“When he was a small child I could never stop Jesse from climbing on walls and trees, so I just let him do it. When other parents asked me if I am not afraid of what happens if he falls off a tree or wall I simply told them:
No, I’m not afraid.
Because he never falls down.”
— My Mom
I’ve often gotten questions regarding my “sports background” which is why I will try to give a little overview in this section.
First Steps
Movement has been a vital part of my life for as long as I can remember. I loved to jump, climb, be active and move my body.
This might be because I suffered from a severe autoimmune disease after receiving the wrong medication when I was a 2 1/2-year-old child. I was locked onto a bed in an intensive care unit for 2 weeks and at some point, the doctors told my Mom I will probably not make it, and even if I make it I will be blind. Luckily the doctors were wrong.
Ball, Skate, Click and Dance
After jumping on and off trees and walls for some years I started to play football from the age of 11-15 and was completely crazy about the sport. The hype slowly faded away when I was about 15 and I switched the pitch for inline skates, curbs and half pipes.
Although I loved the competitive digital gaming world and being on a team that won small local competitions and at some point was even in the top 100 of an international online league my true passion unfolded when I was 17 and was introduced to the world of Breakdance by a friend.
From then on Breakdance captivated my entire attention and I could not stop thinking about dancing and moves to do and obsessively went to breakdance and acrobatics training for 6 days per week for about 3 years.
After some time first small, then bigger and bigger performance opportunities came up and over the next years I went on to participate in competitions, do small and big performances at all kind of events, teach classes and workshops, and at some point did Streetshow every weekend and spent Sundays treating my wounds from my skin being cut open from the moves on the rough streets of Hamburg.
Despite the short physical pains, the overall experiences I was able to go through were amazing and over time, I was fortunate enough to pay most of my bills through breakdance Freelance gigs over the next years. Here’s an old trailer from the time:
After about 12 years of breakdance, my new full-time professional life took over more and more of my time, my dancing group also split up and I lost the motivation to continue in this field, which is when I had my last professional performance at an international event, and then decided that it was time to finally say goodbye to the dancing stage.
Transitioning Into New Things
I continued to explore new things like training Calisthenics, doing High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT), Bodyweight Workouts, and lifting weights in the Gym. One thing that bothered me was the lack of creative thinking and overall low range of body motion with weighted workouts at the Gym which is why I continued to try out different sports. Fitness took up a lot of space for quite a while, I went on to do a HIIT Instructor certificate for a new workout format that was focused on music and fitness and started teaching HIIT Group Fitness classes once or twice per week besides my full-time marketing job.
At a local marketing conference, I met a Yoga teacher who invited me to one of her classes in 2015 which was my first Yoga experience. The classes were hard and I loved them. I continued to practice Yoga for the physical benefits like gaining more flexibility and did this on and off for about 6 years and also explored other movement-based concepts like Ido Portals Movement Program at a one-week Retreat in Portugal.
Then, I had a mind-altering experience on the island of Fuerteventura in the Winter of 21/22.
Switching On The Inner Light
I attended classes from a teacher named Feli Squetino a high-energy Yoga Teacher from Argentina, who conducted sunrise morning classes on the beach. The classes were magical and had a mix of physical postures, meditation and spirituality that connected to me on many levels that I had not seen and experienced in this form before. After a while, I felt and saw the whole new, deep and diverse world of Yoga unfolding in front of me which extended far beyond the physical benefits I had focused on for the last years. Several weeks of attending her classes passed and I had to leave the Island which is when I asked her for book recommendations and started to educate myself about Yoga postures and philosophy, only to notice that I can not learn what I would love to from only reading books.
In the summer of 2022, I decided I want to travel to India, which I finally did in May 2023 which is when I completed a 200h Yoga Teacher Training.
…Story to be continued…