Infinite Learning, Divine Playfulness and Yoga as a Tool

I craved meaning, so I chased understanding. I wanted purpose and demanded explanations. I believed success was external until I discovered self-knowledge. Depth built slowly through experience. A willingness to remain in constant evolution. Our time here is equally too short and too long to live only one life.

All photos taken by Flavia Maria @_letyousea_

Opening myself to the world meant attracting the very people who inspire, support, and challenge this perspective. The Soulful Kind’s Bella Estrela, Charlotte Eivesteen, Amanda Lume, Luiza Vianna and Lygia Calvet are among them.

Each teacher contributes their own areas of focus to the program. Luiza Vianna leads The Soulful Kind’s Asana Clinic, a hands-on component of the training that helps students understand alignment and develop confidence in guiding others. Lygia, a graduate of the program, leads grounding Hatha and Vinyasa sessions, helping students build confidence across different teaching rhythms while offering warmth and relatability for trainees navigating the transition from student to teacher.

Bella Estrela is a Swedish-born yoga teacher and co-founder of The Soulful Kind, a Yoga Alliance-recognized training in Itacare, Bahia, Brazil. What began in 2018 as a retreat collaboration with her friend Charlotte evolved into an international retreat and yoga school grounded in practical application and lived philosophy. “We wanted something that combined yoga with connection to mind, body, and each other. Someone could come, practice, connect, feel something shift. That was the idea. People left transformed,” Bella says. “They wanted to understand what happened. They wanted to go further.” Bella now leads the Brazil-based training while Charlotte oversees European retreats, continuing their shared vision of yoga integrated into daily life.

Her interest in yoga started young. At eleven, she joined a meditation and mantra group in her building in Sweden. The women had traveled to India and returned changed. “I remember telling my mom I wanted to be a yoga teacher,” she says.

After studying journalism and living abroad, Bella was in Brazil reassessing what kind of life she wanted to build. She read Super Attractor by Gabby Bernstein. The concept of raising your frequency through joy and alignment resonated. “You can take something seriously without making it heavy,” Bella says. That balance between structure and lightness became foundational to The Soulful Kind.

Amanda Lume is a Brazilian yoga teacher from the country’s capital who first came to The Soulful Kind as a student seeking self-connection. Before teaching, she lived in Portugal and moved between phases of practice without seeing herself as “the teacher type.” Yoga was something she returned to for grounding. 

Amanda credits her mother as her greatest influence. “She’s my hero. I grew up watching her navigate life with strength. If she could handle what she handled, I can trust myself too.” She entered the training without a plan to teach. Her personal study gradually evolved into leadership. Today she guides yin yoga and meditation within the school. “I want to build something step by step,” she says. “To create spaces that feel supportive and intentional. Not rushed or forced. Just aligned.” 

What follows is our conversation on travel, training, and teaching. 

Information vs Application 

You follow the Yoga Alliance curriculum. What makes your training different?

“It’s the same curriculum as Yoga Alliance. Philosophy, anatomy, everything. But understanding how to apply it to real life. Like, what does this mean when I’m stressed in traffic? Often, students graduate from other schools with lots of information, yet they’re still looking for clear, practical ways to apply it and teach confidently.”

“In our classes, we take a verse from a traditional scripture and ask, how does this apply to you today? How does this help you find inner peace in a modern world? Because we’re not in India being peaceful all day. We’re exposed to so much. So yoga has to work here.”

She calls it yoga as a tool; a term she and Charlotte co-created.

Yoga as a Tool

“Yoga is how you speak. It’s how you use your phone. It’s how you wash dishes. Concentration while washing dishes. That’s one of the limbs. That’s yoga.”

“I hear people say, ‘Now I’m back in my life, I don’t do yoga anymore.’ And I’m like, what do you mean? It’s not just on the mat. It’s everything.” 

“For me, that was the biggest shift,” Amanda adds. 

The Body as Practice

The fundamental benefits of movement and the body’s response make yoga asana valuable for all. Postures should meet you where you are. Bella explains the practical breakdowns of asana in a clinical, not performative, format.

“Okay, pigeon pose. Yes, it’s beautiful. But what does it actually do? Maybe it helps emotional release. Maybe it supports your kidneys. Maybe after a stressful day, this is what you choose.”

“You should understand why you’re doing something. Then you can use it.”

Luiza leads The Soulful Kind’s Asana Clinic, an integral component of the training. She explains, “Our Asana Clinic is where alignment becomes insight: a space to truly understand your body and your practice. We give our students real time to practice hands-on, because teaching is learned by doing, not by watching. Our philosophy is simple: learn the practice, live the practice, and let it transform the way you move through the world.”

