Wild Yoga Tribe Podcast Episode #90 – Yoga is a Spiritual Instrument – Yoga in Uruguay with Sat Dyal Kaur 

Welcome to Episode #90 of the Wild Yoga Tribe Podcast! My conversation with Sat Dyal Kaur, a yoga teacher from Uruguay, was fascinating as we took a deep dive into the spiritual understanding of yoga, and the search for meaning. As the founder of semioyoga, a blend of yoga and semiotics, you will be dazzled by how Sat Dyal explains what yoga is and how yoga can teach you not just how to live and how to be, and who you really are.

If you’re looking to tune into a podcast episode that is all about yoga in Uruguay, yoga as a spiritual instrument, and yoga as freedom then this is the conversation for you.

Tell me more about Sat Dyal Kaur

Sat Dyal Kaur is a renowned Kundalini Yoga instructor from Uruguay who was certified by the Kundalini Research Institute. With a master’s degree in communication focused on Semiotics, she seamlessly merges the transformative powers of yoga and the study of signs and symbols, offering innovative workshops. Through her groundbreaking approach, “semioyoga,” she explores the intricate connections between Kundalini Yoga and semiotics, guiding participants on introspective journeys that uncover the elements shaping personal narratives and self-communication.

Dedicated to empowering individuals, particularly women, Sat Dyal Kaur has committed her career to the practice of Kundalini Yoga. Firmly believing in its ability to facilitate self-discovery and personal growth, she is an advocate for holistic well-being.

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

Sat Dyal Kaur, a yoga teacher from Uruguay, has created a unique practice called “semioyoga,” combining yoga and semiotics. Sat Dyal explains that semiotics is the study of meaning and how it relates to yoga, where both practices involve observation and exploration. She also emphasizes that yoga is a way of finding meaning and understanding oneself.

The conversation delves into the purpose of teaching yoga, with Sat Dyal Kaur expressing her desire to share the blessings that she has experienced herself through yoga. The need for humility among yoga teachers and the dangers of spiritual ego is also a focus of the conversation. Both Lily and Sat Dyal Kaur highlight that yoga teachers are not above others but are continuously learning and sharing their experiences.

Sat Dyal Kaur beautifully defines yoga as life and love. She suggests that yoga is a way of living, knowing oneself, and shifting the focus from external distractions to internal exploration. In a society that rarely teaches self-discovery, yoga becomes a powerful tool for understanding and living life.

Favorite Quote From Sat Dyal Kaur

“Yoga gave me freedom. It taught me about the freedom to be myself and to put me in control of my life. No matter what happens, I own myself. I own my body, I own my mind. Let’s make my spirit as a powerful and infinite force.”

Connect with Sat Dyal Kaur

https://www.instagram.com/satdyalkaur/

https://www.instagram.com/kaur_kundalini

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 Episode #90 Yoga in Uruguay Transcription

[00:00:00] Lily Allen-Duenas: Namaste family, and welcome back to the Wild Yoga Tribe Podcast! Today I am so excited to welcome Sat Dyal Kaur onto the show today. She’s a Kundalini yoga teacher from Uruguay, who is certified by the Kundalini Research Institute. She has a master’s degree in communication and focused on semiotics, so she seamlessly has merged this transformational power of yoga with the study of signs and symbols, she’s offering innovative workshops through her groundbreaking approach, “semioyoga”, and she explores the intricate connections between Kundalini yoga and semiotics, guiding participants on these introspective journeys to uncover the elements that shape their personal narratives and their self communication. So I’m so excited to talk to her about that and dive in. So thank you so much Sat Dyal for being on the show with me today.

[00:00:56] Sat Dyal Kaur: Hi. Thanks to you. Thanks to you.

[00:00:59] Lily Allen-Duenas: So to get started, let’s kick off the conversation hearing about your story and about how yoga came into your life.

How did yoga come into your life?

[00:01:07] Sat Dyal Kaur: Yoga came into my life because my sister is a Kundalini teacher, but I resisted so much to do and even to know about yoga all my life. I played sports and considered yoga as a boring and static discipline. I had a study Buddhism for several years, but I still felt [00:01:30] that something was missing. So my sister, gave me the gift of a weekend Kundalini Yoga Retreat with a well-known Chilean teacher, and I was fascinated.

I really was fascinated. I never stopped practicing Kundalini yoga from that moment on. I did the instruction and became a teacher, and I did also some postgraduate studies and I have been teaching for 10 years. 

