IKIGAI Praha — Osadní 774/35, Czechia

Urban retreat centre for bodywork, Kundalini Hatha Yoga and aikido in Prague

Enter the Hamfactory complex in Holešovice, pass the café Osada straight ahead, turn right to entrance B2, ring the bell marked IKIGAI and take the lift to the third floor. There is an urban retreat centre run by two people who reached it from different directions. Nadine Szumilas trained as a molecular biologist and researched autoimmune disease at the University of Erlangen. Her question was never only what happens in illness, but why a working body turns on itself. Her own turn began with a bus accident and chronic back pain that doctors and therapists could not ease. Yoga, tried at her sister's gentle insistence, ended the pain in a remarkably short time. She went on to study yoga and Ayurveda. She is now a student of Tantrācārya Dharma Bodhi and offers Ayurvedic Yoga massage, Marma Cikitsa and holistic health consultations. Viktor Kronďák came by way of movement and a fascination with Japan. He started aikido at 26 and trained for nearly twenty years with Shihan Edmund Kern Sensei. After his teacher's death he felt a great void, which pushed him to look for deeper understanding. The centre rests on three pillars. The first is bodywork, including Ayurvedic Yoga massage and Japanese Saionji massage, which it describes as found nowhere else in Prague. The second is Kundalini Hatha Yoga, which it calls its exclusive home in the Czech Republic. The third is martial arts as a way of cultivating body and mind. Services run in Czech, English and German. The calendar is varied: a Kundalini Hatha Yoga basics course, a monthly Yoga for Men class, kīrtan, a four-week stress relief course, a Tantric Enneagram retreat, satsang with Dharma Bodhi, and talks on Bach flower essences and Japanese green tea.

Traditions: Kundalini Hatha Yoga, Ayurveda, Aikido, Tantric Yoga, Kīrtan, Yoga Nidra

Programs: Ayurvedic Yoga Massage, Saionji Massage, Marma Massage, Holistic Health Consultations, Kundalini Hatha Yoga Basics, Yoga for Men, Stress Relief Course, Tantric Enneagram Retreat