Wild Yoga Tribe Podcast Episode #50 – No matter where you go, yoga will always be home – Yoga in Ukraine with Dariya Kolodiy

Welcome to Episode #50 of the Wild Yoga Tribe Podcast! This week, I welcome Dariya Kolodiy onto the show. She is a yoga teacher from Ukraine, who is now leaving in Poland. It was an honor to talk to Dariya in honor and celebration of the 50th episode of the Wild Yoga Tribe podcast. We’ve been together, dear listeners, for nearly a full near now and the 50th episode is certainly one to celebrate.

My conversation with Dariya Kolodiy, a yoga teacher from Ukraine, was so beautiful as we talked about how yoga helps give acceptance of others and of the self as well. I hope that this conversation made you realize that no matter where you go, a yoga studio and your yoga mat will always be a safe place, a sanctuary, a place to come home to. Of course, we also talked about the war, and how her family and life has been effected. 

If you want to learn more about yoga in Ukraine, tune in to our powerful conversation together.

Tell me more about Dariya Kolodiy 

Dariya Kolodiy is a yoga teacher from Ukraine, from the city of Kiev, who currently lives in Poland. She first began practicing yoga in 2004, however she began teaching yoga in 2016 upon completion of her yoga teacher training in Ukraine. She is an ashtanga practicer, also called an ashtangi. She has taught yoga—and lived!—in Kazakhstan with her husband, and it was due to his job that they moved to Warsaw, Poland in 2020. 

Dariya knows that over the years, she has not only become healthier, more flexible, and stronger through yoga, but yoga has completely changed her life. She began to really hear herself, to realize her desires and to be more present in the here and the now. Dariya knows for sure that yoga is a path that leads in the right direction.

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

Dariya and I opened the conversation by talking about how she first came to the practice of yoga— naturally, it was through the asana practice. Before the war, there were tons of yoga studios in Ukraine with a lot of different styles to try and to practice, and that was something she was very grateful for! 

We moved our conversation through what yoga means to Dairya— a place to learn acceptance of yourself and acceptance of others. She sees yoga, and yoga studios and shalas, as places where she will always find a home and a community. When she has travelled and moved to other countries and cities, she has always found her tribe in the yoga studio itself. 

Of course, the Ukraine and Russian war was brought up. Although Dairya and her husband were always living in Poland, it was a matter of unfortunate timing of a business trip that her husband actually got stuck in Ukraine at the very beginning of the war and was forbidden to leave! He had to take up arms, and fight for Ukraine. Her parents are still living in Ukraine as well, though not in an area that is currently occupied by hostile forces. She hopes the war ends soon, though she worries it will take a miracle. 

We also talked about what yoga in Ukraine was like before the war, and what Ukraine is like as a country to live in and to visit. 

Curious? Tune into the whole podcast episode to hear Dariya’s full story and learn more about yoga in Ukraine. 

For the skimmers – What’s in the yoga in Ukraine episode?

• Yoga changes and expands your social circles
• Yoga gives ease of communication
• Yoga gives acceptance of others and of the self
• No matter where you go, yoga will always be a home— a sanctuary
• Yoga brings balance in life 

Favorite Quote From Dariya Kolodiy

“Yoga has helped and continues to help me cope with my psychological and life problems. Since the yoga, I can keep balance in life. It overloads the brain and earns you the body.”

Connect with Dariya Kolodiy 

https://www.instagram.com/ukraine_yogagirl/

Want more?

https://wildyogatribe.com/thepodcast/

Everything you need is just one click away! Check out all the resources here: https://linktr.ee/wildyogatribe

Wild Yoga Tribe Podcast Episode #50 – No matter where you go, yoga will always be home – Yoga in Ukraine with Dariya Kolodiy

[00:00:00] Lily Allen-Duenas: Namaste family. And welcome back to the Wild Yoga Tribe podcast. Today in honor of the 50th episode of the Wild Yoga Tribe podcast, I am excited to welcome Dariya Kolodiy onto the show today. She’s a yoga teacher from Ukraine and she is currently living in Warsaw, Poland. She first began practicing yoga in 2004 and began teaching in 2016, and she’s an avid Ashtanga practitioner. and She still is teaching yoga in Poland today. So I am so excited to celebrate the 50th episode, this huge milestone we’ve been together for almost a full year now. you for listening. Thank you for joining in and thank you so much Dariya for being here.

[00:00:47] Dariya Kolodiy: Thank you. Give me a chance, still communicate and to explain about my yoga and my experience and about my country.

[00:00:56] Lily Allen-Duenas: Thank you so much. So let’s get started with the first question. How did yoga first come into your life? How did you first even hear about yoga? 

How did yoga first come into your life? 

