Wild Yoga Tribe Podcast Episode #86 – How Yoga Helps – Yoga in Kosovo with Rina and Agnesa Mehmeti

Welcome to Episode #86 of the Wild Yoga Tribe Podcast! My conversation with Rina Mehmeti and Agnesa Mehmeti, sister yoga teachers and yoga studio co-owners from Kosovo, was so beautiful as they shed light on what it was like to open the first yoga studio in Kosovo and how yoga impacted their community after all the turmoil and difficulties that followed the war.

If you’re looking to tune into a podcast episode that is all about yoga in Kosovo then this is the conversation for you.

Tell me more about Rina & Agnesa Mehmeti

​Agnesa and Rina Mehmeti are sisters and yoga teachers Kosovo. They co-own the Urban Yoga studio in Prishtina, the capital city of Kosovo. Their yoga journey started in 2013 when they first came to the practice, and they began teaching in 2017.

Agnesa and Rina have both completed various teacher training programs, including 200h Hatha Yoga in Crete at the Breath of Life School, Vinyasa Yoga in the Netherlands at the Arhanta Yoga Ashram, Prenatal Yoga in Italy at Transformational Hatha Yoga School, and  Kids Yogain Vienna at Yogaji School, and Ashtanga Yoga at Yoga Mea in Italy. They both teach Hatha Yoga, Vinyasa Yoga, Yin Yoga, Ashtanga Yoga, Prenatal Yoga, and Kids Yoga.

Both Agnesa and Rina bring their extensive training and passion for yoga to their classes, inspiring their students to live more mindful lives. Their studio, Urban Yoga, is a space for growth and community, where Agnesa and Rina share their love for yoga with students of all levels.

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

Step into the vibrant world of yoga in Kosovo with Rina and Agnesa Mehmeti, the dynamic duo behind Urban Yoga in Pristina. In this episode of the Wild Yoga Tribe Podcast, they share their incredible journey of opening a yoga studio in a country that was relatively unfamiliar with yoga just a few years ago.

Rina and Agnesa’s story begins with skepticism from friends and colleagues who couldn’t fathom leaving their stable jobs for the path of yoga. But their passion for helping others and the word-of-mouth recommendations soon started to spread, creating a buzz around their studio. Local media coverage further introduced yoga to the community, dispelling misconceptions that yoga was simply sitting in a cross-legged position. The pandemic played a surprising role in boosting the popularity of yoga, turning it into a lifestyle choice that benefits both mental health and physical well-being.

Beyond their studio’s success, Rina and Agnesa offer insights into the beautiful country of Kosovo. They describe it as a small nation with stunning mountains and a young population. They highlight the warmth and hospitality of the people, making visitors feel like part of a family. They also touch upon the challenging times Kosovo faced during the war, recounting their personal experiences as refugees and the difficulties of living in a post-war environment. However, they express optimism for the future, with positive changes occurring in the country and the upcoming visa liberalization that will allow easier travel within Europe.

For Rina and Agnesa, yoga is not just a physical practice but a transformative experience. It has helped them find balance, navigate anxiety, and be fully present in every moment. They view yoga as a powerful tool for healing and personal growth, instilling a sense of love, connection, and gratitude for life.

Favorite Quote From Rina Mehmeti

“ Yoga for me is an experience. It’s an experience, which I could feel with myself, with my body, with my mind. Experience, I’m having every day in daily life with people, how I approach life, how I approach to people, and being present in a moment.”

Favorite Quote From Agnesa Mehmeti

“Yoga is an experience. It’s love, it’s life, it’s family. It’s the beauty of connecting, like the body, the mind, and the soul. So everything around.”

