Wild Yoga Tribe Podcast Episode #49 – Kundalini Yoga and Mental Health – Yoga in Argentina with Cori Giunti 

Welcome to Episode #53 of the Wild Yoga Tribe Podcast! This week, I welcome Līva Veinberga onto the show. My conversation with Līva Veinberga, a yoga teacher from Latvia was so powerful as we took a deep dive into the world of ashtanga vinyasa yoga and yin yoga. If you’re looking to tune into a podcast episode that is all about digging into the power of yoga then this is the conversation for you.

Tell me more about Līva Veinberga

Līva Veinberga is a yoga teacher from Latvia, and also the studio owner of Urban Yoga in Riga, Latvia. Līva first came to yoga around 15 years ago when she was seeking a deeper, more fulfilling physical practice. She found Hatha yoga and Anusara yoga first, and then came to Ashtanga vinyasa yoga, which has been an integral part of her life ever since. In ashtanga vinyasa yoga system her main teacher is Lino Miele and she has attended his retreats in India and also in Europe. 

In 2012, Līva decided it was time to do a yoga teacher training in Riga, Latvia as she still continue her work as a full-time lawyer. She began teaching at a local studio occasionally in the evenings, and after experiencing deep dissatisfaction in her career, she took a year off to go backpacking in New Zealand and completed a yin yoga teacher training with Markus Henning Giess and Karin Michelle Sang.

Upon her return to Riga, Latvia, Līva learned that a yoga studio owner was selling her studio, and that is how she became the owner of Riga’s Urban Yoga studio. She is a full-time teacher there, as well as the owner of the studio. She teaches ashtanga vinyasa yoga, flow vinyasa, and Yin yoga.

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

Liva and I shared a beautiful conversation brimming with Liva’s insight and experience on the path of yoga. We discussed how yoga came into her life rather organically, and how she never dreamed she’d be a yoga teacher (as she was a lawyer at the time!) She completed a yoga teacher training in Riga just to learn more about yoga, and after burnout took off to New Zealand to work and stumbled across a yin yoga teacher training.

While yin is something Liva enjoys, Ashtanga is her true love and calling— something she passionately expresses all throughout the episode! 

I really loved how Liva talked about asanas, as having the possibility to unlock the path of yoga not just as a “small part” of yoga which it is often criticized for being. Liva brought up so many great points and you’ll have to tune into the podcast episode itself to hear them all! 

We wrapped up the episode talking about opening up her yoga studio, Urban Yoga in Riga, and about what the yoga scene is like in Latvia. If you ever were thinking of going to Latvia, make sure to reach out to Liva for tips! As an avid traveler herself, she is happy to share all the best tips and tricks for visiting Latvia!

Favorite Quote From Līva Veinberga

“It’s your body, it’s your yoga. Each body is different. And also in Ashtanga and in Yin  yoga, every yoga, it’s your body and it’s your yoga. Don’t look to others. Don’t look to these beautiful, fancy pictures. How people do the practice, it’s your body. So it’s your yoga. Doesn’t matter what other people do around you. You have to listen to yourself.”

Connect with Līva Veinberga

www.urbanyoga.lv

https://instagram.com/livavein

https://instagram.com/urbanyogariga

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https://wildyogatribe.com/thepodcast/

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Wild Yoga Tribe Podcast Episode 53 – Yoga in Latvia with Liva Veinberga

[00:00:00] Lily Allen-Duenas: Namaste family. Welcome back to the Wild Yoga Tribe podcast today. Today, I’m so excited to be joined by Liva Veinberga. She is a yoga teacher from Lavia, and I know I didn’t pronounce her name a hundred percent correctly, so hopefully she can correct me here in a minute, but I wanted to introduce her as the studio owner of Urban Yoga in Riga, Latvia.

[00:00:23] So Liva first came to yoga around 15 years ago when she was seeking a deeper, more fulfilling practice. She found Hatha yoga, and Anusara yoga first and then was introduced to Ashtanga Vinyasa yoga, which has become an integral part of her life ever since. So after learning Ashtanga yoga in 2012,  when she was a full-time lawyer, she did yoga teacher training.

[00:00:51] She then was feeling dissatisfied with her career in law, and  took some time off to actually go to New Zealand and  do a yin yoga teacher training. I’m so excited to hear more about Liva from her, about her journey, about all she’s learned, and I’m just excited to welcome her today. So thank you so much Liva for being here with us.

[00:01:12] Līva Veinberga: Hello, Lily. It’s my pleasure to be here. Thank you so much for inviting me. I just wanted to say, I think that your podcast, idea like traveling around the yoga studios around the globe. It’s amazing. I really feel happy to be here. And yes, my name is Liva Veinberga. It was quite well pronounced, no problems with that.

