Wild Yoga Tribe Podcast Episode #56 – Embodiment is Empowerment – Yoga in Romania with Roxana Corojan

Welcome to Episode #56 of the Wild Yoga Tribe Podcast! My conversation with Roxana Corojan, a yoga teacher from Romania, was so real and vulnerable, as we dove into how yoga can hold you, and can be a remedy for that which ails you, and that which you struggle against. I hope that this conversation delight in how yoga can be a playground, and how embodiment is empowerment.

If you’re looking to tune into a podcast episode that is all about embodiment, play, and about turning your practice into a process, then this is the conversation for you.

Roxana is a yoga teacher from Romania, was actually trained by Carlos Romero in Bali – who is a previous guest on the Wild Yoga Tribe podcast on Episode #34. Roxana is a yoga teacher and Thai yoga massage therapist who is deeply passionate about Somatics and Embodiment. She loves to mix mindfulness with play, and to bring yoga to alternative places.

Tell me more about Roxana Corojan 

Roxana’s yoga journey started around 12 years ago, when she was 17 years old, struggling with a bad posture and my sister sent me to my first yoga classes. Ever since, it’s been the only constant in her life while studying abroad, moving homes, countries, and jobs. 

She has been exploring different style of yoga taking bits and pieces from each and integrating them in her practice. Going through an intense burn-out after working as a flight attendant, Roxana decided to take a sabbatical year and pursue her dream. She ended up in Bali, meeting Carlos Romero, taking the course “The Art of Healing Touch” and unexpectedly finding my love for Thai Yoga massage. (Curious about Carlos Romero? He was also interviewed on the Wild Yoga Tribe Podcast! Click here to find out more!) 

Resonating to his teaching style and values, Roxana felt like she had found her mentor and joined him and Daniela Garcia Rioz in their Yoga teacher training that is still one of the most transformative learning experience that she has ever had. Falling in love with embodiment, growing fond of Traditional Chinese Medicine and Therapeutic Yoga, she also joined Daniela for an online training – Seeds – yoga meets Chinese medicine. 

Being both a massage therapist and yoga facilitator has brought a sensitivity to her teaching style incorporating the Elements in the session and addressing certain issues in practices so that it allows my community to develop their awareness, trust their body wisdom and integrate these powerful tools in their daily life. 

In the last year, she has been taking courses in Health and Wellbeing Nature based methods, Psychology and Movement, Somatics. To Roxana, Embodiment is empowerment. Her passions are connected to finding creative ways of expression through writing, movement, painting, touch and dancing. 

She has been teaching yoga for three years in Romania, a first, in a hostel environment. It all began with a weekly yoga class and a Thai massage workshop in a beautiful Arabic tent, in a garden in the city center of Bucharest. From there things naturally developed, being invited to teach yoga and mindfulness in a kindergarten, yoga for locals and expats in co-working spaces, cafes, concept stores. While this might be common in other countries, in Romania is still at the start. So, Roxana’s aim has been to change that, to bring yoga in alternative places and make it as available as possible to people that maybe wouldn’t normally go for it, but give them the opportunity to discover it. 

In Romania, Roxana had opened her own yoga studio, though closed it when she realized that it was taking away frothier freedom of movement. Now, she works in collaboration with Sambodhi Studio.

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

Roxana came to yoga through her sister’s advice, and although she didn’t like it at first— she quickly came to love it. After experiencing severe burnout, she quit her job and headed off to Bali. She met Carlos Romero there, and fell in love with Thai Yoga massage, and with her practice. Although she never planned on becoming a yoga teacher, that was where the path led her.

Roxana seeks to create a home and a strong sense of community with each yoga class she teaches, and she felt in her bones she had found the right space to open a yoga studio in Romania. She opened her yoga studio and created beautiful rituals of sharing tea and practicing yoga, or sharing desserts, or doing tarot readings and yoga. Roxana realized, a long time ago, that community is what brings her true happiness. 

Though, Roxana realized that to be a yoga teacher means having ten jobs at once and to be a studio owner, she felt like some of her joy was diminished with the fatigue of doing too many things. She decided to close her yoga studio and to work with other yoga studies as a freelancer.

