#42 – Integrating Yoga into our Daily Lives – Yoga in Croatia with Eli Marušić

Wild Yoga Tribe Podcast Episode #42 – Integrating Yoga into our Daily Lives – Yoga in Croatia with Eli Marušić  

Welcome to Episode #42 of the Wild Yoga Tribe Podcast! This week, I welcome Eli Marušić onto the show, a yoga teacher from Croatia who teaches yoga at Studio One, in Split, one of Croatia’s first and biggest yoga schools. 

My conversation with Eli Marušić  was so inspiring as we took a close look at how to integrate yoga into our daily lives, how to develop not just habits, but a perspective as well for how to help you be in alignment with the present moment. If you’re looking to tune into a podcast episode that is all about looking deeply, seeking connection, and tuning into your heart then this is the conversation for you.

Tell me more about Eli Marušić 

Eli Marušić  is a yoga teacher and Ayurvedic yoga specialist. She teaches yoga at Studio One, in Split, one of Croatia’s first and biggest yoga schools. Eli also works as a professor a the University of Split. Eli is deeply in love with nature and continuously searches for ultimate peace, balance, and harmony accordingly. Eli’s mission is teaching, and she loves sharing knowledge and experience with others. She strives to help people understand their capacities and live a more meaningful life. Eli was trained in classical ballet and is an avid sport enthusiast who enjoys indoor rowing, swimming, jogging, and cycling. She completed her 500hr yoga teacher training at the Himalayan Institute, and has completed an Ayurvedic Yoga Specialist Training with Kathryn Templeton, and attends Ayurvedic Institute webinars with Dr. Vasant Lad and the AyurPrana Team.

What to expect in the Yoga In Croatia episode of the Wild Yoga Tribe Podcast

Eli and I began our conversation with learning how yoga first came into her life. She first encountered yoga through meditation, and then through books given to her by a friend. At this time, a few decades ago, there were no yoga studios in Croatia. She feels enormous gratitude that she first came to yoga through mediation as Eli says, “After all, yoga is a liberation path to the ultimate truth and to the Supreme. And so meditation is the crown of yoga.”

Taking a moment to ground down, Eli shares with us some beautiful lines from a William Blake poem, which Eli and I take time to reflect upon— how we are all connected, how you can see the universe in a grain of sand. 

We then shared our mutual gratitude and respect for Thich Nhat Hanh, which dovetailed into a conversation about finding a teacher wherever you look— whether that is your family, your friends, or a cat. Which then progressed into a conversation about how to integrate yoga in your daily life, touching on Ayurvedic practices and perspectives.

We wrapped up the episode talking about Croatia and about what the yoga scene is like in Croatia now.

Curious? Tune into the Wild Yoga Tribe Podcast to learn more about Eli, and about yoga in Croatia.

Favorite Quote from Eli

“There are so many ways of integrating yoga. It’s up to you. You have to be connected to your heart, your greatest brain or universal brain is in your heart.”

Favorite Quote From Eli Marušić 

“Yoga is whatever we do is yoga. It’s union. It’s how to unite ourselves with everything, with nature, with planets, with people.”

Resources 

Dalmatian Music

More about Croatia

Connect with Eli Marušić 

https://studioone.hr/?lang=en

Email: [email protected]

Want more? Head on over to my website 

https://wildyogatribe.com/thepodcast/

Questions? Comments? Let’s get social!

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Book a private yoga or meditation class with me: https://wildyogatribe.com/yogaclasses/

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Wild Yoga Tribe Podcast Episode #42 – Integrating Yoga into our Daily Lives – Yoga in Croatia with Eli Marušić 

[00:00:00] Lily Allen-Duenas: Namaste and welcome back to the Wild Yoga Tribe podcast. Today, I am so excited to welcome Eli Marušić to the show today. She is a yoga teacher and Ayurveda specialist from Croatia. She teaches yoga at Studio One in Split, one of Croatia’s first and biggest yoga schools. She is also practicing and integrating meditation and yoga nidra in her classes.

[00:00:32] Eli is also a professor at the University of Split and she was trained in classical ballet and is also an avid sport enthusiast. Thank you so much, Eli, for being on the show today.

[00:00:45] Eli Marušić: Thank you so much, Lily. And hello everyone. Namaste, everyone in Croatia . 

How did yoga first come into your life?

[00:00:51] Lily Allen-Duenas: you so much, Eli. And can we start off the conversation today by hearing more about how yoga first came into your life?

[00:00:59] Eli Marušić: Yeah, that’s a good question. Thank you so much, Lily. Over the course of time, I’ve been involved in many different Educational systems and the forums that led me to yoga as I’m practicing today.

[00:01:17] But I can tell you that an audience I’ve been practicing yoga forever because he obeys everything. Yoga is whatever we do, yoga is union. It’s how to unite ourselves with everything, with nature, with planets, with people. But yoga came into my life as a meditation, firstly, and it was in the previous century.

