About us
Our goal is to sustainably deliver the mental and physical benefits of yoga to vulnerable adults and children. AdniJóga is a social enterprise that aims to create positive and long-term social impact. It is important for us that the change we bring about, leaves a mark even outside of our yoga classes and improves the physical and mental health of the participants. We would like to involve as many contributors to support our goal as possible: yoga practitioners, instructors, and business partners alike, thus creating an accepting and inclusive community.
Our story
The story of AdniJóga began on a Greek island. Our founder, Anna travelled to a Chios-based refugee camp as a volunteer to teach English, where the need for some type of movement and relaxation class soon emerged. At the end of 2017, she held her first-ever yoga class for Syrian and Afghan refugee women living there.
“The camp was immensely crowded and there was no public security at all. Everybody lived in tension and fear but with yoga, women were given an hour when they could just let it all go.” (Éva Magazin, July-August 2019). In the group, which consisted of 6 participants, the effects of self-care, conscious breathing and relaxation connected to movement were strikingly visible after 2 months.
The story continued and unfolded in Budapest. In January 2018, Anna came home with the determination to continue what she had started on the island of Chios. She held regular yoga classes at three different charity organizations around Budapest. To support the classes, she asked for the help of her friends: she led yoga sessions for them in return for donations. This is how the current (One-for-One) model of AdniJóga was created. We currently provide our charitable activities, i.e. the long-term, sustainable operation of our 10 groups, by providing services to our business partners. Through our office yoga classes and special pop-up yoga events in Budapest, our supporters can not only experience calmness and relaxation, but they are also giving the same back to the community.
Our values
Safety
Openness
Community
Balance
Our operation
According to our model, we offer various products and services related to physical and mental health to companies. From this income we hold yoga classes, free of charge, for those who could not afford them on a regular basis. We create a link between the for-profit and non-profit sectors by connecting businesses, organizations, and individuals who are open to change and want to achieve a positive social impact on physical and mental health.
We teach yoga classes and mindfulness meditations for companies, in Hungarian and English, as well. We are also present at events, both online and onsite. We organize pop-up yoga classes at exciting locations for individual supporters too. On our Patreon site we regularly post yoga videos and other exciting mental health related content that we create with our instructors, which means that anyone can support our cause while supporting their own well-being.
The team
Our instructors
AdniJóga is, among other things, a community of socially responsible yoga instructors. We work with 15 fantastic instructors to create social impact. Our instructors initially join us as volunteers, and once their socially conscious yoga classes are fully active, they teach pop-up and office yoga classes, as well.
We are proud of our generous, experienced, and diverse team. Collectively, the knowledge of the team comprises several traditions and types of yoga, be it Hatha, dynamic Vinyasa Flow, or yoga with special focus on the spine, as well as meditation or mindfulness. Some of our instructors are also experienced in leading classes in English.
I started practicing yoga 13 years ago to learn how to slow down a bit and focus only on myself, and sometimes just to switch off my mind and not think about anything at all – just to be in a quiet and accepting community. I was lucky because my first yoga teacher was a wonderful woman, called Ági, and I am still grateful to her for putting me on this path. Five years ago I started practicing yoga daily, which helped me in maintaining my integrity while living in 4 different countries and constantly moving from one place to another, doing a variety of jobs. I have been teaching for almost a year since finishing the Mandala Yoga Teacher Training Programme. I really enjoy that I can give time and space to my practitioners and that I can accompany them on their yoga journey. I have been following the story of AdniJóga for a while and secretly hoped to join them one day. Well, may all my dreams come true this way.
AdniJóga provides an opportunity for our practitioners to become more deeply connected to themselves through the various elements of yoga, and to be more resilient in complex and difficult life situations. It is a process where needs and requirements can be articulated more and more clearly, making it easier to leave certain things behind and move on. For me it is wonderful to see these changes.
Yoga has continually accompanied me for the past decade and a half. My practice became regular during a mentally and emotionally stressful period when I was working in Sudan. The presence and wonderful personality of Nathalie, my teacher there, inspired me to complete my first ever yoga teacher training, and I wanted to pass on everything I had experienced with the help of yoga to other practitioners, as well. As I have started to practice yoga differently, other things have come to the fore in teaching: it is more and more important for me that my students learn to trust their body sensations, and that yoga and meditation become tools they can turn to anytime. For me, AdniJóga is a community where we not only work for a common goal but it is also a professional milieu, where we all represent different styles and can learn from each other in an accepting and supportive environment.
I started to do yoga around 2011 to learn how to slow down and find my inner peace. A few years later, with the support of my workplace at the time, I completed a children's yoga teacher training program and led yoga classes for kindergarten groups. Although I have not taught yoga since then, it has remained an essential part of my life. I met AdniJóga thanks to my current job at the Menedék Hungarian Association for Migrants. I am grateful for this community, and the fact that yoga teaching became part of my life again.
As a yoga teacher for children, I consider movement to be very important, especially because yoga asanas have an excellent effect not only on the human body but also on the mind. The asanas create mental codes with which we can control our nervous system. This makes an impact on our lives at every age and in every life situation. We can support ourselves and others at the same time just by going to AdniJóga classes. Everything we need in life simultaneously appears on the yoga mat. Sharing is caring. Movement is universal. Yoga is for everyone.
