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Helmut Essig has been teaching Hatha yoga at the Peißenberg adult education center for around 40 years.
© gallmetzer
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Peißenberg - A headstand in the sunrise that a stranger did in the middle of Greece in the morning remains in Helmut Essig's memory.
“It impressed me,” says Essig, remembering this moment as if it were yesterday.
It was the moment when the now 78-year-old consciously came into contact with yoga for the first time.
An experience that would have a lasting impact on his life.
It all started with a headstand
The foreign yogi was also German and had just come from an Indian ashram.
“There was a feeling of optimism,” says Essig, thinking back.
It was the 1970s and he backpacked around the country and met many people who made him think.
“I had a vague spiritual interest,” explains the now 78-year-old.
“There has to be more,” he thought to himself and wanted to do something to counteract the “never-ending cycle through school, training and work.”
“Meditation wasn’t for me,” says Essig and laughs.
He was more comfortable with the introspection of yoga movements.
Back in Munich, he quickly found a VHS course and signed up for it.
But things were sometimes quite brutal there.
“Straddle to the left, straddle to the right and you kept getting hit on the back,” says Essig, who now lives in Bernried.
For himself, he discovered the gentler version of Hatha yoga with “calm, relaxed and flowing transitions”.
He continued to educate himself, completed training as a yoga teacher at the Yoga Support Association in Munich and has been giving many courses since then - including at the Peißenberg Adult Education Center since the 1980s.
Training in Munich
The first yoga classes took place in the basement of a bank.
“On the left there was a grille from the vault,” says the former industrial designer of the unconventional training location, whose old carpeting he remembers with horror.
After moving to the building at the Tiefstollen, he and his participants felt more comfortable: “It was so nice.
You opened the window and the birds chirped.” In the course room in the Rigi Center you can now hear car traffic instead of birds.
Vinegar takes it all in stride: “As a yogi you learn to be flexible.”
This also applies to the exercises.
“I always have to adapt to my own development,” says the yoga teacher, who suspects he is the only male of his kind in the area.
“Many students have grown old with me,” he says, looking happily at participants who have been there for over 30 years.
The eldest is over 90. Therefore, Essig keeps adjusting the movements.
It is important to him that people learn to listen to their inner voice.
“It's no use forcing yourself into something,” says Essig and wants his students to feel comfortable: “People have enough stress and action in the day.”
Essig currently leads five Hatha yoga courses at the adult education centers in Peißenberg and Weilheim.
He is sure: “As long as my health cooperates, I will continue.”