I found it so powerful how Roxana said, “To be a yoga teacher is to be a composer of experiences.” And when we dove into the world of embodiment— WOW! She talked about yoga as a playground, to be able to play with the boundaries of form and to explore. Through embodiment she was able to touch into her sensuality, and felt waves of creativity and embodiment.

One of Roxana’s mantras is, “Turn your practice into a process.”

Favorite Quote From Roxana Corojan

“Yoga is the place where I never question myself. So I think that in yoga, there’s no seeking for perfection and that somehow there’s no ends to the journey. We just start reaching this summit of let’s call it perfection. When we learn to love ourselves wisely, when we, we look at our experience through this eyes full of grace.”

Connect with Roxana

https://www.instagram.com/hearthe.yoga/

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https://www.patreon.com/wildyogatribe

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https://wildyogatribe.com/thepodcast/

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Wild Yoga Tribe Podcast Episode #56 – Yoga in Romania with Roxana Corojan Transcript

[00:00:00] Lily Allen-Duenas: Namaste family. Welcome back to the Wild Yoga Tribe podcast. Today I am joined with Roxana. Roxana is a yoga teacher from Romania who was actually trained by Carlos Romero in Bali, who was a previous guest on the wild yoga tribe podcast, episode number 34, but Roxanne is here with me today and she is a yoga teacher and time massage.

[00:00:25] Therapist who is deeply passionate about somatics and embodiment. And she loves to mix mindfulness with play and to bring yoga into alternative places and spaces. So thank you so much Roxanne for being with me here today.

[00:00:42] Roxana Corojan: Oh, thank you so much, Lily. For Having me such a pleasure.

[00:00:46] Lily Allen-Duenas: So to kick off our conversation, I’d love to hear about how yoga first came into your life.

How did yoga first come into your life?

[00:00:51] Roxana Corojan: I was this sort of very messy teenager. I used to get bullied a lot because I was very skinny, very tall, and had a very curved back. My sister actually was the one who made this decision for me to go for yoga. She was like, you have to do something about it.

[00:01:10] So I went for my first yoga class, and to be honest… I hated it. I was surrounded by these gorgeous women that all seem to be knowing what they’re doing. I felt completely out of place. I was like, what am I doing here? And also my first time doing yoga I actually went for an Iyengar class.

[00:01:32] So that was, challenging all that structure with me being a teenager. So I went home and I was like, “Nope, I’m not gonna do this ever again.” My sister said “ you know what, just try it one more time. If you don’t like it, then you’d never have to go back to it.” So I did.  I went again and I was pretty much mind blown.

[00:01:58] I remember that even after just one class I suddenly felt very at ease. I had these puzzle pieces that somehow even if it was just at the beginning, I was getting very curious about it.  I remember experiencing my second Shavasana and having this moment of not knowing what was going on, but just feeling so deeply blissful.

[00:02:23] So I thought I don’t know what this is, but I have to go back to it. I did, I was 17 when I went for my first yoga class. It’s been a constant to my life actually, since then.

[00:02:39] Lily Allen-Duenas: We have not similar stories, but in a way similar in that we both came to yoga at about 16 or 17. It is amazing to have this kind of constant companion of yoga with you through all of the ups and downs and the growth periods and through change, always having yoga to come back to it’s just been such a vital part of my being.

Feeling held by yoga

[00:03:03] Roxana Corojan: Yeah I totally relate to that. I remember when I moved away. So I left Roman when I was 19 and I went to study in England. I was deeply passionate at that time about fashion. I studied fashion design. I remember just leaving all my friends and the emotional support system that I had back home and just finding myself growing into a woman in a new environment.

[00:03:27] Surrounded by just so much newness. And yoga was like, like that’s really good friends that you can go back to. And it holds you somehow, you just feel held by it. So I just felt really helped by my practice. As soon as you open your yoga mat, doesn’t really matter where you are. You just have this like tiny, safe space, to just return to yourself to rest. So yeah, I can totally relate to what you’re saying.

