Giorgos Anagnostopoulos
What if freedom isn’t found in “more,” but in “less”?
About the Facilitator
What if the path to the Atman isn’t a climb upward, but a conscious return inward? In a world that pushes us to move faster, produce more, prove our worth through exhaustion, Slow Yoga arrives — a practice of liberation through deceleration. Not to escape the world, but to meet it with greater presence, awareness, and love. Giorgos Anagnostopoulos, yoga teacher and social policy researcher, invites us to turn inward. To let the body lead, the breath return us to Being, and the Atman illuminate our way within the Flow of the Whole. Come as you are. Here, there’s nothing to achieve — only to return. I have been a yoga student for 4 years. I have completed two teacher training programs totaling 500 hours (RYS-200hours and RYS-300hours) at the Karma Yoga Athens school of Tassos Antonopoulos Narayana, a student of Guru Atma Nambi, receiving the relevant certifications from the International Yoga Alliance. I have also received certifications in bhakti yoga, yoga nidra, usui reiki therapy (2nd degree) and have attended seminars on embodied therapy, kriya yoga, yogic theory, as well as on decolonial approaches to yoga as a path of collective liberation (decolonial yoga, yoga for social justice) both in person and online. I am also a postgraduate student and social policy researcher specializing in socio-ecological transition, political ecology, and de-growth. I firmly believe in individual liberation (moksha) through service (sevam) towards the collective liberation of all beings. For this reason, I practice a socially and politically aware yoga not as a means of avoiding collective pain but as a means of personal and collective transformation towards a more just society of solidarity and freedom for all living beings.
Workshop Details
Slow Yoga - Liberation through slowing down Body and Mind
In the capitalist way of life, the mentality of speed and "results" prevails as the value of everything, including people, is determined by their "productivity," with sad consequences for us and for all living beings. Often this mentality passes into our practices as we seek the "perfect" posture, "strength," "flexibility," and even "calm" as a result of our practice. Indeed, in some versions of yoga in the West, it is taught as a way to increase our productivity and better cope with the demands of endless production and consumption. In the traditional approach to yoga, however, the teaching focuses on the body and mind as a means of liberation from the bonds of the ego and any expectation. In this class, we will strive above all to let the body speak and move through the breath not to "achieve" any specific asana but to free us from the need to constantly move quickly/effectively/"perfectly." In this way, we will "reprogram" our nervous system to slower rhythms and come to the awareness of our unchanging nature that exists behind every phenomenon (what is called "Atma" in the yoga texts). This realization helps us to proceed with awareness on our life's path not to avoid the rest of the world and its problems but to be in a position to offer to the liberation of all beings as we realize the interconnected nature of the web of life. This is what the traditional teachings of Yoga call us to do: "He who sees the joy or sorrow of all beings as his own, is the most perfect Yogi" (Bhagavad Gita, 6:32).