Yoga, spirituality and personal growth

Dr. Metka Zupančič is a long-time Yoga practitioner who finds her major inspiration in the extraordinary teachings of B.K.S. Iyengar, his family and their disciples. Yoga as a body-mind-spirit conjunction, with the necessary commitment to practice and personal discipline, continues to stay at the core of Metka’s connections with the fields of growth, healing, and trust.

Metka first experienced the benefits of yoga during her doctoral studies in France where she also discovered vegetarianism as a way of life and not just a choice of a diet. The ethical dimension of how we live in the world and the footprints we leave behind us remains Metka’s basic preoccupation, as she has also opted for a vegan diet some thirty years ago. Healing and growing through the eight limbs of yoga, to the best of her capacity, has led her to explore various Eastern traditions. She has studied Reiki and Qi Gong, while continuing to honor Buddhist wisdom and compassion. Metka considers that the term “yoga,” the connection with the highest purpose within us and around us, is best suited to describe her spiritual quest. She is interested in archetypal psychology, together with her love for languages and etymology (especially related to Sanskrit), in which she finds common roots beyond separation.

Metka’s yoga credentials include her certification from Phoenix Rising Yoga Therapy (1997), during the time she lived in Canada. After moving to Alabama, she became certified with Betty Larsen and John Charping at their SIYI institute in Nashville, TN (class of 2002). Since 2007, she has been studying with various Iyengar Yoga teachers, among whom Roger Cole, Judith Hanson Lasater, Dean Lerner et Ramanand Patel. In France, she has particularly appreciated the classes with Lydie Drivière, in Tours. In 2013, she benefited from the teachings by Swati and Rajiv Chanchani, in Dehradun, India. In the USA, she attended Iyengar Yoga teacher-training courses with Kathleen Pringle (Atlanta, GA), Louise Hoyt (Memphis, TN), and Randy Just (during his workshops in Memphis, TN, New Orleans, LA, and Jackson, MI). Since she moved back to Slovenia, in 2017, she has had the privilege to attend regular teacher training courses with Erika Répássy and Kevin Gardiner. She studied with Laurie Blakeney (during her summer intensives in Slovenia), Stephanie Quirk (during the workshops in Budapest), and David Meloni (TTC in Ljubljana, Slovenia). She also benefited from teachers like Jordi Marti and Silvia Ros (Barcelona, Spain). For some years, her continuous quest in Yoga is currently supported by Elizabeth Smullens Brass, through in-presence workshops and regular zoom encounters within the Sadhana Circle founded by her teacher, an inspiration for establishing an international multicultural Iyengar Yoga community.

Dr. Zupančič contributed an article on teaching yoga in academia (“Teaching a Holistic Approach to Yoga in an Academic Setting,” in Yoga Therapy in Practice, published by the International Association of Yoga Therapists. Volume 4, Issue 1, March 2008: 10-14).