[00:03:57] Lily Allen-Duenas:  I also can relate to that safe space. Having that little rectangular mat, no matter where you go, having that feeling of home, of coming back to yourself. Because I’ve also done a lot of traveling, and I’ve lived abroad a lot for many years. To always be uprooted. It’s something I enjoy in so many ways.

[00:04:16] I love being in new places with new people. But without that support system, you’re right. To have something that can help you feel supported and held is, has been so important to me being as flexible and fluid in my journey as I have been so far.

Passionate about fashion

[00:04:35] Roxana Corojan: Yeah. You know, mostly when things don’t really go as you expect it, so for me, for example, when I moved to England my big dream was to become a fashion designer because I wanted to bring joy and I realized very early, I was running at the time, a vintage blog.

[00:04:53] I realized very early that I can make people happy, through fashion, through creating something. And I really love to use my hands, like I love painting and yeah, like taking, I don’t know, like a curtain and transforming it to a dress or something like that. That was my dream to create. But then finding myself in the fashion industry was not at all what I was expecting. When things don’t go so well, it’s so important to find the tools that help you stay afloat. Right.

[00:05:24] Lily Allen-Duenas: Yeah. So what made you want to become a yoga teacher?

What made you want to become a yoga teacher?

[00:05:29] Roxana Corojan: Ah, I don’t think I’ve ever, yeah. I don’t think I’ve ever planned to be a yoga teacher. It was really interesting. During university, I was struggling with a lot of loneliness. I always felt like an outsider, which is great somehow, if you’re an artist, it’s almost like an integrated part because you need moments of solitude. But while I was living in England, I was really craving it. Like human touch, human interaction. I remember going like literally going for yoga classes just to be surrounded by people. I would go to the yoga studio just to get that sense of belonging, and then I moved abroad too.

[00:06:13] The US, I actually did a fashion placement there and I was working 14 hours a day in front of the computer. Once again, finding myself in a new place, not really knowing what to do with myself. That was actually the first time when I started experiencing panic attacks and once again, I returned to yoga.

[00:06:35] I found this yoga studio that was actually doing Bikram yoga. Which I’d never done before.  I would go there and just allow myself that moment to just release all the heaviness that I was feeling. Then I returned once again to England to finish my degree. But…

Yoga is a remedy

[00:06:54] Roxana Corojan: Unfortunately the panic attacks kept coming back. I went for therapy, and I made the decision that yoga is gonna be my remedy. I was allowing myself to be very vulnerable, to speak about my feelings. I realized that there were a lot of people around me that were actually experiencing the same thing.

[00:07:16] I think going through university, it’s a period of transition and also developing yourself as an adult. A lot of people start feeling lost. I was always encouraging my friends. Look, I’m going for a yoga class, come along, you’re gonna feel so much better. After a while it was really interesting.

[00:07:36] It was actually my friends who kept telling me, man, you speak about yoga with so much passion that  honestly, you just make me want to do it. You should just become a teacher. I  was like that actually sounds like an interesting idea. The journey never really takes you where you expect it just unfolds if you allow it to and yeah, after working in the U.S. As an intern in fashion, I realized that I was seeking slowness.

[00:08:03] So, In my last year of university, my final project was about mindfulness about slow leaving, slow fashion. And um, once I was finished with it, I actually allowed myself to take a break. And to reconsider where I wanna go next. Life took me very far. I ended up moving to Qatar and becoming a flight attendant for a year and a half.

Burnout and darkness

[00:08:28] Roxana Corojan: Going through another stage of madness, change, and travel and not really having any routine. I went to a complete burnout. I hit the darkest of the dark basically.  I had to pull myself up, so I quit my job. I allowed myself for a while to just stay with that darkness.

[00:08:56] I really didn’t want to run away from it. I told myself that I need to stay with it for as long as I can so that I can see really in depth what’s causing me to feel that way to experience that darkness. One day I woke up and I decided to go to Bali. I decided to give myself a complete break.

