How to Build an Online Yoga Empire With Handstand Queen, Marysia Do

Sneak Peek: 

Marysia:    00:00:00    And it really made me question, you know, when I was sitting in the detention center with people who were there for far more serious reasons than myself, and I didn't have any way to communicate with anyone, and I was just, I was like, what are you doing, Marcia? Like, you, you don't, you don't belong here. Go home and buy furniture <laugh>. Like, don't, don't do this to yourself anymore. Like, you, you don't need this. And then of course that wasn't true. That was a moment of psychosis, but, or fear, desperation. I guess what I'm just trying to say is, you know, self-doubt is part of the course. I've been, you know, in a few public situations where it was really difficult, but they pass it all passes and...  

Introduction: Welcome to Badass Digital Nomads, where we're pushing the boundaries of remote work and travel, all while staying grounded with a little bit of old school philosophy, self-development, and business advice from our guests.

Kristin:    00:01:07    Hello. Hello, Kristin, from Traveling with Kristin here and welcome to an interview episode of Badass Digital Nomads. Today we have a discussion with Marysia Do, who is a hybrid digital nomad, most known across social media and worldwide as the world's foremost handstand queen <laugh>. And if you don't already follow her on Instagram, I assure you you'll want to after listening to this episode, especially if learning a handstand was on your pandemic to-do list or is on your life bucket list. Also, if you've ever wanted to work in something that you are passionate about, but were afraid you would end up hating it. Instead, this episode is also for you. You'll find out how a chance encounter with a yoga DVD and a New York record store led to Mauritius fate becoming a location independent yoga entrepreneur with multiple online income streams and a business that spans from Switzerland to Cyprus to the Middle East, Asia and the Americas. 

Kristin:    00:02:21    You'll also learn exactly how she invented her own job by simply combining her personality and passions with her background and experience. She also shares how you can build an online business without any technical skills, how she motivates herself to show up and stay consistent even when she doesn't feel like it. How to overcome crippling self-doubt. And at the end of the podcast, she walks us through some chair yoga stretches that you can do with us while listening. And she invented these postures, especially for people who work remotely, work from home, or who spend a lot of time at their desks. And these stretches were inspired by her husband, who she says works too much as usual. We also get into some real talk about the highs and lows of travel, like the time that she got deported from Australia, and I almost did too. But overall, there's just a lot of value in this episode and I hope that you love it as much as I do.  

Wise

Kristin:    00:03:34    Also, if you work remotely, travel or work with any other people in other countries, or really, if you're an adult living on planet Earth in 2020 and beyond, you can make your life a lot easier And save money with a borderless bank account from our friends at TransferWise, get your first transfer up to 500 British pounds for free by using my link in the show notes or by going to TravelingwithKristin.com/transferwise. T-R-A-N-S-F-E-R-W-I-S-E. I've mentioned this in a few other episodes, but I've been using TransferWise's debit cards and multiple online currency accounts for the past seven plus years, and I've saved thousands of dollars on international wire transfer fees. I really cannot say enough good things about my experience with them, and I wanted to share that with you too so you can try it out for yourself or get more details at TravelingwithKristin.com/TransferWise and enjoy this conversation with Marysia Do, the handstand queen. 

Podcast Interview:

Kristin: So welcome, Marysia to Badass Digital Nomads. It's so great to have a badass handstand queen on the show here.  

Marysia:    00:05:04    Thank you, Kristin. It's awesome to see your smiling face.  

Kristin:    00:05:07    Yours too. Well give us a little update as to where you're based right now during the, uh, quarantine as we're in month, I don't know, seven or something of the pandemic. Where are you right now?  

Marysia:    00:05:19    Right now I'm in Denver, Colorado. Uh, we moved here about three years ago, but until this year I hadn't been in town for more than three months at a time. And I was on the road about six months of the year.  

Kristin:    00:05:34    And have you, how have you felt this year since it's been the first time since you haven't been traveling so much since your career took off?  

