Wild Yoga Tribe podcast Episode #51 – Yoga in Daily Life – Yoga in Georgia with Olga Ramer

Welcome to Episode #51 of the Wild Yoga Tribe Podcast! This week, I welcome Olga Ramer onto the show. My conversation with Olga Ramer, a yoga teacher and the first yoga studio owner from Georgia, was so profound as we took a deeper look at what it is like to be the disciple of a Guru, and what the Yoga in Daily Life system is. I hope that our conversation will give you something to consider, some food for thought, about the purpose of yoga and the true aim of yoga.

If you’re looking to tune into a podcast episode that is all about a deep relationship with a guru and the importance of the mental state on the physical state of human beings, then this is the conversation for you.

Curious about yoga in Georgia? Read on and tune in!

Tell me more about Olga Ramer

Olga Ramer first started practicing yoga at the beginning of 2000 in Croatia. She changed a few countries and a few styles before found the perfect yoga system for me Yoga In Daily Life (YIDL) by Paramahans Swami Maheshwarananda, which incorporates everything – asanas, pranayamas, meditations, kriyas, and a yogic life style.The country of Georgia did not have a single yoga studio in the country, so Olga went through the yoga teachers training in the YIDL system and became a certified YIDL yoga teacher. 

Olga first started teaching in Georgia in 2006, and in 2010 she opened the first yoga studio in Georgia, The Yoga Cave. Furthermore, she has also went through multiple trainings in the yoga therapy with Nischala Joy Devi in the Shivananda tradition.

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

After the war in Yugoslavia ended, Olga worked in relief efforts based in Croatia and she was under enormous stress and suffering from panic attacks. Her doctor in Croatia recommended to start doing yoga— back in 2000! Which is something I was surprised to hear as doctor’s recommendations for yoga was something I didn’t know was happening over 20 years ago, I was under the assumption that this was something only occurring in in the last couple of years in the Western world!

She started practicing the physical aspects of yoga, the asanas, for four years. After she moved to Sarajevo in Bosnia Hertzgovenia, the only place she could find to practice yoga was a Yoga in Daily Life (YIDL) center. While she found it slow and challenging at first, she fell in love with it.

After becoming certified in YIDL, she began teaching in Georgia while she was still working at the US Embassy in Georgia, and soon after she quit her job and opened the first yoga studio in Georgia.

Olga shared with us about what Yoga in Daily Life is, as well all about her relationship and devotion to her Guru. While Olga had lots of philosophical questions growing up, who am I, why am I here, is there a god? Olga wrestled with these questions for decades before hearing her Guru speak at a lecture. In one hour— all of her questions were answered. 

Olga could feel every word resonate in her heart. It was a revelation.

She soon became a disciple of Paramahans Swami Maheshwarananda and became trained in the Yoga in Daily Life system and she teaches the eight levels of the Yoga in Daily Life system, all are accessible to every body and follow a level by level process to train the body and the mind. While her Guru was the founder (in a way) of this system, it is in fact an ancient system which he adapted for Western bodies, minds, and lives.

Olga and I also talked about how yoga is preparation of the body for meditation. The purpose of yoga is the realization of divine self. And as we live in such a dense information society, the information is very disturbing for us, for our minds and our energy. And if you are experiencing struggles with meditation, Olga recommends to watch less news, and to be mindful of what we eat and the gunas. As Olga says, if you want to succeed in meditation, you have to follow the Sattvic guna.

Lastly, we of course talked about what Georgia is like as a country, and how yoga has gained popularity there over the years.

Tune in to this whole episode of the Wild Yoga Tribe to access the full content and conversation!

Favorite Quote From Olga Ramer

“In yoga, the purpose is of meditation is not  becoming more peaceful or controlling your mind better. The purpose of meditation in yoga is the realization of divine self of learning your true self of who you really are.”

Connect with Olga Ramer 

www.yogaindailylife.org

www.tbilisiyogacave.com

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Wild Yoga Tribe Podcast Episode #51: Yoga In Georgia Olga Ramer

[00:00:00] Lily Allen-Duenas: Welcome back to the Wild Yoga Tribe podcast. I am so excited to be back in episode 51. Here we are. It’s so great to be back together after the season break. Welcome to season two. Today. I am thrilled to be joined with Olga Ramer. She’s a yoga teacher and studio owner in Georgia, the country, not the state.

[00:00:23] So Olga first started practicing yoga in the beginning of 2000 in Croatia, she changed a few styles. She changed a few countries and then she found Yoga in Daily Life; that’s a yoga system. That’s under a guru. I am so excited to hear more about her, her journey with that, and about the system Yoga in Daily Life.