Flight to Bali as a complete break 

[00:09:20] Roxana Corojan: The next day I was on a flight to Bali. I remember not having any accommodation, sorted out, just reaching the airport, not knowing what’s gonna happen next. Somebody by chance wrote to me like, Hey I have a room for you. I was like, “ okay, it’s mine. I’m coming.”  I didn’t even have the address or anything, but I said yes to it.

[00:09:38] I allowed myself to say yes to as many things as possible. I made a membership to the yoga barn for a full month. I told myself I’m gonna be in Ubud for a month to  restore my energy.  I would take as many classes. As many workshops as possible, just trying everything out.

[00:10:02] That’s actually how I met my teacher. One of them I went to randomly for a massage workshop, and I fell in love. The next week I joined the course. I actually became a massage therapist before becoming a yoga teacher. I’m going really deep with the story.

[00:10:23] Lily Allen-Duenas: I love it. This is beautiful.

[00:10:25] Roxana Corojan: So yes, I met Carlos. I had a vague idea of where I wanted to be as a  yoga teacher. A vague plan of me being in Ubud for a month, then traveling through Southeast Asia, ending up in Thailand where I was gonna join a training in a healing center. But after meeting Carlos. Every plan that I made was literally falling apart because sometimes you think you want something but then you get what you need.

Sometimes you think you want something, but you get what you need

[00:10:58] Roxana Corojan: Sometimes you don’t really know what you need until it’s there in front of you. And that’s literally what happened! When I first experienced Thai Yoga massage it really felt like I reached home. I never did that before. I was never passionate about massage and I found myself in this beautiful sacred dance. I was stunned. The same thing happened again. I was like, I don’t know what this is, but I need to follow my gut. So I joined Carlos and I dropped all my other plants,  I knew that. Carlos was gonna have a yoga teacher training together with my other teacher.

[00:11:38] Who’s absolutely incredible Daniella Gazaeros Daniella Mandala as she’s known. I hopped in, I was  I don’t know what’s gonna happen next. I just know that you are my teacher and this is what I’m meant to be doing. I guess these are the little steps that got me to becoming a yoga teacher or at least taking my training.

[00:12:02] The rest was surprisingly natural because I was actually always scared of speaking in public or even placing myself in front of a crowd. With teaching yoga it’s been completely different. It’s interesting teaching yoga, with whatever you do with so much joy. Once you experience the benefits of it and you leave so much in them. It’s really easy and really enjoyable to share that. You want to be able to touch as many people as you can with that. So that’s actually, what happened. I found what I needed and I realized that a lot of other people probably need it too. So why not share it?

[00:12:47] Lily Allen-Duenas: Yeah, there’s so much to be. There’s so much to be celebrated and feel joyful about the act of sharing. I know when we have something for ourselves, it just is wonderful, but when we’re able to share it, it just expounds the joy and the possibility and our growth as well.

[00:13:06] When we teach, we grow.  I love how you said that you didn’t know what you needed. But it came to you anyway, and there’s a quote by the Dali Lama that I always turn to that is Sometimes not getting what you want is a wonderful stroke of good luck. Ah, that is such a good point because it’s not always meant for us, even though we think it is.

[00:13:30] Not too, I don’t know, just clutching so tightly to that idea of, oh, I have to do this, or I need to do that just to let things unfold. As they’re meant for you, it is beautiful.  I’m so grateful that you’ve been able to live that. I know Roxana, you also opened a yoga studio in Romania, and then you closed it.

[00:13:52] Because you mentioned to me before this conversation, or, when we were previously chatting, you mentioned that it was not what you expected or it took away some of your freedom. So could you tell us a little bit more about what it was like to open a yoga studio in Romania and then also what it was like to make the decision to close it?

What that was like to open a yoga studio in Romania and then also what it was like to make the decision to close it?

[00:14:11] Roxana Corojan: Yeah, it was a beautiful experience actually. It was very meaningful. So what happened was like this: I was collaborating with a few yoga studios. But one of the things that I experienced, actually all over the world before meeting my teachers, cuz that’s actually how I ended up living so much of what they do and appreciating their work.

