Wild Yoga Tribe Podcast Episode #100 – Yoga is Salvation – Yoga in Albania with Anilda Nocka

Welcome back to the Wild Yoga Tribe podcast, dear listeners! We’re thrilled to be back from our break, celebrating our 100th episode and now diving into episode 101 with the incredible Anilda Nocka, a trailblazing yoga teacher from the beautiful country of Albania.

So…. Welcome to Episode #101 of the Wild Yoga Tribe Podcast! My conversation with Anilda Nocka, a yoga teacher from Albania, was so powerful as we really took a deep dive into yoga in Albania and into what Baptiste Power Yoga is, how she studied with Baron Baptiste, as well as how she’s been a community driven changemaker in Albania, bringing yoga there and what that has done for her community.

I hope this conversation has given you some things to reflect on about what yoga can do for a community, what yoga can do for you, and also how yoga can be a best friend to you or a way, a method, a tool, a space, a practice to hold you through hard things. So if you’re looking to tune into a podcast episode that is all about yoga in Albania, then this is the conversation for you.

Tell me more about Anilda Nocka

Anilda Nocka, a trailblazing yoga teacher from Albania, pioneered the introduction of certified Baptiste Power Yoga to the Balkans, notably in Albania. With over two decades of yoga expertise in both North America and Albania, Anilda is not only a dedicated yogi but a community-driven changemaker. Through her Baptiste Power Yoga Albania studio, founded in December 2011, she has created a haven for diverse yoga practices, including yin, restorative, prenatal, chair, sport yoga, and personalized training for injury recovery and meditation. Anilda’s commitment extends beyond the mat; she volunteers her services, building a brand that passionately advocates for health, wellness, and the transformative benefits of yoga. Certified in various disciplines, including Baron Baptiste Power Yoga and Lakshmi Volker Chair Yoga Therapy, Anilda Nocka is on a mission to inspire and elevate lives every day.

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

Anilda’s journey into yoga is nothing short of serendipitous. Having lived in the U.S. for a significant part of her life, she stumbled upon yoga when challenged by a friend to attend a class. What started as a skeptical venture into a 90-minute advanced level class turned into a life-changing experience. Anilda was captivated by the challenge, the uniqueness, and the profound impact that yoga had on her both physically and mentally.

Fast forward to Anilda’s return to Albania in 2010, where she discovered a lack of awareness about yoga in her homeland. Undeterred, she embarked on a mission to introduce this transformative practice to her community. The initial response was met with confusion, as people questioned the unfamiliar concept. However, Anilda’s persistence, passion, and dedication eventually led to the establishment of the Baptist Power Yoga Studio in Albania, in the capital city of Tirana.

Anilda’s commitment to her practice deepened through her training with Baron Baptiste himself. Describing the experience as life-altering, Anilda highlighted the transformative power of Baptiste Yoga, emphasizing the profound connections formed during the intensive training sessions. The process was demanding, breaking participants down to build them back up with a renewed understanding of themselves and their shared humanity.

The journey of bringing yoga to Albania wasn’t without its challenges. The initial years saw sparse attendance, but Anilda’s unwavering belief in the transformative power of yoga kept her going. Even during the uncertainties of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Albanian community rallied, adapting to online classes and demonstrating a resilient commitment to their practice.

Anilda sees yoga as more than a physical practice; it’s her salvation, her grounding force. It became a source of solace during one of the most challenging periods of her life, demonstrating the profound impact yoga can have on one’s well-being.

Opening up about her country, Anilda paints a vivid picture of Albania—a small, diverse Mediterranean gem with stunning landscapes, ranging from mountains to sandy beaches. The country, emerging from a history of communism, has made significant strides in tourism and infrastructure. Anilda sees Albania as a land of opportunities, with a vibrant energy and a hopeful spirit that resonates through its people.

As Anilda reflects on her journey and the growth of the yoga community in Albania, it’s evident that her passion and perseverance have laid the foundation for a flourishing yoga culture. The studio has become a sanctuary, bringing together a community that spans generations, united by the shared journey of self-discovery through yoga.