For Amanda, body as practice became about awareness. “Before, I moved through things quickly. After the training, I realized I could pause. I could breathe. I could choose how I respond. Instead of reacting automatically, I go inward first. I rebalance. Then I act. That changed everything.”

Amanda began teaching with friends. Over time, repetition built confidence. “You don’t need to be 100% ready to start.”

The inward shift is direction; the ability to pause is more profound than any advanced pose.

Bella explains the science of community and immersion. “It is said that it takes roughly 200 hours to move from acquaintance to meaningful connection. A 200-hour training compresses that timeline. Students live, practice, unravel, and rebuild together. Adult friendships, often difficult to form, accelerate. Community becomes part of the curriculum.”

Doubt & Becoming a Teacher 

Amanda didn’t arrive at The Soulful Kind certain she would teach.

“I practiced yoga,” she says, “but never constantly. And I thought you had to already be a yogi to do teacher training. Like you needed years of practice. I didn’t see myself like that.”

“I decided to do it for myself. Without pressure to teach. I thought, even if I never teach, this will help my life. And it did.”

Now she says, “Yoga became part of my identity because of how I live.”

Lila ~ Divine Play 

I ask Bella what makes The Soulful Kind feel different energetically. She answers with one word: Lila. “Divine play,” she explains. “You don’t need to suffer to learn. Studying is often associated with seriousness and struggle. It doesn’t have to be.” Here in Brazil, that looks like chanting at sunset. Studying anatomy by the ocean. Meditating at waterfalls. “This place has a high frequency,” she says. “But you can raise your frequency anywhere. Even remembering a good moment shifts everything.” She references santosha or contentment. “If you can’t see the good in small things, you’ll always chase something that doesn’t exist.”

Gratitude gifts abundance.

Money Matters 

The Soulful Kind training includes business education, marketing, platforms, and practical instruction on how to earn. Bella is direct about why it’s included: students don’t just need inspiration, they need a way to make it work in real life.

“Some people get uncomfortable talking about money,” Bella says. “Like charging for yoga makes it less sacred. But it’s not volunteer work. You invest time and money. You should be able to earn from it and still feel aligned.”

The Soulful Kind has dedicated sessions with Jordan Majdalani, a neuro-linguistic reprogramming facilitator, to address the discomfort. Students map their limiting beliefs about money and yoga, like what they were taught, what they absorbed and any remaining resistance.

“It’s not money that’s unethical. It’s how we approach it. Yoga is balance. You can’t go too far one way. You can’t say it’s all about profit. But you also can’t say you shouldn’t earn. We live in a society that requires money. You can pay your bills doing something you love. That doesn’t make it less meaningful.”

Travel and Infinite Learning

Bella and Amanda speak about travel as expansion, not escape.

“I love doing yoga in different places,” Bella says. “In Bali it’s different. In Europe it’s different. In South America it’s different. It’s the same source, but interpreted in so many ways.” She remembers a teacher in Vietnam. “We were doing crow pose, and he said, ‘You need to look forward. If you look back, you fall. Just like in life.’ That stayed with me.”

Amanda shares, “When I went to Indonesia and practiced at The Yoga Barn, I was so inspired. Different teachers, different methods. I realized you take pieces of what resonates, and slowly you find your own voice.”

So, what does infinite learning mean?

“That you never arrive. You just keep translating. You keep refining. You keep growing.”

Advice for Future Teachers 

What would you say to someone thinking about doing a yoga teacher training, or teaching and traveling?

“Even if you’re afraid, start,” Amanda says. “I thought I wasn’t ready. I thought I wasn’t good enough. But you don’t need to be perfect to begin. Just start with what you have.”

Bella reflects on her younger self: eleven years old, joining a meditation group in Sweden, telling her mother she wanted to be a yoga teacher. “She told me it was a hobby,” Bella says. “Not something you could live off.” Now, years later, her mother practices yoga. “If I could tell that eleven-year-old something,” Bella says, “I’d say: yes. You can do this. And you can make a life from it.”

Infinite learning is how you show up in relationships, conflict, business, travel, doubt, and joy. It’s practicing adaptability, acceptance, and gratitude. Being teacher and student at the same time.

Follow The Soulful Kind on Instagram for upcoming Yoga Teacher Trainings in Brazil. If you enjoyed this conversation, read the series Why We Teach and Travel and my conversation with The Soulful Kind instructor Luiza Vianna.