Yoga is the knowledge of your body, mind, soul, and travel is the knowledge of the country, culture, people. Cognition unites yoga and travel. A yoga teacher and yoga tour organizer shared her thoughts on what yoga teaches, how to find your yoga teacher, and how yoga tours are different from regular studio sessions.
– Tell us about yourself.
– Hello! My name is Dinara, but everyone calls Dee. I live in an interesting city of Kazakhstan – Atyrau. It is interesting because it is practically a shift camp for oil and gas companies, there are many visitors, Kazakhstanis, Russians, foreigners, there is a special international atmosphere with a local flavor.
I am teaching yoga and organizing yoga tours. I remember the moment when I realized that I wanted to do yoga. It was an introductory lesson with a very charismatic teacher from Eastern Europe in Almaty. Apparently his charisma played an important role. I had just moved from our town to big Almaty, received an attractive job offer. It’s scary to think that I worked in the financial system for 13 years before realizing that I want to do exactly what I am doing now.
– What does yoga mean to you?
– For me, yoga is a tool, a way of life, an attitude to reality, anything other than just physical activity or the exact opposite, spiritual path.
– Where did you study yoga?
– I took a course of lectures on the anatomy of asanas, on the basics of yoga from Sergey Agapkin in Almaty, and a full course of yoga instructors in India, Rishikesh in Himalayan school of yoga.
– What kind of yoga do you practice?
– My personal practice is Ashtanga vinyasa yoga, and I teach vinyasa flow yoga and hatha yoga.
– Tell us about your yoga tours.
– This is always a friendly trip, no one is bound by very strict regulations, there is a certain plan, but as practice has shown, people who go on a yoga tour with me are always easy-going. We can do yoga in the morning, and then plunge into the mountains or to the beach) We do not immerse ourselves much in the country’s tourist environment, but these are always very colorful and interesting places. And almost always these are girlish companies, and most importantly not expensive ones)
– How many countries have you traveled with yoga tours?
– So far, this is only one country – beloved India. I gain experience, I find an understanding of what format is interesting to me and responds to the groups that travel with me. In August, the geography is already expanding, and it will be a yoga-camping tour to Georgia.
– Which country is the most memorable?
– If we talk about yoga tours, then in my experience the only country is India. But I have experience of independent travels in Europe, Russia and Central Asia. In Europe, this is Portugal, here I dream of creating a yoga residence. Now, by the way, I’m doing a trial version in Goa, I plan to spend the whole season of 2018-2019 there, it will be a guest house of the type: room + breakfast + yoga.
– What is the advantage of yoga tours over regular classes in the studio?
– At home we go to yoga like fitness classes, came – worked out – left and forgot until the next lesson. A yoga tour is a rest from working days, at the same time, not a hackneyed tour route, not a “vegetable” vacation on the seashore, and not running around monuments and shops. It is a combination of sightseeing, entertainment, a healthy lifestyle, yoga, a little philosophy and meditation, and good company. As a rule, such a tour is attended by those who are conscious, ready for discoveries and absolutely non-conflict)
– What do you think connects yoga and travel?
– Cognition! Yoga is knowledge of your body, mind, soul, and travel is knowledge of the country, culture, people.
– Did you have to communicate with gurus, monks?
– Yes, in India there is no problem with that) But honestly, I pass everything very strongly through the filter, since it has become a commerce for a long time.
– What does yoga teach you?
– To love life, for a very long time I did not understand what is the meaning of my life. Someone told me a joke:
A girl – a spiritual child in a long skirt, modest blouse and scarf – comes to the confessor’s conversation. Lowering his eyes down, he turns to the priest: – “Father! Tell us your conceptual assessment of the last monograph by Archpriest John Meyendorff, dedicated to the Barlaamite-Palamite polemics, and written in the era of his nourishment of the Russian diaspora in Paris. ” Father: “get married, get married urgently!”
It was about me)))
– How to find your yoga teacher?
– Start with the “body”. Go to different teachers, listen to the body, you will immediately understand whose voice and delivery will not irritate you, who treats the students’ bodies correctly. And then try to communicate with him, and if the actions will not disagree with the words. This is it.
– What does travel give you?
– The feeling of novelty, I very quickly get bored in one place, apparently there is something in the blood from the nomads of their ancestors.
– Your advice and wishes for those wishing to practice yoga.
– The truth is in you, no one feels your body like you do, no one understands you like you do. There is nothing absolute in any method or school. Only you can live with your practice and only you have the right to decide what you need and what is good.