When I was a kid I wanted to be a vet and I wanted to create a shelter where animals would have everything they needed and where they could live happily. Although it didn't work out that way, the urge to help those in need remained. Be it an animal or a human I simply cannot pass by without doing the best I can to help them. Yoga has taught me many things and the lessons are far from being over. Among other things, it made me realize that the same light shines in every living thing and that only the shape changes. Since I have been practicing yoga I am even more conscious in helping others. AdniJóga provides us the opportunity to help those who need it. It also allows us to make yoga available even to those who could otherwise not experience its beneficial effects. I am grateful to be an AdniJóga teacher. You are what you do!
I really do believe yoga is one of the best things that has happened to me so far. For me it is a way of life and a way of thinking at the same time. And besides all these, it is also a huge resource that holds me together by keeping me completely relaxed and recharged. It can shape not only the human body but also one's mind and personality. I lead yoga classes for both adults and young children, as I am convinced that yoga can be of help at every life stage. I am really happy to be an AdniJóga teacher as it enables me to make yoga available to groups who particularly need its calming effects.
My relationship with yoga started 16 years ago when I was expecting my third child. I love teaching yoga and my main aim is to support my students in exploring their resources. Helping others has always been part of my nature, as I believe one should always help according to one's abilities and the resources they have... giving is important, it's a must. You can give time and knowledge and love and support, even a smile, but you can choose to give yoga, as well. This is how AdniJóga helps : it allows us to share and accept... it is an immense pleasure for me to belong to this team... and thank you for my wonderful yoga practitioners, with whom we can only meet online in the current situation, but we practice together with great enthusiasm that moves us forward.
I started doing yoga in search of balance. Regular practice set me on the path of inward attention and recuperation. Not to mention the fact that it gradually brought me harmony with myself and the world. As a whole, I consider yoga as a way towards my inner peace. Everything I know and experience about yoga drives me to pass it on to others and thereby help them in getting to know themselves better. That is the reason I became a yoga teacher.
AdniJóga is especially close to my heart because it offers relaxation and recharging and makes the lives of those people easier who are constantly facing a lot of daily challenges, so yoga as a tool can be even more valuable to them. It is a great pleasure for me to belong to the AdniJóga-community and work together for these goals.
I started practicing yoga because of my own fears and anxieties. I can step on the yoga mat with joy, but also with anger or even sadness and fully experience all these feelings during practice. I have done yoga before while bursting out laughing but also with dripping tears. Now I know it is perfectly normal because you do not have to, and you are not even advised to, hide anything that you are. After having experienced this effect I became less anxious and the peace in my soul restored itself. So I finally decided that I wanted to pass on this experience to others. It helped me to realise during a discussion about self-awareness that I had to find a profession where I could help others. Although I had felt the urge to do something like this for a long time, I didn't dare to head in this direction. The first time I heard of AdniJóga was two years ago. I found the organization's mission very appealing. We should consider it as our duty to help those in need who live in difficult circumstances. I think one of the best tools for this is yoga. I am happy and grateful for being part of the AdniJóga team, where we can work together to pass all the blessings of yoga to those who would not otherwise have the opportunity to experience it.
Operational team
Besides our instructors, our operational team works every day to make the social enterprise run smoothly: they handle everything from logistics to organizing events, administration and strategic planning.
My very first yoga teaching experience dates back to the time when I led classes for refugee women on a tiny Greek island. This is the place where the idea of AdniJóga was born, this is what I have been working for ever since. My goal is to help people who are in difficult life situations to learn to deal with their problems more easily and consciously through the tool of yoga, mindfulness and relaxation. I would like them to get to know, accept and love themselves, and learn how they could ease their traumas through yoga. Hopefully, as a result, everyday life can get a little easier for them. This, of course, requires that as many people as possible practice yoga in a way that serves a beneficial purpose, as well - this opportunity is what AdniJóga wants to give to companies and individuals, as well as to You!
Számomra a jóga az egyensúlyt jelenti. Megteremti a mindennapok harmóniáját, kikapcsol, feltölt, erőt ad. Már első hallásra beleszerettem az AdniJóga ötletébe, hogy a magunkra fordított idővel másoknak is segíthetünk. Emiatt úgy érzem hogy minden apró belefektetett energia sokszorosan térül meg. Azon dolgozunk, hogy minél több emberhez eljuthasson ez az érzés, mind a jóga öröme, mind pedig az „Adni-Jó” öröme:)
On a winding path several coincidences led me to find AdniJóga, but I already knew from the first time we met that I wanted to be part of it somehow. I like that every day is full of new challenges and that I can use my diverse skills and knowledge while working for a good cause. I am very grateful for all the new opportunities I got here and the great team I can work with.
Túl a harmincon, életem talán legizgalmasabb szakaszát élem, amikor a corporate world-bői kilépve végre olyan dolgokkal foglalkozhatok, amik igazán számítanak. Értékesítésben szereztem eddig a legtöbb tapasztalatot, de mostantól csak olyan dolgokat vagyok hajlandó „eladni”, amiben szívem-lelkem benne van, úgyhogy a szívem egyik felét a jógának, a másik felét pedig a PIZSImnek szentelem.