Marysia:    00:05:44    Personally, I've, I love it. I've spent more time with my husband than I have in our entire marriage, <laugh>. So it's been fun. I get to do domestic things like make breakfast even though I'm still kind of awkward at them, but I make breakfast and lunch for him. And just getting in touch more with my feminine side, the stuff around the house and, and also spending a lot more time in nature. I, my love for hiking has taken on a whole new level and now that my digital business has grown so much, um, and I'm constantly recording classes and such, uh, it's so, such a great place for me to go and settle my energy after exuding so much.  

Kristin:    00:06:31    Yeah, I feel the same way. I feel like I've spent so much of the quarantine directing my energy into walking around <laugh> in nature after work or like jumping on my paddle board or going for a run, just something physical to balance out all of the mental and creative energy. And it's funny that you're doing that too 'cause even though your your business is so active around yoga, that you still need that connection with nature as an outlet. So we'll have to give people a little bit of background story on how you got into this and also how we met because I don't know if you know this, but when we were introduced in Iceland at our friend's wedding, before I met you, somebody introduced you to me, like across the room, they were like, that's Marysia, she's the handstand queen. And I was like, what? the handstand queen?  

Kristin:    00:07:28    I was like a third. So it was like a third party person was like, basically giving me your elevator pitch. <laugh> <laugh>. She's like that. She's like, yeah, she's been like the handstand queen of yoga for the past 10 years. And I'm like, oh my God, I have to meet her. And it was a small wedding. So obviously, we met pretty soon after that, probably a few minutes later. But give us a little bit of background into how you got into yoga and then how you became the handstand queen because this is the epitome people of inventing your own job. And I'm always talking about how to invent your own job as like an extension of who you are as a person, your personality and your skillset and your natural talents and inclinations. So yeah, give us a little bit of a insight into how that happened. 

Marysia:    00:08:17    Yeah,  I'm, I'm really glad that that's a big part of what you do because that's a huge wish I have for everybody. Um, I hope that people are taking this time during covid to reevaluate how they spend their time and, and see if they can figure out how to live a life that what they're doing for work is meaningful to them, because that changes everything for me. I started yoga very randomly as a teenager just trying to get fit. I went to a CD store, um, where I lived on Long Island H&M Records, or H-M-V-H-M-V records, H&M, that's this clothing store, <laugh>. Um, and I found a yoga DVD and a kickboxing DVD and I got them and I, where I grew up, I'd never been exposed to the kind of strength that I saw in the yoga DVD that was more quiet, um, and gentle.  

Marysia:    00:09:17    There was something about like this Asian guy on a mountain doing these poses and there was a slowness and a subtleness that felt strong. And growing up on Long Island, that's not strong, like strong is getting in your face and being powerful, having more, driving a bigger car. Like it wasn't this kind of a subtle but piercing kind of stillness. And then I went to college, I went to USC and I studied acting when I was a kid. I was doing commercials and things like that, and that's what I thought I wanted to do. But when I got to LA it didn't take me that long to figure out. I I probably wasn't that great at acting, um, <laugh>. But I was in this tiny conservatory program. There were 14 kids in my class and uh, the focus of the program was, what does it mean to be human?  

Marysia:    00:10:19    And that was the question that was an underlying question in every single class. But at the same time, when all of my friends in that program were going to shows and stuff, I was going to yoga, I had, um, been introduced, I was doing some yoga poses, uh, outside of my dorm and someone said, you gotta try a proper yoga class. And so I went and this was probably 2008 and then, uh, oh no, 2004. Yeah, graduated high school in 2003. And then that was 2004 was after my first year of college. And I went to my first yoga class. It was Yoga Works in Santa Monica. And I remember seeing a room packed full of people and everyone went into low plank, Chaturanga. And I couldn't believe it. I was like, how, how can all these people do this shape? This is insane to me.  

