SHRI GAIA YOGA INSTITUTE
Living lineage, path of conscious evolution
Shri is a Sanskrit honorific meaning sacred, radiant, and worthy of reverence. Gaia, drawn from ancient Greek cosmology, is Mother Earth herself – the primordial source of life, intelligence, and becoming. Together, Shri Gaia signifies Revered Mother Earth. While yoga is the living axis of our work, at our institute we honor wisdom traditions and embodied practices from across the world, rooted in the understanding that conscious living is a reciprocal act – one that remembers the Earth as giver, sustainer, teacher, and sacred ground.
Shri Gaia Institute aims at raising awareness through mind, body, and spirit practices. With the ancient science of Yoga at its core, Shri Gaia focuses on conscious evolution through movement and stillness. By observing the subtle and gross movements of thought, emotion, breath, and body, and our relationship to the environment that holds us, we come to recognize the profound interconnectedness, creativity, and abundance of existence. These insights are not abstract; they are lived, embodied, and consciously applied. With this understanding, we train those who feel the call to deepen, refine, and transmit. To stand as practitioners, guides, and leaders in their own right.
The transformative learning experiences at Shri Gaia Institute are designed not merely to educate, but to ignite – to cultivate teachers and leaders who inspire through presence, integrity, and lived wisdom. Our programs emphasize depth of experience, clarity of transmission, and the capacity to move others through authenticity rather than authority. All trainings are directed by Tanya Savitri Popovich, Certified Yoga Teacher with over 20 years of teaching experience and Leadership Coach with more than a decade of experience guiding individuals and groups through personal and professional transformation.
This philosophy is also reflected in our logo – a mandala formed by interconnected hearts in a circle. The heart symbolizes devotion, compassion, and conscious presence, while the circle represents unity, wholeness, and the continuous cycles of life. Together, they express our commitment to conscious community, collective evolution, and living in reverent relationship with one another and with the Earth.
Shri Gaia Yoga Institute is an education provider specializing in body and mind practices, namely Yoga Teacher Training and Leadership Programs.
MEET OUR
Experienced Certified Teachers
TANYA SAVITRI POPOVICH
FOUNDER
Tanya is a certified Jivamukti Yoga Teacher, Yoga Alliance ERYT-500, and Yoga Acharya (Master of Yoga) in classical Sivananda Yoga tradition.
She started her meditation practice at the age of 14 through Transcendental Meditation.
Her 20 years of experience practicing and 17 years of teaching Yoga includes numerable yoga trainings in classical and modern styles of yoga, and long stays at Yoga Ashrams across India.
For the past 16 years Tanya teaches yoga internationally including 200-hr and 500-hr Yoga Alliance certified educational programs, Yin Yoga and Aerial Yoga training programs, Breathwork and Meditation trainings, Vedanta philosophy, workshops, seminars and cultural retreats.
- Swaha Yoga Center founder
- Shri Gaia Institute founder and Yoga Teacher Training director
- Yin Resonanceâ Yin Yoga Teacher Training founder
- Uplift Another – refugee scholarship program and Trauma Informed Teacher Training program founder
- Swaha Aerial Yoga founder
International teaching experience
- Greece 2004 – present, various locations
- USA, New York 2010, various locations
- India 2011 – present, various locations
- Cyprus, Nicosia 2012 – 2018 Akasha Yoga Center
- Costa Rica, Nosara 2013 various locations
- USA, Murfreesboro 2014 Yoga Nest
- Germany, Munich 2014 – 2015
- Jivamukti Yoga Schwabing, Patrick Broome Yoga Studios
- Indonesia, Bali 2015 – present, various locations
- Jordan, Amman 2015 Yoga Jordan
- Turkey, Istanbul 2015 Maya Yoga
- Helsinki, Finland 2015 – 2017 Hima Happiness
- Malaysia, Johor 2016 Peace Studio
- USA, Los Angeles 2016 various locations
- USA, Miami 2016 various locations
- Taiwan, Taipei 2017 Yoga Journey
- Tasmania, Saint Helen’s 2019 Gallery Parnella
- Australia, Melbourne 2019, Bendigo Yoga Festival
LEADERSHIP COACHING
From 2010 onwards Tanya works alongside Barbara Duchow and Stage Directors with executive managers as a leadership coach / consultant in individual and group settings.
Her focus is on leadership through body and mind practices, namely Body-Mind Centering, Breathwork, Creating Presence through Alignment, Awareness in Communication and Leadership, Stress Management, Change Management, Increasing Productivity and Concentration, and Creativity Training.
She uses her deep knowledge of body/mind connection through Yoga, Meditation, Breath-work, RTT (Hypnosis, NLP and Cognitive Behavioral Psychotherapy) to provide coaching in challenging leadership positions.
Consulting and Leadership Coaching Experience
- Evonik, Frankfurt, 2010 – present
- Thales Group, Paris 2014 – present
- ON., Hamburg, 2015 – present
- Management Circle, V.I.E.L, Airbus Group (AC in Cooperation with Kienbaum Management Consultant GmbH), Toulouse – Hamburg – Munich – Ibiza, 2016 – present
Other
- B.A. in Fine Arts
- M.A. in Indigenous Studies, Storytelling and Myth
- RTT Therapist (certification pending)
- Degree in Sound Healing
- Rites of Passage Initiate
- Shamanic Journeying through Dance and Breath fascilitator
