About Us

Paola and Adrian

Here is one possible story of how we ended up here…

Paola and Adrian are offering everything from a “normal” Yogasana class to deep journeys into altered states of consciousness with different techniques and rituals. Holding a solid healing space for the circle, with a good sense for helpful settings, humour and love, is what they both like to do: In service of THE ONE.

Adrian Wirth

During my Environmental Science studies at the ETH Zürich life brought me repeatedly into situations where my worldview and my self-perception got deeply challenged. Among these situations I had in 1997 a health problem, a benign bone tumor inside my hip joint, which out of the blue challenged my self-image as a young, healthy sportsman and raised the question: “Who am I at all, if I can’t move anymore, can’t run around and play soccer or go mountaineering?” How can I regulate my emotional well-being without sport? As difficult this situation was at that moment, it also triggered my curiosity. What is at the core of ourselves and the things in the world? Who am “I”? This curiosity and intuitive feeling that told me softly but clearly: “That can’t be it, there must be more between Heaven and Earth than they tell you at ETH…”. This curiosity led me to explore the inner worlds with teacher plants and eventually it led me to Yoga and Meditation. In the same way you learn to explore and understand the outside, material world at the ETH, there is a rich and vast set of teachings and techniques in the Indo-Tibetan wisdom traditions to explore and understand the “inner” worlds, the mechanics of mind. That fascinated me, that was my thing, I found my Dharma, my calling! And since I first sat down on a Yoga mat and a meditation cushion in Vancouver 2002, I never stopped practicing, exploring and questioning. Ever since, small parts and pieces have come together to form a bigger picture about who I am and what a human life can be. A picture, which is growing way beyond the limited, materialistic, reductionistic worldview with the “I” at the center. This bigger picture is ultimately relaxing and comforting! Opening up to this spiritual, consciousness-first model of the world doesn’t mean that I don’t stand with both feet firmly on the ground!

With my first Yoga Teacher Training in 2007 this passion of mine became my profession. Today I feel really blessed and grateful to be able to walk on the Yoga path and to share it with interested people around the world. The Yoga path, which is a path that brings you closer to who you really are, brings healing and transformation to the core of our being.

My way of teaching boiled down to a few lines: All questions and hypothesis are welcome, there are no dogmas / belief or rational understanding is not enough, it’s about first-hand yogic experience / the universe is inherently kind and has a lot of humour / altered states of consciousness are very helpful on the path of transformation / the rational, logic mind based around the “I” is not everything there is: belief me and see for yourself / developing true devotion to the Highest is an extremely helpful practice / the Highest has many human made names and is pure LOVE / first dance the survival dance, pay your bills and organise your life in a reasonable way, then open up for the sacred, spiritual dance and explore the depth of Yoga (union with the ONE) / the circle is the medicine – we can learn from everybody all the time and, what a miracle, also from plants and mushrooms!

1975	Born and raised in Bülach, North of Zurich
1990-1995	Kantonsschule in Bülach, until 1995 semi-professional ice hockey goalie
1995	First trip to Northern India – 2 months with the bicycle in the Himalayas
from 1997	Working with Teacher plants, exploring consciousness
1995-2001	Studies of Environmental Science, ETH Zürich
2002-2003	Love brought me to Canada: one Year of deep inspiraton, exploration and creativity in Vancouver
from 2002	Slow and steady progress on the Yoga path, Vipassana Meditation (Goenkaji tradition)
2004	Civil Service at biolenz, inspiration through shamanic work with Guido Lenz
2004-2005	Biology and Chemistry Teacher for Science meets Dharma, Tibetan Monasteries in Southern India
from 2007	Yoga Teacher Training with Remo Rittiner, teaching classes at Airyoga Zurich
from 2008	Connected with and inspired by Paola and the birth of our son Manuel Kailash, own retreats and courses, inspiration of many teachers and beautiful human beings on the Yoga path Building of the yurts and teaching retreats at Balmeggberg: www.balmeggberg.ch
from 2011	Tibetan Buddhist Meditation (Essence traditions in the Pointing out style, Bon- and Nyingma Dzogchen) with Dan Brown, Rahob Rinpoche, Geshe Sonam & Associates, Kirtan music with the Shakti Shuttlez
from 2014	Founding of the cooperative Offener Geist and rebuilding an old farmhouse in Tschlin into a seminar house: www.spiert-avert.ch
from 2019	Teaching courses and retreats at the Seminarhaus Spiert Avert
Dec 2020 from 2021 from 2022 from 2024 …	Production and release of the first album with the Shakti Shuttlez: Kirtan Circle Part of the teaching team of the Ayuryoga Teacher Training: Yoga Deep Immersion & Teacher Training Founding of the little Yogastudio YOGADASS in the Kreis 2 in Zürich: www.yogadass.ch New Yurt Summer Retreat place @ Spina Malix in Malix

Paola Deprez

I still remember very freshly what I think must have been my first existential crisis. I was somewhere in my teens and I had just finished to knit the most difficult sweater from a magazine, and I felt I owned the whole world! If I could knit that, I could knit anything! Immediately I started to plan and design my next projects, and suddenly it hit me: why do I need all these sweaters if I am anyways going to die…?

