annette knopp

Hello beautiful Human,

​

I am an author, meditation teacher, somatic educator, human rights advocate, and practicing nature mystic.
​

I was born in Germany in the sixties into an overly complicated childhood home -
and growing up in the collective shadow of my country's bone-chilling history set me early on a seeker's path, trying to decode the human experience of happiness and suffering - and what it takes to have a conversation with life that feels true, ethical and alive.

​

The first real relief I found from depression came through yoga and Tai Chi, during years I spent living in Spain in my twenties. That door opened into a lifelong love affair with Eastern contemplative traditions - the teachings of Sri Ramana Maharshi and Indo-Tibetan meditation practices of Mahamudra and Dzogchen.

 

Ancient earth-based wisdom practices from the Andes and modern Western approaches to psycho-spiritual integration gradually wove their way in too, each modality adding another layer of depth and texture to the whole. This weaving eventually found form in my own methodology: Embodied Inner Listening - drawing on Focusing, somatic trauma repair, and the center-less stillness at the heart of existence.

 

From Spain, my path wound through India, Japan, Australia, and the Netherlands, before landing me in the US in 2005. In 2009, my husband Stephan and I co-founded Blue Spirit retreat center in Nosara, Costa Rica - a place that has become sanctuary to thousands of seekers from around the world.

​

I am a certified DARe practitioner, a facilitator of embodied parts work (IRF) and Sacred Theatre, and an ordained Wisdom Keeper in the Order of Universal Interfaith. I also serve as Resilience Faculty for the Human Rights Foundation, accompanying activists from across the globe in navigating the stress and burnout that comes with working on the front lines of human dignity and freedom.

​

 My book Mystic Nomad: A Woman's Wild Journey to True Connection is a love letter to this whole luminous, messy, magnificent path - and an invitation into your own.

​