My yoga journey began in 2018, quite unexpectedly. I was visiting Copenhagen, my former base, and having dinner with a good friend. During the conversation, someone asked if I did yoga. Before I could answer, my friend jumped in and confidently declared:

“Orkun would never do yoga!”

I remember feeling puzzled. Why would they assume that? I hadn’t ever expressed opposition to yoga, yet here I was being defined by someone else’s perception of me. I didn’t say anything at that moment, but the comment stuck with me. It was a Saturday night, and by Monday, I found myself on a yoga mat in Berlin. I’ve always been the kind of person who is motivated by external challenges. Tell me I can’t do something, and I’ll go out of my way to prove otherwise.

From Proving a Point to Finding a Path

What started as an attempt to prove my friend wrong quickly turned into a regular practice. I committed to weekly yoga sessions for quite some time. At first, my approach to yoga was purely physical. I gravitated toward power yoga, where I could burn calories, sweat buckets, and build strength. If I left a class without being drenched, I considered it a failure.

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