In conclusion, Anilda Nocka’s story is a testament to the transformative power of yoga and the impact it can have on individuals and communities. Her dedication to bringing this ancient practice to Albania has not only enriched her life but has also ignited a spark of wellness and self-discovery in the hearts of those who have embraced yoga under her guidance. 

As we celebrate the 101st episode of the Wild Yoga Tribe podcast, we look forward to more inspiring stories, transformative journeys, and the shared love for yoga in the episodes to come. 

Favorite Quote From Anilda Nocka

“Yoga teaches us to look in people’s eyes and through their eyes you can see their souls. And I could see smiley faces, but  I didn’t find that many happy eyes. I want those eyes to be happy because I’ve been there.

Connect with Anilda Nocka to learn more about Yoga in Albania

www.baptistepoweryogaalbania.com

https://www.instagram.com/baptistepoweryogaalbania

https://www.facebook.com/BaptistePowerYogaAlbaniaCenter/

Support the podcast:

https://www.patreon.com/wildyogatribe

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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 101 – Yoga In Albania with Anilda Nocka Transcription

[00:00:00] Lily Allen-Duenas: Namaste family, and welcome back to the Wild Yoga Tribe podcast. Today I am so excited. We are back from our break. We celebrated the 100th podcast episode together, we took a season break, and now we’re back with episode 101 with an amazing yoga teacher from Albania. So I hope you join me in welcoming Anilda Nocka onto the show today.

Anilda is a trailblazing yoga teacher from Albania. She pioneered the introduction of certified Baptist power yoga to the Balkans, notably in Albania itself. With over two decades of yoga expertise in both North America and Albania, Anilda is not only a dedicated yogi, but a community driven change maker and the owner of Baptist Power Yoga Studio in Tirana.

Certified in various disciplines, including Baron Baptiste, power yoga, and Lakshmi Volka chair yoga therapy, Anilda is on a mission to inspire and elevate lives every day. So thank you so much, Anilda, for being here with me today.

[00:01:08] Anilda Nocka: Thank you so much, Lily, for having me, and it’s a great honor to join you in this amazing podcast of yours, and congratulations on the 101th podcast.

[00:01:21] Lily Allen-Duenas: Thank you so much. We’re so excited to hear your story. To start, can you tell us how yoga first came into your life? How did you find out about yoga [00:01:30] and what made you want to start practicing?

How did yoga first come into your life?

[00:01:32] Anilda Nocka: If I have to be honest, yoga found me instead of me finding yoga. I was in the U. S. living, I’m an Albanian born young lady of 50, and I was living in the U. S. at the time, and I got invited into a yoga class, and like everybody else around 2000, everybody thought that yoga was just like sitting down and meditating.

I got challenged from a good friend of mine to try a yoga class, and I was very I was blessed and honored to take my first yoga class experience into Cleveland Yoga Studio with an amazing teacher and I was like, I entered a 90 minute class, an advanced level. I’ve never done yoga before. I’ve done Pilates, I’ve done a little bit of of physical activity, but nothing like that.

And I was like, Wow. What is this? And I’ve never experienced or felt anything like that in all my other, physical experiences and practices. It was like a life changing experience.. I started going a little bit more often. And [00:03:00] I was like, wow. I want to practice this thing, whatever it’s called, because it was quite challenging.

It was something that stayed with you for a very long time. And Cleveland Yoga their style was Baptist inspired yoga style. And that’s how my journey started.

[00:03:24] Lily Allen-Duenas: Amazing. Amazing. And can you share more about your experience as a yoga teacher in Albania? What challenges and rewards have you encountered along the way?

Experience teaching yoga in Albania 

[00:03:35] Anilda Nocka: I was working in the corporate world. Teaching yoga was not even in any of my wildest dreams or crazy dreams, whatever you want to call them.

And I was getting ready to go to Oxford for my PhD so I was a little bit busy doing my own thing and so I got a break from yoga in 2006 because I went to England and I didn’t have enough time to figure out where to go. And but as soon as I got back, it was like, okay, I need to get back into this. And I practiced regularly as much as I could.

