Ksenia Sadovskaya: "Yoga is a lifestyle"

Is it possible to practice yoga and read Tarot cards? How does standing on nails affect emotions? What is Atma Kriya Yoga? How to change your life and start practicing on the mat? Ksenia Sadovskaya (on Instagram @xs_xenia_ ), a yoga and meditation teacher, a master of the Soul Matrix and Tarot, tells us.

Tell me how you came to yoga? Is it your main activity or a hobby?

How did I come to yoga? I got promoted at work, I became a manager. I needed to somehow calm my thoughts, because I had a lot of responsibilities, the way to work (only one way) took 1.5 hours, the hustle and bustle, I was getting into the rhythm. At some point, I realized that this could not continue, and I saw an ad about yoga, I lived in Elektrostal, in the Moscow region at the time. I signed up for a class, but did not come to the first one, I was afraid, then the instructor herself wrote to me asking, “why was I not there, there is no need to be afraid,” and I came to the second one. I studied in a group for about three months - the groups were small, sometimes people did not come, and I got individual classes. I realized how great it is when you are given so much attention. But then I had financial difficulties, and I stopped studying.

I tried to do it myself using videos, but it didn’t work out that well. Then I went back to individual lessons with the same teacher. I went to her for almost a year, while I was studying to become a teacher. I stopped going when I moved to another city, but I finished my training. This is not my main occupation, but it’s not a hobby either. I am a manager, I currently manage two galleries and combine it with yoga, meditation, Tarot, Instagram and everything-everything-everything. I have a family, a personal life, and animals, I manage to find time for everything. At the same time, I can’t say that this is just a hobby. A hobby doesn’t oblige you to anything, for me yoga is a lifestyle, something that can be shared with other people. Where I develop and see my development as a teacher and mentor for others.  

How do yoga and your passion for Tarot cards fit into your life?

Ksenia Sadovskaya_yogaYes, some people are confused by this. But cards appeared in my life when I was a child, when I was about 12. I was at a camp, some granny was selling cards there, and I bought them. But my parents were skeptical about such things, but I was always drawn to them. When I started listening to myself, about a year ago, I returned from a reboot at Budnikov's, there I saw many people who were engaged in various practices, enjoyed it and were useful to people. At that moment I realized that it was very cool, and I took training in the method of self-knowledge Matrix of Destiny or Matrix of the Soul (it can be called differently). This method is connected with Tarot, and I was drawn to cards on a subconscious level.

For me, cards and yoga go together because it's all about yourself, about how to hear and listen to yourself. It's not about fortune telling. We associate cards with fortune tellers who sit with candles, skulls and magic balls. In fact, Tarot is not about that. Tarot is cards that feel the energy that we have in life, just like yoga - yoga helps you hear yourself, feel your energy, your body. Cards also help you see the energy that we don't notice in life, so for me it's all about the same thing.       

On Instagram, you dedicate posts to the steps of yoga – what is it? And do you really need to know about it to practice?

Yes, I have a series of posts about it. What is it? In our understanding, yoga is physical exercise, but in fact, this is not quite true. Yoga is about the inner state, it is about how you treat yourself and other people. And the steps of yoga are exactly about this. There are 8 steps, I will touch on the first 4, because they are more understandable in our world: Yama, Niyama, Asana and Pranayama. Asana is the yoga that we encounter in life, in the gyms. And, as you have already noticed, it is in third place in this chain, because first come Yama and Niyama - this is the attitude towards oneself, the attitude towards others: non-violence, purity of body and thoughts.

Initially, yoga implied that the practice occurs on a psychological level. As for whether it is necessary to know and practice it, the question is debatable, it all depends on what you want to achieve. If you need yoga only to maintain the physical body, you can just go to classes and not go into philosophy, and this will be your choice, what you need now is the development of the body, but in fact, then this is not quite yoga. Real yoga is about developing yourself comprehensively. So if you want to practice yoga, you need to know about these steps and you need to strive for them. 

Share your impressions of the experience of standing on nails.

Ksenia SadovskayaIt was at the Reboot, where I was. I was wildly interested, the first time was transformative: I stood on Cape Aya in Crimea, I chanted mantras, screamed and cried, but when I got off the nails, I felt like a burden had fallen off my shoulders and I was freed from the emotions that I had not released from my body. For me, it was some kind of epiphany. I wanted to work with it further.

My loved one gave me a board with nails for the New Year, because I talked about them very actively. I began to practice constantly, especially when there are some difficulties in life, nails help to cleanse mentally and emotionally. I began to conduct practices for those who would also like to try.