MogaYoga – Yoga Retreats Embodying Physics, Mind, and Soul
Nowadays, we live in a “hustle culture” where people are constantly hurrying through their lives. Practicing self-awareness, slow living, and presence in the present, not the future, is rare. And that’s not because people do not have enough time for it; rather, they do not prioritize it enough. However, believe it or not, taking care of ourselves is the root of every success or failure we experience in our lives. And by taking care, we mean it on a physical, mental, and spiritual level. When we learn how to meet the needs of our body, mind, and soul, we start living in the present. We become aware of ourselves and our position in the surrounding world. From then, we start living consciously and mastering embodying our true selves. Yoga is a practice that combines experience for the body, mind, and soul, which can have a positive impact on people’s lives. It inspires mindful living. We at WorldStreet are delighted to meet our guest Mr. Daniel Lipchev, founder at MogaYoga, in a pleasant interview speaking on the benefits of implementing Yoga in our life.
“MogaYoga is a place where everyone can learn, grow and develop regardless of their background, belief system, or economic circumstances. At MogaYoga, we will provide the highest quality, easy-to-digest, and affordable education on topics such as Yoga, Reiki, Shamanism, Martial Arts, Dance and Movement, Breathing, Tantra, and many more! We have gathered some of the best teachers in their respective fields and are eager to make this a reality!”
WorldStreet Introduces Our Guest
The world changes significantly, and we are changing and evolving with it. However, change is more challenging than it seems and usually takes a lot of effort, dedication, and a Can Do attitude. This is why, today, we’ve invited a guest that has a Master’s degree in Change and Adaptation to difficult circumstances – Mr. Daniel Lipchev. Mr. Lipchev is 29 and is currently building one of the biggest platforms for Physical and Spiritual practices in Bulgaria. Initially, Mr. Lipchev comes from Varna, Bulgaria; however, he has also lived in eight locations across five different countries. He speaks five languages and has a background in International Management. Since his burnout five years before this interview, he has been learning and developing in the field of yoga, martial arts, and massages. He has since become one of the most respected yoga teachers in Sofia, Bulgaria, and a silver medalist in Tai Chi.
The Interview
We at WorldStreet sat down with Mr. Daniel Lipchev, founder at MogaYoga, Heaven on Earth Retreats, and DannyDisha, in a delightful interview, speaking on topics of physical and spiritual health.
Where does the name “MogaYoga” come from?
MogaYoga is playful due to the rhyme, but it also reflects one of our most significant evolutionary adaptations – hope. “Moga” in Bulgarian means “I Can, ” which is precisely the attitude I’ve always had toward life. Can I learn Japanese and live there for a year? – Sure thing! Can I win the biggest entrepreneurial competition in my university without any previous experience? Of course! Can I lose 50 kg, get out of depression, and manage to stick my face between my knees? Hell Yeah!
So Moga is Hope. Hope that saves us and drives us toward the kind of life we’ve always wanted. In that light, MogaYoga will upgrade the customers’ way of viewing and experiencing the world. We want to educate people, that everything is possible, as long as they have the proper knowledge and mindset.
What services does MogaYoga provide customers?
We are providers of knowledge and opportunity. We want to be recognized as one of the best providers of quality education on the topics of Physical and Spiritual Health. We do not wish to be just another app for everyday Yoga, but rather to provide the knowledge one would receive in a Yoga Training course, or a Reiki initiation, in simple, well-rounded, and doable steps that you can practice at home.
Additionally, we at MogaYoga and our partners organize numerous events every year. We want to become a place where quality events and retreats, where people can grow and develop, can be shared with the community. But most of all, we want to create a place where people can feel comfortable asking questions, sharing their struggles, and feeling a sense of belonging to a larger community, or as we call it, a “Soul Family”.
Prioritizing studying, changing, growing, and evolving is challenging because you have to get out of your comfort zone. How can modern people make room in their busy schedules for MogaYoga?
According to a study, dolphins’ brains are significant because they are one of the most playful animals on the planet. Only humans are more playful than them, yet in a world with billions of people to interact and share with, humans don’t seem as happy as dolphins. And I find this worrisome. You know, there is this view of the world, that intelligence and happiness and somehow disconnected from one another. Some have even gone on to say that Happiness in Intelligent people is actually rare. I’m afraid I have to disagree with this statement. I believe that happiness is actually proof of intelligence and not the other way around. After all, if you can’t even make yourself playful and happy, how can you hope to do something meaningful for the world?
From that point of view, I plan on making MogaYoga a playful, fun, and enjoyable experience for our users. I want to share the type of knowledge that inspires and proves how unique human beings are; we have plenty of sources of desperation as it is. We all know that the world is going sideways, economies will burn, and there will be a lot of human misery. But if we can’t have, Faith in ourselves, others, and the people that bring us a sense of belonging, then we might as well give up now. A life of blissful ignorance brings more benefit than a life of desperate intelligence.
