Isabelle Thill
Founder of Exhale Yoga Luxembourg
Although I am grateful to have been born in the perfect bubble which is Luxembourg, I have always been passionate about traveling to discover new cultures and explore the diversity of yoga styles.
Long before becoming a teacher myself, yoga was an essential part of my life. My very first teachers were Denise Pesch and Fredric Bender from Yoga La Source in Luxembourg and they both had a strong influence on me choosing the path of yoga. In 2004, I met Michael Hamilton, a South African Ashtanga yoga teacher, in Shanghai and he inspired me to take the next step and to enroll for the Sivananda Yoga Teacher’s training in India. Years later I received my certification as a Jivamukti Yoga teacher in New York.
After countless workshops, retreats, and teacher trainings, I am still under the spell of yoga. I am thankful for the precious tool of yoga, which saved my life more than once and makes me constantly grow. Diving deeper into the physical as well as the spiritual yoga practice is a never ending journey.
I have been blessed to meet the most incredible and inspiring mentors, all of them influenced my own teaching enormously.
Rolf Naujokat, who keeps my first love, Ashtanga yoga, alive. Dechen Thurman and Anja Kühnel, both vegan activists, introduced and awakened my love for Jivamukti Yoga. I bow down with gratitude to the founders of this method, Sharon Gannon and David Life. Cameron Shayne, creator of Budokon, taught me how to cultivate my inner warrior, to be fearless and take accountability for my acts. Duncan Wong, the most fabulous martial artist and yogi, showed me how to overcome my own limiting thoughts and believes to aim for the stars.
I discovered Vipassana meditation in South Africa and it became part of my daily routine.
After many years of having been a freelance yoga instructor, I created my first studio, yogaroom belair, in 2008, followed by yogaloft luxembourg in 2012. In 2016, I moved to Capetown, where I founded Exhale Yoga, a Jivamukti Yoga affiliated studio. During the years in South Africa, I set up Inhale Yoga, promoting selfless service, with a main goal to introduce yoga in local communities. I will keep the same spirit at Exhale Yoga Luxembourg and teach yoga classes on donations.
In 2020, I became resident teacher at the Jivamukti school in Paris.
The current health crises brought me back to my home country, where I created a new studio, Exhale Yoga, at my old address in Luxembourg-Merl. I hope to be able soon to continue organizing yoga retreats in India, South Africa and Provence. Capetown will always stay my second home, it keeps me humble.
Yoga gives me the courage to BE MY SELF and the strength to make the world a better place. There are no words to express my gratitude towards my two grown up children, who remain my most important teachers and all the committed yoga practitioners who crossed my path.
Resident team
Natasha Sabus
I first discovered Yoga in its physical form during times in which I was trying to overcome one of the most challenging phases in terms of my mental health. For the first time ever, I found myself able to disconnect from all the negative energy and thoughts that were subconsciously distracting me on a daily basis, while shifting my attention to what really needed it the most; myself. Regular asana practicing has taught me to love, appreciate and most importantly to know my body. Yoga takes you into the present moment, the only place where life exists.
After one year of self-practice, I gathered the courage to attend my first group classes at Exhale Yoga Studio, where Isabelle inspired and helped me to find love and passion for the physical, mental and spiritual practice of Yoga. Soon after, it became an essential part of my every-day life and I learned that Yoga is not just a physical workout, but a lifestyle.
To this day, the Yogic lifestyle has been bringing me nothing but blessings, immense gratitude and wonderful connections from all around the world.
The 200 hour YTT I completed in India this Summer (2022) has been the best experience in my life so far, where I have learnt the most authentic teachings and knowledge about Yoga from the most inspiring teachers. But no matter how many YTT’s I will complete in this life, I will never stop learning and growing.
Leyli Schaber
My mission is to love, to learn and to teach. In that order.
Connecting with my students is essential for me.
You learn a lot about yourself by practicing Yin-mentally, physically and spiritually.
My Yin classes are a judgment-free space to explore and I look forward to meeting you on your mat.
Yin Yoga Alliance certification in February 2022
Veronica Codoni
Veronica completed her Jivamukti Yoga 300-Hour Teacher Training in 2020 in India with Rima Rabbath, Jules Febre and Martyna Eder. Currently she is leading her 500-Hour Apprenticeship Program with Magali Lehners at Jivamukti Yoga Luxembourg.
Nathalie Ginter
To the question why I have been practicing Yoga for over twenty-five years, the answer is that Yoga represents for me a safe space and security. No matter what the outer conditions are, Yoga offers me a way to stay centered through the tumults of life. Yoga permits me to still my mind, to align my body, to reconnect to myself. It makes me push my boundaries, physically and emotionally. I find strength in the postures, balance within myself and lightness in my heart. I have the impression that Yoga has always been there. It has never been a trendy activity for me. Wherever I have been on the planet, the way somehow always led me back on to my mat and I had to face myself. I’m so grateful for all the teachers I have met. I have always learned something.
The ones who inspired me the most are the ones who reflected stability and true self-confidence. They passed on a message that was beyond the physical exercise of asanas and beyond verbal comprehension. They encouraged me to find an authentic connection to myself. I learned to love more intensely: expanding rather than contracting when faced with adversity.
I am happy to keep on learning in order to pass on what Yoga gave me and with humility I would like to share this wonderful experience. My classes should be an invitation to indulgence, softness and strength, confidence and humility, balance and movement, grounding and lifting, control and non-attachment.