Connect with Rina and Agnesa Mehmeti

www.urbanyoga-pr.com

https://www.instagram.com/urbanyoga_prishtine/

Support the podcast:

https://www.patreon.com/wildyogatribe

Want more?

https://wildyogatribe.com/thepodcast/

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

Wild Yoga Tribe Podcast #86 – Yoga in Kosovo with Rina and Agnesa Mehmeti Transcript

[00:00:00] Lily Allen-Duenas: Namaste family and welcome back to the Wild Yoga Tribe Podcast! Today, I am so excited and delighted to welcome two sister yoga teachers onto the show. We have Rina and Agnesa Mehmeti on the show today from Kosovo. They co-own the Urban Yoga studio in Pristina, the capital city of Kosovo. So they started their yoga journey in 2013. They began teaching in 2017. They both have a ton of yoga teacher trainings under their belt, Hatha Yoga in Crete, Vinyasa yoga in the Netherlands, prenatal yoga in Italy and more. So I’m so excited to have you both on the show today! Thank you Rina and Agnesa, for being here.

[00:00:43] Rina Mehmeti: Thank you. Thank you for invitation.

[00:00:46] Lily Allen-Duenas: For starters, why don’t… Rina, how about you introduce yourself first and talk about a little bit about who you are and about how yoga came into your life.

How Did Yoga Come Into Your Life?

[00:00:56] Rina Mehmeti: Okay. I’m Rina. I am the younger sister of Agnesa.  So by profession, I am economist. And first time I was introduced to yoga in 2013 when my sister dragged me, as she dragged me to yoga because I was the person which was not that very sporty; I was a bit more lazy. And then always when I tried to do something, then I would always left it in the middle.

First time [00:01:30] when I tried yoga, we had a really nice teacher from U.S., she also lives here in Pristina. And she started to introduce with her lessons, that was the first time, I could see how my body functioned or how my body can find the limits, and then the way of the breathing and so on.

So that was my first journey. And then also search on a YouTube channels to, to try to do more yoga. So it, it came somehow… I felt in love, but maybe because we had a really good teacher. So she had a really nice voice and she was beautiful as well. And then she could really explain the poses and make it beautiful for me and all of us, of course. And from that day, everything changed in my life. So yeah, because I’m coming from the banking sector and then suddenly, me and my sister, we turned our life in a different dimension somehow. So now we are owning this studio and running this studio and yeah, doing something we sure love.

[00:02:53] Lily Allen-Duenas: Oh, I love hearing that, and I know it sounds like you flipped everything upside down from being an economist in [00:03:00] the banking world to yoga, and I hear that’s a story all the time. And I love that when people are brave enough and bold enough to step out of their patterns and their life and the money and the job, and then be brave. And Agnesa, for you, were you also in the banking sector? Or I would also love to hear your journey and if you are the one who introduced Rina in the beginning, got her to go to class, maybe tell us more about you and your journey, Agnesa.

What is Your Journey, Agnesa? How Did Yoga Come into Your Life? 

[00:03:29] Agnesa Mehmeti: Different from Rina. I studied management, but I never dealt with that, but I worked for 20 years with international organizations. But in Kosovo, we had a war. And after that I joined this organization worked for human rights and rule of law, and then different projects. So in total for 20, maybe 21 years. 

And what brought me to yoga was that okay, I was doing different kind of activities and one of my favorite was Pilates. But then, and I, I noticed that I, I had difficulty with my left arm. So one day I just couldn’t move it. And I just got concerned that I said, oh, maybe it’s my heart, or maybe I’m getting a stroke, I started to panic and then I went to see different doctors. And then when I did some [00:04:30] MRIs and some medical checks, they just said it’s my neck. I had to go and do physiotherapy, and the treatment was really painful and then one of the suggestions that I had from our international doctors was that I should try and do yoga.

And I said, okay, yoga. And then I was trying to look [for] the place in Pristina if somebody was doing that, if and then nobody was doing yoga. And then I continue it did really a big research and then somehow we found this teacher. Sarah, but before her, there were two other ladies, but then they were just like staying in Kosovo for a short period of time, like one month, three months, and they would go back to their country.

So there was no consistency that you can go there, do yoga, and then get deeper into a practice. And then we met Sarah. And it really helped because the way how she introduced was that the alignment was really important and was a key. And the way how you keep your body and how you do your poses and how it felt. So I felt much better because I saw the difference between Pilates and yoga, but I [00:06:00] did lots of mistakes because the way how, yes, it was nice to keep my body like fit and to work in different muscles, but the alignment was not there and I was not keeping my neck in a proper way.