Isn’t Yoga supposed to be spiritual, why do you turn it into a business? Is there going to be a store, and how do you feel about profiting from Yoga?
Regardless of the business, we can all agree that a successful business can be accessed on the internet, and the rest are as if they do not exist. Yes, initially, I was very hesitant about doing this, after all, I have had the privilege, or as I like to call it “Good Karma” to receive a lot of my knowledge about Yoga for free. My father started doing Yoga many years before I did and has since become one of the most respected teachers in the field of Tantra Yoga in Bulgaria. He is known as Serj AdiDisha, and one of my businesses was inspired by him i.e., DannyDisha.
It was challenging at first, I had issues with getting paid for something that I had received for free, but after opening a yoga studio that was called Moksha and running it on donations, I realized something – people don’t respect things they receive for free. I failed miserably and have since learned my lesson. I do not plan on becoming rich from this platform, and I want the people, who provide the knowledge, to be fairly reimbursed for their time and effort and for the people that buy it to receive well-organized and designed knowledge on desired topics at an affordable and fair price.
Do you plan on offering yoga-related products? How are you different from the other websites selling trinkets?
We do plan on having some items that support our practice as well, but our primary aim is to share knowledge. However, we live in a modern world with modern equipment, and it would be inadequate to have these resources and not utilize them. We will have a limited number of quality items, such as yoga mats, blocks, and hammocks. We’ve negotiated with one of the best producers of meditative scents and candles and some supplements. Yes, Yoga is a good area for advertising, and some exploit it marvelously; however, if there is no chance to become more accountable to our advertisers, then at least we can be to our customers.
Are you doing this alone? How are you going to manage this workload?
As you can imagine, I do not yet have the complete freedom to work exclusively on what I want, and I still have to manage my life around “what I have to do.” I believe this is a good thing, as too much freedom can sometimes work against you. But I would not be able to do this without my team, which is assisting me with various tasks, but my partners – Iva Stefanova and Dimitar Georgiev, are my primary support on this project. Iva is probably the best Aero-Yoga instructor in Bulgaria and can teach people incredible acrobatics safely and understandably. On the other side Mitko, or as he is more known as Jimmy, is one of the best experts on the topic of dance and movement in Bulgaria. Together, we make a great team, and I feel genuinely blessed to be able to work with them.
Nowadays, there are many instructors in the field of body & mind practices (from Yoga and transcendental meditation to functional fitness and pilates). Still, few of them can be called teachers. What distinguishes a teacher from an instructor?
That is a great question but a difficult one. I’ve had the privilege of meeting several great teachers in my life, but I realized that many people worldwide have spent their life without meeting a single one. Yes, we’ve all heard about Buddha, Jesus, and the Gods and Goddesses of India, but actually having the experience of meeting an awakened being, without the surrounding mythology and storytelling is a fairly rare and significant occasion.
You know, you can always tell when a human being has had a valuable existence; it can be through their music, painting, or dance, the way they organize their yoga practice, or the way they practice martial arts. You can see it in how they walk and talk; you have to have the necessary senses – vigilance, contemplation, and the skill to listen. And don’t get me wrong, instructors are fine; anyone working towards self-improvement and improving others is doing a great job. But many are doing it as a way to receive attention and appreciation and benefit themselves, which is something that I find corrupts the environment.
Could you tell us more about the Heaven on Earth retreat that you’ve been organizing for the past two years with one of your best friends and current partner, Dimitar Georgiev? What was your inspiration to leave behind the “Musts” and “Shoulds” and to follow your vision to turn this unique idea into an actual format?
It might be because my zodiac sign is Libra, but I have always been a massive fan of controversies. I have always tried to combine incompatible things at first sight and later realized that everything “human” is compatible. I realized that when I felt the strong push toward the world of martial arts. I had already done several years of Yoga and had a fairly decent physical condition (or so I thought :)). Again, I had the luck to come across an incredible master in the field of Wing Tsun and Tai-Chi – Sifu Stanislav Bagalev. With his help, I learned that Yoga and Martial arts are, surprisingly, very compatible.
I’ve learned that the existence of a controversy, of opposites, of good and evil is simply a result of a lack of knowledge and understanding. With this in mind, Jimmy and I decided to organize a retreat that had never been done before. We organized an intensive 5-day program tailored to the chakra system and combined a well-balanced mix of Yoga, Dancing, Martial Arts, Singing, and Tantra. It was a great success! At the end of the retreat, people were ready to sign up for the next, which will be happening later this summer. So yes, I like to take risks, learn from my mistakes, and hope to share my passion with others.