[00:00:45] I know it’s comprehensive. It involves asanas, pranayamas, meditation, and kriyas, as well as a yoga lifestyle. So actually when she did get this training, the country of Georgia did not have a single yoga studio in the whole country. So Olga went through her yoga teacher’s training. She became certified. In 2010, she opened the very first yoga studio in Georgia called the Yoga Cave. So thank you so much, Olga, for being with me here today. I’m so excited to dive into your story.

[00:01:17] Olga Ramer: Hi. Hi everyone. Thank you so much for having me. 

[00:01:21] Lily Allen-Duenas: Thank you. Thank you. So for the first question, I would love to just dive into your story and ask how did yoga come into your life and what has that journey been like for you?

How did yoga come into your life?

[00:01:31] Olga Ramer: It started in 2000, I was working at the international organization for security and cooperation in Europe in Croatia, that was right after the war. So I came in 1999, that’s when the war in Yugoslavia actually ended. My job was very stressful because we were working with the people that were affected by the war.

[00:02:01] We did a lot of various stressful and emotionally charged missions and projects. So I was very stressed. I had some panic attacks and my doctor recommended that I start doing yoga.

[00:02:20] That’s how I started, and that was a very painful experience because I was not very flexible.

[00:02:27] . We were going for about one hour and that was mainly Asana and at the end little like shavasana and that was very difficult for me. I was not flexible. I couldn’t bend, I couldn’t balance. Then slowly, somehow I got into this practice and then I moved to another country after this, and I continued practicing some yoga, but that was all physical yoga. I changed different styles. I was doing Iyengar style. I was doing Ashtanga power yoga, shadow yoga, all kinds of yoga. After four years of practicing the physical aspect of yoga, I moved to Sarajevo in 2004. And at that time of arrival, the only place that I could find that was doing yoga was that system Yoga in Daily Life. I didn’t know anything about it. At first I didn’t like it actually, because everything was very slow.

[00:03:32] The asana were very slow and then they were Pranayamas which I haven’t practiced before. And they were also meditation at the end; that was the hardest part. Although I was practicing for four years, physically. It was very difficult for me to sit still in one position for even five minutes, it was difficult.

[00:03:56] I had gazillions of different thoughts that came into my mind. Since that was the only yoga student that I found in at the time I stayed and by the end of the month, actually, I really liked the meditation practice and I had some interesting experiences.

[00:04:16] And I started asking the instructor about the system and learned that actually it’s the system that is that comes from Rajasthan, from India and the knowledge it’s ancient Indian system and the knowledge transfers from the teacher to the disciple, from the guru to the disciple and already for many generations from for many centuries there is a guru and currently there is a guru that lives in Rajasthan, in India.

[00:04:48] And once a year or a couple of times a year, he comes to Europe and holds seminars. And after practicing this system for a year, I came to Hungary where it was the seminar of Paramahans Swami Maheshwarananda who is the guru of the system. Now live guru, realized master and met him and became his disciple.

[00:05:13] About the same time, I found out that there were no yoga studios in Georgia at all. There were people that were practicing yoga, but they were doing it at home, renting apartments somewhere and practicing there, but no yoga studios.

[00:05:31] So I was sad about it because I thought that yoga by this time I already knew about yoga a lot and it helped me a lot. Both for my physical and my mental state. So I decided that it would be a good idea to start teaching classes in Georgia. So I went through the teacher’s training in our system and Yoga and Daily Life and became a certified instructor.

[00:05:57] And first I was doing both my jobs at that time. I was actually working at the American embassy and at the same time I was teaching yoga, but teaching only to my American colleagues and to my Georgian colleagues at the embassy. But soon there were so many people outside of the embassy that were eager to practice yoga and they asked me to start teaching yoga that I first rented the place in the downtown of the capital Tbilisi, Georgia and started teaching yoga there.

[00:06:32] And there were so many people that I had to soon decide whether I wanted to continue with my work at the embassy or downshift and become just a full-time yoga instructor. And after four years of teaching like this and working at the same time, I stopped working at the embassy and purchased a very nice basement, but it’s like a half basement in the old part of Tbilisi and opened the yoga studio in 2010.

[00:07:08] And that became the first yoga studio of Georgia. So it still exists. And I already have five or six instructors that teach at this studio. Most of them are my students as well, who became the yoga teachers in our system. And Swamiji has already been to Georgia four times. We invited him to conduct seminars on yoga. And I’m very happy that in 2010 I made this decision to become just a full yoga teacher.

