https://www.spandainstitute.com/

Spanda Institute, Largo da Fonte do Cabo 3, Ericeira (2026)

07/04/2026

PRACTICE INSIGHT - Vajrapradama mudra by Anja anja kaloh | vinyasa & prenatal yoga teacher

One of my favourite mudras is Vajrapradama mudra – the mudra of unshakable trust. I often use it to set an intention, or Sankalpa, when I practice, one that often resonates with me. I also often share it with my students, suggesting it as a way to reconnect with a sense of (lost) trust and self-confidence. This mudra and the sense of trust it brings feels especially meaningful in times of instability, doubt, and fear - currents around us that can quickly settle into our inner world. It is particularly suitable during periods of pressure or negativity, when life overwhelms us with challenges.

When practising Vajrapradama mudra during meditation, we can consciously direct energy to the heart centre (anahata chakra) and reconnect with our inner strength.

This mudra can be supportive when we want to awaken:
* trust in life
* emotional stability
* trust in our inner compass
* awareness of our own power
* a sense of inner worth that does not need external validation

Practice:
* sit comfortably with an upright spine (e.g., Sukhasana)
* interlace the fingers of both hands (except the thumbs), palms facing the heart
* thumbs point upward toward the collarbones
* hold the hands in front of the body or gently rest them on the chest

Let Vajrapradama mudra be a reminder that true trust does not come from control, but from connection. If you feel the energy of the mudra, receive it with an open heart and an open mind.

Anja is the Lead Trainer for our 200-hour YTT in Maribor. A new cohort starts this September - find more info and apply via the link in bio.

31/03/2026

MEET US – Stefania Avolese 🧘‍♀️

We’re thrilled to welcome our alumna Stefania to the lead trainer team and offer our YTT in Italy again:) Stefania will be leading our transformative 200-hour YTT at her studio in Turin, Italy, beginning this November (link in bio for details).

Get to know the person behind the smile in this Q&A :)

Q: What’s something people often get wrong about you?
A: I look quite serious at first glance, but I’m actually very funny once you get to know me.

Q: If you could whisper something to your younger self, what would it be?
A: Be patient. There’s no rush. Everything arrives exactly when it’s meant to.

Q: What makes you feel deeply rooted?
A: Singing and dancing in the way my body wants to move.

Q: Do you believe in intuition? How does it show up for you?
A: I deeply believe in intuition. My best intuitions are quiet and immediate, especially when the mind isn’t overactive.

Q: What does “home” mean to you these days?
A: It’s a place, not always physical, where I feel protected, loved, completely myself, and where all my emotions are welcome.

Q: What’s one thing you no longer apologise for?
A: For saying what I think, while respecting space and needs.

Q: What part of your inner world are you currently exploring?
A: I’m exploring my needs - recognising them, accepting them, and learning to satisfy them.

Q: Books or podcasts?
A: Books. Reading in a cosy place grounds me; podcasts sometimes pull me away from the present moment.

Q: Yoga mat or hiking trail?
A: Yoga mat, of course.

Q: Planning or improvising?
A: Both. I like planning, but the best things often happen when I improvise, and I’m fully present.

Q: Mountains or ocean?
A: Ocean. I love watching the waves; their sound helps clear my mind.

Q: Sweet or savoury?
A: Savoury. I love pizza and vegetarian lasagna.

Q: If your work had a scent, what would it be?
A: Jasmine, it’s the scent of Terra studio.

21/03/2026

Myth: The Seven Chakra System is Ancient

When you ask a yoga practitioner about the chakras, they will most likely describe a system of seven centres, each with specific colours, qualities, and even links to endocrine glands. This is also what we teach on our YTT courses. It’s a beautifully synthesised, energetic system; however, it is not as ancient as is commonly assumed - it took its current form mainly in the 20th century.

The idea of subtle energy centres does have ancient roots in Ta***ic yoga. However, ta***ic sources describe many different chakra systems, including five, six, seven, nine, and twelve centres, depending on the lineage and the intended practice. In the ta***ic tradition, chakras were practical tools designed for particular outcomes rather than fixed maps of the body. They were ‘used’ for meditation and visualisation: practitioners would visualise a lotus at a specific point in the body, often with particular colours and symbols, and often activate a mantra within it. In this context, chakras functioned as structured visualisation practices, not as physical or anatomical entities that can be blocked, opened, or balanced.

The psychological meanings commonly assigned to the chakras, such as linking the root chakra to safety or the solar plexus to self-esteem, were introduced later, influenced in part by Carl Jung’s work and further developed by twentieth-century Western esoteric traditions. The familiar rainbow colour scheme also does not originate in the early texts. Likewise, commonly taught seed mantras such as lam, vam, and ram are not inherent properties of the chakras themselves but rather relate to the corresponding five elements.