[00:01:07] Dariya Kolodiy: Oh, it’s the first time yoga happened to me in 2004. Was not very popular in Ukraine and in Kiev there were only two studios. I shared about yoga somewhere and decided to try it because sports have always been in my life and I really couldn’t decide what exactly I like. I tried basketball and some running and swimming and I tried to, for the first time yoga, I was surprised I didn’t seem to put much effort, but it was difficult for me. However, what surprised me the most was the calmness and harmony after the class. After that, I realized that this is what I like to do and decided to try further. 

 For several years, I started as a practitioner, went to that studio and studied asanas, their names in Sanskrit began to be interested in, in pranayama, meditation. 

 And for me it was very interesting how asanas influence our doshas .

And I started doing then after, I dunno, maybe five years to practice in a studio like a general, ordinary practitioner. I started to interest in and started to go to the various seminars and through the various instructors, trying to understand how asanas affect the whole body and of course our mind.

Yoga shalas make you feel at home wherever you go

[00:02:50] Dariya Kolodiy: And it was very interesting and surprised me that my social circle gradually began to change. I did notice even how like minded people appeared in my environment and instructions from different yoga schools and different places became my friends. I have a lot of friends from even different places than Ukraine.

I met a lot of different people. Yoga helped me to feel myself in different countries at home for example ashtanga, ashtanga shalas, you can find ashtanga shalas from all types of countries. But I’ve been living in Kazakhstan. I even found Ashtanga shalas in Almaty and practiced Ashtanga over here. And I practice hatha and it’s very supportive of when you come to another country, you come to the yoga studio, and meet people who are thinking like you, who are practicing the same way of yoga or something like that. And you feel like home.

[00:04:08] Lily Allen-Duenas: That’s beautiful. So, Dariya too, what is your definition of yoga? How do you define yoga? 

 What is your definition of yoga? 

[00:04:16] Dariya Kolodiy:  Yoga gives ease of communication. Ease of acceptance of ourselves and people around. Yoga helps me to accept the differences in people. You begin to relate differently, there’s a difference of people and you accept the choice. 

[00:04:37] Lily Allen-Duenas: I love that. I love how yoga is a way to teach acceptance of others and of the south as a way to look at the world in different eyes, be more open, be more accepting. That’s a lot of what I do here on the podcast, talking to people from everywhere. So it’s really beautiful how you put it into words about how, no matter where we’re from, no matter where we are, no matter who we are, it’s still yoga. Yoga draws us together. Yoga brings us together and helps us to acknowledge, accept, and be present with other people. And I love that. So is there something that you feel like yoga has really taught you some lesson or some challenge you’ve overcome? Is there anything you’d like to share about something that yoga has taught you? 

What has yoga taught you? What have you.learned from yoga? 

[00:05:32] Dariya Kolodiy: I think the most important thing yoga taught me is to accept myself and my loved ones. Taught me to take some life problems and social problems more easily. And yoga gives me understanding.

That if today is difficult it’s normal. Tomorrow, different practice and different feelings on the mat. Maybe tomorrow, it will be easy. Maybe not.

We can only feel it tomorrow. Feel through the body that something is disturbing. Because during the practice my body is clumped. I feel clump one day, second day, and I saw this very high stress, high level of stress. And what is demand? Bird is the stress in my life, my dog, my relations with, for example, my parent’s relationship with my sister or my friends, or maybe my husband and I trying to not seem to about it.

I can.

I can notice it on my, during my practice on the mat. And after that, I’m trying to think about what part o f my life I had to stress and what I can do with it? Maybe, I can pay more attention to meditation on pranayama. Oh, maybe I can hardly practice. 

Yoga has helped and continues to help me cope with my psychological and life problems. Since yoga, I can keep balance in life. It overloads the brain and earns you the body.

[00:07:26] Lily Allen-Duenas: I love that yoga does unlock the brain, give the body back to us. It’s because I think we all can feel really disconnected from our bodies. We can just forget that we’re sitting or we’re standing or we can ignore a pain in our back for some people don’t ignore it. They feel it, but we can. We can ignore so much tension. We don’t even realize we’re grinding our teeth and our jaws tight when we’re working. It’s these things that we were just not paying attention to and yoga does give the body back. It draws our mind, our attention back into even the small parts, right?

It’s always a lot of, a lot to learn in the body. And I think that the more you do yoga asana practice. The more sensitive you get throughout the whole day to where you are in space and what’s happening to your body and what that means and what message it’s trying to tell us.

Do you agree? 

The messages of the body as heard and understood through yoga

[00:08:25] Dariya Kolodiy: Of course. Absolutely. You can feel just for example, now that after I began this situation in Ukraine, I am practicing over here in Poland.