[00:07:40] Lily Allen-Duenas: Oh, that’s so amazing. I love hearing about all the different kinds of training and things you’ve done across the world across so many different countries and then finding your home in Yoga in Daily life. I Love how it seemed even at first there was some resistance to that kind of slower pace or to not being so asana focused, which we know is definitely the primary focus in the West.

[00:08:08] And so it’s great that you had resistance to it yet you kept showing up, you kept being curious, you kept going to classes and practicing, and then you soon realized the benefits and fell in love with it and became trained in it. So for our listeners who aren’t familiar with Yoga in Daily life, that system, and admittedly, I am not myself familiar with Yoga in Daily Life. Can you tell us more about that system?

What is Yoga in Daily Life?

[00:08:34] Olga Ramer: Yeah, absolutely. And I’m happy to do it because I really like this system, Swami-Ji Guru. He came to Europe in 1970. He came first to London and then to Vienna, Austria. And he started teaching classes and he was actually sent by his guru. And he is the master in the lineage of it’s actually a very ancient para the lineage of teachers.

[00:09:00] And it comes back to the one of the Rishis, in the Himalaya cave. Swam i-Ji was sent by his Guru to Europe. And he started teaching classes, but soon he realized that it was very difficult for people in Europe to attend his classes because their bodies and their minds were not accustomed to the long meditations, the long practices.

[00:09:28] He composed , I would say, very comprehensive. System that consists of Asanas, Pranayamas, and meditations and yoga kriyas and shat karmas and like the purification techniques and yoga nidra that would help the people in Europe or, the people in the United States also has got the centers of yoga life in the United States in Canada, Australia, let’s say the Western world so called to to prepare their bodies better for the long meditation that are needed.

[00:10:02] If you want to actually realize the purpose of yoga. Yeah. The main purpose of yoga, which is the re realization of the divine self. So in this system the person of any age and of any physical ability can’t practice yoga there are eight levels in the. And we start with the very basic asanas that are called Ji asanas, which are more like preparation for the asanas at the first level and the first level last three months. And during this three months, the body is prepared for the more advanced yoga asanas. Also during the first three months, the basics of Tris and the basics of meditation and relaxation are given. And then with each level the level of difficulty of asanas is increasing as well as more and more complicated pranayamas and longer meditations.

[00:11:03] So the whole system, like eight levels, can be finished in three years. But actually what I found when I teach it’s difficult for people and the most difficult part is actually not the Asana, but the meditation. Because already, like on the course on the fifth level, we sit in meditation for like 40 minutes, one hour.

[00:11:25] And if the bodies are not ready for this, if they’re not if the hips, are not flexible enough and the back is not strong enough, then it’s very difficult for the purpose that is for example, sitting all his day long behind the computer to sit in one position without moving. But of course the mind is the most difficult. It’s this expression probably from Buddhism, that mind is like the crazy monkey that is jumping from one branch of the tree to another and not staying even the second in peace. But what I like about this system is that any person of any physical ability can start. And level by level they actually train the body and their mind and get all the benefits of yoga.

[00:12:16] Lily Allen-Duenas: Amazing. Did the guru found the system himself?

How was the Yoga in Daily Life System founded?

[00:12:20] Olga Ramer: He did not actually like he, he found it, in the shape that is, is now the knowledge was transferred by his Guru and then to his Guru by his Guru and so on how it always being in India, in this in the Gurukul system, like when you live with your guru. But he has to adapt this Indian system to the European bodies and minds. You can say that he found it. Yes. He founded it at the same time. This is the ancient knowledge that was in our peram for centuries and centuries. And he just adapted them to the Western minds and bodies.

[00:13:01] Lily Allen-Duenas: That makes complete sense. Absolutely. I loved how you also touched on, Olga, how for your students, you find the most challenging element is usually the meditation because while the body, with the hips and the back, Yoga asana is helping us to sit in meditation. And what do you usually do, what guidance, what advice do you offer your students who aren’t struggling necessarily physically with the practice of actually holding the seat, but who are struggling more mentally with the practice? What advice do you usually offer up?

What advice do you offer those who are struggling with meditation?

[00:13:32] Olga Ramer: First we start the deep relaxations and the yoga nidras before we actually start the meditation, because I think that the mind can be trained as well as you can train the body.

[00:13:45] And along with training the body, we train the mind slowly and then slowly level by level. We add to the meditation. Also the whole lifestyle is affecting our mind and we are bombarded by the information, in order to ease the mind what I would recommend is to read less news do not watch the news. We live in such a dense information society and the information is so disturbing for us. What we eat, the Gunas, the notion of Gun as in yoga. If you want to meditate, if you want to succeed in meditation, then you have to follow the Sattvic Guna, you have to eat the Sattvic food you want to, you have to engage in the Sattvic activities you have to lead the Sattvic way of life.