It was that feeling of despair that led me to ask myself “the” questions… Why do we live if there is death? What for? How is it possible that everything we learn and experience during life is going to get lost (I was always suspicious of the paradise story)? What is life at all? Is there a reason, or a purpose for all this? I watched “Blade Runner” many times, I read Sartre and Camus and many dark poets, sharing the uneasiness but not finding any answers.

All this in some way led me to study Biology and become a researcher. During my studies I was fascinated by everything I learned, and I had a hard time deciding in which direction to go… so I tried everything from marine ecology to molecular neurobiology… And each approach offered different rich perspectives. But after I finished my degree the uneasiness was still there…

I had still not solved the riddle of life. At the time I discovered the I Ching, the Tarot and Astrology which blew my mind and offered an alternative worldview. I considered studying Psychology… but deep inside I was scared of stripping the mysterious of its magic, of reducing consciousness to an explainable mechanism, and our soul to a nice idea. In the end I decided to do a PhD just because it was the next step, the obvious one, after having invested so much, and being so good at it, with prizes and praise from all sides.

Again I was fascinated, this time not only with what I discovered myself about the molecular world, but with the capacity of the mind to notice, wonder, question, dissect, infer, conclude, predict… and create models and worlds. Alas, once again, after finishing my PhD with more prizes and success, I led myself go with the obvious next step despite the undefinable existential itch, always present every time I was not busy with clear goals to achieve. And this is how I ended up in Zürich for my post-doctorate. Except that this time something was different…

For 3 years I made experiments that gave no clear results… This set up in motion a desperate struggle to assure myself and others that I really was this successful and smart scientist. I thought I was stupid, and turned into a little brittle bird scared to death to meet the boss. My body started to call for help with sickness and weird symptoms that made me believe at first that I had an incurable disease, and that I later simply ignored when I finally understood that it was “just stress”. And I kept going, with less and less motivation, less and less strength, shrinking and getting sicker, until the limits of despair. I felt in my bones what I feared the most: that life and our overrated minds were just a bad joke, emerged out of the play of a bunch of organised molecules…

Burnout. This is not something that happens from one day to another… It’s a long and painful process in which you loose connection to everything… But at the same it was an opportunity: It finally cracked the hard shell of the ego, of this solid idea we have of ourselves, that gives us a false sense of security that we hold on to, and at the same time limits us to a very narrow representation of who we are and what we could be.

Despite 3 years of antidepressants and therapy, the real healing process started when I went to a lab management course in which contrary to all my expectations we were shown some Tai Chi movements, we followed our breath, we felt the connection with the Earth…

Nothing happens from one day to another, but after such a long struggle it felt like in a second the direction of my life changed. I started healing by reconnecting with my body that was lost in space decomposing without my attention. I met Adrian, telling us to observe our reaction patterns during the Yoga class. And later with the help of teacher plants I could see my mind face to face, and realise that my thoughts were not me.

I had to admit to myself that whatever the materialistic worldview of science had to offer, I had gotten it, thank you very much, but there was no point in continuing to dig in that direction, and I decided to quit research and step into the unknown.

Since I committed with faith to the Yoga path without really understanding why, the universe has provided me with one gift after the other. Adrian, our son Manu, and many precious teachers and teachings that showed up in the most unexpected forms and always when the time is ripe. Now, every time I stop doing or thinking for a second, I feel overflowed by gratitude to have had this precious opportunity to live, and by a deep motivation to give my hand in whatever form this might be to whomever is ready for healing and transformation.

1971 : Born in Santiago, Chile.
1976-1988: Lycée de l’Alliance Française, Santiago, Chile.
1989-1993: Master in Biological Sciences, P. Catholic University, Chile.
1994: Worked in research giving myself time to decide between PhD or studying Psychology.
1995-2000: PhD in Cell and Molecular Biology, Chile, Belgium, USA, France.
2001-2010: Postdoc and researcher at the ETH Zürich.
2003: First obvious symptoms of Burnout.
2005: Absolute collapse, antidepressants and psychotherapy for 3 years.
2007: Tai Chi, Yoga and the beginning of becoming whole. Started the Yoga / Teacher Training at Airyoga.
2008: Great teachers in my life: Adrian, holy plants, our little Manu, and an expanding community of like-minded people.
2010: I quit research! And I survived… Started working at the reception of Airyoga, my service to the community and a big humbling teaching…
from 2010: Tibetan-Buddhist Mahamudra meditation with Dan Brown. Later also with Rahob Tulku Rinpoche, Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche, John Jackson & Geshe Sonam in Nyingma and Bön Dzogchen. The most profound teachings of my life…
2011: Yoga Teacher Training with Stephen Thomas in Bali & Zürich.
from 2011: Teaching the Stress, Burnout & Yoga workshops & retreats with Adrian, an important sharing of my own life experiences.
2012: Started La Luna Lädeli, sharing my love for hand-woven Indian textiles and sustainable products.
2017-2023: Collaborating with MAKU Textiles, a sustainable fashion label from Kolkata. From creating collection stories to fitting fine-tuning to wholesales and pop ups.
from 2020: Psychological Astrology education at the Faculty of Astrological Studies, London. New levels of understanding on how life works…
Now: Still humbled by the big mystery and the realisation that we simply cannot understand it all… (even if I still try).