[00:14:33] So what I was experiencing in a lot of yoga studios was that I would walk in and I would say hi, and not very often, people would open up and reply. So they wouldn’t even say hi back and it would just be. Individual with our yoga mats and yet practicing together in a room. What I loved about Carlos and Danielle’s way of sharing is that they really know how to create an experience and to make everybody feel like part of a family.

[00:15:05] And I felt like when I returned to Romania, that’s something that is really missing there the sense of community. And and the family people tend to be very individual. So I wanted to to change that I wanted to create a community Where people would allow themselves to open up and to come to this place.

[00:15:28] I didn’t even call it a yoga studio. Actually. It was just like, it felt like a home. But I wasn’t planning to open a yoga studio at all. I  was collaborating with a yoga studio that was closing down due to the pandemic and we were searching for a new location. And I decided to help out and find this new location and went to check out a few places.

[00:15:53]  I found myself walking in this incredible place into an attic loft. Since I was studying fashion, actually my dream was to one day have a concept store that brought together different artists, designers, and different crafts.  I walked into this space, and I thought  wow, this is everything that I envisioned.

Finding the perfect yoga studio in Romania

[00:16:20] Roxana Corojan: I messaged my collaborator and I said, I found this incredible place. We have to rent it out. He said to me, no, I don’t think so. This is really not the moment for me. What happened was that I couldn’t stop thinking about it. I was like, no, this is it. I feel it.

[00:16:37] I really feel it, this is it. Once again, my sister, who’s my biggest supporter,she said, just do it. Just get over your fear and just do it. You really got this. What I did was that the next day I signed the papers and I decided to have a trial to see how it would be to own a studio. I gathered my community and I was like, look, I know we’re coming out from a very different, difficult time with the pandemic, but we’ve been uplifting each other throughout this time. I think we can create something very beautiful. So the place that I envisioned started taking a beautiful form.

[00:17:19] We had this slot that felt like home. I would make the craziest little events teaching yoga, practicing yoga, and then sharing our favorite desserts or like meeting up for yoga and tarot. It became such a ritual. Like we would meet up, share a cup of tea, then practice yoga and then share stories afterwards.

[00:17:41] I realized that I managed to create what I was dreaming of, which was that sense of community. I realized a long time ago that community was present in my life when I was the happiest.  It was beautiful to be able to gift that to others. 

The decision to close her yoga studio in Romania

[00:18:00] Roxana Corojan: So what happened was that when you’re a yoga teacher, you have 10 jobs in one. Which is amazing. I think like for me, the way that I see being a yoga teacher, I think we’re composers of experiences. For me, teaching yoga is literally creating an experience which can be very transformative for some people. It can be even life changing like it was for me when I was a teenager And I realized that yeah, owning a yoga studio was yeah, like having 10 jobs at the same time and taking a little bit of the joy of, of sharing because. Like one of my mottos, it doesn’t matter what you do, but you should always give your best.

[00:18:48] I read this thing when I was very young. When people ask you, what do you do? Your answer should be, I do my best. So it doesn’t matter how small your task is. You’re just doing your best. So I tried to apply that to everything. But it was becoming very, very difficult to offer that moment of full presence in massages and also teaching seven classes of yoga for my studio and also teaching for other studios and promoting all the classes and maintaining that level of presence and that spirit of community and joy.

[00:19:25] I realized that sometimes you have to take a step back and find that sort of humbleness. Like I was a bit scared that if I step back, then I’m gonna feel like a failure. Actually it was one of the most beautiful experiences to make that step back and realize that for three months, three months only we created something that was a dream.

[00:19:49] The ending was really beautiful because I felt my community was so close to me. So willing to go wherever the next destination would be. So it was very freeing in a way. Just allowing that flow to happen instead of the resistance, cause I feel like it’s the same with healing.

[00:20:07] Healing comes through flow, not true resistance. I wanted to be able to be myself in the state of flow so that I can support others in finding their own flow.