“Lokah samasta sukhino bhavantu”
Dr. Warren Ashley
Warren is a trained medical doctor who became a specialist in internal medicine and cardiology. At the beginning of his medical career, he was introduced to Ayurveda – the traditional Indian art of healing. Fascinated by this holistic approach, he participated in a whole array of training courses and retreats, learning and exploring holistic methods and wisdom from all over the world. With great enthusiasm, he is now working as a holistic consultant focusing on solution-based approaches that support health in a humble, intuitive, and natural way. His focus is to empower people in taking responsibility for their health and to come into their strength in a natural way. Alongside with this Warren is also a passionate musician, singer and guitar player. With singing bowls from Nepal and other instruments he guides Sound meditation for individuals and for groups.
Visiting teachers
Dario Calvaruso
Dario Calvaruso is the conceiver and founder of Navakaraṇa®. He has taught extensively in India, Nepal, China, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, Taiwan, Malaysia, South Korea, Mongolia, Indonesia, Middle-east and Europe. Head of the Navakaraṇa Community, he has trained thousands of Navakaraṇa practitioners and teachers internationally.
Heterogeneous artist since a young age, Dario left Italy and his family when he was 21 on a journey of self-discovery and study of Yoga and Āyurveda to India, which lasted over 15 years. His first destination was Kāśi – The City Of Light (Benares, India). During this time, he began the study of Āyurveda with his teacher Paṇḍit Har Govind Miśra. Only later was initiated to the practice of Tantric techniques of Haṭha-Yoga and Kriyā by Pandit Om Prakāśa. On an auspicious day, while having a bath at the Ganges in Benares, Dario met Swami Jñānānanda Bharati, who took him in his āśrama at Gangotri, the source of the Holy River Ganges living with Swamijī in the Himalayas about 4,000 m altitude.
Dario learnt Yoga in the orthodox tradition (guru-śiṣya paraṃparām) a unique experience, especially for a Westerner. As advised by his master, Dario took on a journey throughout the Indian subcontinent. He lived with sufis in Pakistan and later with sadhus in monasteries (āśrama-s) of the śiva-siddhānta tradition in Tamil Nadu. During the years he spent in Tamil Nadu, Dario studied and practised Karaṇas (the Art of Movement) and Bharataṇāṭyam (Indian Classical Dance) with Nāṭyācārya Vṛnda Rāmanan (Trichy). At that time he also studied Yoga Darśana (Yoga philosophy) with Prof. Śrī Rangasvāmi Sourirājan at the Śrīrangam Veda Pāṭha-Śāla (one of the most traditional and highly recognised centre of Vedic Studies). He was initiated and guided in the study of Sanskrit language by Prof. Śrī Rangasvāmi Tirunārāyaṇan (a well-know Indian scholar). In 2007 Dario started his own yoga āśrama at Srirangam (India), a city-temple and small island in the River Kaveri. Besides running the āśrama, Dario completed a period of academic studies on Yoga, Psychology, Counselling and Philosophy. Navakaraṇa Method came about spontaneously from his attempt to systematise different śāṣtra-s (traditional arts and sciences) into one holistic and comprehensive methodology for self-discovery, healing and transformation.
Dario has lived, studied and taught all over Asia. It was in Japan where he met the Fuke Grandmaster Fujiyoshi Etsuzan from whom he inherited and brought into Navakaraṇa the traditional Sui-Zen (traditional sound-meditation). Since 2017 Dario has incorporated zen melodies (shirabe), creating sound-mediation practices. In 2022 Dario established Navakaraṇa Kyorei, a gurukulam and āśrama for self-transformation and organic living in Yakushima, one of the Ōsumi Islands at the south of Japan (a UNESCO World Heritage site and Biosphere Reserve). His project “Navakaraṇa Kyorei” has attracted international attention from movie directors and the medias.
Dario conducts Workshops, Retreats and Teacher Training Courses on Navakaraṇa, Philosophy and Holistic Lifestyle internationally.
Stéphanie Cunico
Stéphanie is a Paris based yoga teacher. Before she committed to full time yogic life, she worked in finance and the fashion industry. In 2020, Stéphanie completed her Jivamukti teacher’s training in India and later an apprenticeship with Ian Sydlowski at the Jivamukti Yoga studio in Paris where she worked as manager from 2020 to 2022. One of her main teachers is Petros Haffenrichter.
Stéphanie is also trained in trauma informed yoga with Maria Macaya. Her students appreciate her kindness and generosity as well as the diversity in her teachings.
Duncan Wong
Born into a California family of yogis, mystic and artists, Duncan Wong began his life training as a kickboxer, wild biker and nature adventurist. A path that led him to the healing fields of yoga, bodywork and dance. After a life of intensive global teaching and 10 years of Asian residency and exploration with various masters, he now lives in the deep forest of Kyoto Japan where he raises his two sons with his Japanese family. Known as the creator and innovator of Modern Warrior Flow, which he originally named Yogic Arts™ to define the practice as a goal to the artistic expressions and states of yoga, Duncan’s unique and fluid practice combines the intelligence of yoga, the intuition of dance, the heart of martial arts, and the healing touch of massage, that has evolved into the name Flow Arts to best define its expansion that reaches far beyond the limits of classical yoga, into the realm of authentic organic self-expressed motion.
The Global Yogic Flow Arts Love Warrior Yogis form the foundation and expansion of this living international system. The practice was born from a lifetime of practice and investigation into the combined fields of healing, empowerment and Self-mastery, and continues to blossom and evolve with each student’s shared experience on the mat. Duncan‘s undying commitment to guide his students ‘inner standing’ into the path of excellence and eventually teaching skills via the awakening of peoples humanity and common strength through a down to earth practical approach to mindfulness and sustainable living.
Elodie Covella
Yoga is the one thing in my life, which is always there when I need it. I love practicing yoga and meditating first thing in the morning. This way, I feel ready to take on whatever life throws at me. My practice is the most important part of my day and I don’t feel like my day is complete without it.