[00:02:00] Lily Allen-Duenas: Oh, that’s amazing. It is so easy to fall in love with yoga, and I love hearing how you did. And I know our listeners… probably right here at the beginning, when I was welcoming you and I said that you had created Semio yoga and that you studied semiotics; that’s probably something that could be new to our listeners. So can you define that for us as well? What is semiotics and can you tell us about Semio Yoga?

What is Semiotics and SemioYoga?

[00:02:25] Sat Dyal Kaur: Okay. Semiotics is the science that study the way that we produce sense or meaning. So semiotics, it’s a science that pay attention to all things that will never pay attention, such as communication and meaning of the words, but also meaning of the symbols or meaning of the language… body language.

And semiotics study the process that [00:03:00] create meaning. So it’s also like yoga. I think you, I don’t know what you think, but to me it resonates very much as yoga. So observation of meaning from the seed from the very beginning. No? So the small parts. For the small parts like yoga, no?

Yoga, we see. We observe the body, but not only the body, but the breathing, and the posture, and the story of this body. So in Semiotics we do the same with meaning itself.

[00:03:41] Lily Allen-Duenas: Wow, that’s fascinating. So semio-yoga… that’s how you’re shaping it with Kundalini yoga, with these observations?

Tell us more about Semio-yoga

[00:03:50] Sat Dyal Kaur: I don’t mix it. Yes. I don’t mix it because very discipline with, it’s not. You do a Kundalini yoga class, it’s a structure and it cannot mix it or merge with other things. What I do is bring a class of semioyoga or yoga semiotics practice, and then I do a class traditional class of Kundalini yoga for experienced. We are talking first in the theoretical part of the class.

[00:04:23] Lily Allen-Duenas: Okay. Yeah, that makes sense. And so for our listeners who aren’t familiar also with Kundalini yoga, [00:04:30] I know that we do have a lot of yoga teachers who do listen to this show, but maybe not every teacher has actually tried Kundalini yoga. Maybe yes, maybe no. So for every student who’s listening on the path of yoga, every teacher, can you tell us more about Kundalini yoga?

What is Kundalini yoga? Tell us more about Kundalini yoga

[00:04:46] Sat Dyal Kaur: Okay. Kundalini yoga is from the north of India, the Punjabi region, fundamentally and Kundalini yoga is known in accident by Yogi Bhajan. So the way we teach Kundalini is the way Yogi Bhajan has teach Kundalini yoga; it’s accidental version of Kundalini yoga. Kundalini yoga is known as the yoga of the Conscience. It’s a yoga that we practice with the body we have as the body is right now. So it’s more like an observation practice that not acrobatic practice; most important is see my body through the postures and through the kriyas and meditations and pranayamas. Try to know myself. Every Kriya or posture, it’s a mold. It’s a horizon. But the important thing is how I feel and how I make the path to this horizon, not exactly the results but the process. And it is a yoga that works powerfully[00:06:00] with energy very powerfully, and it’s very physics.

[00:06:04] Lily Allen-Duenas: Amazing. Yeah, it definitely is a practice that is crafted and has been cultivated in a way to help you activate your energy. It is very energetic, as you said, but not energetic, like Ashtanga is very athletic and vinyasa with a ton of movement. I know that with Kundalini, you start with a mantra and pranayama, and then there’s lots of breath work, correct?

The process of Kundalini yoga

[00:06:24] Sat Dyal Kaur: Yes. It’s basically a way to learn how can I make my body work better as it is? So with my resources and with my capacities, how I make it a better relationship with my own body. Yeah. I know how my body works. 

[00:06:48] Lily Allen-Duenas: Oh, that was very well said. And so I know that also you believe that people who set out to teach have a lot to learn and a lot to heal. So I wanted to talk to you about how Kundalini yoga, how that experience has changed your life? 

How has Kundalini yoga changed your life?

[00:07:02] Sat Dyal Kaur: Okay.  I teach yoga basically because I want to share the blessing. The blessings that yoga has brought to my life and also because it’s a beautiful way to continue studying and learning. I really believe yoga teachers… we are messy people. We are people that need yoga, know people that know yoga. We approach yoga because we need it. [00:07:30] So basically when we teach, we are making public, this this situation that we need yoga and we need learn to yoga and we need experience the blessings of yoga. To me, yoga gave me freedom. It taught me about the freedom to be myself and to fill me in control of my life.

