Ilona is an inspiring, passionate professional who helps clients become their best selves through complex solutions. Get to know this unique individual who shies away from rigid questions and boundaries.
1. Ilona, what reasons determined your decision to choose the path of a yoga therapist? How long was your journey to Ilona we see today?
I started my activity as a yoga instructor. I was a very motivated client at a sports club, where I met a fantastic trainer. She introduced me to yoga and inspired me to go to India. There began my deeper acquaintance with yoga. After becoming a yoga instructor, I began to delve even deeper and travel to various conferences on the topic of yoga. In one of them, I visited a very famous yoga therapy teacher from Finland. During the workshop conducted by him, I drew attention to the fact that a lot of yoga instructors who had many injuries came to it. As I watched them and wondered, "What do yoga instructors do wrong that makes them go to yoga therapists?" I became even more interested. In addition, I had problems with back pain that plagued me after giving birth. So, one course replaced the other, I began to travel more intensively in order to learn something more. I dive deeper and deeper. Certifications are required to work as a yoga therapist in Lithuania, so knowing firmly that this is my path, I continued to study until I got it.
While deepening my mastery, I realised that this is what yoga is called, i.e. that widely practiced yoga in gyms where all the difficult poses (called asanas) are performed is not yoga. All those poses, headstands, splits, or any other kind of bending and leaning are only 1/8 of what yoga really is. Yoga is much broader and much deeper: it includes meditations and various breathing exercises, mudras, where physical exercises are combined with breathing, kriyas - cleansing sessions consisting of sequences of exercises, etc. This whole complex of yoga elements is aimed at allowing a person to sit down calmly, cross-legged in the lotus position or simply in another position that is convenient for him, to concentrate or meditate. And in order to achieve that inner peace, neither aching legs nor a back would prevent him.
I understand that it is really difficult for a modern person, regardless of gender, who lives in the flow of information, spends a lot of time in traffic jams, constantly solves daily financial issues, credit issues, children's issues, eventually emotional or mental disorders, and it really does not give us peace. All these challenges and their consequences are faced by each of us to a greater or lesser extent. I want to be happy that we finally started talking about it out loud.
I've had some funny moments on my path as a yoga therapist. I remember when a woman came to me and really wanted to learn a very difficult yoga pose and asked, "How long will it take for me to achieve my goal?" I answered: - "It depends on a lot of factors: Your physical data, the work and effort you put in, but in general - it can take about 5 years." She answered me, "I'll pay for it." My short answer was, "That pays well, but we're going to take about 5 years anyway."
Now everyone wants a very quick result, because that city is serious and so engaging that it seems that I can buy everything, that I can fix everything right away, I will immediately stretch myself, immediately take myself in my hands, calm down, calm down and live a happy life. But all ain't as easy as pie - one side, and on the flip side - a piece of cake.
2. How did the idea of combining yoga and therapy come about? And what is yoga therapy for you?
Yoga therapy is about taking responsibility about yourself and making choices. It has a lot of similarities with physical therapy, but I integrate visceral massages into the exercises, i.e. massages of internal organs. For me, yoga therapy is about the entity. To be One.
The common answer of a client when I ask him what is the reason of his visit is usually: "To assemble himself, to find inner peace", but after a couple of sessions it turns out that he is going through two back-to-back losses. It turns out that a person came to yoga therapy looking for help. He decided that yoga therapy would help him. However, yoga therapy is certainly not a panacea for all ailments. And I am not deceiving anyone in this place, but I urge a person to take care of himself and seek help from qualified specialists in the relevant field, to save himself. I don't give up on a person and invite him to come back after six months, because the body remembers everything and it will react to every stress, experience, every emotion.
In yoga therapy, it is possible to work with internal energy centers, so-called chakras, and it is also possible to work with internal organs, because each of them accumulates stress, anxiety, depending on what the person's inclination is. After that, not the goal itself - how to overcome pain in the knee or shoulder joint - starts to look more interesting, but the process - how we go to the shoulder or from the shoulder, search, explore.
One of my professors said such a mystical phrase 5 years ago that about 90% problems related to the shoulder joints are determined by problems with internal organs. And when I went to that teacher this summer, this is what he said: traditional medicine confirmed that not 90%, but already 97% problems related to shoulder joints are determined by problems with internal organs: for example, dislocation, spasms. A natural question arises as to where they come from.
3. What would you wish for people who cannot find their inner peace and are facing emotional health problems?
I would like to single out this question right away, because I think that in this place the yoga that we imagine it to be is not going to help here. In my opinion, on this issue, you should contact specialists, of whom there are many and really competent ones in Lithuania. When a person comes in, it's never like I work with them only as a yoga therapist. Even before starting the therapy, we talk, perform tests, see what questions arise, what are the expectations of the person himself. It is very important to know the expectation: what responsibility he wants to put on me, what responsibility he takes himself. A person usually needs comprehensive help. And if I see that a person might need the help of a psychotherapist, I will definitely refer him there.