So, after I started yoga and then we started like for twice a week, and then doing with the YouTube and like falling in love with that. Then we started to think deeper because there was no studios in… there were no studios in Kosovo, and we just thought with Rina. What if we go and get some certificate somewhere and then we introduce this to our society? And because of our jobs it was difficult to take a time off because normally you have to take one month to be away for these intensive courses.

And one day we just decided to do that and Rina said, “Yes, my sister, I think I would like to join you.” And our first journey was in Crete in 2017. This is where we did our first Hatha 200 hours. It felt good. It was not easy. It was tough. And then after that, [00:07:30] every year we did different trainings.

So, we wanted just to feel everything, to experience and to see, how far we can go with that. So then I did also the next year I went to Netherlands, which I did Vinyasa training. Rina did her yin training and then after that, the next year I went to Italy in Miza *unintelligible*. I finished the advanced 300 hours advanced Hatha and Ashtanga. And then Rina had also her journey with kids yoga, prenatal. I also did prenatal in Vienna. The good thing is that I did in Vienna, Rina did in Italy, and we wanted to combine to see if there are different ways of teachers how they teach, for example, for prenatal yoga, and it was nice because Rina gave me some tips of what she learned there and I gave her of what I learned in Vienna. And this combination like brought a really nice compilation of our prenatal yoga, which we are really proud and the clients which are attending our studio are really happy with us.

[00:08:59] Lily Allen-Duenas: Oh, [00:09:00] that’s amazing. I do love that. It seems like you guys started the journey together and then you didn’t do every single training together either. You just wove together what you were interested in or tried different things, and as you mentioned, combining your knowledge for pRinatal postnatal from two different trainings, that must be very rich.

But I loved hearing too, how you noticed there was no yoga teachers in Kosovo, in Pristina, and you said, we want, we wanna be those teachers that are here for your community. So I’d love to hear what was it like to introduce yoga to Kosovo? Rina, would you mind commenting on that?

What was it Like to Introduce Yoga to Kosovo?

[00:09:39] Rina Mehmeti: Yeah, sure. It was really hard in the beginning because as we said, we didn’t have yoga teachers, especially the internationals, they were the ones introduced us to yoga. And then for us, that was a hard in the first step because people, they thought that yoga is a religion or it’s something to do with a religion, and that was a really hard part to, to face it.

And then, yoga is just a meditation; you sit in a comfortable sitting position and then you just meditate. Oh man, that’s it. It was a journey to explain, to tell them that you just don’t sit in a comfortable or in a cross like sitting position, and then [00:10:30] you do om. So there is more of it. So we started slowly to introduce the way that, the techniques of the breathing, asanas, and then slowly, by the year. We started to get more, our yogis like to introduce more into our community, starting with our friends and then friends of the friends, and then each year started to get bigger and bigger.

But in the beginning, they were more internationals. But then by the time I mean Googling and doing different events, as we tried to make different events also outdoors. And then people started to get more interest and many of the people, which they, especially during the pandemic, which they worked from home. They had different kind of problems, so neck, back problems. We did a lot. We tried to promote yoga, online, and we had many interviews to tell them that- you guys, something more that can help you also not only physical, but also mentally, which people struggled, especially during the pandemic.

Now we see the progress. Now the younger generations, they started to really to [00:12:00] get into the yoga and then we want to make them to create the lifestyle. I don’t know, if Agnesa has something to comment on that or to add?

[00:12:10] Lily Allen-Duenas: Yeah. Agnesa, do you have anything else you’d like to add about what it was like as well to open that yoga studio? I know Rina mentioned it was some more foreigners and it was difficult cause people didn’t know what yoga was and they didn’t trust it. They thought it was something religious.

What it was Like to Open a Yoga Studio in Kosovo?

[00:12:26] Agnesa Mehmeti: Our friends, they started to laugh with us because they said, “Ah, what are you doing? You’re leaving your jobs, your good salaries and doing this?” Since I saw the benefits of that, yoga, I really thought that I could help some other people who had similar issues.

