Depression and Fears

by Nina
(Germany)

Dear Yogi Mir,

I am from Köln (Cologne) in Germany.

For a long time I have been looking for a Meditation and Yoga teacher and I would love to visit an Ashram or a Meditation retreat for a while!

I just came back to Germany from Asia and now I experience a depression with sometimes fears. Can you recommend any Ashram or Meditation Yoga (Kundalini Yoga) centre close to my homeplace?
And can you recommend this spiritual practice in general with my constitution of depression?

Thanks a lot,
best regards, Nina

PS: Is it possible to stay in your centre for a while and live and work there like in an traditional Ashram?

Yogi Mir's Response:

Dear Nina,

The best place I know that is not too far away from Koln is in the south of Portugal: Quinta da Calma - a beautiful ashram/retreat center with caring and experienced teachers. Just in Decemeber, they had a wonderful Kundalini Yoga Retreat:
Quinta Da Calma

Their website is being updated at the moment, so they have this blog up for now.

I do not have an ashram - I let myself go with the flow. :)

What is the cause of your depression and fears?

Fears come from the ego part of our mind. The ego is naturally afraid of many things. Yoga teaches us to realize that you are not your ego.

One needs to dis-identify their self-identity from their ego. One needs to recognize that the ego is only a tool, a small and essential part of their mind, but is not who they are.

Once this self-realization happens, once the ego is seen as separate from who you are, fears subside, depression lessens, and one sees the light that shines from within - the Light of the Inner Self.

Here's another link for you for a good friend of mine in Germany, Heike Farkas. She runs wonderful yoga programs in Augsburg: Integral Yoga Zentrum

... And one more for a good friend and teacher of mine, Swami Asokananda:
Integral Yoga Europe

Love and Light!

~ Yogi Mir