[00:01:33] Lily Allen-Duenas: Thank you. For starters, how about we dive into your story, share with our listeners, how yoga first came into your life?

How did yoga come into your life?

[00:01:40] Līva Veinberga: Yeah. Well, You already said a little intro, which is true about me. I did find yoga when I was looking for something more fulfilling. I did dance. I do love dance, it is  also now in my life. I still sometimes flow with breath and dance. Then my Ashtanga yoga practice altogether. I really love dancing and it gave me this fulfilling feeling in my heart that it’s something more beyond just physical.

[00:02:04] I also love physics. I used to go to fitness clubs and do all those things. But then I had to leave the dance because I started my law studies and just everything changed in my life. I didn’t have my dance and then I was seeking for something more. 

[00:02:20] Full-time work, full-time studying and life happens and I felt that I needed something to calm down. I’m a very vata kind of person. I’m very active and have a lot of emotions and all the things that I needed, something grounding. So at first I did go a lot to fitness clubs. But I always felt  there’s something empty still in my heart. It doesn’t satisfy all my needs.

[00:02:42] Then somehow I got to yoga class in the fitness club,  I went to yoga class in yoga studio. 

[00:02:47] That’s the way I started,  my yoga trip. It was some Hatha yoga, some Anusara yoga. In those times here in Riga, we didn’t have all these fancy yoga names. Right now we have Ashtanga yoga, vinyasa yoga, core flow yoga, hatha, Iyengar Yoga, yin yoga, yin yang, so on. Then it was mostly, the studio schedules were just yoga.

[00:03:11] So I didn’t even know, I just did yoga. Now when you ask the person, what kind of yoga you do, but then it was just, I do yoga and that was absolutely enough. I was floating to these yoga classes three times a week as much as I could. I really loved that and it gave me a more peaceful feeling.

[00:03:31] And I also of course loved the physical challenge. So I was seeking for something that gives me physical satisfaction and also emotional satisfaction, because I always was an active person. I somehow got into Ashtanga yoga after a few years, but we had one teacher here in Riga.

[00:03:46] She just came from Mysore, India, and she did this workshop of Ashtanga yoga. And it was like a lead class. And I was wow, I love it because I love this physical, but it fulfilled my heart and all the breath and everything. So then I started to do Ashtanga, like once a week. That was the maximum. We had one, one class in a week and somehow slowly, I started research about Ashtanga Vinyasa and slowly, it became my most important practice that I’m still practicing. That’s my story, how I found yoga or yoga found me.

[00:04:22] Lily Allen-Duenas: Yes. I love how it just came so organically. And you’re right,  back 10 years ago, 15, 20 years ago, when you said, oh, I practice yoga. That was enough. Yeah. People weren’t even familiar with that word at all. They’d say, oh, what’s yoga? I haven’t heard of it. But now it’s becoming such a more common word recognized globally.

[00:04:42] This word is just part of our common vernacular, our lexicon, and I’m grateful that we’re able to have these further ways of expressing and understanding what types of yoga there are, because I do think that certain people, energies and the way that they live their lifestyles, like they might need more of the Ashtanga Vinyasa. They might need something more of a flow. If they’re more kapha per se, or if maybe more vata then they’re gonna be needing maybe more yin, just an act of slowing down. So I know I would love to speak with you Liva about how Ashtanga yoga and yin yoga counterbalance each other or what your understanding or insight is on that.

How Ashtanga Vinyasa yoga and Yin yoga counterbalance each other

[00:05:26] Līva Veinberga: Yeah. Yeah, I absolutely agree with that. It’s nice that we have these different styles. Of course they all are yoga and they all have similar purposes while we are practicing it. But for some people in some moments of life, one style maybe is more appropriate and then it could change during the lifetime.

[00:05:45] And yeah, for me, I really love this Ashtanga, the breath and strength and stretch. And then as a dancer, I love the flowing that we have in this Vinyasa style. I also teach Vinyasa and Ashtanga Vinyasa, both of the styles and the connection and the movement.

[00:06:02] I always thought this is my yoga. I even tried it many years ago, I tried the yin and I really didn’t like it. Honestly, the first time I thought, oh, that’s just like a stretching class. No, I want my active yoga and not just stretching class. But I didn’t get the point then of yin class. Now I understand that. Somehow, as you mentioned at the beginning of this podcast, I used to be full-time lawyer. I did actually love what I did. I did the law when I did study it, but I just didn’t like that lifestyle of being a lawyer sitting in front of the computer.

[00:06:38] Even if I did some court cases, it was still a lot of sitting reading on the computer. I always felt that my life fades away. I was just spending time in the office and then I felt my real life when I finally didn’t have to be at work. I always thought I have to change something. But I didn’t know how, and then I just thought, okay, I will do this backpacking trip to New Zealand.