It's really common to hear clients say: "One problem at a time doesn't go away: I sprained my leg, I experienced the loss of a loved one and something else happened." A set of problems. Everyone is very individual, there is no identical case when working with clients. Therefore, there is not a single case where I would work with a new client the same way I worked with a client who visited me a year ago. We are all individual, that's why I work with everyone very individually.
If in traditional medicine we take a person as a unit and start dividing him into parts, we divide, divide, divide and divide according to areas, muscles, bones, joints, divide down to cells, molecules, and in non-traditional medicine, for example, Ayurveda, yoga therapy, vice versa , we combine and assemble a person from those parts. What's the point of handing it out, and then how to collect it? What do I get out of handing out? That is why I focus on connectedness in my yoga therapy.
My experience shows that the client has to work with himself, I work with him and if I see a need, we use osteopathy, manual therapy, massages, psychotherapy. And together we take steps towards recovery, we look for the best ways and methods, each specialist does his job.
4. Femininity. How would you define a "feminine woman"?
A feminine woman to me is someone who feels like being herself. And it doesn't matter how she looks like. Does it correspond to the traditional concept of beauty, i.e. with long hair, standing elegantly on high heels, or going beyond this concept and today piloting an airplane, or driving, or sailing, or riding a bicycle. The most important thing is that she feels herself and "on her plate". I value femininity as an inner feeling: how I feel today and how I want to be today. My femininity is determined by my inner sense of how I want to be and how I feel about it. For example I rode a motorcycle today and felt very free and happy, feminine.
5. Does clothing affect your inner state? What clothes do you have in your closet? How do you choose them? What is important for you?
I really like oversized clothes and always chose loose style clothes. I have the most of them in my closet. Linen clothes of Grand Duchess give me a feeling to be felt like they assemble me. Especially with the women linen pants, linen I felt really feminine. Very comfortable linen clothes, although I am used to such looser clothes. And Grand Duchess linen clothes are like oversize, but at the same time have strict shapes. The high waist of the women linen pants, straight lines, emphasize my figure very well. I felt very comfortable. I liked both the material and the tailoring of linen clothes. By the way, I felt very feminine.
Clothes have a direct impact on my inner state. If I think that I want to be and look like a rapper today, I obviously choose the appropriate clothes. And if tomorrow I want to fly a couple of centimeters above the ground, it is clear that I would choose the pants we just talked about.
Actually when we did the photoshoot for this Blog, I saw the Grand Duchess linen clothes for the first time and I had no expectations. It was a lot of self-examination for me, whether I would fit and like it, whether it would allow me to feel in my body.
And I felt very comfortable. Thank you for your creativity.
6. It is said that every change starts with a small step. What ritual would you suggest to every woman who wants to start her transformation journey to introduce into her daily routine?
Of course, I can't imagine my day without morning exercise. My day always starts with a glass of hot water with a pinch of salt, and of course exercise, breathing, I massage my internal organs. I don't do any fancy things, the rituals are simple. But when I go to bed at night, I look forward to the morning, because I know what I will do in the morning. In the course of the day, I exercise more intensively. In short, meeting one good teacher, learning one good asana and one good breathing exercise is enough in life. You can go very far with this kit
7. What is it to be in the moment, to know yourself? How to achieve this?
One is a very good meditative technique: when you sit down, close your eyes and try to just feel the touch with your body.
- What the body is currently touching. And I start, let's say that my sit bones are now touching the floor, that my skin is touching clothes, with what clothes, what sensation, the skin of my hands feels one thing, the skin of my feet feels another, the way my head feels.
- I go through all these points in my mind. I spend only 5 minutes on it, during which I discover, discover and discover what I am now touching.
- Then the next moment sounds. I try to feel at least 5 sources of sounds. I record what sound I hear in the room at the moment, then I record what sound I hear outside: maybe a bird flew by, maybe a car passed somewhere far away, maybe a pet passed somewhere.
And we concentrate on the sounds for some time. Next we move on to the taste in the mouth. All of this begins to focus on this very moment - here and now.
This exercise helps a lot when anxiety hits and when you need to come back to yourself and be with yourself. One of the simplest, but really effective methods. Without asking yourself any questions, just stop that flow of information, sit down and think about nothing. And the thoughts that "come" to your mind should be taken and easily dismissed from your mind. They come in like a guest to have tea with you, but you don't pour them tea. Just accompany and say that I will invite you next time.
I call such practices concentration, self-concentration, because meditation is already becoming a worn-out word.
9. Ilona, what would be your wish for modern Duchesses?
I would like to point to take care of yourself, love youryself, pay attention to yourselself. Suggest to make en expersice to define yourself: "What is this self-love for me?". Of course, a luxurious handbag can be an expression of self-love for someone, but it is very likely that it will not improve the quality of life in the long term and will not solve anything.
Quality sleep, a non-toxic environment, the realization that I can choose: how I feel today, how I dress today, what I would like to wish for myself today. It helped me a lot at one time and I think that here is one of the best ways to live a happy life.
Ilona's look:
Linen shirt oversize style "Liberty"
Linen dress blue color with Star patters "Rock Star"
Linen shirt of men's style "Irreparable Optimist"
Linen shirt and linen shorts set "Sophisticated"
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