[00:01:43] And it was transcendental meditation. Then I also started practicing asanas and pranayama. It was when I was in my early twenties. And I had, my teacher was my friend actually at the time in Croatia there was no organized, such an organized studio, yoga studio or center or whatever.

[00:02:05] And then slowly I started to buy books and to meet people who are involved with yoga. I’ve also practiced by myself, asanas and pranayama. I bought many books, but the first book I got in yoga was from a friend of mine.

[00:02:23] She is from Thailand. She gave me a book on yoga. And then over the course of time I’ve been practicing different styles. And then I’ve attended here in Yoga Studio One yoga teacher training 200 hours, and then Himalayan Institute 300 to get 500 teacher training. And then Ayurvedic yoga specialist training, but also many other training over the course of time many trainings. 

[00:02:56] This is just maybe the basics of my yoga background. 

How did you first hear about yoga?

[00:03:01] Lily Allen-Duenas: Do you remember how you first heard about yoga, like how it first even became on your radar?

[00:03:06] Eli Marušić: Yes, it was Yogananda’s book. And yeah, and my friend, as I said.

[00:03:14] Lily Allen-Duenas: Yeah, I’m surprised it wasn’t through seeing yoga somewhere or walking past people, practicing in a park that it just came from the books and from your friends. That’s very cool.

Meditation is the crown of yoga

[00:03:25] Eli Marušić: Actually it was a meditation part of yoga, if we can say meditation because we can agree on the fact that when people think of yoga, they think of asanas,. mostly and yoga has become a big industry. And I’m so pleased. My gods! To be touched by yoga firstly with meditation because after all yoga is a liberation path to the ultimate truth and to the Supreme. And so meditation is the crown of yoga. 

[00:04:03] Thanks for asking me. It’s always good to get to the basics. I feel very excited talking to you really, and it’s always good to remember that meditation is the ultimate goal or liberation. 

[00:04:19] Lily Allen-Duenas: Yes, it is important to come back to the root of it. And also to asking ourselves questions that we haven’t thought about in a while because yoga and meditation and the path of yoga has become so integrated with our daily life or with our mentality, mindset that it’s sometimes very nice to pause and question again, coming back to the root and going back to how we first even got curious about this.

A poem for reflection

[00:04:49] Eli Marušić: Yeah. Yes, very much. So I have many teachers over the course of time, many teachers in all different kinds of areas in my life and space is places and time. That led me also to one poem that I would like to read, if it is possible right now, Lily? 

[00:05:12] Lily Allen-Duenas: Yes, we’d love to hear. 

[00:05:13] Eli Marušić: To see a world in a grain of sand and heaven in a wildflower. Hold infinity in the palm of your hand and eternity in an hour. From our Glorious of Innocence by William Blake and this beautiful words or philosophy of William Blake motivated me also over the course of time for many years.

[00:05:41] It is a great teacher to me. And because I’ve realized that it’s really possible to see a world in a grain of sand or in the tiniest tiniest particle in this universe, everything is all over. The eternity and infinity in every moment and you every place you are connected with. And I’ve been with this part of this poem in many different situations, yoga poses, even yoga poses and philosophy. 

[00:06:19] Lily Allen-Duenas: Beautiful. Thank you for sharing that with us. And it is amazing to think about seeing the universe and a grain of sand. And taking everything in existence and just being able to see how unified it can be, how connected also I love and Thich Nhat Hanh how he says you can’t look at a flower, without also seeing the clouds, the sky, the rain, the compost, the death and the life.

[00:06:50] There’s so much that goes into one single apple, also on our kitchen table, how many people and living creatures had to contribute to that one, one apple to be there for you on the table. It is like a universe in one thing. That’s how I see.

Thich Nhat Hanh

[00:07:08] Eli Marušić: Thank you Lily so much for sharing this and Thich Nhat Hanh is one of my teachers and not only mine, but he’s a world teacher and he passed away on exact date of my sister’s birthday, 22nd of January this year. And he taught me that we don’t have to go to visit teachers. So he’s always there. And even when he’s not in this material world, with us with his material body. I can send him even more. This is the same thing you are explaining. Yes, we can sense everything about the past and the future here and there. It’s in our consciousness and it’s beyond.

[00:08:00] So our mind is so beautiful.

The many teachers on the path of yoga

[00:08:05] Lily Allen-Duenas: Yes, of course. He was an incredible Bodhisattva and I also consider him one of my teachers and it is amazing how prolific he was. He wrote how many gifts he gave us that will continue on his energy and his teachings and is very grateful. Who else would you consider to be your teachers, Eli?