Marysia:    00:11:23    And the teacher read like beautiful quotes and everyone was so cool and relaxed feeling. And I wanted to be just like everybody in the class. And over the next, while all of my friends were my yoga teachers, I just got completely immersed in the LA yoga scene. But I didn't wanna be a yoga teacher because I was afraid to make my job and my passion the same. I thought it would spoil my love for yoga because yoga was the one place in my life where I didn't put any pressure on myself. Everything else I did, I was super type A, wanted to be the best, pushed myself to the limits. And yoga was something that to me inherently meant like, I do it because I love it and that's it. And it was such a freeing life-affirming space for me. And at the same time, I also saw my yoga teacher, friends having a lot of drama. 

Marysia:    00:12:25    There was a lot of cattiness, a lot of like this one, like when they started getting DVDs made of themselves. And I, I watched it. I was mildly humored by it, but I didn't want to be in it.

Kristin: Engaged. Engaged

Marysia:  Yeah. I just tried to, as best I could, be a neutral party and enjoy my teacher's classes and the wisdom that they imparted me in different ways. Uh, so after college I went to Chinese medical school and um, that I learned about Chinese medicine on a yoga retreat. And in school it was actually a religious school, if I'm gonna be perfectly honest. It's, it really liked it. And then the way it changed me as a person ended up becoming the way it changed me as a yoga teacher, where a lot of times if something goes awry, say you have a headache and you know your friend has a headache and your mom has a headache, I will treat all three of you differently. Even if it's a, a headache in the same place based on your sleep pattern, your age, uh, your bowel movements, your appetite, what you, what your tongue looks like. There's so many different things. So we don't just look at the outstanding symptom, we look at the person who is expressing that symptom and try to understand through all of those questionings and examining what's actually happening, where it's stemming from. Um, and --

Kristin:    00:13:56    you don't just say take adv. You don't just say, take Advil.  

Marysia:    00:13:58    <laugh>. I mean if you're in a hurry, go ahead.  

Marysia:    00:14:06    But, uh, so when it came, so I thought I was gonna be a Chinese medical doctor, but then when we moved to SI-when I met my husband, uh, just as I was graduating and I had treated a lot of yoga related injuries as an acupuncturist. So I had gotten my feet wet the last year of acupuncture school. You start to treat patients and you do it under the supervision. So all of my yoga friends I was treating, I was familiar with yoga related injuries. Um, but then when we moved to Singapore for my husband's work, they wouldn't accept my license. And that's four years of graduate school and pretty much another full year of exams. 'cause you have to take five state and national board exams. And I tried to figure out if I could take classes. Everything was only offered in Mandarin. There was, there was nothing for me to do.  

Marysia:    00:15:04    So then I just did what I always do. I kept going to yoga. That's the place where I know who I am the most is when, at that point it was when I was practicing. Now it's when I'm teaching. Um, and then someone saw me practicing, they're like, Hey, like you do really cool handstands, you should teach here. And that was before social media was very popular. That was before handstands were trending in the health and fitness world. And I was like, yeah, I need people to do handstands with here, so I guess I should just build them <laugh>.  

Marysia:    00:15:46    And Uh, so I, and it was the largest yoga studio in Singapore and the students were extremely dedicated. I was teaching at my height 14 group classes a week with between 30 and 50 people and about 12 private lessons a week. And what I learned pretty quickly was that the techniques my teachers had given me to learn handstand and other arm balances while they were effective, they were affected pre-social media. But as soon as social media started picking up and people just became, as far as I could tell, maybe I put the pressure on myself, but they wanted to learn the tricks faster. It wasn't the kind of process that I, it wasn't the kind of environment I grew up in, but also Singaporean culture was, or Singaporeans in yoga. It didn't really love having a white little girl yoga teacher straightaway. I mean, I was fine, but I was not the look of someone you take seriously as a yoga teacher. There at the time, the person who looks like a yoga teacher is an Indian man. And most of my, uh, I would say at least half of my coworkers were Indian. And then other than that, then it's Asian people. And then while some people liked having a white teacher, it was kind of like they're doing our thing. Like yoga is the Asian thing and white people are a little imposter doing it.  

