About

How this started

My name is Elena Novak. I live in Prague, where I have worked as a translator for the past fifteen years. I came to meditation and yoga not through any spiritual inclination, but through a fairly ordinary crisis: burnout, insomnia, and the growing sense that I was moving through my life without actually being present in it.

In 2014, a colleague suggested I try a meditation class at a small studio near Vinohrady. I went expecting to feel ridiculous. Instead, I found something that addressed a problem I had not known how to name. I have been practicing consistently since then, and I started this site in 2025 to share what I have learned.

What I practice

My primary practice is mindfulness meditation in the Theravada tradition, though I have also spent time with Zen and Tibetan approaches. I practice Hatha and Yin yoga, with a long-standing interest in how the physical practice supports and deepens the sitting practice.

I attend a weekly sitting group in Prague and have done several longer retreats, including a ten-day Vipassana retreat in 2018 that I found both difficult and transformative. I am not a certified teacher and do not present myself as one. What I offer here is the perspective of a serious practitioner, not an authority.

What this site is

KisaZenLoro is a personal site. Everything here reflects my own experience and understanding. I write about what has worked for me, what has not, and what I have learned from both. I try to be honest about the limits of my knowledge and to point toward better resources when they exist.

I do not accept sponsored content or affiliate arrangements. The site has no advertising. I write here because I find it useful to articulate what I have learned, and because I occasionally hear from readers who have found something here helpful. That is enough.

On the Czech context

The Czech Republic has a complicated relationship with spiritual practice. The country is one of the most secular in Europe, which means that meditation and yoga are often approached here as practical tools for wellbeing rather than as religious or spiritual practices. I find this framing useful. It strips away some of the mysticism that can make these practices feel inaccessible, and focuses attention on what they actually do.

Prague has a growing community of practitioners, and the quality of teaching available here has improved considerably over the past decade. If you are in the Czech Republic and looking for in-person practice, I am happy to share what I know about local resources through the contact page.

Contact

If you have questions or want to share your own experiences with practice, I would be glad to hear from you. I read every message, though I cannot always respond quickly.