[00:08:24] Eli Marušić: To start with, you are my teacher as well. You already taught me a lot Lily. We are our own teachers, also people, family, and my son is my great teacher, my mother, my sister, my niece I even have a granddaughter. I got married very young and I have a beautiful granddaughter. She’s a brilliant teacher to me, she even teaches me yoga poses. She is so natural. She shows me something that I’m impressed by. You can always find a teacher in yourself and wherever.

[00:09:04]  A cat is my teacher or fish and that transmits their knowledge and skills and experience. We are vibrations, movements, looks, whatever. So I hope I’ve answered your question, but yes, I had, and I have many teachers. 

[00:09:29] Lily Allen-Duenas: Yeah, I love that. I love seeing the teacher and everyone and what we can learn from everyone. Even the people that we find to be in conflict with us, those can be the biggest teachers. We noticed we’re feeling very irritated or very challenged by someone, whether it’s somebody at the bank at the airport or someone we work with or a spouse of someone we know, we can be challenged by people.

[00:09:55] And it’s usually those people as well that have something profound to share with us. And I’m glad you brought up the animals as well. Cause I get asked a lot why are yoga poses named after animals? The cat can be your teacher. The fish can be your teacher. Just as it was the teachers for yogis thousands of years ago, who are observing these creatures and how they moved and how they lived. And then embodied that energy and that intention or that lesson as well, that lesson, what that creature could teach us into a pose.

Nature is the biggest teacher

[00:10:32] Eli Marušić: Yeah. That’s also true for scientists and inventors Leonardo DaVinci or Nikola Tesla. They’ve been observing nature because nature is perfection and nature is the biggest teacher. You can have all the knowledge and skills from somewhere that is beyond our intellectual mind to discuss. 

[00:11:00] Lily Allen-Duenas: So true. So Eli also, how would you advise our listeners or how do you advise your students how they can integrate yoga more naturally in their daily lives or in the present moment?

How can we integrate yoga more naturally into our daily lives?

[00:11:14] Eli Marušić: Thank you for that. Beautiful and a wonderful question. You are the greatest teacher for yourself. Yoga teaches us how to be conscious of all things.

[00:11:31] For instance if you practice yoga. If you practice asanas and you do hard trainings. And this is probably not yoga. If you do a lot of pushups and you don’t know how to make proper chaturanga there with your elbows, with your shoulders, with your core. So then you can probably hurt your not only your body, but you can feel exhausted and anxious and frustrated, and this is not yoga.

[00:12:01] So you have to do it is advisable to do. What is in line with your needs, with your mission in this world? So how to integrate it? For instance, if I don’t have much time, which I don’t, then you can practice yoga asanas and pranayama and other limbs of yoga. Like you do Tadasana and you do sama vritti with the same exhale and inhale and be aware of your feet, your knees, your hips, your organs, your spine to uplift your body and your spirit. And so this is just one example but also yoga is not only about making asanas and all these limbs of yoga, but it’s also self studying. Also being in connection with some good teacher and to study yoga philosophy, maybe to do some mantras. For instance, if somebody is making you angry, if you are practicing your yoga at that moment, then you breathe. Firstly, you start to breathe and sense your breath, and then you say mudra, like it can be just counting 1, 2, 3, focusing on yourself in your center. So nobody can make you angry then. So this is yoga. And there are so many ways of integrating yoga. It’s up to you. You have to be connected to your heart, your greatest brain or universal brain is in your heart. And my brain is very useful, my brain is a very good operational tool.

[00:13:54] But if you want to decide, what is your next step in your life, you should use more than your just intellect and this regular brain, your heart, brain or center. So then yoga will speak to you directly. Yoga has many yoga teachers, their channels, their sages they’re gurus, but we have that channel in ourselves.

[00:14:23] So that is my story from my experience. 

Ayurvedic yoga specialist and the world of Ayurveda

[00:14:29] Lily Allen-Duenas: Absolutely. Yes. And I’m so glad you shared with our listeners how you also have a daily routine to improve your sense of well-being and connection and to live in alignment with yoga. Thank you for sharing that with us, Eli. And so I know you are an Ayurvedic yoga specialist.

[00:14:53] What made you passionate about diving into the world of Ayurveda? And could you also define it for our listeners? 

[00:15:00] Eli Marušić: Again, thank you for asking me that, but it’s natural. When someone steps into the yoga world, it is logically the next step, because Ayurveda is a knowledge on life. Ayur is life and Veda is knowledge. Yoga and Ayurveda are like sisters, twins, sisters. There is probably a thin line, or no line for me. The science of, I would say, of being healthy, how to re-establish your health, and yoga is more or less based on self-realization, but it’s the same in the end. And then with Ayurveda that everything is structured the way I organize my everyday routine with Abhyanga in the morning with cleaning my nostrils and doing proper pranayama meditation. Also, how can I improve my eating?