Kristin:    00:17:17    Yeah.   

Marysia:    00:17:19    But no one could teach them the cool tricks. Like I could and

Kristin:    00:17:22    <laugh> Yeah, you're like, yeah, you're like coming in with your blonde hair and you're like, I'm an expat and you know, I can't even get a work permit for my actual career and occupation, so I will just teach yoga.  

Marysia:    00:17:37   Yeah.  And it was crazy. And so I, I started teaching and the techniques, I, you know, I wanted to keep my numbers up in my classes. And there a lot of yoga teachers find it frustrating that studios care like how many students you have in a class, but it's a business. And I think that's one thing I'm grateful for. My dad was in finance. I've always, and I grew up yoga around a lot of yoga teachers. So the fact that yoga is a business was never something that I felt offended by. So I think that baseline acceptance helped my growth and I wanted to get the students to continue to come back to my class. And I knew that I could figure out how to get them into the shapes. Just I needed to innovate the techniques because with my awareness of Chinese medicine, it seemed ridiculous to teach everyone how to do handstand using the same techniques, your body is shaped differently than the next person and the next person.  

Marysia:    00:18:38    Everybody has a different background and movement, not just so their bodies are different, not just structurally, but based on their lifestyle, based on their interests, all of that. And so with this huge dedicated student base, I could start to ask questions. I would watch my students and I became a lot more receptive as a teacher. And instead of coming into the classroom, be like, this is how we're gonna do it, I would say, okay, let's, let's give this a shot. And of course you have to have a, a strong sense of command at the same time because Singaporean can smell weakness, <laugh>. So there was always this balance. Crazy. Yeah, yeah. You gotta, you gotta hold your own and know you belong there and you're the boss of the classroom. But at the same time, I wanted to be better for them more than anything else.  

Marysia:    00:19:25    I wanted to show these women and, and some men that they could do these poses. And at that point, uh, in yoga and Asia, pretty much flexibility was most of what was taught. Inversions, arm balances, those were thrown in sporadically in class, but no one was teaching the how tos. And it, it just wasn't something that teachers focused on very much. And so a lot of right place, right time, I was passionate about handstands. They were ready to feel strong. And then once my techniques got better and better, then I started getting called by students who lived in Singapore and say they moved to Abu Dhabi after living. 'cause Singapore is also quite transient and there's a lot of expats there. So a lot of my students were wives of bankers and wealthy people. They would move to Abu Dhabi and open up a yoga studio and then they'd call me to come out and teach, or another student who's from Jakarta, she told her friend from Jakarta, you gotta have Marysia, she's amazing. Get her out here to teach. And that's before social media was very popular. It was word of mouth that, uh, got me traveling.  

Kristin:    00:20:45    It's like when the students ready, the teacher appears. And that happened with your students, but also kind of in your own career. I mean, I love that story for so many reasons because it starts with, I mean, it just follows the laws of nature. I mean, it starts with the seed of curiosity where, well, first it starts with your intention, your intention to get in better shape and to get healthier and to get stronger. And so you acted on that intention to go find out what could, what could fix that or not fix that, but like what could help you achieve that goal of getting healthier, feeling stronger. And so you went out and you looked for a solution and you found these DVDs, the yoga one resonated with you. So then you're like, oh, let me explore that a little bit more. And then you end up in this yoga class and then you end up becoming, you know, a part of this yoga community and just following it and practicing on the side as you go to school and go to grad school and, and live your life. And I mean, how many years was it between when you were like living in LA and then teaching in Singapore, would you say?  

Marysia:    00:22:00    I moved to LA 2003 and then I moved to Singapore 2013.  