And then the word of the mouth, this is what helped. “Oh, I was there. Oh, I tried this. Oh, it’s different.” And then since our country is really small and we have lots of friends and some friends, they work on TV and radio. So they came and visited us, came for an interview and they showed that on tv.

So it was like introduction so people could see. And then when somebody would see us outside, they said, “Oh, so yoga is not only sitting in cross-legged seated position?” We said “No, it’s activity.” Yes, people were very skeptical. But after pandemic, [00:13:30] I think the yoga became more popular. And since five years ago, there are many people who open studios and it’s not only us anymore. So it’s nice that other studios, the people are attending other places and is becoming a lifestyle. So it helps a lot for mental health and of course for for different physical benefits. Yeah.

[00:14:00] Lily Allen-Duenas: Absolutely. It’s a huge job to show an entire community what really yoga is because with the distrust or with the lack of information, and as you said, they had this idea just sitting and chanting om. And also Agnesa, I was wondering about introducing yoga to men in Kosovo? I’m not sure if. You have a lot of women in your studios or a lot of men. I know it seems like almost globally, it’s mainly women practicing, but I just would love to learn more about the men and if they’re joining your classes.

Are Men Practicing Yoga in Kosovo?

[00:14:35] Agnesa Mehmeti: Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Nowadays it’s different. In the beginning, there were no men except internationals because, it was different. And I’m telling you, the yoga started here like five, six years ago, and the knowledge that they had, it was just like sitting and meditating or it was some kind of religious [00:15:00] thing.

But then later on people, the men who joined yoga were more artists. Artists, which are different from other people, like they are more open-minded and they wanted to explore and they didn’t care if only women were there. And then this circle started to become bigger. Especially with people like with some man who would call us and say, “Oh, I really have a big problem with the lower back pain, or I have a problem with my hips. Can you help me with that?” And then this is how it started. And then the thing, what we do a lot of promotion on Facebook and Instagram, so it’s a lot of visibility. And first we ask our clients if we can post pictures or stories. And if they say yes, then this goes like viral and people see, and this is how they get back to us and then the number becomes bigger.

So yes, we have group classes, which are mixed. And the energy is always bigger when and better when there are men.

[00:16:18] Lily Allen-Duenas: Yeah. Oh, that’s so cool. I would love to hear too, maybe from Rina about Kosovo I know some of our listeners know where it is or know a little bit about it, but we’d love to [00:16:30] hear more about your country.

What is Kosovo Like? 

[00:16:31] Rina Mehmeti: Kosovo is a small country, so we are like not even the two millions people in entire country. We have a lot of mountains which are really beautiful and a lot of young people. So we have really young generation in Kosovo. We are independent since February, 2008, and our president is a female.

That’s something also new to have a female president in in our country. We have a lot of green. We are quite hospital people. We like really to invite others and then make them like being in a family. And what else?

[00:17:24] Lily Allen-Duenas: I know Agnesa mentioned something about the war. Do you wanna speak briefly about what happened?

The War in Kosovo

[00:17:31] Rina Mehmeti: Okay. I was smaller back in the days I was 14 and bit before the war, Agnesa was working for the international organization and then she got the information that we were supposed to leave the country because who worked with internationals, they had been in a risk to that something can happen to their family.

So Agnesa took [00:18:00] that initiative and took me and my sister and we went outside of our country. And then after that mom joined and everything started. The good part was that we haven’t been there because of course the war it’s really horrifying. We had a bad experience after we went back. We are coming from the, Albanian community because in Kosovo, the majority are Albanians. Then the official language is Albanian and Serbia. But back in the days, the majority was Serbian. And then because of the political things, of course of course things they get bad. And that’s why after we went back from Montenegro, because we were in a Montenegro during the wartime, we went back in a north part in Mitra Vista, which we were born and raised, but we got attacked from Serbian part. But we got lucky that we were alive because and we never had any scratch in our bodies, but our neighbors, they got killed that night.

So that was the part which we[00:19:30] experienced. That was not a war, but after war, let’s say. That was really bad experience. And I hope never to happen to no one. But that’s the war, over the past war when Yeah. There is no government, no nothing. And then, yeah.