[00:07:01] You could get this working travel visa. I could also work there and there, I realized that I’m so much vata and I’m so active and I need something more grounding. Maybe that’s one of the reasons why I feel unsatisfied in my life because I’m just too much energy. In Auckland, I went to one yoga studio. I don’t even remember the class, probably it was Vinyasa but I saw that they were doing this yin yoga teacher training. And I thought now I have free time. Finally again, I already had my first teacher training certificate. It was in Vinyasa style.

[00:07:34] I was already teaching yoga. I thought, oh, this is yin yoga. I know it’s very slow. Maybe not from me, but maybe I need something that could calm me down and maybe it could balance my Ashtanga and my dynamic kind of nature. And so I did this Yin training.

[00:07:49] It was divided into 50 hour, 50 hour, 50 hours. So during that year I could do full training. I did it with Karin Michelle sang and she’s a New Zealander and with Marcos, with her partner. They are both really amazing teachers. And I, it was mind blowing. My first teacher training in yin. It was like mind blowing. Like my whole yoga world just turned upside down because before I thought that this yin is not for me. And then I was like, wow, that’s amazing. This yin is just amazing because I really understood how it works for my body, how it works for my mind. And I understood how it can actually be combined with my Ashtanga yoga practice because sometimes you can just feel a bit tired or not have so much energy. Your energy is low, so you can work with yin., or you can do Ashtanga in the morning and yin in the evening at a calmer pace and just work. I actually think that yin goes together with any style of yoga. So I’m really happy. I found yin, I love to teach yin of course, Ashtanga yoga is my love forever. It’s my yoga love. But I think yin is available for maybe even more people.

[00:09:01] And nowadays a lot of people have this burn out or they just feel too much stress, too much emotions. Sometimes it’s a good way to start with the yin practice. I also have some yogas who started with Older people, people above 60 years old, they started with yin. Then after one year of practice, they finally feel confident in their body and they are like, oh, maybe I can try something a bit more active.

[00:09:27] And then they’re ready, for example, for Hatha yoga. And I think that’s an amazing way for some people to get into yoga to start with yin and then. Slowly start to feel their body and the breath and they’re ready for something else. So I love them both.

[00:09:40] I think they are like amazing balance and it’s for everyone in practice, everyone can do it.

[00:09:47] Lily Allen-Duenas: Yes. Yin is so accessible, so approachable, and I love how you also mentioned it’s something that’s really great to calm the mind and calm the body down in the evenings before bed. I really find that yin is a great evening practice as well as the first thing in the morning when I’m feeling stiff and creaky, and maybe depending on the season, feel lower energy.

[00:10:10] So it’s just such a nice practice to be able to cherish the body and nurture the body and be with it. Be with ourselves. More mindfully. And I definitely wanna ask you, Liva, what is one of the most powerful lessons you’ve learned from yoga either as a student of yoga or as a yoga teacher?

What is one of the most powerful lessons you’ve learned from yoga either as a student of yoga or as a yoga teacher?

[00:10:30] Līva Veinberga: That’s such a good question. Honestly it’s hard to say. There is not one thing that I would say that’s the most powerful because I have practiced yoga for quite a long time already.  I can just say that it’s not only physical practice, it’s not only spiritual. It’s so many things.

[00:10:52] And I think the powerful lesson as a yoga student is that you can’t even imagine what you can find into yourself, into your body, what kind of strength you can find. And I don’t mean only physical strength, also emotional strength, or like how you can change yourself to become a better person.

[00:11:15] We all already are good person and we can just show to the outdoor world. We can start to shine with the help of this practice.  It’s another story like being a yoga student and yoga teacher is just two different stories and two different lives. But as a teacher, I think working with people, I have understood that you never cannot judge a person from the first time you meet. Or what you know about the person from others or from the public or how you think about the person from the first time. It’s so beautiful when you work in yoga shala with that person and you somehow start to get to know the person in their practice. I think each person has something really nice within themselves, and you can learn so many beautiful things about the people. So I really love that exchange of energy that we can have during the practice as a teacher. Of course also with the other yogis when you’re practicing, that’s what we can learn as a teacher is that each person is individual and a beautiful person. You just need maybe sometimes time to get to know them as a teacher and the student relationships, but it could be really beautiful.

[00:12:25] Lily Allen-Duenas: Yes. Yes, everybody is completely unique. I think that remembering our biology and our biography are also different is key as a yoga teacher. As a yoga student, it helps remove some of the ego of the practice. Some of those, aesthetic expectations or we’ll even say anatomical expectations, because I know bernie Clark, who is the author of a lot of yin yoga books. He makes that good point about biology and biography. If we go in with expectations of oh, you’re, you definitely will, your knee will definitely be tracking more outwards in this pose. Some people’s anatomy just isn’t quite that way. So I love how humbling I think yoga can be as well.