And then my break was in one of the yoga journal conferences in Utah, where I had the chance to get a reservation somehow. I don’t even know how I ended it up in there, to be honest with you. [00:04:30] Maybe it was fate, maybe it was meant to be. And it was one of the most amazing experiences that I’ve lived.

I had the time to meet amazing yoga teachers, people with such great hearts. And that’s I have, I was coming out of a That family situation, my dad had just passed away, and I’m usually, I was usually a person that cried about everything, about a movie, about a good, show, if I went to church I cried, and when my dad passed away after a car accident, I was not able to cry for a very long time, and I was in this big, I was in this space practicing with Baron Baptiste himself, and I couldn’t stop crying after nine months.

And I was like, Oh my God, Anilda, everybody’s looking at you, you’re crying, you’re making a fool of yourself. But somehow or other, I just felt free. I just felt that I needed to cry and I didn’t care. 

That was a different changing moment made me realize that there is so much to yoga other than what I was practicing into the yoga studio. Sure, I never thought at that point that yoga would be my future, honestly. And I never[00:06:00]  even thought about it. I was this academic person. I studied, I worked, I had challenging positions, but then I came to Albania that winter and I was like, I wish I had a place here to go and practice yoga and and this is 2010. And they would just turn around and look at me like, what is yoga?

What are you talking about? We have gyms, we have, you can go run, you can do things, but what are you talking about? And I started showing them what I’ve been doing in my yoga classes in my yoga practice and they were like, oh wow, that sounds so much fun, that’s so amazing, but you can do this.

Can you teach us? And I was like no, I actually cannot teach you. I’m not trained to teach you. I was like, what are you talking about? They were like, oh my God, this is so amazing. And, it was really. That moment, not because my friends or family asked me, but in that moment, it was just the first click that maybe there is something to yoga that I was taking for granted that I didn’t see, but the other people that had never tried it was seeing.

How yoga changed Anilda as she decided to teach yoga in Albania 

[00:07:18] Anilda Nocka: In me, seeing me change, seeing me be more open, more friendly, my energy being a lot more positive and open.[00:07:30] It was like I’ll think about it and I’ll go back to the stage. Right now, I just have things to do. I went back to the stage. I forgot about, teaching yoga. And then all of a sudden reality brings me back again to Albania and I was like, why not?

And you have to also understand that my parents are Albanian, they moved to the U. S. in 94, but for a Balkan mother to see her own daughter leave her professional Life in the U. S. and go to Albania to start a yoga studio, it’s unbelievable. It’s not even in the books, it’s not, even after all these years, my mom can’t believe that I’m in Albania teaching yoga.

And it’s quite interesting, my conversations with her about yoga and what I do and transforming life just by doing physical movement and inspiring people. And it’s been quite a journey, quite interesting for me to be honest.

[00:08:51] Lily Allen-Duenas: Oh, absolutely. I think that I loved hearing so much about your journey. I feel like you covered so much in the last few minutes and I don’t even know what I [00:09:00] want to ask about next. I would love though to hear about what it was like to study with Baron Baptiste himself. And I know that a lot of our listeners are yoga teachers, yoga students, but some of us may have never practiced Baron Baptiste, may not even know what it is.

Could, so could you start off telling us a little bit more about that style, that practice and the person? What was it like to study with the founder himself?

What is Baptiste Yoga? What was it like to study with Baron Baptiste Himself?

[00:09:24] Anilda Nocka: Meeting Baron is, the first impact is wow, and how can such a young person when I met him, be able to do so much. These famous yoga teachers that you read about their journey, you read their books, and you read all that, but when I met Barron, At the yoga journal conference, it was like meeting another person, so simple so friendly, so down to earth, that just looks at you in the eye and says, you will be in my next teacher training.

And I’m like, me? You’re kidding. I don’t know. I don’t want to be a yoga teacher. I’m not a yoga teacher. I’m not good enough. And, oh, he just looked at me. I’ll see you soon. It was like that, ah, you’re like, oh, [00:10:30] God. It’s just a 90 minute class. He taught it. It was amazing. We’re all pumped up.

What does he know about me? He doesn’t even know what my name is. So when I first took my I registered myself for the first 100 hour boot camps. He calls them boot camps and believe me, they are literally boot camps.