[00:20:19] Lily Allen-Duenas: Absolutely. You’re right. That being a yoga teacher is doing 10 things at once. To own a studio on top of that, with all of the other accounting, management of people, schedules,  and promotions. It does sound enormous. Something that also, you said that really stuck with me Roxana before was you said that embodiment is empowerment. I would love to ask you to speak more on that.

Embodiment is empowerment

[00:20:50] Roxana Corojan: Yeah, that’s probably one of the biggest lessons for yoga actually. My yoga teacher Daniella she’s very passionate about embodiment. She also teaches mandala yoga and her flows are very creative. When I actually entered the journey of the yoga teacher training with her, she was actually the main teacher.

[00:21:12] It was an experience that I never had before, so it was so sensorial, everything was taken into consideration. The music. The sense, right? The sound, the, just everything.  I’ve never experienced that in yoga before. I actually, I don’t think I’ve even heard the word embodiment before my yoga teacher training because probably in the last year it has become popular. But before, like I remember I started yoga when I was 17 and I went for so many types of yoga. I started with Iyengar yoga, then I did True Yoga, Yoga Nidra, Yoga Aerial, Acro Yoga, Hatha, Vinyasa all of them, but I never came across embodiment. When I met Daniella, I found so much freedom in, in movement that I’ve never experienced before.

Learning to tap into sensuality

[00:22:08] Roxana Corojan: Like yoga just suddenly became this beautiful playground. I became so curious, playing with the boundaries of form and exploring and also learning to tap into my sensuality, I think for many years I wasn’t so connected to my sensuality and I was thoughts that it’s something that I should be ashamed of as a woman, or I should keep in a little box. It was so beautiful to learn to experience this intimacy with myself where movement had no, no boundaries. Everywhere around you, it’s your alter. You’re bowing in gratitude to everything that surrounds you and feeling deeply in your body, in your bones, in your muscles. For me, experiencing that in Bali with Daniella, and with Carlos both brought me a sense of empowerment. Like I never had before actually, if I was to compare the teenager, I had scoliosis problems growing up, and then the young woman in Bali, if they would be together one next to the other, it would probably look like we were completely different people.

[00:23:21] Yeah, I felt this wave of freedom of creativity, of empowerment. And that’s literally what I’m focusing my teaching on. So I teach uh, vinyasa flows and they’re very focused on the experience is in turning your practice into your process. So turning the practice into your process to me has brought a lot of tenderness, a lot of connection.

[00:23:49] And so I try to inspire that in, in others, to just explore their body. And try to go beyond what I’m teaching them. So I always tell them that I’m Just a facilitator, but they are actually their own teachers because they know exactly what they need, where they need it when they need it. So bringing this Sense of like awareness into the body. And then becoming very curious and very playful around it. What could be more empowering than that?

[00:24:25] Lily Allen-Duenas: Good question. What could be more empowering than that. But what you said roxana, how you said it, turned your practice into a process that really resonated with me that really made my ears perk up. I hadn’t heard that before, how it is a practice to show up every day. But when you turn it into a process, it feels also more, almost like a story, like a beginning, a middle, an end, something that’s continuous.

[00:24:57] At the same time. Is that how kind of you interpret those words?

Turn your practice into a process

[00:25:00] Roxana Corojan: That’s interesting with yoga these days and also the Western type of yoga, I feel like a lot of times people look for inspiration, but also have these super high standards, like everything we see is so curated. And what I really like about yoga is that I don’t know, at least for me, yoga is the place where I never question myself.

[00:25:27] So I think that in yoga, there’s no seeking for perfection and that somehow there’s no ends to the journey. We just start reaching this summit of let’s call it perfection. When we learn to love ourselves wisely, when we, we look at our experience through this eyes full of grace. 

[00:25:51] Turning the practice into a process. I actually teach this as a metaphor to my community. There’s the metaphor of the plants, right? When you look at the plants you don’t judge it, right? It’s not fully bloomed or it’s a bit bent or you just.

[00:26:11] You just maybe admire it or the seal of this, but you don’t judge the plant, but we do that a lot with ourselves and I try to remind my community often that we are like plants. We need our darkness for the seed to start growing.