Your Body, Your Yoga

[00:13:11] Līva Veinberga: Yeah, absolutely. I think it was Bernie’s book where the name of the book is Your Body, Your Yoga. I just love that because it’s your body, it’s your yoga. Each body is different. Also in Ashtanga and in Yin yoga, every yoga, it’s your body and it’s your yoga. Don’t look to others. Don’t look to these beautiful, fancy pictures. How people do the practice, it’s your body. So it’s your yoga. Doesn’t matter what other people do around you. You have to listen to yourself. 

[00:13:39] Lily Allen-Duenas: Absolutely. There’s actually a famous quote by James Audubon and that’s he’s a very famous bird watcher and the bird book author, and his quote is: “If the bird and the book disagree, believe the bird.” So I think that’s true as well. In the books of yoga, and all of the texts, all the understanding, the anatomy. If the book says something, but your body tells you something different. Believe your body a hundred percent.

[00:14:11] Līva Veinberga: Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. That’s beautiful.

[00:14:15] Lily Allen-Duenas: Yeah. Liva I was also curious about when you were backpacking in New Zealand and you did that yoga teacher training as well as the yoga training you did in Ashtanga. Would you like to share more about what those two training’s were like? 

What were your yoga teacher trainings like?

[00:14:28] Līva Veinberga: My first teacher training was in Lavia, in Riga. I actually never thought I would become a yoga teacher. I didn’t really have a plan. As I said, at that time, we had yoga in the schedules of the yoga studios. It was yoga and that’s it. Then I think it was like five years of practice, or four I already practiced yoga on and off.  I thought, I want to get deeper knowledge of this. I saw they started this teacher training in Riga. I could combine it quite well, with my job schedule, because I was then a full-time office worker.

[00:15:00] But I never thought I would really become a yoga teacher. Because I thought I would probably earn with yoga. I could not possibly combine with my full-time law job. So I took my first training, as a student who wanted to know more about yoga and this was more like a vinyasa hatha based. It was not Ashtanga. It was like all Latvians there in the training. Then after this training, I got this first chance to teach someone just offered me because they knew that I did the training and offered the time after my work that I could combine.

[00:15:32] I was like, okay I have a certificate. So maybe I can start teaching, even though I never thought I would. I did start to teach twice a week Monday and Wednesday evenings at seven o’clock in the evening after my law job. So it was funny. I just left my office and I ran to the yoga studio in my office, wearing fancy club clothes.

[00:15:53] Hello? Hello. I teach yoga. But I really loved those evenings. I still have some clients who did come to me 10 years ago and they still come to me. It’s so beautiful. It was my first training. Then of course I did all kinds of workshops abroad out from the Riga.

[00:16:14] I started to follow my Ashtanga yoga teacher. My main teacher is Lino Mila from Italy, but I did go to him also to India and to Italy. I still keep going. I met him first in Estonia. He came to our neighboring country and I just fall in love with this mysore style method. I still remember my first class in Alala in India where Lino practiced his shala teaching.

[00:16:40] I was thought, wow, it’s amazing. Because so far I did only this lead style. Then I went to Mysore practice, and I was confused, a bit afraid how it would be. I went to that class, it was all messed up because everyone was doing something else. I thought, oh my God, what’s happening here.

[00:17:00] But that’s how the mysore class has to be. But the breath, the ujjayi breath. And I was like, wow, I wanna be part of that. Ever since it’s my true love in my yoga practice. So I’m following this teacher and I’m following his method. When I teach Ashtanga yoga. This yin training which I did in New Zealand, it was so different than my first training, because first of all, it was in New Zealand. So it was all in English and it was all those people from New Zealand or from Australia, some people, and it was so amazing.

[00:17:32] Those people I met there, they made the integral part of the training because there was people in every age and an older ladies. 

[00:17:40] But that yin training. Just amazing. It was so different for me also because I already was a teacher with experience. I already taught yoga and I could see how I can use this when I’m teaching, and how I can use it for my clients. I could already see… this is interesting.

[00:17:58] I should remember this because I know I have clients with this kind of issues because in my first training, I didn’t think about clients so much. I just wanted to think about, oh, asanas and how. Plane. I was even afraid to lead the relaxation part. It’s oh my God, that’s so weird to let them relax while I did my other training.

[00:18:15]  I was already a teacher and I could enjoy it and see those things that could really be useful for me as a teacher. I did love it. I did love the teachers. I did love the people I met there. I did love New Zealand itself and it was amazing. Yeah.

[00:18:33] Lily Allen-Duenas: Incredible. So what was it like also Liva, to open your own yoga studio in Latvia, to open Urban Yoga.