And you go through a whole process, you have to do some reading they call you, you do an interview with the staff of the institute, they want to know why you want to teach yoga, why you want to train, and why you want to go through this, why you want to transform your life, what’s missing in your life, and most of the time my answers were like, I don’t know what’s missing in my life, that’s what I’m curious about.

And then you get to the first 100 hours, and it was like we were in Phoenicia, New York, in the Catskills, and up in the mountains, and this is beautiful place, and yeah. I was flabbergasted by the number of people showing up to this training and we were all from different backgrounds, they give you enough time to introduce each other to your group, to people.

And then you talk to people and they are doctors, they’re engineers, it’s a McDonald’s worker, it’s a cleaning lady, it’s a homemaker, it’s a teacher. And [00:12:00] I was like, what does this person do? How can he get such a, diverse group of people all together? How can we all be? And then the training starts.

Baptiste Yoga Boot Camp

[00:12:13] Anilda Nocka: And trust me, it is a boot camp. It breaks you, it it challenges you, it makes you dig down. After the, on the third day, you were ready to give up, even though you paid all that money to be there you made all the sacrifices, you read all the literature, and you did all that, and you’re like.

I don’t care, I’ve got to get out of here, how can I pay all this money and these people are just telling us how messed up we are, how messed up our thinking is, how dare they tell us this, and most of the people, it was amazing some people left in very abrupt, throwing tantrums during the training and all that, and they would go, I’m gonna leave, I don’t wanna be here, what the hell is this? And then the next morning, they came back, and it was like, oh wow, how, why? And I was, to be honest with you, I was about on my first hundred hours. I was like, forget it. I’m just going to go. I don’t need this. I really, I don’t [00:13:30] need this in my life.

But then you stay. There is that mystic, that mystery that you want to dig down because you get curious about why are they pushing this? Why are they? Pressuring us to let go of things, maybe there is something behind there, there is a reason why, people get there. And then on the fourth day, you have that aha moment, it’s oh wow.

It was me. It was not them, her wanting to hurt me or to do something. And then that’s when the real training, the real connection between. People that trained with you, right next to you. In those first eight days, we trained with everybody in the group. There was a rule that we didn’t understand that every day we showed up on the mat, or into our, theory classes, or anatomy, or psychology.

. And then, at the end of all this, when we presented the first day ourselves, it was like, oh I’m a nilda, I have a PhD from here, I have a degree from here, I have this from here. On the last day, when we did finish and we were like getting ready [00:15:00] to leave, we got on the podium, they gave us a mic and, Hi, I’m Anilda.

And that’s all could come out of me. And that, that, that moment is where you understand how much, that training gave me. So It was like you were a human, you were a soul, you have, you were a beautiful energy that didn’t need the titles or didn’t need the social standing or what you drove or where you live.

You were Anilda, everybody in the group knew you as such, knew you as a positive person that when you got the mic and guided the group into a full class, it was you that were following, not your titles, it was your energy they wanted to receive from. 

The journey of yoga in Albania

[00:16:05] Lily Allen-Duenas: That’s amazing. I love that acknowledgement of you as a soul taking everything else away and just acknowledging the soul to the soul, right?

[00:16:15] Anilda Nocka: yep, it, and I think that is the thing that makes us I believe all the people that go through the journey of yoga to take a pause and take it all in.[00:16:30] But I believe all of the people that I trained with in the first hundred hours, we were like in awe. We were like, Oh my God, what happened? We were here. We came with a load of our own personal, baggage and claims and entitlements. And then we realized that at the end of it, we’re all the same.

We carry the same stigma or the same baggage like everyone else and we can elevate each other without worrying about where we come from. It was a life changing experience and it changed my whole perspective about my future in the sense that I was born in Albania and I came from a very poor country, communist country.

So we have to fight hard to get forward, to get the best grade in school, to go to college, to get a degree, to move forward in life, and that way of thinking follows you, but then you appreciate everything and you enjoy your blessings or your hard work a lot more in the moment that you take a break, you take a moment of pause, appreciate [00:18:00] everything that you’ve been blessed with, but also find your own soul, you find you, you find what completes you as a human being, as an entity, as energetically, physically, mentally. I don’t know if I maybe I’m a little bit too passionate about it, but to me, it hit home. It was like, wow. I knew I was a good person and I helped a lot of people, but it was like, wow, I love this.