[00:26:26] And then we need to allow time for the plant to start blooming and opening. But the plant also needs lights, fertile soil, sun, and water, and somebody takes care of it. We need to be both the gardener and the flower, and that’s a full process. So I try to remind my community to be like a plant and to allow themselves to take the practice step by step daily to turn it into a process.

[00:27:06] Lily Allen-Duenas: Thank you so much for telling us more about that, those words and about the metaphor. And it’s a beautiful one to sit and think about and to reflect on and. Yeah to be the gardener and the flower to be both, it seems like a big responsibility. Something that would take a lot of consciousness, as well as I’m sure this instinctual this, something from inside that almost has no form and no words for it, but I think you can only become aware of that or move towards that in silence and stillness. And in doing these internal processes like yoga Asana, meditation, pranayama anything that would draw you closer to yourself. 

[00:27:52] Roxana Corojan: Oh, yeah. Silence is sometimes very loud. I feel like silence is the scary element because you. You start hearing yourself, for sure.

[00:28:07] Lily Allen-Duenas: So Roxanne, one  question I like to ask every guest is what is your personal definition of yoga? I know there’s a lot of sutra and texts and you’ve really done such a beautiful job throughout this conversation to talk about yoga as a playground or yoga as a remedy. I would love to also ask you that question directly and hear what you have to say.

Yoga is a home, Yoga is a Mirror, Yoga is a Friend

[00:28:30] Roxana Corojan: That’s really hard to put in words, isn’t it? I feel like yoga is my home. It’s that safe place where I return to. To myself, to my sensitivity, to compassion. I also feel like yoga is my mirror is the place where I can’t escape myself. So on my bad days, I don’t really want to look in the mirror, but when I do, gosh I’m reminded that there’s so much beauty there too, then I see yoga as my friend, the sort of friend that tells you the truth, always like you have a lifelong friend, and they’re gonna look at you and tell you, even the things that you don’t wanna hear. But with so much honesty and that friend is always there. He can always go back to them and feel safe.

Yoga is a playground

[00:29:17] Roxana Corojan: Then I see yoga for sure as the biggest playground it’s like yoga gives us this beautiful canvas that we don’t really know how it’s gonna turn out, but there’s so many tools and colors of paints that you can play with there’s movement and breath and oh, so many things.  I love that’s another metaphor actually that I love. Where yoga is like a canvas and actually Daniella my teacher says that we are the painting, the painter, the paint and the painted. It’s a beautiful metaphor. I think yoga is freedom. Yeah. It’s like, whenever you feel stuck or whenever you feel like you lose yourself,  you find yourself, and there’s so much freedom to, to experience that, to allow yourself that, that flow, that unfold.

[00:30:19] Lily Allen-Duenas: Thank you so much. I love all of those metaphors. I love all of what you said. You’re so poetic in your speech. It’s gonna be hard for me to choose my favorite quotes from you and, and things to, to highlight, but I would love Roxana…to ask a little bit about yoga in Romania. I’d love to hear more about how it was in the past, how it is now or where you see it going in the future.

What is yoga in Romania like? 

[00:30:44] Roxana Corojan: So yoga and Romania have been quite a challenge. I’m not gonna deny it. I remember landing back from Bali where I experienced a variety of activities and practices. Coming back to Romania was very interesting because you can be very present and blissful on an island.

[00:31:06] But Romania and Bucharest, where I’m actually living now, can be quite a triggering place. It was very interesting initially to explore, like, how is yoga seen? I actually remembered some relatives of mine when they found out that I became a yoga teacher. They were very stressed and somehow worried for me, they were like, oh my God, she might have joined a cult or something.

[00:31:30] There’s definitely this idea somehow that yoga somehow is related to a cult because in the past, I think during communism there has been a story of this guru that was not a real guru, I’d say.  I think that history still has a strong impact on how yoga is seen in Romania. At the same time, I feel like the younger generation is very curious, but also very shy.

[00:32:03] I see that mostly in women. There’s a lot of shame about embodiment actually. What I was saying, the values that I grew up with. I’m a woman, so I should be quiet and I should stay in a corner and not really be too much or take too much space. I actually see that a lot every day.