Kristin:    00:22:05    Okay. So yeah, like a good 10 years of practicing and thinking that you are going down a different path. But then life had other plans as it often does. And I can really relate to that. I think people can relate a lot on like picking up a sport or something that they've never done before. And yoga is obviously like a pretty intimidating one because everyone who's ever tried it knows the feeling of going to your first yoga class and being like, what religion, is this a religion? Is this a sport like a cult? Is this a cult going on? And then seeing other really strong people doing crazy postures and being like, I'm not good, I'm out of place. And then the teacher's obviously like, you know, don't look at anyone else, just do you. But I remember my very first yoga class in college and the only reason I went to it was because the, I was in the dorms and the meal plan didn't open until 12 o'clock on Saturdays.  

Kristin:    00:23:02    And I would wake up early and there was a yoga class from like 11 to 12, so I would just go to yoga. And then right next door was like the meal plan. And I was a gymnast and I was an athlete anyway, so it ended up being helpful. But just by taking that yoga class next to my dorm room, I've been doing yoga since I was 18. And that has taken me all around the world, including to your retreat in Cyprus a few years ago. So, and now we're doing this podcast like, you never know where something's gonna take you. So I think that like a, one of the many lessons of that story is just to follow your curiosity and, and take things step by step. And then it's like a butterfly effect. And, and then, you know, you ended up in Singapore and you could have done so many things differently. 

Kristin:    00:23:50    You could have said when you got to Singapore, like first of all, you could have just said, I don't wanna work, you know, I'll just be a housewife and like, just live here. And that's also an option. Or you could have gotten really frustrated and upset that the career that you went to school for for five years, you couldn't do it. And then you could have gotten angry, you could have quit, you could have gone home. You know, there's like so many other negative things that could have come out of that. And so I love that you kept an open mind and continued searching within yourself and through your yoga practice to like center yourself and ground yourself and then boom, someone asks you to teach a yoga class and you're like, okay, yeah, <laugh>. Yeah. I mean, were you certified in yoga at that point, like as a teacher? 

Marysia:    00:24:38   Yeah. I  had done a teacher, so I, I had been assisting my teachers for years and I think that it, everything flowed in a way that transcends what my small mind could have tried to choreograph at the time. But my teachers were rare in their enthusiasm for handstands at that time. They were really the first, they were revolutionaries in many ways in the la yoga scene. And they had, they had us though we were 20 something year old balls to the walls, yogis just raring to do our handstands. And they were there for us. And then they started taking me on their retreats with them as an assistant. Or if they left to teach a workshop, I would take over their class. But my yoga teacher training, they were very physical and they recommended I do a more spiritual yoga teacher training so that I could get exposed to other aspects that other style.  

Marysia:    00:25:36    I'm very spiritual. But that style definitely taught me unexpected lessons of that were just a little creepy and weird <laugh> to be perfectly honest. But I made it through and I got a certification and then I was able to teach in Singapore. They gave between that certification, which wasn't like a full certification and my background as an acupuncturist, they were able to let me teach. And so that's how I started teaching. And I mean, nowadays how things have evolved with being on camera, like the whole show must go on knowing my angles. I went to USC school for acting. I was in student films all the time. I know how to hit my mark. I know how to inflect when I'm introducing something. I know how to color words like these. I, I spent years studying voice and how to express more of my soul with my voice.  

Marysia:    00:26:33    And so the ability to make my words resonate, especially as I started traveling and teaching places where English is a second language, more so like Singapore, their national language is English. But definitely, there are a lot of people who, English is a second language in class. But when I started traveling other places that happen a lot more. So, um, and I, I think you don't always need to know to have the right words. I'm even kind of dyslexic. But if you say things a certain way, there's a vibe that gets transmitted that people will understand. Yeah. And and that's something that my background in my acting school absolutely helped me with.  