[00:14:42] Otherwise, just the Rajastic Guna will just stir your mind and the Tamasic Guna will just make it lethargic.

[00:14:50] Lily Allen-Duenas: Thank you for sharing more about that. And yes, I agree that we are in a dense information society and we are constantly experiencing an immense amount of stimuli more than ever before, and to distance ourselves from the noise, whether it’s actual noise, such as car honking phones buzzing, television noise, but also the noise of of what we eat and how that disturbs our body and, or the noise. So the tongue, the disturbances of the tongue, or the disturbances of the eyes for what we see. So I think it’s good for our listeners to remember that when it comes to stimuli and when it comes to the noise, it’s not just through the ears, it’s through all of the senses.

Hope for humanity and the seriousness of stress

[00:15:34] Olga Ramer: Absolutely. 12, 15 years ago, I listened to the BBC interview, the interview on BBC of two British medical researchers that got the nobel prize in medicine. And I don’t remember exactly what was the discovery, but I think it was something connected to genetics or something.

[00:15:54] And the journalist asked them about the discovery and said that it gives hope to humanity, because it helps to to make the new drug against cancer. He asks them when they think the drug against cancer cells will be made available. They said that they were sure that in about 20 years it will probably be available to humanity. But they said that the major threat more than cancer is actually our minds. They said that the very bad tendency is that more and more people are getting stressed, more and more people are getting depression, more and more people are sitting on the drugs against depression.

[00:16:44] They said that it will be in 20 years, the real catastrophe; that the mental state of a person is more important for the physical being and for everything. When the journalist asked them what they would recommend for people and they said meditation, I really liked it.

[00:17:05] That’s why I remember it that well. In yoga, the purpose of meditation is not becoming more peaceful or controlling your mind better. The purpose of meditation in yoga is the realization of the divine self of learning your true self of who you really are. But if on the way you make your body healthy, great. If you feel better, more peaceful, can control your mind better. Fabulous. 

[00:17:32] Lily Allen-Duenas: So something I do like to ask every yoga teacher I have onto the show is what is your personal definition of yoga or what is yoga to you? I know you’ve touched on that throughout this episode, but I just wanted to ask the question directly to hear a little more from you.

What is your definition of yoga?

[00:17:50] Olga Ramer: To me, yoga is the way to learn my true self. I have always since my childhood. I was asking myself questions about life. Why am I on this planet on this earth? Is there God? What is the purpose of my life? And nobody could answer it. I searched in different religions. I searched and I talked to many people from different countries. I lived in many countries. I went to different religious institutions.

[00:18:23] I read a lot of books on philosophers and everything, and I really wanted to learn. What is it? Why am I here? Who am I? And what is it? Am I the body? My body? No, because I say my body, it’s my body. I say my mind. Who am I? Who belongs to this body and mind? And in the first lecture, when I heard Swamiji, I told you that when I started doing Yoga and Daily Life in 2004, and then in one year I went to Hungary for the seminar.

[00:18:54] Swamiji was speaking in one hour, he managed to answer all the questions that I had. And that was to me, like an eyeopener to me, it was so deep. And I immediately realized that’s why I was doing yoga for four years.

[00:19:11] When you hear something it resonates not in your mind, that, you know, that every truth and that every word is waiting for that whole, your life. It was so deep.

What is your relationship with your guru like?

[00:19:25] Lily Allen-Duenas: I love that. To hear that in one hour, your guru answered all of those questions that you had been wrestling with for your whole life, those big life questions. I would love to hear a little bit more about your relationship with your guru and how you decided  to become his disciple. Because I know that’s something that a lot of our listeners may be, have never met a realized master, have never considered finding a guru or have some apprehension around that. So if you don’t mind speaking more about that, I think it would be fascinating.

[00:19:58] Olga Ramer: I came to him and Swamiji, and said I want you to become my Guru. He said, sure , I would love to become your guru and he gave me the personal mantra. He gave me mala and tasks, what I should do and with my mala and how I should conduct my life. After this, every year I tried to be near him to get his blessing to receive more instructions from him. And, I often talk on the phone. When I have some questions, I always have to support them. He helped me with the advice in my very difficult life. Just to be near him is already uplifting so much. Each time I come actually, after meeting him, I feel myself changed a little bit. I became a better person. If I can say, I feel it. 