[00:18:37] Lily Allen-Duenas: love that you love this and I’m sure that your community in Albania has loved that you’ve brought it to them. I would love to hear more about the growth of the yoga community in Albania since you started teaching in 2011. That’s where it is now. Just walk us through the journey of yoga in Albania.

What is yoga in Albania like?

[00:18:57] Anilda Nocka: When I first came it was. Very few people that even knew what yoga was there were a couple, two, three people that were like let’s say USAID, that would come to Albania. In their journey to help non profit organizations that were starting to introduce people because yoga in those years was like a total novelty for Albania.

When I first[00:19:30] went to the offices, like the government office to register and get my license and get the things actually the guy was like What does this thing do? Do you cook? Do you prepare food? It’s a restaurant. What are you trying to do? And he didn’t even know where to put it, where to classify the registration.

So that was really sweet in a way, but it was like, the people were like, what is this thing? What do you do? What’s the purpose of this thing? Because There were gyms, there were, things, boxing rings and stuff, but nothing like yoga, when you sit and meditate or do practice or anything. So slowly, the people started, It was not easy, the journey, honestly, was not easy.

The first two, three years, I gave myself enough space, knowing that this was a brand new thing. And I had to, together with other people that in the same time arrived in Albania, we had to start to change the way people thought about, because as soon as you said yoga, you said meditation. Albania, it’s a very mixed religion country.

So we have Muslims, we have Catholics, we have Orthodox, we have Jews, we have people that of no denomination. So you [00:21:00] have to work to walk through that fine line and explaining them that yoga, it’s not a religion. It doesn’t have to be. You just. Take the best of what yoga has to offer, you bring it to the 21st century, and you make it yours.

You take the benefits, you don’t have to do all that, and one of the reasons that Bhakti’s style was a little bit more attractive was Just because of that, it’s inclusive. It just makes you work with you, look inside of you. It’s a moving meditation. So the more you move into the practice, into the sweat, and into the breath, and into how you integrate the, all the elements of yoga.

If people don’t feel that sitting in meditation, it’s what they want, you just move through them and you just break these barriers through the movements, through the breath, through challenging poses and in a way they’re meditating but without realizing they’re meditating there it was in the beginning was like oh no i want to do the movements but i don’t want to meditate because it was like a little bit like a scary approach but then The more people started to come, and they [00:22:30] brought more friends, and they brought their brothers and sisters, their husbands, their wives.

They started slowly introducing each other to yoga, and to the challenges, and to what yoga brings into your life. Very slowly, we worked with educating. The people that were practicing with us, to understand how much opportunities and how many spaces were available into their lives. To introduce the teachings of yoga into their everyday busy lives, professional lives and everything else.

Mhmm,

[00:23:15] Lily Allen-Duenas: That is always one of the battles, isn’t it, is showing how you can integrate it, how not everyone has time for a 90 minute class or a 30 minute class or not everyone wants to do an asana based class or some people don’t want to sit and meditate. I love that there’s so many different paths and so many different things you can take away to make it right for you.

[00:23:34] Anilda Nocka: definitely.

[00:23:35] Lily Allen-Duenas: Yeah, and so I would love to hear to, I ask this question to every guest who’s on the show, what is your personal definition of yoga?

What is your definition of yoga? 

[00:23:45] Anilda Nocka: Yoga will be summed up in one word. It’s been my salvation.

It’s been my grounding. It has been [00:24:00] there when I needed it the most, in the most difficult time of my life. And somehow or other, when you lose someone people go, Oh my God, how am I going to live? How am I going to do? I was like, wow, this thing really works. And I was like, I could get on the mat and I found peace for those 10 minutes in the beginning for 20 minutes.