How can someone benefit from a Retreat program, and what are the benefits of practicing Yoga in general? Could you share a story of a client’s reflection on how the program has helped them that inspires you to keep going?
Everything I do is predicated on my desire to give people the opportunities that I’ve been given. Although I’ve had a “rough” life, the challenges came with disproportionate rewards in terms of knowledge and experience. If possible, I would like to make it so that people know where the light is without having to experience that darkness in the same amount and with the same intensity as I did. And even if that is impossible, I would still like to set a fire, so they know where to come for warmth and light. One of the most joyful moments in my life was when one of the participants of our retreat came to me a couple of months later and told me:
“This experience was like a breath of life. After the retreat, I have been exercising and meditating and have put my life back together. It’s given me a new perspective on life and how it can be an enjoyable experience rather than a mundane repetition of soul-crushing activities.”
And this is the reason I’m doing this.
What is the most valuable and practical advice you’ve ever received?
The problem with having too many pieces of information is the desire always to know the correct answer and always be perfect. Human existence is messy, we are all a biological mass, traveling through space, sharing similar hardware, and being a little off in the head. But what makes us unique is the capability to use our willpower to change our condition to do something meaningful. The advice was – to change and allow it to be changed.
And finally, absorb passively or learn actively?
Passive Activity and Active Passivity. The alternation between the 2 is a necessity to have balance and momentum. We have to learn to alternate between states of focus and states of relaxation more proactively; otherwise, the knowledge will consume us rather than the other way around. We have abundant information, stimulation, and distraction, and we don’t know what to do with it. If we don’t learn how to focus, we’ll never learn how to succeed, but if we never learn how to relax, we can never genuinely focus intensely. Our brains are on a constant cocktail of chemicals produced in our bodies at rates significantly higher than at any other point in human history. How we deal with this is the determining factor of whether we can successfully adapt to the world.
MogaYoga – Yoga Practices and Mindful Living
MogaYoga is a place where people can find peace of mind and healing for the body. The team behind MogaYoga strives to create a safe space where people can learn, grow, and expand their vision. As we know, the more we learn, the way we perceive the world changes. It affects our perspective on the challenges. They don’t get easier; we get stronger and more resilient because we master the power of our minds. And when we do that, living life gets more manageable, pleasurable, and enjoyable.
And we deserve to live a joyful, blissful, and slow life where mindfulness is a priority. The way we master the art of mindfulness is through daily rituals and routines of practices that impact our physical, mental, and spiritual health. And at MogaYoga, people receive education on such vital topics that improve the quality of people’s lives. Because it all starts with a mind that has learned how to hear the soul, the rest will follow naturally in the right direction.
Along with educational courses, MogaYoga also organizes events and Retreats where people can give their bodies, minds, and souls a much-needed treat and rest. After a Retreat, one has learned the tools to be present, productive, and full of energy to put their life together and restart with a clear mind, more substantial body, and peaceful soul. Or shall we say – one has remembered? Because when we are born, we naturally hear our bodies; however, when growing up, we tend to forget what is within us and how to embody it. MogaYoga events, Retreats, and courses remind us of what is already within us and give us a little help to embrace it. MogaYoga also plans on offering a product line of Yoga-related products such as yoga mats, blocks, and hammocks to support their practices.
MogaYoga Courses:
- Yoga
- Reiki
- Shamanism
- Martial Arts
- Dance and Movement
- Breathing
- Tantra
- Retreats and Events
WorldStreet Thoughts…
The art of mindful living is challenging in today’s day and age. Our culture is burdened with the hustling syndrome and the tickling fear of missing out on something better. But the truth is, there isn’t something better than what we have now and learning to be present and content with it – because it is all we have. Practicing gratitude calms our chronic anxiety and our critical inner parents. We learn to parent ourselves through love, acceptance, and Faith gently. There are all lessons reached through yoga practices.
Yoga positively calms the nervous system and relaxes the body while also building strength and resistance. Practicing Yoga has a therapeutic effect and improves the quality of life. It is always best to have a wise, skilled, and educated teacher by your side along this process. MogaYoga provides you with teachers who are specialists in Yoga, Reiki, Shamanism, Martial Arts, Dance and Movement, Breathing, Tantra, and many more, from whom you can learn knowledge and skills in an easy-to-digest and affordable manner. We are not used to treating ourselves; we neglect the silent signs of our illnesses.
We at WorldStreet genuinely believe one of the most valuable gifts you can give to yourself is a Retreat program as well as implementing Yoga practices in your routine with the help of MogaYoga. It is an investment you make for the well-being of your future self.
MogaYoga Business Card
- MogaYoga Website: https://mogayoga.bg/
- MogaYoga Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MogaYoga.bg
- MogaYoga Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/MogaYoga.bg/