But most of all, yoga gave me a great sense of freedom. Really freedom. No matter what happens, I own myself. I own my body. I own my mind. Let’s make my spirit … it’s a powerful and infinite force. I’m fierce because of thanks to Kundalini Yoga, yoga is my life, and I think yoga is life. I think the life is a kriya, it’s exercise of yoga and I use yoga in every aspect of my life, not only in class. I live in yoga. So that’s a wonderful experience to me, and that’s why I want to share this experience with other people.

[00:08:39] Lily Allen-Duenas: Wow, you said that so beautifully. I also appreciate hearing that yoga teachers are people who need yoga. Not necessarily people who always know everything about yoga, but hopefully all the teachers do have some knowledge, some seeds to plant and things to share.

But I agree with you. I do teach yoga because I need yoga in my life, [00:09:00] and the gifts that yoga have given me have changed everything, changed how I interact with people, how I’m less reactive in general, how much patience I have, and also the layers of myself that I’m understanding more and more. So there’s so much that yoga gives.

[00:09:14] Sat Dyal Kaur: Yeah. I say that. Not a formal disrespect, teachers. No, because I concerned about spiritual ego. I think it’s, it’s a problem. It’s a danger When I when I am in the path of a teaching yoga, it’s easy to believe that I know everything and I am complete and I am. Other problems or even I am better of other people. I see that in other teachers and I work humbly to avoid this feeling. Be humble and be patient and… but mostly be humble because we are learning and we are instrument, we are not goddess. We are maybe we’ll feel like goddess, but we are not goddess. We are not above anyone. We are just learning and sharing. 

[00:10:09] Lily Allen-Duenas: I love that. Yes. It is such a blessing and I’m grateful that you wanna share that, and it is a reminder that we are the instrument, not the goddess. As you said, that was so well said. It made me laugh and about the spiritual ego that can get in the way. I do see that as well with teachers, everywhere. We all do have egos, but that spiritual ego, no one’s [00:10:30] immune. We all have egos. So just being mindful about it and being very self-aware. And I also love thinking about what am I bringing to my mat when I practice? Am I bringing this desire to get something? Is it a desire? Is it an attachment? Is it an emotion?

Do I just want to feel calm? How am I showing up and how am I practicing? And I think you talked about it in the beginning about semiotics and the search for meaning. And that plays into it for me as well. Being aware of the meaning of why I’m doing what I’m doing in my practice.

[00:11:02] Sat Dyal Kaur: Yeah. Yes. Yes. I agree. I fully agree with you.

[00:11:07] Lily Allen-Duenas: Since we’ve talked a little bit about what’s going on with yoga, what do you think is something that people get wrong about yoga in general?

What is something people get wrong about yoga?

[00:11:16] Sat Dyal Kaur: So a common miss for me is yoga, It’s only for relaxation. I heard people said, I maybe I will do a little yoga because I am stressed and I wonder why a little yoga? Why a little do yoga? Fully yoga? Because you go to the gym and do the gym. You don’t know a little gym or a little sports. You do full yoga. Yoga is a full exercise. It’s a powerful discipline. Not only Kundalini yoga, every form of yoga, it connects you with your body, but it’s awareness and your possibilities. I think this is a common mistake.

[00:11:56] Lily Allen-Duenas: Absolutely. So just to ask this question as well, I [00:12:00] love getting to this point in the interview. I love getting to ask it because I do ask this question to every yoga teacher who is on the podcast. What is your definition of yoga?

What is your definition of yoga?

[00:12:09] Sat Dyal Kaur: Okay. To me, yoga everything in the universe, literally. Yoga for me is life and love and everything in between. Yoga is life. It’s an answer. You wanna know how to live? Do yoga. Yog is a way of thinking. It’s a way of moving. So I think yoga is life.

[00:12:29] Lily Allen-Duenas: I love that. If you want to know how to live, do yoga. That’s so poignant.

[00:12:36] Sat Dyal Kaur: Because for life you need to know yourself and in our culture, nobody teach us to know ourselves. Everybody teach us how to live in society, so how we learn who we are, how we are, how is our breathing, how is our heart: how we work our body. We know, we are not prepared to know that we are always looking around instead of looking inside. So I think the way of living life is first to know yourself. And yoga, it’s a wonderful instrument for that.

[00:13:16] Lily Allen-Duenas: We’re always looking around. We’re so rarely looking inside of ourselves, yes! We have a million different ways to be distracted all the time now, especially with technology more than ever before. It’s just so easy. [00:13:30] To escape your own thoughts, your own self. So set dial. I would love to hear from you too about your culture and your community’s response to yoga.