What was it like to open your own yoga studio in Latvia?

[00:18:40] Līva Veinberga: Coming back from New Zealand, it was a bit hard at first because I went there to just have a little time off from my lawyer job, and to understand how to deal with my life afterwards. I wanted to change my life, but I didn’t know how to change it. So I just ran away to New Zealand.

[00:19:02] I did some backpacking jobs, ran the ultra marathon there, and did this teacher training. I did teach yoga, but it was just a few classes in this Queenstown area. Then I came back and I, at first, honestly, I was depressed. I’m not the person who cries a lot, but I was crying almost every day because I knew that I had to return to my law office job. I thought, oh my god. I had an amazing year. I had an amazing experience. Now I’m going back to my old life. Like no, no way, but I couldn’t figure out another way to live and earn money.

[00:19:35] I  had to work. I love to work, but I couldn’t see myself going back to full-time law office work. Actually the studio that I’m the owner of, Urban Yoga. It’s the studio where I already started my classes 10 years ago. The girl who opened Urban Yoga, she also did this training in Lavia and she opened it. It will be 10 years soon. I’ve been in this studio from the first day it was opened, but for the first three years. There was this girl Leanna. She was the owner of the studio. But I was there already teaching.When I came back from New Zealand I also wrote to hear that yes, I’m back and I would like to teach not only this vinyasa style and Ashtanga. I would love to teach yin because I did learn this yin and I really want to teach yin yoga. So I can, with time, find some time in the schedule of the studio so I can do all of those styles. It was summer then and I still hadn’t written to the law office about my return.

[00:20:38] Because I was still crying every day thinking about how to live after this beautiful, amazing time in New Zealand. This girl who opened Urban yoga 10 years ago, she also had a lot of different things in her life and changes in her life. She said to me that she’s actually selling the studio.

[00:20:57] There was already one girl coming to the classes and checking out the teachers and so on. She said she’s selling the studio because she just wanted to teach. She doesn’t want to own a studio. It’s so many administrative things you have to do, and so on. I was like, oh wow. Maybe that’s my chance not to go back to my law life. Maybe that’s a good opportunity just to be a full-time yoga teacher. Even though I didn’t know how it’ll work. I was not sure If I could even survive with that financially. Of course in my head, I had the dream that maybe one day I could own a yoga studio. I think like most of the yoga teachers, I had this dream.

[00:21:40] Oh, maybe, but I never really thought that it’ll happen. Actually this offer that she said that she’s selling came at the right time because I was already out of my comfort zone. I was already spending one year backpacking without a normal life without just work somewhere here and there, but it was a very kind of simple life and close to nature.

[00:22:01] I didn’t have this salary every month as a lawyer. So it was already out of  my comfort zone.  I thought, why not? That’s how I became a Yoga Studio owner, but I was already teaching in the studio.

[00:22:14] I had maybe my own idea, how I would like to change the studio. I knew I wanted it to become more like international because we are teaching classes here also in English language.

[00:22:26] Everyone knows that if you’re looking for yoga classes in English expats or students, we have a lot of international students coming to our classes. They can come to Urban Yoga, cuz we will do classes in Latin and English or just in English. Depends who comes but like we will make sure who will understand. Of course I also had a dream that maybe one day we could have a Ashtanga yoga studio, but to be real in Lavia, in Riga to survive; just teaching Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga I don’t think we could even afford to pay or bills for the shala. 

[00:22:59] I understood that now I like Hatha yoga and just flow vinyasa a yoga and Yin yoga styles. But I always knew I wanted this more or less traditional style with the Western touch, but still authentic yoga.

[00:23:14] I just love my studio. Yeah. I’m super, super happy about this decision that I made. It’s actually now six years. Since my full-time job is being a yoga teacher and I never, ever regretted even in the COVID times which we still have, but like we were, for example, closed for eight months in row, we couldn’t work. I had to work online. It was hard times, but I never ever regret that. I made the choice and I, I really love  now my life and my job is my life. It’s all together. It’s my lifestyle being a yoga teacher. And that’s the best decision I did in my life so far. 

[00:23:50] Lily Allen-Duenas: I’m so happy to hear that. I know something also Liva that you’re so passionate about is the importance for yoga teachers to have their own self practice. So just teaching yoga isn’t your practice. But when your day is already filled with yoga, it can be hard to come to the mat by yourself, or to find that time to show up on the mat for your own self practice. So I would love it if you would speak more to our listeners about.