And I feel my muscles. Body is clamped, and it looks like it’s not your body, it’s not your body from one month ago. For example, if you feel it’s flexible on the, on, during the practice, you can do what you used to do before. And after this situation started I had problems that my body is not my body. I dropped out of this situation. And now of course every practice is different. But my body, I give back my body. 

[00:09:19] Lily Allen-Duenas: Wow. And do you want to talk a little bit about the situation in Ukraine? Do you want anything you’d like to share? Of course I know I would think our listeners would be happy to hear or not happy, but I think our listeners would be interested to hear from you about. 

The current situation in Ukraine (mid-May 2022)

[00:09:35] Dariya Kolodiy: I’m not a very political person and I’m not watching some TV and the program’s about the war or something like that. But my husband got two months is over there in Ukraine. And now my parents is living near the Kiev. And I just take some information from my relatives the request of my friends now in different countries.

Thrown for the boat. A lot of people here in Poland and France and it’s perfect that we can not use smart phones and WhatsApp or something like that. And they can communicate with your friends and your parents. But I called my mom every day and asked if there’s quiet. It described.

And for me, it’s very important how other countries help and yes, I’m living over here in Poland, but they see that Poland let more than 2 million people come. Their country and support of the Ukrainian people. Moral support is very important because Polish people, all of us for example, asked me how I feel. How my parents are, how my husband has been when he was over here in Kiev and my husband’s come from Ukraine 10 days ago. And till today he feels anxious. Every day I asked him if it’s better for you. How do you believe then you are them? You aren’t Poland. I am. He told me no.

And the first three days I am trying to help him. So our flat, where we have lived for more than one year here and the she I don’t know, see you that no soldiers on the streets, no tanks.

[00:11:54] Lily Allen-Duenas: It’s amazing that he went to Kiev and he fought. He, is that what you’re saying? He went for a couple months, right? 

[00:12:01] Dariya Kolodiy: Yes. Yes. We live here in Poland and he had business for three days. He flew to Kiev only for three days from 21st of February, till 24. And then.

[00:12:21] Lily Allen-Duenas: The return, he got stuck, stuck. Couldn’t leave, 

[00:12:25] Dariya Kolodiy: Yes. 

[00:12:26] Lily Allen-Duenas: the war had just started. yeah. Wow. That’s horrible timing. 

Ugh. Wow. But he’s back now with you. That’s a blessing. He’s home safe in Poland with you, and I know you have family still there, 

[00:12:40] Dariya Kolodiy: yes.

They are near Kiev, but their regions are not Russian and the huge problem was no electricity, no internet. And we can’t communicate every day. It worried me. 

[00:13:00] Lily Allen-Duenas: Yeah. Not knowing is the worst, not being able to communicate and stay in touch, but I’m glad they’re okay. And that you’re able to talk to them now. They do have more regular electricity. 

[00:13:12] Dariya Kolodiy: Yes. Yes. Now it’s okay. The electricity is when you renew the internet ever since and ever sinned now it’s, again, every day I communicate with my mom and Dad and tell them that it’s finished. But I don’t know. And it was some kind of miracle for me, but I think it’s finished soon because I am here in Poland and my sister in Thailand, my parents in Kiev and my best friends in France, and the whole world. 

Yoga in Ukraine (before the war) 

[00:13:50] Lily Allen-Duenas: Yes. And so how about we talk about yoga in Ukraine? That’s also something I like to talk about. All of my guests are about what yoga is like in the country that they’re from. And I know that, given the war, given everything, of course, things are different and will be different, but would you mind talking about what yoga was like before the war and when you were living there? I know you did a teacher training in Ukraine too, so hopefully you don’t mind sharing with us about. 

[00:14:20] Dariya Kolodiy: Before the war, Ukraine had a huge number of yoga studios. Ranging from classical Ashtanga yoga, everything is just heart desires. And choose for himself, his style. One could choose today, tomorrow in a week it can be fly yoga. If you want to relax, you could choose something calmer. Oh, just meditation. It fell out of problems of stress built up as then. You could go through the straight practice and work all the stress on the mat. In addition, there was even hot yoga in Ukraine and the so there are a dozen in this studio could relax and make a lot of friends.

[00:15:11] Lily Allen-Duenas: Amazing. And we’re the studios all over Ukraine or where are they just mainly in Kiev or bigger cities? 

[00:15:20] Dariya Kolodiy: No, it’s all over. This is Ukraine. I met a lot of instructors on the courses from little countries and even sometimes. All right. You’re not very little, not from little villages and I dunno how this is in English.

We’ve an urban village where I met instructors from the Orban village.

And of course in a few cities. So like a hatkoff desk or Yeah, put live off a lot of studios and numerous ways of yoga. For example, fly yoga in a hammock. I have a lot of friends and other instructors of fly yoga from other cities of Ukraine.

What is Ukraine like? 