This does not make the seven chakra system without value. On the contrary, it offers a rich and meaningful framework for practice and self-reflection. But, rather than seeing it as ancient, the chakra system we know today is a great example of how traditional practices evolve, and are interpreted, adapted, and combined with more modern disciplines such as psychology to create a system that is more meaningful to practitioners today; reshaped as a tool to help us better understand ourselves.

17/03/2026

Happy Birthday to this lovely human!

Biki is a teacher at Spanda Institute’s, known for her grounded presence, quiet wisdom, and gentle, heartfelt way of sharing the practice.

Here is a fun birthday Q&A to celebrate Biki:

Where are you on your birthday this year? In Kerala, Southern India

Birthday drink of choice: I’m very lucky to get fresh coconut water straight from the palm here.

Lesson of the day:
This morning I was walking through one of the most beautiful natural landscapes, yet it was filled with waste. It felt like a strong reminder to stop constantly adding more to life, and rather remove the “trash” and “noise” we fill it with. The more we clear away, the closer we come to life’s pure, natural beauty.

What would you tell your younger self today? Do what you love and what feels valuable to you and commit to it. Don’t be afraid of failure, every mistake is just another step on the journey of a thousand miles.

One intention you’re setting for the year ahead: More courage, more smiles, less worries.

I’d like to leave a message from the Persian poet Hafez:
“I wish I could show you, when you are lonely or in darkness, the astonishing light of your own being.”

13/03/2026

Trauma-sensitive or trauma-informed teaching is often misunderstood as a form of trauma treatment, but that is not, or perhaps should not be, the case.

Trauma-sensitive yoga aims to reduce the risk of harm by creating environments that prioritise safety, choice, predictability, and respect for nervous system capacity. And while this in itself can be healing, its purpose is to make yoga more accessible, not to process trauma or resolve psychological injury.

Trauma treatment, on the other hand, involves structured therapeutic interventions delivered by trained mental health professionals. It requires the ability to assess psychological readiness, recognise and respond to dysregulation, and provide appropriate containment and follow-up.

This does not mean yoga has no place alongside mental health care. Yoga, especially when taught with trauma-sensitive principles, can support regulation,
embodiment, and self-agency, which may complement therapeutic work. However, this support functions best when yoga remains within its scope and does not attempt to replace or replicate psychotherapy.
Trauma-sensitive teaching is therefore about harm reduction rather than intervention.

It focuses on how practices are offered, not on what psychological outcomes they are expected to produce. Maintaining this distinction protects both practitioners and teachers. A practice can be supportive without being therapeutic, and recognising that difference is central to trauma-sensitive teaching.

11/03/2026

Practice Insights: What is Accessible Yoga? And why is it so important? 
For many years, mainstream yoga imagery, amplified by Instagram and other social media platforms, suggested that yoga was mainly for the young, flexible, and physically able. This left many people feeling that yoga was not for them because they were not strong enough, flexible enough, healthy enough, or slim enough.

Thankfully, this has been changing in recent years. Yoga is for everybody and for every body. When taught with care and adaptability, it can support people from all walks of life.

Accessible yoga recognises that human bodies and nervous systems vary widely, and that this diversity is normal rather than exceptional. Instead of asking people to fit an idealised shape, the practice is adapted to meet the individual.

It prioritises function, comfort, and meaningful participation. The intention of a posture matters more than how it looks. A supported variation or an alternative movement can offer the same benefits as a more complex shape. Adaptation is not a compromise; it is a skill rooted in respect for lived experience.

At its core, accessible yoga makes practice responsive rather than prescriptive. It invites participation in ways that honour autonomy, dignity, and individual capacity.

If you’d like to learn how to create safe, inclusive, and adaptable yoga practices, we will soon be releasing Acessible Yoga online course.

09/03/2026

✨ We’re looking for a Social Media Manager ✨

We’re opening a special exchange opportunity within our community!

We’re looking for a certified yoga teacher who is fluent in English to support our Instagram presence in exchange for access to our 300h online, on-demand Yoga Teacher Training, or our 800-h online on-demand Yoga Therapy Training.

What the role involves:
• Designing and posting content created by our teachers
• Publishing posts and re-posting stories on Instagram
• Monitoring and responding to inbox messages
• Helping keep our online space organised and active

Time commitment:
• Approximately 1 hour per day, 5 days per week
• Xmas and summer break 2 weeks each
• Duration: 1 year (300h) or 3 years (Yoga Therapy), starting this April.
• Starting this April

Requirements:
• Certified yoga teacher
• Fluent in English
• Comfortable with using Canva
• Consistent, organised, and comfortable with Instagram

If this feels aligned, please send us an email with a short introduction and relevant experience to admin@spandainstitute.com
We’ll reply next week once we’ve chosen a candidate.

