Magdalena Mecweld
Magdalena Mecweld is the author of the book and app “Serenity Yinyoga – Rest yourself to healthy body and a calm mind” (LUX). Read more about the app & book here.
Magdalena has practiced formal vipassana meditation in the Theravada tradition for many years and has been deeply inspired by teachers such as S.N. Goenka, Joseph Goldstein, Pema Chödrön, Gil Fronsdal and Ajahn Sucitto among others. Every year she deepens her own practice on longer retreats with her main teacher since 2012, Sayadaw U Tejaniya.
Magdalena has an in depth knowledge in Classical Hatha Yoga, Ashtanga, Yin and Restorative yoga. Magdalenas yoga inspirations are her friends and teachers Norman Blair, Sajt PK, Bernie Clark, Kristina Karitinou Ireland and Petri Räisänen among others. For more then a decade Yin yoga has been her main teaching style and she is among the first ones teaching it in Scandinavia. Magdalena is also the leading teacher of Yinyogacenters teacher trainings and has certified many new Yin yoga teachers. Magdalena’s ability to weave together physical yoga asana and mindfulness practice in a simple yet profound way makes her teachings emotionally, mentally and physically rewarding. She is known for her warmth and her easy and humorous teaching style.
She has a BA degree in social anthropology and history of ideas. For many years Magdalena worked as an established journalist in Swedish media, mostly for the leading newspaper Svenska Dagbladet where she wrote about health and travel (see her articles here). For some years now her time has been fully focused on teaching Yin yoga trainings.
She has an adult daughter and lives with her partner Mats Nielsen in Stockholm, Sweden. Both Magdalena and Mats are board members of the Vipassanagruppen, Sweden that invites many competent meditation teachers from around the world to teach in Sweden.
"From my early teens I've has been fascinated with questions concerning life and death. Since then I inquired among many different techniques, teachers, teachings and spiritual maps to get some answers to these questions. A young single mom, raising my daughter on my own while studying journalism and social anthropology and working part-time wasn't easy, but it was for sure one way of “weakening the ego” and strengthening some sort of self-discipline. At the same time I was also working as a professional astrologer trying to deepen my knowledge in the "spiritual" parts of life, reading and investigating different maps of mysticism: Buddhism, Sufism and Hinduism as well as western philosophy. The writings of J. Krishnamurti, Castaneda, Suzuki Roshi as well as Eckhart Tolle and Dan Millman has all been great inspirations for me during those years. I loved the open mindedness of the so called New Age, but I did not want to feel my heart or body...It hurt....An injured back, severe chronic pain (3 fused vertebras) from an accident, and a thyroid condition (Graves disease) made both my body and heart suffer. So I looked the other way. In 2000 I met a yoga teacher on a beach in Thailand and in spite of the initial aversion included my body in the quest, starting a daily asana practice. Ashtanga was a big love and I started teaching it in 2003. A few years later I met my first Yin yoga teacher Norman Blair - it wasn't love at first Butterfly, but the feeling afterwards was a revelation. I travelled to London and did both his and Sarah Powers TTC:s. Some transforming answers to my questions came when I finally immersed myself in the Buddha-Dharma and began a daily meditation practice in early 2004. I wanted to include the Dharma in the yoga. I was one of the first yoga teachers teaching Yin yoga in Stockholm, with not many students attending - this soon changed when more and more people realised the beauty of this slow and mindful practice. In 2006 I was considered free of Graves and has since then not experienced any symptoms. Although my back isn’t healed, for many years I haven't had any back pain or other problems with it. I'm most certain that it is the yoga asana, both ashtanga and Yin and the daily meditation practice that are the main reasons for my – since then - relatively good physical and mental health. Well, and years of intense Psychotherapy of course....In 2012 my book and app were published and became unexpected bestsellers. Although I now use Buddha’s teachings as my main map on the journey Im always curious and open to new teachings and answers. Life is ever exciting and always new and open."
“I try to see my everyday life as a meditation and a retreat, always trying to be aware of all of life’s events. It is not only what happens on the yoga mat or meditation cushion that is interesting, it is our reactions when everyday life presses, stressing us, when things are not the way we want them, or when they actually are.
Much Love,
Magdalena”