Elenor Saranraj Öster

I encountered yoga as a 19-year-old and immediately felt that it gave me a connection with myself and made the world more understandable. The form of yoga was Hathayoga and Carlos, our teacher, was unapologetic. If the spine was stiff, you were "darling now" or "gubbe nu" and limp buttocks he called "floof-floof". And with his wonderful accent in Spanish, he told us about the lotus flower's thousands and thousands of petals.

He still sounds in my practice sometimes. Thank you Carlos.

Then followed periods of self-practice and periods of total absence of yoga.

Every time I returned to yoga it was like coming home to myself.

Ashtanga yoga was a companion for a while via wellness at work and it was an absolutely wonderful way to end the work week and go into the weekend refreshed.

When I then encountered kundalini yoga during a life crisis, it carried me steadily forward, inward and also outward, which resulted in a strong longing to share these unfathomably effective yogic tools with such an obvious presence in the earthly and spiritual at the same time.

For 2 years I trained at the Kundaliniyoga Institute in Stockholm as a Kundaliniyoga and Meditation teacher and graduated in May 2014 and was certified internationally by KRI, Kundaliniyoga Research Institute. In March 2015 I qualified as a Sat Nam Rasayan Healing Practitioner and in April 2015 as a Children's Yoga Teacher according to Childplay.

I have since continued to delve through Level 2 of KRI's Kundalini Yoga Teacher Program and trained to lead transformative sessions with White Sound Gong Meditation. I am now in training to become a yoga teacher trainer.

In my studies and working life, I have been active in both the humanities and natural sciences, the artistic and the caring, and I trained as a doctor. The further training to become a specialist in psychiatry has felt rewarding and meaningful.

Today, it is absolutely necessary to combine my experiences and knowledge from my natural science background and Eastern wisdom for a holistic view of humans and their lifes.

Yoga means union and it is with ease that yoga and psychiatry can enrich each other.