#28 - Yoga By Many Names - Yoga in Azerbaijan with Gafar Ganizadeh

Welcome to Episode #28 of the Wild Yoga Tribe Podcast! This week, I welcome Gafar Ganizadeh onto the show. He is a yoga teacher from Azerbaijan. He’s an aerial yoga (fly yoga) instructor, and a past studio owner of a yoga studio in Baku. He teaches classic hatha, power yoga, fly yoga, and something very unique, which he calls complex yoga. My conversation with Gafar was so interesting as we looked at the Azerbaijan culture and how expressing emotion and refreshing the brain benefit his community. I hope that this conversation made you curious about how you could integrate different methodologies and traditions together to make your own kind of complex yoga practice. If you’re looking to tune into a podcast episode that is all about living a life around yoga, using yoga at any time of your day, or of your life, then this is the conversation for you. Tell me more about Gafar Ganizadeh Gafar Ganizadeh first began to practice yoga in 2009 when he was invited to practice yoga with one of this friends who had just received her yoga teacher certification. After attending her classes, Gafar quickly realized that yoga was the thing that was missing from his life. Gafar’s first yoga training was in 2016 in Hatha, and a year later he obtained his advanced yoga teacher training certificate. In 2017, Hatha became a Fly Yoga teacher as well. Gafar teaches yoga in his hometown of Baku. He teaches classic hatha, power yoga, fly yoga, and his own practice, which he calls complex yoga. --> $25-off coupon for yoga classes with Lily on Moxie! What to expect in the Yoga In Azerbaijan episode of the Wild Yoga Tribe Podcast Gafar created the concept of complex yoga, this is a type of yoga he describes as melding together of different practices and methodologies including kundalini, ashtanga, and sufism. He used to own his own yoga studio in Baku with his wife called High Fly yoga. He had to close that school down due to the pandemic, though he teaches with his wife and friends at another yoga studio in Baku now. As a yoga teacher, when he’s in class, he can feel what his students need for the day. He calls this his superpower! Gafar also shared with us that he estimates that 90% of all people who come to yoga classes in Azerbaijan do so for health reasons, whether that is sleep issues or spine issues. Yoga is very popular in Azerbaijan with plenty of yoga students and teachers, as people realize how yoga can help people get their health back. Something I thought was particularly curious was how Gafar suggested that yoga was in Azerbaijan before, but went by different names. Azerbaijan is a very spiritual country, and he believes that lots of yoga teachers today create their own techniques and practices by tapping into old Azerbaijani traditions and knowledge. For the skimmers - What’s in the Azerbaijan episode? What is Complex Yoga? The importance of cathartic emotional release Sufi breathing techniques Brain stops & refreshes Traditional Folk music to heal—the Muğam Resources https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ateshgah_of_Baku https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yanar_Dag https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gobustan_National_Park Connect with Gafar Ganizade www.instagram.com/melyamo.yogi Join me for yoga classes on Moxie with $25-off! https://moxie.xyz/invite/signup?i=wildyogatribe