"I have been a member of the EC Yoga Club since 2015, and I would typically go to classes once or twice a week on average. Then came the pandemic, the lockdown and the zoom era. With every work online meeting I realised to what point I was developing a serious zoom-phobia, and I was more than sceptic about the prospect of doing yoga poses in front of my screen.
And yet - this was the new reality and my desire to continue the yoga journey was ultimately stronger than my reluctance. I discovered that the quality of the teaching via zoom was in no way diminished compared to the real thing and that the teachers were, each in their way, so attentive to us pupils and our needs. An invisible bond was being knitted between all those connected - we were in it together! Faced with a heavy work load I was not always able to join the live classes but luckily I could just go to the recordings and chose the timing and yoga class that suited me. I developed my personal weekly yoga menu and my attendance increased from 1-2 classes a week to 4-5 classes, with Naomie on Monday, Corinne on Tuesday, Gustavo on Wednesday, Stefania or Julie on Thursday, and Palle on Friday. And sometimes I would return to the mat on Sunday for an extra hour spent with one or the other teacher whose voices by now had become so familiar to me.  
Yoga was a life-line for me during the last two years, allowing me to recentre myself in times of hectic workload and isolation. It helped me to stay focused, to balance my energies and emotions, to build up inner strength.  So, when I look back, I am grateful for the journey I undertook despite, or better said, thanks to the circumstances that Covid imposed on us. And I am so thankful that there was the CYCE, with its marvellous teachers, and the generous offer of lessons (for a more than reasonable price). I am looking forward to returning to live classes when they resume, but I hope that we can maintain hybrid courses so that everybody can join at the time and place that suits them.
Thank you and Namaste!"

“In March 2020 the world turned upside down. All the certainties we used to have were gone. Apart from logistical changes, the pandemic brought important emotional distress as well. I was very glad that the Yoga Club of the Commission moved the classes online and we could continue practicing together in the cyberspace. Just one click and I can follow a wide range of yoga classes from my living room. I don’t even need to login at a precise time. The sessions are recorded and I can practice whenever it suits me. These yoga sessions helped me stay in good physical shape and it became an indispensable tool to fight any kind of distress. The yoga teachers and the organising team have done a lot for our physical and mental well-being.  
If you haven’t tried yoga yet, don’t hesitate to join us. The classes are beginner-friendly.”

“I started Yoga classes with the Yoga Club of the Commission in 1997. We had only one yoga room in a building in Schuman. I was impressed that classes were given there since the beginning of the “Common Market” and I was happy to allow myself this break at lunchtime as I was literally diving into another world! A world of humanity, peacefulness, kindness and thoroughness. I was lucky to find very good teachers to guide me into breathing techniques and postures. This was a time for myself, discovering and learning to move and feel in subtlety my body and breath and consequently find inner strength as well as relief that helped me at that time to find my balance and “recover” from the demanding working life as well as family life after work. I could follow classes even though I was expecting my second child until 6 months pregnancy.  When the hosting building could not offer a yoga room anymore, benevolent colleagues could manage to find more than 1 room and the opportunity to practice with more teachers and new timeslots.  
The Yoga Club has always functioned with benevolent colleagues ready to offer as much classes as possible with the best available teachers. I myself was benevolent at a period of time and found it very gratifying.  
This initiative is a real opportunity for us as the year registration fee is really peanuts comparing to the outside offer.  I wish you could find your inner peace by practicing yoga as the posture and breathing practice is a way to connect the body with the mind and vice-versa. “Your body is your temple” means that it deserves attention and care by releasing the tensions that contracts your muscles and mind so you can flow into lighter vision of your life and enjoy every moment of it, even what appears “negative” at a first glance will melt a few moments later and you will be able to detach from the result. “

“I started practicing yoga more than 25 years ago, a little bit by chance or, to be more accurate, after an accident that injured my knee.  I will always be grateful to my first teacher, a Iyengar certified teacher, that introduced me honestly to the practice. I continued practicing until I came to Brussels in 2001 and I stopped for a few years. I only discovered the Cercle de Yoga later, around 2007.  As most members, I just paid my fee, attended the courses, and I didn't care too much about the organization, until the move of SC-27 was announced in 2014. It was then when I realized the Club was in a critical situation and I decided to support the board.  I discovered a bunch of extraordinary ladies (Yvette, Irmy, Sylvia, Daniela, Aida, and later Joanna) that were investing a lot of their time to keep the Club going.  And we succeed to overcome the abandon of our wonderful room in SC27.  It was a period of extraordinary activity reaching almost 500 members and we organized dozens of workshops on Sunday morning.  More than 1000 courses a year with 14 regular teachers on 6 different buildings. As everything, my period helping the board ended, just a little before the pandemic, when the board was looking for a replacement. And then is when new extraordinary people (Cristina, Fruzsina, Alexandra, Michael, etc.) come with new energy to reinvent the Club activity and go online for almost two years. Thanks to that I could keep my practice at home with my beloved yoga mates. And here we are, looking for opening up of the rooms again, with our very dedicated teachers (one of the biggest strengths of the club is the care when appointing their teachers), looking for hybrid classes. I just did my first one and I can only say : BIG THANK YOU CYCE!"

"It’s great to see that the Yoga Club is still getting excellent teachers. It had already been going since 1967 when in 1973 I started at the Commission and became a member. In those days our yoga room was underground in a garage and lessons were once a week – always the same teacher. I was the only man and had to share the ladies’ changing room! Yoga was very feminist in those days.
But the Club grew from strength to strength. I eventually became part of the committee and persuaded them to bring in non-French-speaking teachers and call it the Yoga Club. I then became President for eight years and we introduced morning and evening yoga classes in addition to the usual lunchtime classes.
I retired in 2012 so it is very satisfying that so many people are still enjoying the amazing benefits yoga gives. Although flexitime and home working must affect the number who take a class through their lunch-hour. I am delighted to see that the Club is doing even better than it was when I was in charge! Congratulations!! Namaste

Quoi? Plus de yoga? Plus cette heure de détente et d’écoute de soi chaque semaine? Une frustration collatérale de plus de ce foutu virus. Impossible. Tout de suite essayer, se souvenir, se triturer les bras et les jambes au rythme de sa respiration. Mais s’arrêter vite, manque d’incitation, d’émulation, d’ambiance. Le calme, le vide, l’angoisse même si bougie dehors tous les soirs et applaudissements à la fenêtre.
Jusqu’à ce qu’une lueur d’espoir revienne avec les cours en …quoi? en DISTANCIEL! Oui l’écran qui sert aussi à des choses ludiques, qui fait qu’on est presque là, avec le prof, à l’écouter encore plus attentivement avec encore plus de motivation. Et pas seulement notre prof mais tous les autres, on compare, on passe de l’un à l’autre, on en a un presque pour tous les jours, avec en plus des gourous de méditation, c’est le pied! Quelle chance, quel plaisir, mais quelle organisation aussi, on sait et on dit merci, merci et encore merci.
Gratitude et reconnaissance éternelles!