Jivamukti Yoga as a 24h yoga experience. Vivid experience shared by Candida Vivalda

Candida Vivalda, born in Rome, is now a Certified Jivamukti yoga teacher, giving classes in Madrid and hosting retreats in Italy, Spain and Portugal. Her experience practising yoga reaches out to more than 15 years, which she spent attending workshops and retreats world-wide, had a transformative year while travelling in Asia and India, which led Candida to become a professional and receive a certification for training Jivamukti yoga. She had always developed her skills with the aim to share with her students the perception of presence, compassion and happiness that is Yoga.

How have you started your path with yoga?

It was around 15 years ago. Well, like many people coming to yoga, I came because I felt very stressed. I was working in marketing and event-organizing. I was making big and complicated events like musical festivals and it was a very demanding job. A friend of mine advised me to go to yoga. 

I started with ashtanga yoga in Rome in my hometown. When I left my first yoga class, I felt so good. And by that time I didn’t understand how it works, but I knew it was something I needed and went on practicing. I was not involved in serious physical practice before, like dance or some serious sports. And discovering that I am simply feeling my body, that I actually have a body was a very new feeling.

You started with the Ashtanga vinyasa method and how have you switched to the Jivamukti style? 

On a physical level Jivamukti is the same vinyasa style (coordination of movement and breath). Its founders David Life and Sharon Gannon practiced ashtanga vinyasa and one of their gurus was Pattabhi Jois. Jivamukti has the similar physical aspect, but it has other layers. By the time I heard about that style (as it was founded in the USA), there was only one Jivamukti yoga teacher in Roma. I found her and I started practicing more and more. After a while I went to the United States to the Jivamukti Yoga Center, in New York. And I liked it a lot. 

Today in my personal practice I do both: I like ashtanga and Jivamukti. But Jivamukti gave me more tools than the physical practice. I want to tell you more about this practice. 

Please go ahead. Despite Ashtanga being quite popular in Ukraine, Jivamukti is still something new. 

The main idea of a Jivamukti yoga class is to give a practitioner a complete experience of yoga. Along with the asanas’ part we have a theme (a focus) of a class, usually related to some aspect of yoga philosophy: we chant mantras in the beginning, then after a physical part we have a meditation. The body practice part is the main (and it is a strong practice), but enriched with yogic philosophy (in its modern view), music, chanting and meditation and it gives a full yogic experience. 

Jivamukti is based on five core principles: ahimsa (non-harming), shastra (scripture), bhakti (devotion), nada (music), and dhyana (meditation). It is about what you do in your life, how you treat yourself and others, what you eat (it emphasizes vegan diet). Yoga is not only what you do on your mat, it is a 24h, lifelong practice.

“Jiva” means soul and “mukti” is liberation. This method is about reaching the highest state of liberation while living, through compassion to all beings.

What is usual class like and what to expect from your classes on the festival? 

The ones who are going to join my classes should be prepared that asana practice will be integrated with a theme of a class. For example, if we are speaking about our connection to Mother Earth and all human beings, the asanas part will involve a lot of grounding and balance practice, maybe there could be a partners work to experience interconnection, we would chant mantras related to Mother Earth and we would meditate on the interconnectedness of all existence.

For you as a practitioner of Jivamukti style, what was the impact of the practice on your own personality and your life? 

It was a big change in my life, because I was used to being a very “rushy” person. And connecting to yoga philosophy was a great breakthrough, as I started to understand what yogic approach is about. The answers to the questions “why are we doing this in yoga practice?”, “what will it bring in my  life?” inspired me to deep changes. I quit my marketing job and started teaching yoga. It was life transforming for me, and I wanted to share it.

I also started to meditate, and through this practice I’ve understood the importance of sitting still and connecting deeply within. 

The way yoga is usually taught, concentrating mainly on the physical aspect, is lacking a fundamental part. Despite all the benefits of body practice, yoga is something bigger and it can give a person much more than only physical strength. How David Life, co-founder of Jivamukti yoga, would say: “Why go for a banana, when you can get Nirvana?”

You were among the founders of the first application for meditation in spanish. Do you use gadgets for meditation? How the new technologies could be helpful for meditators?

This was a controversial thing for me. As a meditation practitioner, I do not use any apps. And when a friend of mine proposed to me to get involved in a meditation app creating, I was puzzled. It seemed to me that apps can’t be helpful in meditation and I am not a big fan of mobile phones. But after I investigated this topic a little and read meditation apps reviews, I discovered that a lot of people got a huge benefit using such apps and they were very grateful. Many people would not go to a meditation retreat or to a yoga class, but they are very comfortable using an app. And to start this journey with short meditations with a mobile phone could be a way for them to make it accessible. But after a person starts to meditate, I always recommend to drop the app and follow this journey with self-practice.

Having experienced these changes with yoga practice, and reaching a new state of mind, how would you describe what yoga is and what yogic state of mind is about? 

Yoga is not something that you are doing with your mind and your thoughts. Yoga is about discovering the deeper connection within yourself. This is something deep inside you, that is unchanging. Mind is constantly changing, but there is a deeper reality —  it is who we are. And it never changes. We can be happy, or angry, or frightened, but there is always a part in us which is always calm, still and perfect. This highest Self is in every being. This is where compassion and interconnectedness comes from.