[00:19:49] Lily Allen-Duenas: Agnesa, is there anything that you’d like to comment on about that time as well?

The War in Kosovo 

[00:19:55] Agnesa Mehmeti: About that time… it’s sad that many things, how to say, went wrong because when you are younger, you think there is nothing wrong. But then everything was wrong because with the entire Yugoslavian country at that time and with aggressors who they just wanted to break the country apart and which they did.

But then the thing that The Serbian population wanted to ethnically clean kosovo was really hard because we lived in a northern part, which was majority populated by Serbians and in a school we attended like mixed schools. So it was difficult to see that… You are just… you have to leave your town, you have to leave your friends, you have to start something from the scratch. And then just to have a really bad memory of childhood. But[00:21:00] life must go on. And many things changed and I think for a better now. Our country now looks good. We will soon have a visa liberalization, which we are really happy about that because we can move freely to Europe which we couldn’t because we struggle a lot to apply for visa for different countries.

So really difficult. It has been difficult to live in our country, but then somehow we find the light and we find the way, and…

[00:21:35] Lily Allen-Duenas: And yoga helps.

How Yoga Helps 

[00:21:37] Agnesa Mehmeti: Yes, yoga helps! It helps like the positivity and it helps to never give up because what we learn from yoga it’s that you really have to live in a present moment and you don’t need to take anything for granted because um, where you are today, and what you have today might be gone tomorrow. And we have to appreciate and value what we have today and while we have it, yes.

[00:22:14] Lily Allen-Duenas: Absolutely. Yes. I think those are beautiful lessons that yoga teaches. And I would a also, and I would also like to ask both of you, and we can start with Rina. I’ll ask you both the same questions cuz I ask it to every guest who comes onto [00:22:30] the show. It is, what is your personal definition of yoga? What does yoga mean to you?

What is Your Personal Definition of Yoga? 

[00:22:37] Rina Mehmeti: Yoga for me is an experience. It is  experience which I could feel with myself, with my body, with my mind. Experience, I’m having every day in a daily life with the people, how I approach life, how I approach the people, and being present in a moment. So that’s, for me, yoga. The way to have myself under control when I feel anxious or nervous so I can slow down and breathe. So that’s, for me, yoga. So yoga for me, it’s a big experience.

[00:23:22] Lily Allen-Duenas: Beautiful. And how about you, Agnesa?

[00:23:25] Agnesa Mehmeti: The same thing I can say yoga is experience. It’s love, it’s life, it’s family. It’s the beauty of connecting, like the body, the mind, the soul. So everything around.

[00:23:42] Lily Allen-Duenas: Perfect. Those are great definitions. So Agnesa, I’d also like to hear from you about all the trainings you guys did do. I know you, you touched on them earlier, but why did you choose to do these certain trainings or at these certain places, or why did those particular trainings [00:24:00] call out to you?

How Did You Choose Your Yoga Training?

[00:24:01] Agnesa Mehmeti: What we wanted to do was to really go in a place of origin, to go in India, but as we said from the country that we are coming from in some places it’s impossible to go. For example, they don’t accept our passport or it’s difficult to grant the permission or visa. So at the moment it’s impossible to go to India.

No visa, no, no possibility with our passport. And then we had to search different places. And of course we had to have visa for a different countries. And then the places that we chose where the countries in Schengen Zone, in Europe. And yeah, we had to go through the training what they provide if that is what we really want and what we were looking for.

And then we went for it. So the first was Crete, which was approachable to us and also Netherlands. And then other planes, Italy and Vienna. Vienna was the closest here, close to Kosovo, but yes, this is the Europe was mostly chosen only because we couldn’t go to India.

[00:25:28] Lily Allen-Duenas: Wow, your passports aren’t [00:25:30] recognized by every country, still to this day?

[00:25:33] Agnesa Mehmeti: Still to this day. 

[00:25:34] Rina Mehmeti: Still.

