Name – Ava Carstenshome base – Hamburg, Germanyprofession – fashion director, consultant and brand experiencesocial media – Website Kollektiv49.com – Instagram @ava_carstens // @kollektiv49Favoritefood – breakfastanimal – pigword - flowsong - All-Time-Favourites: Lauryn Hill Doo-Wop (That Thing) & Moderat „A new Error“ and current favorites: The Soil „We are one (Celebrating Humanity)“ – this song says it all! And Bonobo „Break Apart“. yoga style – I love practicing yoga in many different styles. That’s my favorite.It depends on how do I feel and what do I need today?! I’m practicing a lot of power and vinyasa yoga but I also love meditation, yin, ashtanga, hatha, iyengar, jivamukti yoga. Your yoga, your style, your rules.When and why did you start practicing yoga?- I started practicing yoga in 2013 in NYC. Why? I don’t really know. I’m a curious person I love trying new things. I just wanted to give yoga a try (and myself). Before I took my first class I had a lot of prejudices about yoga and the yoga community. I thought I wouldn’t like that. But my first experience blow my mind away. It was such a blissful moment and eversince I’m addicted. Never felt so good and so many different aspects in my body and my mind after 90 min of a “practice”.Describe yoga in one word?- Essence.What’s your most unforgettable yoga experience?- I had many unforgettable yoga experiences. There is not just ONE. Yoga itself and the journey I went through or better say the journey is still going on – this is unforgettable. Life force energy.What’s your statement about “men & yoga”?- Yoga is like a human body and mind language. It’s for everybody and everyone. I’m not thinking too much about men or women (if I’m teaching or attending a class). But of cause it’s obvious and I can’t assert that there is an equal brake down between men and women in a yoga class. Yoga is a woman's domain (in the Western world). But I hope in the future there will be more men who start practicing yoga and loose there fear/image about “what’s typical man and what’s woman” – yoga does not care if you are a man, a woman, black, white, green, blue, tall, small, big, skinny, stiff, flexible, a vegan or a carnivorous. Yoga does not belong to any race, gender, age group, ability level or body type. How is yoga ever supposed to prove itself as a practice applicable to everybody unless everyone gives it a shot?!What advice would you give someone who wants to start doing yoga?- Just give it a shot ;) If you step on your mat – congrats you made it! Try not to think too much about the asana practice, about flexibility and physical strength, about how you think a pose and you should look like. If you fall out of a pose just breath, laugh and be kind to yourself. If you can’t reach your toes – who cares?! Your practice is not about performance it’s about feeling and breathing. Listen to your body and find your own yoga, your own style, your own practice. Not everyone has a blissful fist yoga experience but don’t give up to fast. Try to find your teachers, test many different styles, studios and places.When it comes to yoga, there is no such thing as a lost cause. No one is ever too old, too immobile, too weak, too inflexible to reap the benefits yoga has to offer. Yoga is infinite in it’s adaptability and applicability. How can yoga prove any of it unless you step on your mat and give it an honest, gentle and kind shot?!Photo Credits: Daniel Wesche @blondeboyinblack

Who is Who x Ava Carstens