Aug 16

Aug 16 Barcelona Yoga Conference - Wisdom And Movement For Every Body And Soul

By Ema Barba

8 years ago, a family of Yogis from near Barcelona turned their passion into a global community gathering, with dedication and openness. This became the Barcelona Yoga Conference and truth be told you could sense the family spirit pretty much everywhere. A school hosted this year’s edition of BYC - almost as a statement to make the connection between Yoga and education even more obvious!

5 full days of Yoga, music and dance, over 1200 participants from all over the world, 60 teachers, all who are internationally recognized – all in the middle of Barcelona! What more could you ask for? It sure is a lot of work to put on an event like this – but with 160 Yogis in service, everything went completely smooth – even with heavy rain pouring at times.

BYC was literally for every soul – and for any mood that soul might be in.

The attendees who were full of energy, packed their schedules with Vinyasa Yoga, Thai Massage, AcroYoga and Pascal de Lacaze’s Ecstatic Dance workshop (one of my personal favorite workshops)!

For those with less energy, there were opportunities to chill at the music stage where we enjoyed beautiful Kirtan music and many different concerts. There were restorative Yoga sessions daily, which was amazing. For me, particularly liberating was Scaravelli Inspired Yoga with Helen Noakes– it was like my breath took a whole new dimension!

We went to BYC and got more than we asked for – one of the highlights was speaking with Janet Stone, who was teaching on her 50th birthday!

Janet started her Yoga practice when she was just 17, it was at this time she started exploring meditation, then went to India to understand more about her family and ran into Yoga pretty much everywhere. When she returned back to the Los Angeles, she became really immersed into the community. Since that time she has moved up to San Francisco and has become a world renowned Yoga teacher.

She was thrilled to guide a Vinyasa Yoga session on her birthday, but she hopes the inspiration won’t diffuse after the festival! “There’s a difference between coming and arriving at a festival and having a beautiful experience – which to me it is, and it’s to potent to be in the presence of people who want to be awake in their lives" said Janet.

I asked her why she keeps coming back year after year.

She said, "Even the tiniest ripple effect from that is why I come and do these practices every year. Because really the practice is in our day to day behavior. I really hope to encourage not only high experiences at these events, but also that it begins to sparkle away into the world, when you are paying bills, when you are doing the dishes, when you’re in a confrontation, that you carry some remembrance of this practice.

Yoga is the way we behave, the way we see ourselves more clearly. We live very often from a place with a very small view. We see ourselves as separate from things. Yoga is a way to perceive yourself and the things around you more clearly. See that connectivity – yourself, your action, your behavior towards what comes. Kindness extended to another is kindness extended to oneself.”

In her view, if people could choose only one thing to change in themselves to make the world a better place, it would be acting with a sense of empathy and with a sense of compassion towards each other.

We also had the opportunity to speak with Jason Nemer, who has turned AcroYoga into a global movement and Juan Carlos Russo, who is bringing people together through Thai Massage. Stay tuned for these interviews on sfyogamag.com, as they will be coming soon!

To learn more about the Barcelona Yoga Conference visit barcelonayogaconference.cat.

You can register for next years festival, and get a super early bird discount, here!