[00:16:10] Lily Allen-Duenas: Got it. Okay. And how about we talk a little bit too, just about your country as a whole, just about Ukraine. It’s also something I like to do with my guests and ask them just to pretend that somebody hasn’t heard much at all about their country. So could you share with us more about Ukraine? 

[00:16:28] Dariya Kolodiy: Ukraine that has developed dramatically over the past 10 years. People in Ukraine love and appreciate freedom. That sometimes harsh ends up principles and statements, but very often a kind and sympathetic soul stands behind this. Ukrainians are always ready to help if necessary. Over the past decades, duration has changed a lot. It’s our country It’s developing very fast

After Ukraine got visa free entry in Europe, many peoples began to travel beyond the West and adopt all the good things they saw. Ukraine has beautiful nature. In Ukraine you can see mountains, see steps and forests. You can travel a lot within the country. Look at the beauty of nature and get to know people and their way of life in other regions. Before the war, of course domestic tourism had developed very much and had ostrich farms, meaning zoos, and the people loving animals.

 After this skirmish is there no building? Nothing there, nothing but also of us. No, there is no place, cause this is the fight over here. But you see that big birds are standing in that place. It’s interesting. No people , no buildings, nothing, no cars, everything is damaged, but this big bird and horses are standing.

Before the war there was a farm and you could go to the restaurant and eat some dishes from eggs, others, big birds, and you could spend the time in the yard. And you can pet horses. But after two days there is nothing.

[00:18:43] Lily Allen-Duenas: Oh, wow. I wouldn’t have guessed ostriches as such a big thing and Ukraine it’s interesting to hear these little things.

[00:18:51] Dariya Kolodiy: It’s a lot of farms over here, it’s popular, yes! Yes.

[00:18:55] Lily Allen-Duenas: Wow. Thank you so much for giving us such an interesting look into Ukraine about these things that I know, we wouldn’t have guessed or we wouldn’t have thought. So if our listeners do want to learn more about you or ask a question or get in touch, I would love for you to share your Instagram account with them.

So they know where to find you. And I’ll also, of course, put a link in the show notes and on my website wild yoga tribe.com. But do you want to just tell them where to go? 

Why Dariya isn’t on Instagram as much as she was before…

[00:19:23] Dariya Kolodiy: I need to go through, up over here, cause before I provide yoga through the internet to Ukraine people and now it’s a lot of people trying to survive and not thinking about yoga . And I lost my job and I work online from Warsaw to a Ukrainian company and I’m working like a general person from 9 to 5 . Of course I practice in yoga trying to three, four times a week and a meditation helps me to keep neutrality and that’s why I not very often to read messages, but I am trying to do it. That’s why I answered you not even in lung because I’m booking now.

[00:20:22] Lily Allen-Duenas: Yeah. Oh, that’s, I’m sorry. You’re back in the office and you’re not able to do what you love to teach yoga. It’s I’m sorry that that’s 

[00:20:32] Dariya Kolodiy: Okay you know, you know, that situation. I don’t know what will, or what will be in one week in one year in one, I dunno month. Students and maybe in one month they will be back. It’s life! 

[00:20:49] Lily Allen-Duenas: Yeah, it comes and it goes, it’s a good perspective to have that kind of faith and trust. 

[00:20:54] Dariya Kolodiy: I think it’s life, it’s not very serious. I think we have some problems tomorrow. There are known problems and today, either at the office and in one year I’m back to teach yoga. 

[00:21:11] Lily Allen-Duenas: So Thank you so much Dariya for joining me on the show today. And it’s been such a joy to be with you. 

 Thank you so much for tuning into this episode of the Wild Yoga Tribe podcast.

Wild Yoga Tribe Podcast Outro

[00:21:23] Lily Allen-Duenas: My conversation with Dariya Kolodiy, a yoga teacher from Ukraine was so beautiful. As we talked about how yoga helps give acceptance of others and of the self. I hope that this conversation made you realize that no matter where you go, a yoga studio and your yoga mat will always be a safe place, a sanctuary. And a place to come home to.

Of course, we also talked about the war and how her family and life have been affected, but we did talk about Ukraine and yoga and Ukraine before the war as well. Thank you for tuning in to the Wild Yoga Tribe Podcast.

And I just wanted to let you all know dear listeners, that on Episode 50, that is today’s episode. There will be a gap. I will not be producing episodes after taking about a month or two off, and I’m going to be refocusing on guests that I’ve already been on the show with. So instead of producing an episode a week, you will notice a gap coming up here.

So thank you. And I’ll see you on social media. Keep an eye out on all the great things that will be happening there. We are doing Instagram live. We’re going to be doing reels and we’re going to have more conversations with the past 50 guests. So thank you for being here. Thank you for listening as always. Be well.

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