Andrea from Argentina
Ellie from USA
Lois from Netherland
Christine from USA
«Marisol, I just wonted to say thank you and how grateful I am for getting to know you the past few weeks, thank you for opening up your beautiful space for us and creating a safe, secure space that is overflowing with love!
I want to say thanks for the strength you have in listening to all of our problems and issues, on top of everything, you are already dealing with your own life! Being able to come to you during this time of transformation was so helpful! You are so incredibly selfless, strong, and independent! You are always giving and not asking for anything in return. All that you have done to create this special place and to give back to the community and all of the children is so incredible and heart warming!
You have touched more lives then you probably even know! Thank you for the sound of your incredible voice when we sing mantras in the morning and for your contagious laugh!
Your smile lights up every single room, and people truly feed off of your energy!
Thank you so so very much for helping me to get a glimpse of the light. I was honestly in a tough place in my life before coming here and you have helped me to open my heart.
Always let your light shine»
Julie Robinson, December 2015 Graduate
«Marisol, thank you for this amazing opportunity and allowing me to spend time at your beautiful home and sacred space. I have learned so much and grown as a person and spiritual teacher. I am very grateful for your friendship and mentorship, and I look forward to coming back to learn and study more with you. I wish you all the best as you build your new home and temple in San Salvador. Words cannot express how happy I am to have met you and be able to call you a friend. I am sad to leave here, but very excited to carry on with my practice and spiritual journey and share all that you have taught me with others. This experience and place will always be dear to my heart. Muchas gracias
Namaste»
Alyssa Van Durme, April 2016 Graduate
«Dear fellow yoga practitioners, students, and future teachers,
My name is Shayna Zema, and I have been practicing yoga for over
half a decade and teaching yoga for over several years. My yoga journey began while traveling in Guatemala, and then evolved over time into being part of a community of practitioners and teachers at my university in Rhode Island, USA. After graduation, I knew I wanted something more and found through recommendations of friends who traveled in South America Sembrando Semillas Con Yoga. Indecisive about what my next step would be for my career, I decided to put myself first and finally pursue my 200hr formal certification this past October. And honestly, my 20-something days outside of Cusco transformed my entire relationship with yoga, as well as my relationship with myself.
I entered the YTT with probably more experience than my peers; I
had studied anatomy thoroughly, taught classes for a couple years with ease, and had familiarity with piecing together sequencing and using cue words. Nevertheless, I learned so much more during my training than I could have ever anticipated. I found the spiritual void that I was seeking by learning more about yoga’s history and traditions, about the subtle connections between mind, body, and breath, and the way to be a yogi without movement on a mat. I studied alignment in depth, not only by correcting others but feeling the changes on my own body. I was able to use my time to explore myself with all my intricacies, and be supported in a safe space to uncover the shrouds of my deepest fears and insecurities.
I felt vulnerable at first being far away from home, but I quickly made the most beautiful, true friendships with the other students and with my teachers. The long days of meditation and yoga required a rigorous schedule, but often I found myself waking up before sunrise to have alone time in the Temple to do my own personal practice. Living conditions were meant to be rustic, to truly embrace the yogic lifestyle and live in harmony with the environment, and as a community, we supported each other to overcome our struggles of materialism and physicality that we may have been accustomed to before the training.
Since my training was during Peru’s winter, weather was a challenge. We would have days of sunshine mixed with days of rain. We would experience cold mornings, steamy afternoons, and chilly nights. We would keep warm with bonfires and blankets, and we would cool off with medicinal baths in the grass in the sun. We ate local, vegetarian foods prepared with love and mindfulness and used compostable toilets to preserve our space. We showered when the sun would warm our water and we took turns waking each other up in the mornings.
Our lives were simple, and that was the absolute necessity for the transformative power of our training. We removed the burdens and responsibilities of the outside, chaotic world in order to delve deeper into ourselves, into each other, into what yoga means to us and how we hope to grow in our practices, both physical and spiritual. The rural lifestyle allowed us to better connect with each other, to explore our backgrounds, our struggles, and our successes, and to determine what happiness and fulfillment mean to each of us. We maintained contact throughout the program with ourselves, feeling first hand the effects of our one-day-off each week when we went to the city of Cusco and came back drained from the hustle and bustle of an urban metropolis. We gained flexibility each day–not just in our yoga asanas, but as individuals, members of a fixed schedule that may be very different from our normal lives who would approach what was before them with respect, grace, and gratitude.