A huge shift into the way that yoga is being seen in Romania 

[00:32:23] Roxana Corojan:  I think about what’s happening in Romania right now. It’s a huge shift into the way that yoga is being seen. And I love it. I love seeing that curiosity and people are more and more interested in what it can bring to you. Not necessarily on a physical side, but also emotionally they realize the benefits of it.

[00:32:47] They start to make it an integral part of their lives, which is really beautiful because when you go on a holiday destination, when you go to Bali, it’s also available. But I love people that consciously are seeking this opportunities to make it happen. So yeah, I would say there’s a huge shift.

[00:33:08] It’s still like a new territory. In Romania, yoga feels quite new, still in Romania. But there’s an increasing interest in it. It’s very exciting to be honest, very exciting.

[00:33:21] Lily Allen-Duenas: Amazing. For those of our listeners who aren’t very familiar with Romania, would you. Sharing with our listeners more about your country.

What is Romania like?

[00:33:31] Roxana Corojan: The top things that come to my mind are probably the mountains. The nature is wonderful in Romania for any outdoor enthusiast. I would recommend Romania and checking out mountains and the Delta. There’s so much beauty. I feel like because maybe Romana is not as touristy or as popular a destination.

[00:34:00] It’s so easy to find that sort of untouched, beauty, that’s one of the things that I really love about Romania, then of course there’s many other things. We  have beautiful castles and medieval towns. I would say quite tasty food. I love food. So for any foodies out there, I would recommend trying quite a few things.

[00:34:24] Yeah, I love how Romania is like a hidden gem and I teach yoga a lot for expats and I get very excited when. When they move to Romania, they’re impressed. They’re so impressed also by how kind of people Romanians are very determined, I would say. Strong people, but also have this beautiful softness where they’re like willing to invite any stranger into their house, and share whatever they have there. That’s something that I really appreciate about my country.

[00:35:04] Lily Allen-Duenas: Amazing. I actually spent a few weeks in Romania in 2010 in the summer I was in Barlad volunteering at a children hospital clinic.  I was able to take some time and go to Bucharest, and some other surrounding castles and mountains. It is a beautiful country and you’re right. Untouched. So Roxanne, I’m really grateful for the gift of your time and for being with you.

[00:35:30] When I say that, I think you’re so eloquent and so wonderful at communicating kind of your energy through your words. So thank you so much for being with me today.

[00:35:41] Roxana Corojan: Wow. I just literally got goosebumps. Thank you so much. I’m super grateful to, to be able to speak about what I love and to share my very little acknowledgement.  Hopefully people come to Romania as well and explore the beauty of it and explore the beauty of yoga and, oh, I’m super, super grateful to have had this beautiful talk to you.

How to reach out to Roxana

[00:36:10] Lily Allen-Duenas: Thank you so much. And if anybody. Who’s tuning into this podcast wants to reach out to Roxana, learn more about her, get in touch, or go check out some of her classes in Bucharest. You can find her on Instagram at Hearthe, yoga, H E A R T H E dot Y O G A. And I’m gonna link that here in the show notes, as well as put it on my website.

[00:36:33] Wild yoga tribe.com/yoga in Romania. So thank you once again, Roxana for being.

[00:36:40] Roxana Corojan: Thank you so much, Lily. This has been amazing. Really such a pleasure.

Wild Yoga Tribe Podcast Outro

[00:36:45] Lily Allen-Duenas: Thank you so much for tuning into this episode of the Wild Yoga Tribe podcast. My conversation with Roxana, a yoga teacher from Romania was so real and vulnerable as we dove into how yoga can hold. And can be a remedy for that, which ails you or that, which you struggle against.

[00:37:07] I hope that this conversation made you delight in how yoga can be a playground and how embodiment is empowerment. If you’re looking to tune into a podcast episode, that is all about embodiment. Play and turning your practice into a process. Then this is the conversation for you. Thank you for listening to the Wild Yoga Tribe podcast. Be well.

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