I know that you gave this broad indicator of how we are all looking around instead of looking inside, and we’re not taught to look inside in your culture and in mine in the USA. So in Uruguay, what is the response to yoga?

What is yoga in Uruguay like?

[00:13:53] Sat Dyal Kaur: Yoga has always been present in my country. There are great lineages providing us for a long time. What happens in my country is that it is a secular country. And generally spiritually it’s confused with religion. I would like people to understand that spiritually is necessary for people’s happiness, not religion, but spiritually to think of of possible futures more conscious and loving. So in Uruguay, it’s a little hard because every form of spiritually is confused with religion and people don’t like religion in my country apparently.

The history of yoga in Uruguay 

[00:14:33] Lily Allen-Duenas: And I know that you said that yoga has always had a presence in Uruguay. Does that mean that you feel that yoga’s been around forever or have there been studios and teachers there for a hundred years? Track me back a little bit too in the history.

[00:14:47] Sat Dyal Kaur: I don’t know. Maybe more than 50 years.

[00:14:51] Lily Allen-Duenas: That’s great. And there’s a lot of yoga studios in Uruguay now?

[00:14:55] Sat Dyal Kaur: Yes. Yeah. Yes.

[00:14:57] Lily Allen-Duenas: Great. All over the country or just in the [00:15:00] Capitol in Montevideo.

[00:15:01] Sat Dyal Kaur: Mostly in Montevideo because Montevideo, it’s half a country. It’s a little city that’s half a population lives in Montevideo. So in the rest of the country, it’s hard to find yoga studios but in Montevideo it’s full forms and lineages of yoga, ah yes.

[00:15:23] Lily Allen-Duenas: Beautiful and. Where do you see it going in the future?

[00:15:26] Sat Dyal Kaur: Here or in the world? I think are more open to yoga as a spiritual discipline or a spiritual instrument. I have very young people took up to my classes and this, that’s where, that’s this great for me. I think yoga is very important, so any form of yoga in the world, and not only my country and in every societies and if people improve the way that they feel about the themselves, the work can be a better place for everyone. 

I love this this work that you do to make public and do this work that you do to make in every, everyone in the world know yoga or different forms on yoga or different countries. I was mesmerized by your work, really, so I want to thank you because it’s so important this job to communicate yoga in the world.

The importance of yoga around the world

[00:16:28] Lily Allen-Duenas: Thank you. Yeah, I [00:16:30] agree with you so much that it is so important to have yoga all around the world, but also to make sure that people know the different elements. And the different aspects and on the path of yoga. Because if you only have maybe gone to your one yoga studio in your whole life, in your own city, and you’ve maybe met two or three yoga teachers, I would love to just expand that and say, oh, have you heard of this style of yoga, or how’s yoga changed this life, or this person, or this community, or this country?

It is so amazing and I’m so grateful that you said that.

[00:17:00] Sat Dyal Kaur: Oh, thanks to you. And also, I wanna say that what I think is more important also is yoga is… that yoga makes… yoga works when we are uncomfortable. Many times it’s not to you to make you comfortable in the class of yoga. It makes you comfortable in your life. But in the class we learn how to live uncomfortably.

I don’t know if you had the experience, but Kundalini is intense yoga so many. Many times in class. It’s hard. It’s very hard. And I wonder why I do this. But I learn to manage this stress and uncomfortable. And I think life brings to you this challenge to be uncomfortable, to be uncertain, to be worried, to be afraid, to be stressed. So in yoga, we learned how to manage that because life is not a [00:18:00] fairy tale. It’s wonderful, but it’s not a fairy tale. So we have to learn how to deal with uncertainty, with inpermanence. So that’s life. So one day you’ll be happy, and next day something happens to you.

Every, every day happens, something happens. So we’re cannot wait to be happy. You need to find balance and to be strong. Because if you are strong. No matter what happened, you are still gonna be you. So that’s why you need yoga.

[00:18:37] Lily Allen-Duenas: Yeah. Yeah. No matter what happens, you’re still going to be you, and no matter how far you go, there you are, and there you always will be. So I absolutely agree that with yoga, there’s so much that happened in this uncomfortable space like you do get invited to get into shapes and retain your breath and do certain things that create pressure or tension or some strain or stress in these uncomfortable responses.

That your body may feel, and then you get to observe your mind and your emotions and see how you become stressed out or uncomfortable, and if you start panicking, there’s just so many koshas like layers that you get to experience that do teach you how to deal with stress, how to deal with these uncomfortable things, not just physically, but mentally and emotionally.