[00:15:57] What can I and cannot eat because of my Prakriti and Vikruti my nature and these balances, and also to being able to understand my students not only my students in yoga classes, but also my students at the university because I’ve noticed how distracted they are, how poor concentration they have, and I’ve changed the structure of my courses. Thanks to Ayurveda and yoga because yoga and I read that they changed not me, but they also changed how I handle my courses at the university and with yoga students, for instance, today, I had my class with university students.

[00:16:43] And I gave them theoretical lectures, not more than 20 minutes. And because I know they cannot absorb more than maybe five to six minutes because of the global environment and these things going on and everything. Ayurveda teaches me how to adjust, how to live more in accordance with my needs and phase of my life and everything. Ayurveda and yoga are huge, endless is bigger than the universe. 

[00:17:21] Lily Allen-Duenas: The science and knowledge of life itself. 

[00:17:23] That’s what Ayurveda translates to in Sanskrit: the science or the knowledge of life. Eli, thank you again for sharing how Ayurveda changes your whole perspective, changes how you see time, how you see people, how you teach your students and how you can be more accommodating and mindful of their mental state, their energy, what they can absorb and be present with.

[00:17:47] Because as you mentioned, these are very difficult times. So speaking of your students Eli, could you tell us a little bit more about yoga in Croatia?

What is yoga in Croatia like?

[00:17:57] Eli Marušić: Yoga and Croatia is a big topic, because in the previous political and economic system, when I was born and raised in the previous Yugoslavia ex-Yugoslavia there were no yoga schools and studios. And I started with yoga in the early and 1980s, and even before.

[00:18:19] And in 2005 the first yoga studio was established in Croatia and Studio One where I teach is one of the oldest and biggest in Croatia, established in 2009 and today we have many yoga studios, many yoga centers, yoga schools. For me, it seems That everybody is doing yoga nowadays. So yoga is becoming more and more popular. I would even say that it’s a little bit overcrowded with yoga and yoga classes. Everybody is into yoga. 

[00:19:00] Also I have to highlight that Croatia is very popular country, popular destinations lately, for the last 15 years, a lot of people from all over the globe are coming to Croatia, to visit Croatia, because of beautiful nature and heritage culture, and nautical infrastructure and stuff like that. And also what I would like to highlight is that the Split city, where I live, the city of Split is perfect to come to and not only Split, but Dalmatia and Croatia to practice yoga, outdoor. And to have retreats here because of the nature and climate is perfect. 

[00:19:42] Lily Allen-Duenas: Thank you, And I’m so glad you talked more about Croatia being such a wonderful city to visit. I’m very excited to come visit here for just a couple of weeks, and I’m looking forward to taking a nice walk with you, hopefully grabbing a coffee or tea. So I’m lucky that I get to be one of those people coming to enjoy the beauties of Croatia soon.

Transform experience in wisdom

[00:20:05] Eli Marušić: I’m so happy that you are going to be my guest for at least one day. So I’m going to show you some parts of this beautiful city. And I forgot to mention about yoga and about anything you do is about experience.

[00:20:21] They say that everything that we have to do in this life is to transform this experience into wisdom. And it’s also important to be aware of experience, for instance, to experience the warrior Virabhadrasana two, three, humble warriors. And giving as a warrior, who is the warrior what’s do you want to experience what you put your body into the warrior asana, but not all your body, but your organs, your tissue, your bones, your mind, your spirit. And when you want to make a movement, putting your arms in a shooting position. So what do you want to shoot? What is the mission of Virabhadrasana, so it’s about experience to transform into wisdom and to be able with that experience and wisdom to transcend the realm.

[00:21:26] Because the ultimate goal that I have in my life is to be able to transcend the final step. So experience is very important and to be aware of it. 

How to reach out to Eli

[00:21:39] Lily Allen-Duenas: Thank you. So Eli, if our listeners wanted to find you or learn more about you, what’s the best way they can do that.

[00:21:47] Eli Marušić: They can leave me a message at a Yoga Studio, Studio One, and they can reach me via email. We can also work online. Online classes, private classes, or in groups.

[00:22:01] Lily Allen-Duenas: Thank you, Eli, I’ll make sure to link the information about Studio One, as well as your email in the show notes. So people can reach out and find you. So thank you so much, Eli, for being with me on the show, it’s been a joy to be with you.

[00:22:13] Eli Marušić: Thank you, lily. It was my pleasure. And thank you so much for inviting me.

Thank you for listening to the Wild Yoga Tribe podcast 

[00:22:20] Lily Allen-Duenas: Thank you for tuning into this episode of the Wild Yoga Tribe podcast. My conversation with Eli Marusic, a yoga teacher from Croatia was so inspiring as we took a close look at how to integrate yoga into our daily lives and how to develop, not just habits, but a perspective as well for how to help you be in alignment with the present moment. Thank you for listening to the Wild yoga tribe podcast. Be well.

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