The importance for yoga teachers to have their own self practice

[00:24:16] Līva Veinberga: Yeah that’s definitely what I always say to all my yoga teachers who’s teaching in my studio that don’t lose your practice. That the thing that you lead classes, even if it’s one class per day, even if it’s five classes per day, it’s not your practice. Your yoga practices when you connect with your breath, when you connect with your body, when you think about your Drishti points, you use your Bandhas while you’re leading, you still think about your yoga. At least if you are a good teacher, you don’t think about yourself. You think about your yoga. Yes. You do some physical moments and you can say you did fitness. You did some sports because you did chataranga dandasana with them, or you did some Asana with them to see how the accent looks, but it’s not your practice. And to be a good teacher, you have to keep practicing. You have to stay with your practice. Never lose it. I always say to my teachers and I always say to myself, and that it is sometimes hard. I almost always choose my practice because I know I will feel so much better because. It’s just the integral part of my life. And I think if you want to teach yoga, you cannot lose your practice. You cannot think that you’re just doing the classes and doing some movements that it’s your practice.

[00:25:39] No it’s a sport, but if you don’t follow your breath, if you don’t listen to your body, don’t listen to your breath. Don’t listen to your emotions, it’s not your yoga practice. It’s very important to stick with that. Your practice that’s super important.

[00:25:54] Lily Allen-Duenas: Yes, I couldn’t agree more. And I have a yoga teacher, friends who do self practice. They do have that time, but instead of it being, a self-guided practice they’ll instead exclusively be watching a YouTube video or doing an online yoga class and why I think it’s so amazing and important that yoga teachers take classes with other yoga teachers, to learn and grow and to observe other styles and get ideas that’s so important. I also think it’s very important to have time where you are following your breath and what your body is calling for that day. And that’s, that’s only done in silence.

Yoga in Other Countries

[00:26:33] Līva Veinberga: Yeah, definitely. It’s super important. In Ashtanga yoga, we have the self practice, Mysore style method. So I put myself in my breath and that’s it. And I just know my sequence and I work with my sequence and that’s my integral part. And that’s how I practice. But when I go traveling somewhere I just love when I travel also to see how it’s in that country, the yoga and feel that the yoga unites all of us. And I love to go sometimes to some vinyasa or hatha class, because it helps you really, as you said, as a teacher one thing is you can learn something new.

[00:27:09] You can feel something new, but you can also understand that the teacher did this and that you can learn something from each teacher. And sometimes you can maybe notice some things that kind of annoys you, you think, oh, I hope I don’t do this. I wouldn’t like to do that in my class. So you could always learn something from each teacher and it’s very useful. Yeah. Very useful to do that.

[00:27:31] Lily Allen-Duenas: Yeah. And Liva, what is your personal definition of yoga? I know there’s Sutra and there’s things that we can quote back to, but I would love to hear what your definition of yoga is.

What is your definition of yoga?

[00:27:44] Līva Veinberga: Yeah, it’s such a good question because I think you can define yoga. There’s so many ways. For example, I’m also a lecturer. I do lectures in a university here in Riga and I teach yoga as an elective. It’s it’s either physiotherapists or fitness trainers who can have this course

[00:28:03] it’s called fitness yoga, even though in my first lecture, I said I’m not a fitness yoga teacher and I don’t really know what fitness yoga is, because that’s not a yoga style. I’m just teaching them about yoga styles and the methods so they can understand it’s like an elective course there.

[00:28:19] I’m teaching. And I think four or five slides explained what is yoga ? So there are really so many definitions and what I wanted to say with that, that there’s not a wrong definition. As long as a person sits and thinks about that, they can find so many different definitions and all of them could be right.

[00:28:42]  I think it could also change during your lifetime, but for now I think for me, my personal definition for yoga is that it’s the source of my strength. It’s a source of both my inner and my outer strength. It’s the source for my physical and emotional strength. And it’s like the union that helps. For me to connect with myself, yoga is defined as a union. So for me, it’s really a union that helps to connect with myself and it helps to gain an intimate relationship with my body, with the breath in mind, with emotions, and then this intimacy with myself. Is the one that leads toward some self-confidence and some comfort with myself as a human being. It helps me to understand better why I’m here and why I’m doing what I’m doing. And yeah, that’s the source of the strength in a wider meaning. That’s for me.

[00:29:40] Lily Allen-Duenas: That’s beautiful. Is there something that you think people are getting wrong about yoga? I know that you’re saying you’re lecturing about fitness yoga, and you’re laughing like that’s not actually yoga. So is there something that you’ve noticed that you feel people are getting wrong about yoga?

What are people getting wrong about yoga? 

[00:29:55] Līva Veinberga: There’s two things that one, one thing is people say, oh, it’s just for girls or, oh it’s just to stretch,  it’s nothing serious. That’s a very typical ah, yeah. It’s for girls to go and stretch and have some fun and drink some Cocoa, which is absolutely wrong. I wanted to mention also, maybe not what people are getting wrong about yoga. But there is this kind of thinking also that you know, a lot of yoga in Western board is very.