As you venture forth on your yoga journey, I ask that you keep in mind what it means to be a yogi–and that doesn’t mean mastering a tough, physical pose in black leggings. It means love, respect, gratitude, appreciation, flexibility, understanding, and simplicity. It requires time on and off the mat and needs to be practiced each and every day. I wish you much luck on your path and bow to you for your patience in taking the time to read this letter.»
Shayna Zema, New York & Jerusalem (Graduate October 2015)
«I have learned a lot about myself, how to deal with people and life. As I worked as a consultant before, I knew what a stressful life looks like. SSCY has transformed my entire view on life and what is important to me…Marisol prepared us very well. I enjoyed teaching my first class at SSCY and have been enjoying it ever since.»
Alina Klaus (Graduate December 2015)
«The yoga retreat is an intense practice of yoga, meditation and pranayama from two world class teachers. This three week program is for the serious student who wants to make great progress in their personal practice, as well as instruction to become a dynamic teacher. Christian and Marisol deliver all this knowledge and more.»
Katie Haley, BS, LMT Florida, USA http://www.cosmicflower.com (Graduate, May 2015)
«The course is definitely one of the highlights in my 20 months travels around the world, and also my life. We stayed in one of the most beautiful parts of Peru, 4000 meters, beautiful village, beautiful scenery, and beautiful people. The yoga course is on a little permaculture farm in which you can always get the most fresh and healthy food. It is for a good cause as our teachers run the NGO for local children and people.
Our teacher Marisol is the queen for asana while Christian is the king for theories and philosophies, thus it was a perfect combination for us. We had a structured class schedule, and I also had enough flexibility in the course to explore the areas that I wanted to learn more about. Christian and Marisol are very knowledgeable yet humble, caring and loving, they always had a lot of patience for me when I was throwing at them crazy amount of questions. It was a small class with fewer than 10 people, felt like a community, a home, much better than the course with a large number of students. Even now, after 1 and half years, I am still in touch with Marisol and Christian, and almost every classmate, we still feel like a family.
I was very fortunate to get a partial scholarship for the course. The impact of the 200h course is not only just immediate (It did changed my body, my diet, and my mind), but also very long-lasting and profound. I developed a much deeper understanding of yoga and spirituality through this course, and started regular practise of yoga since the course (which I never had before), and now I am assisting yoga classes in Cambridge University in the UK. Thanks to the course, and thanks to yoga, I became a much happier, joyful, mindful, peaceful person. I have much more love for myself and others than before, and yoga is still a big part of my life that I have tremendous amount of gratitude for Marisol and Christian.»
Yifan Sun, CHINA (Graduate, February 2014)
«My experience at sembramos semillas was a lifechanging experience. It was such a loving and warm athmosfear and gave mi the knolege i needed to take my Yoga practice to the next level. They live what they teache and inspire there students with there loving and kind way. I long for the day I can once again dive in to the Yoga practice together with Marisol and Christian.»
VAFA
«Spending three weeks at Sembrando Semillas was not at all what i had expected. Yes i had expected to be doing a lot of yoga, but i was not ready for my whole being to be tested out. Everyday i would wake up early a little scared of what may be in store, but every evening i would go to bed so happy and content with the amount i had learnt and the amount i had pushed myself.
Over the three weeks i learnt an incredible amount and pushed my boundaries in which i am so thankful for. Looking back now almost four months ago, I am realising more and more each day how helpful the time with Christian and Marisol was. They provided a space for personal growth, physical growth and spiritual growth. I have never met anyone like Christian before. His teaching ability and passion for teaching is powerful and it starts at 6am in the morning and finishes at 9pm at night, everyday. I am truly blessed to have been able to spend three weeks at this incredible place.
Don’t expect it to be easy, but nothing great comes easy. I thank Christian and Marisol for this opportunity.»
Brad Holmes (Wellness Coach) Australia
A beautiful solo from the earth