[00:20:52] I can notice how my relations with other people change,  how I react to different situations in my life. My thoughts, and feelings towards other people, help me become a much better person. For me, it’s such a blessing that I can actually help people with this because it helped me so much; and I can help many people with this. I’m so happy. That’s why I think that the yoga teacher profession is the best in the world.

What is Georgia like as a country?

[00:21:24] Lily Allen-Duenas: I’m so grateful to hear more about how your life has been changed as well by being with your guru by getting. From your guru and how that has kind of shaped your decisions, or also just made you, you know, better in relationships with other people and with yourself, I would love to learn a little bit more about Georgia as well. I know that that is a country maybe that some of our listeners don’t know very much about. Could you share with us more about the country of Georgia? 

[00:21:56] Olga Ramer: Georgia is a very ancient country with ancient, and unique culture, very unique cuisine. Also considered the cradle of wine making. If we talk about the healthy lifestyle, I have to mention The Georgian wine. 8,000 years ago, Georgians made wine in CRE. Where The ceramic amphora 8,000 years ago. And even if you visit Wikipedia, you will see that Georgia is wine making the unique, culture, different kinds of dances, rich literature and people. I think they’re incredible people, very hospitable. The country is small, but has everything, the black sea, high mountains, and one of the highest mountains. The highest in Europe and we actually, last year, had a lot of tourists coming to Georgia and exploring the country. Everyone is welcome. And we would love to have you in Georgia. So please come. 

[00:23:03] Lily Allen-Duenas: Thank you for that invitation. I love it. Also, I know that when you opened the yoga cave, it was the only yoga studio in Georgia at that time. So I’m imagining yoga was not very popular and not very well known, maybe not a word that people were even familiar with. So now when we’re jumping forward to 2022, how is yoga in Georgia?

How is yoga in Georgia?

[00:23:31] Olga Ramer: We have a dozen yoga studios only, which are becoming more and more popular. And, you can now in Tbilisi see people with the yoga mats. You can see a lot of different, uh, posts with, Facebook and Instagram regarding yoga classes and new teachers, emerging. In Georgia, most of it is physical yoga, but I think it’s still better than no yoga. So physical yoga will lead to more spiritual practices, up the body, to clean the body with the asanas and pranayamas. Then move into more spiritual practices. 

Disorders connected with stress in the mind

[00:24:15] Olga Ramer: Just a few days ago, I think about five days. I was at the lecture of the gastroenterologist. I hope that I pronounce it correctly. The doctor who is actually, the guts, the stomach and all the systems of digestion. The lecture was about common diseases and the functional diseases are usually the diseases that are connected to the mind, not to the body. In his lecture it was, an hour and a half lecture. The doctor was saying that 80% of the digestive disorders are mind related. They are functional. So that comes from this stress that comes not directly connected to the body. At the end of the lecture, he was actually giving recommendations on what would be the best solution to these functional disorders of the digestive tract. He mentioned meditation and has said that even now officials say that meditation is very good for the function of the digestive system. So to me, it was like, yes! Finally, 

[00:25:38] Lily Allen-Duenas: Yes, and I love how more and more of scientists, research and studies are coming out just  to confirm that connection. That has been ancient wisdom passed down for centuries and centuries, as you said, and now scientists are saying, oh yes, the mind does affect the body. Oh yes.

[00:26:00] The sickness in the body can impact the mind like it’s all how connected it is. I just am so grateful that we are living in a day and age where if you didn’t come to the yoga, spiritual path through. Through a spiritual way. You could come through it, be introduced to it just by that, that new scientific knowledge and understanding that we can change our brain chemistry with meditation. How much we can actually shift in our entire being, body, just through meditating or asana and pranayama, these cleansing techniques. It’s just such a gift to live in this, this time where it’s being confirmed, left and right. Thank you so much for being with me, Olga. It has been a true joy to be with you. 

[00:26:46] Olga Ramer: Thank you so much, Lily. It was very joyful for me and I wish you all the success in life. And you’re doing a great job by popularizing yoga in the world communities. Thank you so much for your service. 

[00:27:00] Lily Allen-Duenas: Thank you so much for tuning into this episode of the Wild Yoga Tribe podcast. My conversation with Olga Ramer a yoga teacher and the first yoga studio owner in Georgia was so profound as we took a deeper look at what it’s like to be. The disciple of a guru and what the Yoga In Daily Life system is. I hope that this conversation gave you something to consider, some food for thought, about the purpose of yoga, the true aim of yoga. If you’re looking to tune into a podcast episode, that is all about a deep relationship with a guru. And the importance of the mental state on the physical state of the human being and body. Then this is the conversation for you. Thank you so much for listening to the Wild Yoga Tribe podcast. Be well. 

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