[00:30:25] Not even Ashtanga, which is at least traditional style, but all this flows this and flows that and like very physical practice. Some people think that yoga is only this physical part, and that there is nothing else. Oh yeah. Maybe some breathing, but yeah, it’s asanas. Of course we all know that yoga teachers know it’s not only physical, it’s so much more, but at the same time, I don’t like people saying that it’s so wrong.

[00:30:53] When people think that they come to yoga to do a physical movement. I think it’s actually beautiful. There are so many reasons why people come to yoga. Each person can have their own reason why they practice yoga, why they started the yoga. And I think if we do asanas practice together with the breath.

[00:31:13] You still do beautiful yoga practice. And with this physical practice, connecting with the breath, connecting with this drishti point, you can affect your mind. You can affect your nerve system. So I think it’s just normal that people here in Western world maybe start their practice with more physical strength.

[00:31:32] But people don’t  understand that the physical asanas can change your body, clean your body, and change your mind. I don’t like when there’s this trend saying that no yoga is not physical. It’s something else. You got it wrong. If you think it’s only asanas of course it’s wrong. If you think it’s only asanas, but asanas is an important part. For the people in the Western world, when they’re sitting so much in the office or sitting so much in the car and when their lifestyle is not so active, I think it’s actually the best way to start. They notice how their mind changes, how their body changes and then slowly, their body finally will be ready for the meditation practice and for deeper pranayamas. If  a person like this comes, for example, imagine a person who’s working in the office. Sitting all day and they have back pain and then they would come and say, oh, I come to yoga because I want to sit for two hours and meditate and it’s yeah, really?

[00:32:32] Maybe at first you don’t have to sit for two hours and meditate. You have to start to move. So you feel better in your body. There is no pain. You gain this connection with your mind, body and all the things that we talk about in yoga. After years, that person will be ready to sit and meditate for two hours.

[00:32:52]  I also said to my students that, when you see asana as a picture, like we have full Google and YouTube with the pictures of but it’s only picture that you can see there’s something more happening beyond that picture because in the picture you cannot show breath, which is integral part in this practice. You cannot show bandha practice, you cannot show drishti practice. You cannot show concentration. So into asana and we include is all.

[00:33:21] If you include this all, it’s already yoga. I think it’s beautiful that people maybe start with physical practice, which includes this all. Then slowly, their mind will also change. They will get calmer, more peaceful. They will get from yoga, all what is needed. There are no wrong reasons why to do yoga. I think if someone is ready to try yoga, it’s a perfect reason. Whatever is. 

[00:33:46] Lily Allen-Duenas: I couldn’t agree more. I couldn’t agree more. Liva that’s so perfectly said because the asana can be the gateway to learning different aspects of yoga. It’s often that people come to the whole path of yoga. Through that gateway of Asana. So when people look down on it or as you said, just say, oh, it’s just such a small part. Yes, that’s true. But I do think that we need to honor and celebrate and acknowledge the role that has globally in bringing people to the path of yoga.

[00:34:18] Līva Veinberga: Yeah, absolutely.

[00:34:19] Lily Allen-Duenas: So Liva also, I’d love to talk a little bit more about Lavia, about your country. What is yoga like in Latvia? 

What is yoga in Latvia like?

[00:34:26] Līva Veinberga: Yeah. So of course it’s more popular than it was when I did it. When I started it this 15, approximately 15 years ago. When I started, it was just a few yoga studios and as I said, it was mostly yoga. There were not so many studios and of course during these years it got more popular, more studios, more teachers; and also more understanding about yoga. As I said 15 years ago, if people ask me, do you do some sports or something? I said, yeah, I do running, I do yoga, and it was enough. Now when you say I do yoga, there is a question: what kind of yoga? they at least know there’s different styles of yoga.

[00:35:07] I think that already shows that it had more popularity and about the yoga studios, and I think in such a small city as. We are quite a small country and I think that’s the easier way to survive as a yoga studio, because if you offer only one specific style, I think it’s harder to have more and more yogis and just keep them coming to your yoga studio.

[00:35:36] If they can just come to the same studio, meet the same people, they still feel invited. So it’s like that. More and more people of course have tried yoga, but there’s still a lot of misunderstanding for sure.

[00:35:49] I think I still have friends who don’t understand what I’m doing. They think maybe that I’m sitting and breathing, and then they maybe check out my Instagram. They were like, oh, wow, that looks hard. Or they start to realize, okay, it’s something more than just sitting and meditating. Or then there are people who think it’s just sports, like physical practice. But I think people are becoming more and more open, but I still hear a lot of excuses like, oh, it’s just for females, but I loved it in my yoga studio. We have quite a lot of male practitioners and I love the balance between both energies. In recent years there’s more and more male practitioners.