Yoga is a language

[00:19:24] Sat Dyal Kaur: Yes. Yes. And also I think because of semiotics that yoga is a [00:19:30] language. That you use to talk to yourself when you talk to you. So I need to know how I talk to myself because I learn a language with my parents, with the culture, with the country I live. But I need to find the way that it’s good for me to talk to me. You know what I mean?

[00:19:53] Lily Allen-Duenas: Right how we talk to ourselves in our mind, it is not always very nice.

[00:19:59] Sat Dyal Kaur: No, but we learn the world from your, of our brands, from our culture. It’s not always nice. And this visions of the world, and I’m not real. So it’s Maya. It’s an illusion. So I need to learn my own language. So that’s semiotics to me. I need to create my own form to communicate in this universe that is my body, my whole body, my spiritual body, my mental body, my physical body. Oh, my whole body is a universe. I need to know a language that it speaks.

[00:20:40] Lily Allen-Duenas: Absolutely. Wow, you did say that beautifully. I just got goosebumps. Perfect. So I also wanna ask you about your country, about Uruguay. Can we pretend that someone’s never heard about Uruguay before? And can you tell us about that, about your country?

What is Uruguay like?

[00:20:54] Sat Dyal Kaur: As we said, it’s, it’s a little country, very little country [00:21:00] between Argentina and Brazil. We are known globally for having a president considered poor, who donate his salary to the cause of poor people being an example of his ideological commitment to social conscience. And that’s what’s wonderful and complex also. So we are an example of democracy and recognition of human rights of the current government represents limited patients in that sense. But we are an example of democracy in Latin America, I think, and it’s a peaceful, small country peaceful and beautiful country, even in winter.

[00:21:38] Lily Allen-Duenas: What is Uruguay really known for? Is there something you would wanna call attention to or an element that you have pride for? I know you talked about the democracy and that’s one amazing thing. Is there something else you’d like to mention about the mountains or the oceans or anything else you’d like to talk about?

[00:21:54] Sat Dyal Kaur: It’s a peaceful country, even geographically. So it’s I don’t know, Uruguay has a shape of heart on the map. We don’t have earthquakes, or we don’t have anything dangerous. We have an ocean, a beautiful ocean, and a river, beautiful river. And beautiful beaches.

[00:22:17] Lily Allen-Duenas: I like that. I didn’t know it was the shape of a heart. I can picture it on the map where it is, but I just never knew it was a heart. I love it when people do get to talk about their country. I always get surprised, you know what’s gonna be talked about? [00:22:30] Like one yoga teacher from Cameroon mentioned that his country is in the shape of a chicken and I had no clue. I had such a fun fact! 

Also Sat Dyal. I know people are gonna wanna follow you on social media or reach out and ask you a question, or maybe they’re planning a trip to Uruguay and they would like to hear some advice from you or come to a class with you. So what’s the best way that people can find you?

How to get in touch with Sat Dyal Kaur in Uruguay

[00:22:51] Sat Dyal Kaur: Find me on Instagram. And it’s a very small country. So if you ask anyone, you will find me. Really find me.

[00:23:01] Lily Allen-Duenas: So I will definitely link to your Instagram and the show notes as well as on my website, wildyogatribe.com/yogainUruguay. And also there you can find a transcript of this podcast so you can read everything while you’re listening. You’ll find the blog and quotes from Sat Dyal and everything else. So, thank you so much for being with me on the show today. It has been a joy to talk with you, and I have loved every part of it.

[00:23:25] Sat Dyal Kaur: Oh, thanks to you and it’s really been a pleasure. I’m honored to become a part of your community because community is so important. I am very happy to know you. 

Outro

[00:23:37] Lily Allen-Duenas: Thank you so much for tuning in to this episode of the Wild Yoga Tribe Podcast. My conversation with Sat Dyal Kaur, a yoga teacher from Uruguay was so fascinating as we took a deep dive into the spiritual understanding of yoga and the search for meaning. As the founder of “semioyoga”, a blend of yoga and semiotics, you’ll be dazzled by how [00:24:00] Sat Dyal explains what yoga is and how yoga can teach you not just how to live, but how to be who you really are. So if you’re looking to tune into a podcast episode that’s all about yoga in Uruguay, and yoga as a spiritual instrument, and yoga as freedom, then this is the conversation for you. Thank you for listening to the Wild Yoga Tribe Podcast.

Be well.

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