And then it got longer and longer. And I was like, this yoga practice, at least for me, was my, what kept me grounded, what saved my life, honestly, and so once I went through that experience, and then the more the time passed, and the more I had time to look back at my experience and what I went through, I could share this with people, because usually the Balkan people, if something bad happens, it lasts for 20 years. We’re wasting so much time into our lives regretting or thinking, bad, why me, [00:25:30] there is so much more to life, and it teaches you, it taught me that whatever happens into our lives, maybe it’s not always a bad thing.

It’s yes, you lose a person, But maybe you gain a gift you look for something different to take over or to fill that gap. In the moment that you start taking time and working with yourself and finding that peace and caring the people or the situations that you miss, always within your heart and surround them with love and grace. They’re always there with you.

[00:26:17] Lily Allen-Duenas: You’re right, they are, and I love that yoga came into your life at that time when you needed it so much, and I am sorry for your loss, and 

[00:26:24] Anilda Nocka: Thank  you.

[00:26:25] Lily Allen-Duenas: that yoga, yeah, I’m so sorry for it. It’s something that’s enormous and immense, but having yoga, as your best friend through all of that, or as your therapist, or, not that I think you still need friends, I think you still need therapists, or, and you need whatever you need, but to have yoga there to hold you so that you can be held during that time is, it’s unbelievable.

And during every day, we need to be held and be held. We need both.

I love [00:27:00] the word that you chose for what is your definition of yoga as salvation. Yoga is salvation. That’s so powerful and beautiful. I do want to just ask and talk about how you brought yoga to Albania. You brought Baptiste Yoga to the Balkans, so you knew you didn’t want to open the studio in the U. S. and you knew that Albania needed it, or the people, your community there. Can you talk about specifically why you decided to open the studio where you did?

What was it like opening a yoga studio in Albania

[00:27:32] Anilda Nocka: I never thought about opening a yoga studio in the US and when I arrived in Albania, I was like I’ll just take some time off and just dedicate it to myself. But I still needed a place to practice. And in that time, I was here with a friend of mine from the US. And we were like let’s do yoga.

Let’s practice yoga. Let’s find a place where we can practice. And then we’re like how about we open a yoga studio? And we were both like, no, we can’t do that. We’re not trained. When you come from the U. S. everything is like you gotta get the training before you take the steps and but we realized that in Albania people took the steps first and then the training later. Yoga gave so much to me. And everyone that I met, my friends, my relatives, I could see it [00:28:30] in their eyes that they were supposedly physically happy in their lives. They were telling me, but yoga teaches us to look in people’s eyes and through their eyes you can see their souls.

And I could see smiley faces, but I didn’t find that many happy eyes. I want those eyes to be happy because I’ve been there. I’ve been with the sad eyes. I’ve been when I was hiding from looking people in the eyes because I was so sad in my life. And I didn’t ask what’s your sadness?

What’s your problem? I just said, join me. Come on. We’ll do it together. We’ll just open a yoga studio. And they were like What are you talking about? 

Manduka Mats Delivered to Albania

[00:29:22] Anilda Nocka: And then we started slow, we found the space, we painted it ourselves, we fixed it up, we put some mats, and we ordered, my first big expense in Albania, I ordered good manduka mats, and it was a challenge because we couldn’t find mats, but I contacted the people at Manduka and they were nice because they had a distribution center in Germany and they delivered and the map got here and we were like excited.

Guess what? The first month nobody showed up, [00:30:00] second month one person, maybe two a week. Maybe three, maybe five, so we were like, you get those glitches and it’s ah, maybe this is not such a great idea, but I knew it was a great idea. Deep in my heart, I knew that people were looking for something, but they just simply didn’t know for what, so we hanged in there for a while.

And then my friend returned to the U. S. and I stayed and I went to the second training with Barron, which was amazing. And then from then, when I came back the help from the Institute the teachers that I met during my training has been amazing with ideas, with, the.

Support, some of them even came all the way to Albania and did some trainings in person, which was I was very blessed, my dear friend Luca Richards, he was one of the teachers at that time at the institute. He came all the way from the U. S. and he taught an amazing 40 day revolution journey in Albania and it was like having him here was like, wow, we really can do this. So I’m not going to say that it’s been all like colors [00:31:30] and flowers and balloons. It’s been hard the first three years of the yoga studio in Albania. 

