why it’s great to have a community that can learn from each other and become more successful together.’
A city of expats.
Mireia’s home, like many of us here, isn’t Berlin. She comes from Barcelona but has been living in Berlin now for over 3 years. We had a chat about how sport can help people integrate, as the 3 of us sat there all as expats we realised sport had helped us all in some way to feel at home, to meet people or to feel like we were part of a community.
Yoga in a mattress shop on a donation basis?
Why does she do it? It’s simple. She wants to give back to the community. ‘Doing yoga in a group creates a different energy and you’re often surrounded by people just like you. I think everybody should be able to at least try yoga! This is also why I’m teaching for free. She believes sport should be accessible for all and part of that is recognising that events should have an inclusive atmosphere and be as low cost as is possible. Yoga changed my life and now I want to give it back to the community, I want to show people what yoga can do and how can it affect your body and mind. I want to share every single bit of it and share the ‘yoga bliss!’
‘Every time I finish a class my body feels great and I have a smile on my face.’
‘All we need is movement’ said Mireia. If yoga isn’t your thing, don’t worry, we think that you should find what works for you and work towards discovering your passion. Whatever that may be. Mireia has stopped pushing her body to the limits and is now happier than ever concentrating on yoga and respecting her body’s limits.
Whatever Mireia gets up to in the future she has promised us that her yoga classes are here to stay!
Make sure you follow Mireia on Instagram and find all her events on the SPRT App now. Keep an extra look out for her monthly event: Treat Yourself Yoga, which focuses on yoga, time-out and connecting with others!