[00:36:31] What I love is that there are more and more older people coming. I think when I started and especially Ashtanga yoga, there were just the youngsters, 20 or 30 years old. No older people, maybe 40 was maximum. And now I get people above 60 years old, even 70 years old. We even have a yoga teacher who’s 70 years old. She’s teaching Kundalini yoga, but she started her yoga practice with me. I think it was six years ago. She started in yoga with me and then she slowly started some hatha. Then she found Kundalini. It’s so beautiful that people of every age do practice more and more yoga. Yeah. That’s how it’s here.

[00:37:13] Lily Allen-Duenas: Incredible, a 70 year old yoga teacher. Let’s always celebrate that. Always.

[00:37:17] Līva Veinberga: Yeah. That’s amazing, that’s just great.

[00:37:20] Lily Allen-Duenas: Yes. And so how about, can we talk for a minute here about what Lavia is like as a country, in case some of our listeners don’t know too much about it. Could you share more about Latvia with us?

What is Latvia like?

[00:37:30] Līva Veinberga: It’s a small country in Europe. We are member state in European union. I would say that we are just a normal European country. Of course we are more Northern country. So people here in Latvia are more like, not so open with the motions, more closed, more Northern type.

[00:37:53] Like Scandinavian type, but of course, in our history, we had a impact also from Russia. So we have this mixture. We had impact from Russia, from Scandinavia, from Germany. So we can see from those cultures, something into our culture. So we are a Northern European country and we gained our independence from Soviet union into 1991.

[00:38:16] Of course you can compare Latvia with those countries who were independent for a much longer time, but I think we are doing quite well. And I really love my country but Latvians have this kind of thing that they always compare Latvia with the other countries. And mostly with the other countries that are doing better in some of the magazines, when they compare in some field like education or salaries. They always compare like, oh yeah, again, we are worse than this.That’s some kind of thing that Latvians are doing, but I think actually we are a very nice place to live, we have beautiful nature.

[00:38:55] We have four seasons, like really winter. Spring, summer and autumn, but the one thing I don’t like about my country that much is that we have so long winters and so many dark seasons. Now we have summer. It’s amazing. It’s all green. It’s so light and the summer is the best time for me as a vata person.

[00:39:18] But you just have to dig a bit deeper and you can find really brilliant people here. And yeah it’s a nice country.

[00:39:26] Lily Allen-Duenas: Amazing. Thanks so much for sharing more about it. Also just for the entire beautiful conversation we’ve had today, I’m so grateful. If anyone wants to reach out to Liva, I’m going to put your information, your website, and your Instagram social profiles in the show notes, as well as on my website, wildyogatribe.com. But do you want to  tell our listeners verbally where they can find you.

[00:39:49] Līva Veinberga: Yeah, sure. I would be happy if someone joined our classes because we do offer classes in English, a lot of classes in English. We have the webpage is urban yoga.lv. That’s a webpage. Of course I think I know there’s a lot of foreigners who just write on Instagram or Facebook so they can find my studio, Urban Yoga underneath the name, urban yoga Riga.

[00:40:13] My Instagram is Vein like my name and the first part of my name is also on Facebook. We are Urban Yoga Riga.  Anyone can write there if they have any questions, if they ever come to Riga want to practice Ang yin or flow, or just maybe want to have advice about the yogic places in Riga where to enjoy some food.

[00:40:36] I’m always happy to share. I really love traveling. I really love it when people come to my country, and I share some advice especially for yoga. Because of course it’s not so many places for yogis and I have my favorite places, so I’m really happy to share them.

[00:40:53] Lily Allen-Duenas: Thank you so much. Liva for being with me here today, it’s been a joy to be with you.

[00:40:58] Līva Veinberga: Thank you so much for inviting Lily. It was a really lovely conversation. I really think that your podcast is amazing and. I will probably slowly listen to all of the conversations because it’s so amazing to meet the teachers from all around the world. That’s a really nice idea to do it and thank you for chatting. We show all the best, and Namaste to the listeners and hope to see you all someday on a yoga mat.

[00:41:27] Lily Allen-Duenas: Thank you. 

[00:41:28] Thank you so much for tuning into this episode of the wild yoga tribe podcast. My conversation with Līva Veinberga, a yoga teacher from Latvia was so powerful as we took a deep dive into the world of Ashtanga Vinyasa yoga and yin yoga and how they can be a counterbalance for each other. I loved that we also talked about the power of the Asana being a gateway into the practice and why it’s important for yoga teachers to have their own self-practice. As a full-time yoga teacher and studio owner in Latvia, Liva sure had so much beautiful insight to share. Thank you for listening to the wild yoga tribe podcast. Be well.

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