I’d already prepared myself that it was not going to be easy. It was a brand new thing, but people slowly started to show up. They got curious. They wanted to know more. And I was always there. I was always. The same person with everyone that showed up in the studio. They were like, don’t you get sick?

Don’t you get tired of us? Don’t you get tired of doing this? And I was like, yes, I do, but I love doing this. So I love sharing this. So To me it was like, it was not a job, it was a passion, it was something that came from my heart and at the end the community showed up, they just surrounded me with lots of love and, support and we’ve done a lot of traveling and retreats and teacher trainings and all that and it’s been an amazing journey.

I’m very blessed. We have an amazing community. People that change, they come, they go, new people come in there is [00:33:00] people here that have been with me for eight years, they’ve never left, they just, no matter what, rise or shine, or sun, or frozen times, we’re here, we’re all together. We stuck together during the COVID and we moved all our classes online during that period and the community showed up every day on their mats in their homes.

And in Albania, we were very blessed. We were closed for only like three months, so we didn’t suffer as much as some of the other countries. We were open a lot faster. So we had the opportunity to be with our community, taking care of, all the things that other studios did also, but they showed up, they, they were here, and it’s been amazing ever since

[00:33:58] Lily Allen-Duenas: Awesome. Oh, I love hearing that. It’s been amazing. for having me. It has been, I’m, I, of course it has taken some time to, get the role and to have people buy in and understand, okay, what is yoga? Why should I practice? And knowing that the first people who showed up, trusted you and were curious and then brought friends with them and family.

And I love hearing those stories of origin because I know that there are a lot of yoga teachers. These are words that I speak to from every corner of the world who they are the first person to bring [00:34:30] yoga to their country and it is a journey and it doesn’t happen overnight, but I do love hearing how it has grown for you and I appreciate you so much for sharing.

Also for our listeners too who do not know very much Anilda about Albania, can you talk to us about your country? What is Albania like? If you want to do some geography or some history or just what the energy of the place feels anything that you’d like to share on your country, we’d love to hear.

What is Albania like? 

[00:35:01] Anilda Nocka: Albania is a very small country in the Mediterranean, and it’s surrounded by Italy, Greece, and Montenegro, so it’s right on the little heel of the Italian peninsula boot. And it’s a small country, but it’s so vast, it goes from the mountains all the way to the sandy beaches. or to the stony beaches in the south.

And it, this country has been through a lot and in their history. And we come from a background of communism that was changed in 1990. And we were, I was part of the generation that moved and lived through in between the two changes between Communism and democracy. Albania has developed a lot. It’s been like [00:36:00] the number one European destination in the last, I believe, two years as far as tourism.

Or we have amazing beaches. We have been blessed with beautiful beaches and now the infrastructure is coming along a little bit slowly. So much better than 10, 12, 15 years ago when I first got back here. So things are changing and things are moving forward. It’s a country that it amazes me each and every day.

People are considering we come from a background of a communism country. Our first willingness is. To move out of Albania, to look for better opportunities, and sometimes, I’m not trying to be patriotic here or anything, I’m not. I just moved to Albania because this was a place where I felt safe, I felt good, I have my friends, I have my relatives, but there is so much opportunity for young people to come and do a lot of things, to stand up for creating beautiful things. You don’t have to, you don’t need a lot of money. Yes, you need the money to make a better [00:37:30] life, definitely, but there is so much, so many things that you can create. There is such a beautiful energy in the people.

There is so much hope for a better future. And to create something that stays here. Most of my friends, we have lived all around the world. We have created our careers and families and opportunities. And at the end of the day we always go back somehow to our roots. To where We feel welcomed without having to belong.

Albania has been a country that has suffered a lot, but also has gained a lot. I see younger entrepreneurs, people that are creating beautiful things in here. I read about an Albanian girl being the chief of the artificial intelligence at Google, and I hear Albanian guys at MIT that are creating this beautiful thing, they’re working with all these amazing programs.

So Albania, if you haven’t been to Albania, and if you love The Greek islands, or if you were, you love the Mediterranean food, you don’t have to go to Italy or Greece or some of these places, you come to Albania. [00:39:00] It’s beautiful, without taking anything away from Greece and Italy, with all the respect I love those places.