We’re excited to connect with someone who wants to grow with us. 🌿

05/03/2026

YOGA MEETS SCIENCE: The Science of Chanting

Chanting and vocalisation in yoga are often described as heart-opening practices, spiritual practices, or connected to togetherness and community, but they also have a clear physiological basis.

The muscles of the larynx, which control the voice, are partly innervated by branches of the vagus nerve. This nerve plays a central role in regulating the autonomic
nervous system, including heart rate, breathing patterns, and overall arousal levels.

When the voice is used in a slow, sustained, and rhythmic way, signals from the larynx can influence vagal activity.

Vocalisation also naturally lengthens the exhale and introduces gentle vibration through the throat and chest. Both of these features are associated with increased parasympathetic activity, the branch of the nervous system linked with rest and recovery. Rather than acting solely on the mind, chanting engages neural pathways that connect breathing, voice, and autonomic regulation.

Research on vocal practices suggests that regular, slow vocalisation can influence heart rate variability (HRV) and support autonomic balance. This may help explain why chanting can feel soothing for some people, while for others it may feel stimulating or emotionally evocative, depending on personal sensitivity and context.

Practising at a comfortable volume and with choice around participation may help keep the experience supportive rather than overwhelming and, therefore, nervous system-regulating.

03/03/2026

PRACTICE INSIGHT: Warrior III

Yes, Warrior III is a balance pose, but it is so much more than that. It is applied (bio)mechanics and a masterclass in proprioception, all happening at once.

The moment you tip your torso forward and lift your leg behind you, your body becomes a cantilever, the same structural principle used in bridges and cranes: a horizontal beam anchored at one end and unsupported at the other, held in place entirely by the forces acting at the anchor point. Here, that anchor point is your hip joint. Your extended leg creates a rotational moment pulling towards hip flexion, and your glute max and hamstrings have to generate an equal and opposite force to resist it.

This trains the posterior chain to stabilise the hip under load. In everyday life and in sport, the hip often has to control forces as the body moves on a single leg, whether walking, running, climbing stairs, or catching yourself after a stumble. Warrior III rehearses that pattern, improving hip extension strength, pelvic stability, and load tolerance in the glutes and hamstrings, helping counteract hip-flexor dominance from prolonged sitting and reducing stress on the knees and lower back.

Your base of support has meanwhile shrunk to the sole of one foot, and your centre of mass has to be corrected in real time. That is where the proprioception comes in. Mechanoreceptors in the sole are sending continuous positional data to the brain, detecting pressure shifts, surface changes, and micro-corrections before you are even conscious of them.

Proprioceptive training improves the nervous system’s ability to sense and respond to instability. The faster your body can detect a shift in pressure or joint position, the faster it can recruit the right muscles to correct it. This translates into better balance, more efficient movement patterns, and a reduced risk of falls or ankle injuries. Essentially, poses like Warrior III are teaching the brain and body to communicate more quickly and precisely under changing conditions.

Need more persuasion to sequence this into your flows?

📸 .moves balancing in our new Sri Lanka shala. Curious?;) We’ll reveal more soon:)

20/02/2026

TSY: Teaching Pranayama

Pranayama is central to yoga, but teaching it requires particular care in trauma-sensitive settings.

Breathing is not only a physiological process, but it is also closely linked to survival and autonomic regulation. Changes in breath rhythm, depth, or timing can directly influence heart rate, arousal, and emotional state. For this reason, different pranayama and other breathing practices can feel supportive for some people and overwhelming for others.

In trauma-sensitive teaching, autonomy around the breath is essential. Practices that prescribe a specific rhythm, count, or retention pattern can reduce a person’s sense of agency, particularly if they are encouraged to continue despite discomfort. For
individuals with trauma histories, as well as those with anxiety and other mental health issues, this can activate threat responses rather than promote regulation.

Asking someone to change their breath without offering choice can feel intrusive, even when the intention is calming. For some nervous systems, being told how or when to breathe may increase vigilance, breath holding, or panic rather than ease.

This does not mean pranayama is inappropriate; it can actually be very nervous system-regulating, but only if offered with flexibility. Invitations rather than instructions, options to return to natural breathing, and permission to disengage are all key elements of trauma-sensitive teaching. Emphasising observation over control can help preserve autonomy while still supporting awareness. A practice that supports choice and self-direction is more likely to remain within a person’s capacity and feel genuinely supportive rather than overwhelming.

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