How sisters from She Ocean Yoga are saving corals with yoga

(Ela:) We are Carmen and Ela, sisters and founders of SHE OCEAN YOGA. Growing up in Innsbruck, Austria, meant spending most of our free time connected in nature, with the mountain lakes and wild woods all just a short walk away from home. Also, our parents introduced us very early on to scuba diving which allowed us to connect with pacha mama on a deeper level: we experienced the underwater life, got fascinated with the beauty of coral reefs, with their wide range of intense colors glowing and illuminating the waters. I still recall the bountiful interactions with many marine creatures, such as hammerhead sharks, turtles, stingrays and fish schools, calling those coral reefs their home. 

Ever since then, both Carmen and I travel as much as we can to some of the most remote places of our Planet. With SHE OCEAN YOGA we found a way to share the magic, to empower our yogis and yoginis to #doyogasavecorals. With every yoga move, we allow to connect with pacha mama again, to give back and help sustain her beauty. Right now SHE OCEAN YOGA is adopting healthy colorful corals off the coast of Flores Sea in Indonesia together with our collaboration partner Coral Guardian.

Carmen traveled the world since she was 20 and by the looks, she’s not planning on stopping anytime soon. I chose a career in public health and social insurance, with the long term aim of introducing yoga as an approach to holistic health in Austrian public health innovation plans. 

Tell us about your journey to yoga. When and how did you get into it?

(Carmen:) Ela got into yoga about 10 years ago and she loved it straight away. When she first asked me to join her I used to think “no way, yoga is a way to relaxed for me, I need something with more action”. Luckily she kept asking, knowing as usually, what´s good for me and eventually I joined. From then on yoga was a huge part in both our lives. It helped me get through difficult times and made it possible to really feel and know myself. Ela did her YTT in India and almost at the same time she started I finished my course in Colombia. We both traveled and thought in various places always inspiring each other and admiring each other’s styles. Back in the same country with all our experiences after years of practice, we decided to combine our knowledge and start SHE OCEAN YOGA.

 How has yoga affected your mental health? Your day-to-day life?

(Ela:) Yoga for me is a holistic approach to life. During my early 20ies, the YOGA spirit started to express itself through my everyday life, it is a way of waking up, interacting with our fellow humans and experiencing our existence on Earth.

Peace of the heart, freedom, love. Those are the great feelings YOGA brings to me whenever I tap into the magic of breathing deeply. Life is kind of expressing itself through our human experience. The human body and senses are fascinating. YOGA allows me to go beyond the physical realm, to take a deep dive into non-physical dimensions of the universe, which we can easily access through our heart waves love vibrations.

What are some choices you make in your day to day life to live more sustainably?

(Carmen:) We both choose to eat a plant-based diet and always exchange recipes to inspire each other. Besides that Ela shops really conscious and I try to go package-free whenever possible. Also, we try and reduce our flights and travel more by train and bus, which is actually great! It feels like real traveling again going on a 20-hour journey to London instead of flying from Austria and be done in 2 hours.

Peace of the heart, freedom, love. Those are the great feelings YOGA brings to me whenever I tap into the magic of breathing deeply.

Tell us more about SheOceanYoga. What is your mission?

(Ela:) #doyogasavecorals! That is as simple as it gets. With SHE OCEAN YOGA we are connecting Yoga Studios and Wellness Hotels with Environmental Protection Projects. Our lead project is #doyogasavecorals: together with our Partner Coral Guardian we are at this very moment transplanting colorful and healthy corals off the coast of Flores Sea in Indonesia. Those corals are the result of the engagement of all the yogis and yoginis coming to our SHE OCEAN YOGA Events in support of the coral transplantation project. 

Our Vision is the empowerment of our yogis and yoginis to connect back to their creative forces, to allow for their yoga moves to evolve into transformative energy that will help sustain the health and beauty of our Planet Earth. When you come to one of our SHE OCEAN YOGA workshops everything will serve the purpose to reconnect you to the water element, like a water meditation, wave-like movement or even walls that are turned into coral reefs. It is very powerful. 

As you are both yoga teachers what advice would you give to someone who is just starting with yoga?

(Carmen:) I guess it would be the advice that we both used to give to each other: just do what feels good. Yoga comes from somewhere deep inside you. It´s not something you do it´s something you are. If you let it happen naturally and practice with self-love it will become a part of you, not a hobby you do. All the knowledge about how to do it “right” will come with time.  When you listen to your heart while you practice you´ll never feel like you “have to” you will always “want to”. People sometimes say it´s the hardest step to actually get on your mat but it really isn´t. It´s right there for you waiting to make your life better whenever you´re ready for it.

Who is a woman in your life that you are inspired by?

(Ela:) My sister. I love the way Carmen is leading her life. In everything she does she expresses freedom, strength, and ease. She knows about the power of flow state of mind and naturally allows life to unfold with her. She is a wild one with a lion’s heart, not afraid to tap into full potential. 

A real inspiration to both of us is Tara Stiles and her movement Strala Yoga which is all about moving from that point of ease from within and making your own rules. Follow your true, your wild soul.

Through my work with SHE OCEAN YOGA, I am blessed to be connecting with this archetype of wild women. The ones you see walking barefoot with a surfboard at sunrise in Puerto Escondido, the ones wearing a bright smile on a rainy day in cold Vienna, that girl owning a massage studio in Malaga who is sharing the ancient healing wisdom with every massage given to her customer, and that girl from New York quitting her very successful career in strategy consulting to become a world-traveling yoga teacher, that one night I observed how a girl went on stage to perform with Picaros in a live music club in Vienna, her voice and dancing wildly inspiring everyone in the room to let go. We all have this kind of wildness within us. Here is to all the inspiring women out there!

Are you planning anything for the next year? Any big projects in the land of She Ocean Yoga?

(Carmen:) We are actually really excited about 2020. We have events planned in Austria, England, and Spain. We are really looking forward to connecting with people and to feel how great it is to do yoga and save corals! I will also be moving into a Van and travel to several collaboration partners across Europe. Ela will be guiding our energies towards a retreat in Mexico including all the magic of early morning yoga, bioluminescence, Temazcal and workshops for massage healing and DIY essential illuminating oils. Also, 2020 will bring along our yearly Charity Flow. Projects and opportunities are arising with a set of Yoga Festivals around Austria and we hear the Maldives calling for collaboration – so stay tuned, great things are happening in the SHE OCEAN YOGA community!