But it’s a country that mixes up lots of cultures ,lots of experiences. And the bigger area, metropolitan area Tirana is the capital of Albania. We got a little bit of everything, but that’s normal with the big city.

But it’s a country that it’s very safe. I I can go out two o’clock, three o’clock in the morning all by myself and I don’t feel that I have to feel frightened. I’ve never felt that way by the time I’ve been here. I’ve always traveled alone, all around Albania, and I’ve never felt that I needed to have someone to protect me I don’t know if that answers your question.

[00:39:57] Lily Allen-Duenas: Yeah, I love hearing about Albania and

[00:40:00] Anilda Nocka: And you are welcome to come and visit. We would love to have you and your husband. Come and visit anytime you want.

[00:40:10] Lily Allen-Duenas: Oh, thank you so much. I actually did live in Greece for about a year. I had

[00:40:16] Anilda Nocka: Oh, 

[00:40:17] Lily Allen-Duenas: times I lived there, four months, four months, four months. And I was teaching also in Greece on an art fellowship. And I had a lot of students from Albania. And so I have a, I think it’s called a [00:40:30] besa, right? Like a 

[00:40:31] Anilda Nocka: Uh huh. 

[00:40:32] Lily Allen-Duenas: That if I go to Albania, I have someone to show me around, but that was 10 years ago, so it,

[00:40:37] Anilda Nocka: Now you’ve got another one. Another one that is more. Think about it. Maybe next summer or something. Summers are beautiful. Winters are a little bit like in the U. S. But summers are a lot better to

[00:40:52] Lily Allen-Duenas: Oh, yeah. I live in Iowa in the middle of the U. S. now and winters are tough so I usually advise people not to come in winter as well, but I hear that and we don’t have skiing here. So do you have any skiing in Albania for the winters or?

[00:41:07] Anilda Nocka: Yes. In some areas there is. They’re risk skiing also.

[00:41:11] Lily Allen-Duenas: Okay Anilda, it’s been such a joy to speak with you and hear your story and also your passion. I just loved really hearing your, all of your thoughts on yoga and what it means in your journey and what it’s like. Done to your life and how it’s growing in Albania too. So for anyone who’s listening to our podcast episode that wants to get to know you better, I will definitely link your website as well as your Instagram in the show notes.

So you can just scroll down, click and you’ll be taken right to ilda’s website and Instagram account. But a nilda here on the show today. Would you like to just say out loud the name of your website and Instagram.

[00:41:52] Anilda Nocka: Okay. Our website is baptist parayoga albania.com and the same name.[00:42:00] 

And I really thank you so much Lily for this opportunity and it’s been such a joy to talk to you and I hope you really soon will make a one on one talk in Tirana so you can post your podcast from Tirana.

[00:42:25] Lily Allen-Duenas: Yeah, thank you so much, Anilda, I’ve loved speaking with you, and I hope you have a beautiful rest of your day.

[00:42:32] Anilda Nocka: Thank you. Thank you so much. This was amazing and I really appreciate your work and your passion about this. This is really an amazing opportunity, but you got our number so whenever you want to join us in Albania, we will be very happy to have you.

Wild Yoga Tribe Podcast Outro

[00:42:52] Lily Allen-Duenas: Thank you so much for tuning in to this episode of the Wild Yoga Tribe podcast.

My conversation with Anilda Nocka, a yoga teacher from Albania, was so powerful as we really took a deep dive into yoga in Albania and into what Baptiste Power Yoga is, how she studied with Baron Baptiste, as well as how she’s been this changemaker, this community driven changemaker in Albania, bringing yoga there and what that has done for her community.

So I hope this conversation has given you some things to reflect on about what yoga can do for a community, what [00:43:30] yoga can do for you, and also how yoga can be a best friend to you or Aa way, a method, a tool, a space, a practice to hold you through hard things. So if you’re looking to tune into a podcast episode that is all about yoga in Albania, then this is the conversation for you.

Thank you for listening to the Wild Yoga Tribe podcast. Be well. 

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