[00:25:35] Lily Allen-Duenas: Wow. And so do either of you want to talk about why yoga is important for Kosovo, especially after the war? I know we talked about how hard that was, and how you had to leave, and become a refugee and then come back, and I feel like yoga probably has really helped your community. And do some healing or not just in the body, but maybe coming together in a community space and healing energetically. But of course, that’s just my guess. I’d love to hear your comments.

Why is Yoga Important for Kosovo After the War? 

[00:26:07] Agnesa Mehmeti: Yes, it helped a lot and it’s helping a lot because the time after the war is quite post-traumatic time and there are no places here that like the institutes that you could go and heal yourself like in a different countries all over the world. So people had to struggle and find the means how they can help themselves.

And then there were different projects, for example which involved women which were abused during the war, and then they were formed different workshops and groups and then maybe not yoga as a physical practice was not introduced, but yoga with the help with pranayama as a breathing [00:27:00] technique.

So it helped a lot like to to have people sit around you in the chairs or in the ground and then just advise them how to breathe properly, how not to speed up the breath, to take it slow, and then to introduce them with different techniques, which helped a lot for their mind, and of course, for their soul.

And also let, not only the war, but also the pandemic. We lost many people here, young people, lot of young people died, and it created really a mental, I don’t know, a trouble around the society. And as Rina mentioned our population is really young population. We have big number of young people.

The thing was really difficult because when we were isolated there were, there was not much to do. But since there were different platforms that we could do yoga online, that helped a lot, but also introducing the breathing techniques, that was like one of the best things and which helped a lot for mental state for people.

[00:28:19] Lily Allen-Duenas: Yeah, pranayama is so powerful. Breath work and what it can do for the nervous system, just deregulating, calming, causing your heart rate to slow [00:28:30] down, everything. It’s so beautiful and I. I would also love to hear too, Rina, how do people get in touch with you if they want to learn more about you and your sister? They want to maybe plan a trip to Kosovo or they have a question. What’s the best way they can do that?

[00:28:48] Rina Mehmeti: So they can Instagram us. It’s @urbanyoga_pristina, so they can contact us, they can text us. And also we have our web page, which is www.urbandyoga_pr.com. Also, they can find us in Urban Yoga on a Facebook page of the Urban Yoga. 

[00:29:13] Lily Allen-Duenas: Perfect. I will link your website and your Instagram in the show notes. So whoever’s listening to this podcast, you can just scroll down, find the links to Urban yoga, and also I will put them on my website, wildyogatribe.com/yogainKosovo. I’m gonna include their bios from Rina and Agnesa, transcript of everything that we said, that’s really helpful if you wanted to read or find a quote you liked. And there’ll also be a blog post that associated with it. Rina, Agnesa, this has been so beautiful. I’ve had so much fun with both of you, and I’m so grateful you took the time to be with me today.

[00:29:51] Rina Mehmeti: Thank you, Lily. Thank you very much. Thank you. Also from your 

[00:29:54] Agnesa Mehmeti: side. Thank you so much. It was our pleasure really to be in your podcast!

[00:30:00] Lily Allen-Duenas: Thank you. 

Wild Yoga Tribe Podcast Outro

 Thank you so much for tuning in to this episode of the Wild Yoga Tribe Podcast. My conversation with Rina and Agnesa Mehmeti, two yoga teachers who are sisters from Kosovo.

They’re also yoga studio co-owners of Urban Yoga, in Pristina the capital city of Kosovo. Our conversation was so beautiful as they shed light on what it was like to open the first yoga studio in Kosovo, how their community responded to it and how it also impacted their community after all the turmoil and difficulties that followed the war.

I hope that this conversation made you wanna investigate how different people, and different cultures, and different communities, they can have different ideas of what yoga can be, such as just sitting and chanting. So maybe this conversation made you want to investigate what preconceived notions or conceptions or misconceptions you have about yoga yourself. So if you’re looking to tune into a podcast episode that’s all about yoga in Kosovo, then this is the conversation for you. Thank you for listening to the Wild Yoga Tribe Podcast. Be well.

Wild Yoga Tribe Podcast #80- Yoga Fusion – Yoga in Cameroon with Sten Kadji

Welcome to Episode #80 of the Wild Yoga Tribe Podcast! My conversation with Sten Kadji, a yoga teacher from Cameroon, was so bright and beautiful as we looked at yoga as a union of spheres, a fusion of many practices. I hope that this conversation made you curious about how yoga is a journey, and what yoga is for you can change, grow, and transform at any moment and it likely will throughout your life.

If you’re looking to tune into a podcast episode that is all about being open to change, and being flexible with yourself and with life, then this is the conversation for you.

Tell me more about Sten Kadji

Sten Kadji opened the first yoga studio in Cameroon, Studio Ark Yoga, at the end of 2019. While he began practicing yoga in 2015, he received his yoga teacher training certification with the Africa Yoga Project in Kenya, and was actually in the same graduating class as Rama Saeed from Ghana, a previous guest on the Wild Yoga Tribe podcast. Sten teaches various types of meditations and Power Vinyasa Yoga at his studio in Douala, Cameroon.

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

While Sten Kadji is from Cameroon, he first came to yoga while attending university in Florida. Upon returning to Cameroon, he knew he wanted to bring all that he had learned to his community. He sought out a yoga teacher training with the Africa Yoga Project in Kenya, and opened the first studio in Cameroon shortly after in his mother’s art gallery. As Sten says, “It was a no-brainer how art and yoga associate.”

Our conversation veered off into many beautiful directions, including how Sten defines yoga, the gifts that yoga has given him, and all that yoga has brought into his life. His mother lost her battle with cancer a few years ago, and Sten credits yoga for helping him to heal.

It was fascinating to hear how being the first yoga studio in Cameroon has given required him to shoulder more responsibilities surrounding yoga. As Sten says, “In Cameroon, we do have a lot of preconceived ideas that people who associate yoga to religious affiliation or sometimes it’s very mystified and we take a lot of pride in dismantling these ideas or these myths around yoga. Through practices like meditation and breath work and even different workshops like around the yamas and niyamas and different philosophy around the practice, we try to share with our community around us.”

If you’re curious about yoga in Cameroon or what Cameroon is like— then tune in! This is the Wild Yoga Tribe episode for you!

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

• Opening Cameroon’s first yoga studio in an art gallery
• Dismantling the myths around yoga
• The powerful training experience with the Africa Yoga Project
• Yoga is a journey that is ongoing, a flow that doesn’t stop
• Yoga is a practice meant to be shared

Favorite Quote From Sten Kadji

“Yoga practice has shown that we are able to live a more blissful and happy life by some simple tricks. I call these tricks, just like sitting in silence allows us to listen to ourselves more, be more present taking the time to move, things that seem very mundane and almost innate. Yoga reminds us that, it really takes time. And there there’s definitely virtues of yoga, like hard work and pushing, but also knowing when to let go. So I think all these little lessons that we learned on and off on the mat are so crucial to us today globally because it’s accessible to everybody.”

Copyright © 2023 Wild Yoga Tribe LLC. All rights reserved. Transcripts are generated using a combination of speech recognition software and human transcribers, and may contain errors. Kindly check the corresponding audio before quoting in print to ensure accuracy.

The Wild Yoga Tribe, LLC, owns the copyright in and to all content in and transcripts of the Wild Yoga Tribe podcasts, with all rights reserved, including right of publicity.

What’s Okay

You are welcome to share an excerpt from the episode transcript (up to 500 words but not more) in media articles (e.g., The New York Times), in a non-commercial article or blog post (e.g., Elephant Journal), and/or on a personal social media account for non-commercial purposes, provided that you include proper attribution and link back to the podcast URL. For complete transparency and clarity, media outlets with advertising models are also welcome to use excerpts from the transcript per the above.

What’s Not Okay

No one is authorized to copy any portion of the podcast content or use Lily Allen-Duenas’ name, image or likeness for any commercial purpose or use, including without limitation inclusion in any books, e-books, or on a commercial website or social media site (e.g., Instagram, Facebook, etc.) that offers or promotes your or another’s products or services. Of course, media outlets are permitted to use photos of Lily Allen-Duenas from her Media Kit page or can make written requests via email to receive her headshots folder.