Kristin:    00:27:17    I've talked about that with expat friends before, how there's like this parallel universe of communication or parallel dimension where you're speaking different languages, but it's getting through, like the meaning of the words and what's happening is getting through. And I didn't know that about acting or voice. I love interviewing my friends 'cause I just learned so much more about you. Um, but it's such a great example of how you drew on all of these seemingly disconnected experiences that you had and turned it into a job. But it wasn't like you went out and you're like, okay, I'll start teaching yoga and then I'll become the handstand queen. It was like, I will do what makes sense for the next step. And then it turned into traveling around the world, teaching people, training yoga teachers, and it was all connected to that posture, you know, that handstand posture or that those inversions.  

Kristin:    00:28:15    And so when I actually went to your retreat, I expected that, you know, we would just do handstands and then I was blown away 'cause it was like, you know, everything else that goes along with it, it wasn't like just go to do handstands. It was a full, um, multifaceted like comprehensive, organic kind of like yoga retreat over like the course of a week. So, um, and that's even pretty ballsy because yoga is such an ancient art, right? And science and everyone, there's so many different types of yoga, but also those yogas can be pretty opinionated as to like, what is the best yoga or what is the right way to do yoga? Or what is the best way to teach postures or the right way to get into the postures. And I like that you just kind of came in and you're like, okay, I respect that, but also I'm gonna leave the door open to like, what if there's another way and what if I applied my knowledge of Chinese medicine to this and what if I also had this x factor of curiosity of like some other unknown factor comes in.  

Kristin:    00:29:20    And then you come up with these new techniques like, like the clap, slap clap, <laugh>. I mean, you come up with these techniques for getting into things and they work and they're really easy and like, I follow you on Instagram and you'll do a handstand challenge or something. And on the first try I will do a handstand. I mean, I already know how to do handstands, but I don't practice them all the time. But if you teach a new technique and I try it the first time, I will like nail the handstand and that one thing. And that's not something that you're gonna find in some ancient script <laugh>.  

Marysia:    00:29:53    Yeah. Or even, well, what happens nowadays is with the cross pollination of information between gymnastics and yoga, a lot of gymnastics techniques kind of overtook the yoga handstand techniques. But you need really talented physical people to do a handstand style or gymnastic style handstand. The average person having to do all of that work to balance upside down is, is going to take a while. So let's find another way that doesn't require as much work. And let's just like, yeah, just get you in your picture. You can post it on Instagram and if, and, and the good thing is with my background in Chinese medicine, I know how to keep people safe. And it may not be the prettiest handstand at first, but we can work on that. Let's just get you upside down thinking thoughts first. And then once you're there we will refine, we'll stretch your shoulders if that's what you need to make your handstand straighter, whatever it is, we can, we can iron those kinks out. But just the act of being in a handstand is so enlivening and awesome and let's just do it and then we'll iron out the the rest later.  

Kristin:    00:31:06    It's funny because I've, I've interviewed a lot of people and I've had people say like, my quarantine goal is to learn how to do a handstand and I keep sending them <laugh> to your page. So now when I looked at your Instagram before the, uh, interview, I saw so many of my friends are falling. Oh,  

Marysia:    00:31:21    Thank you.  

Kristin:    00:31:23    Because I think you've probably taught like how many thousands of people now how to do hands, hundreds of thousands of, 

Marysia:    00:31:29    Yeah, they're most random people too. I mean 

Kristin:    00:31:32    all shape and sizes,   

Marysia:    00:31:34    all shapes and sizes. I got called, I started traveling around the Middle East teaching handstands. And that's something that I feel so privileged to have had the opportunity to do. And I look forward now, I'm doing a Zoom class in Iran Weekly, um, where, you know, there is no contact between American citizens and people in Iran, but somehow I ended up with this huge following there and their banking system is not compatible with ours and it's so they can't get my app. So I figure, and they, they like write like crying emojis every time I post about my app. So I told them, you know, let's just put together a Zoom class. And I have, we've only had three classes, but I have about a hundred emails now from different people and it's, it's a full class and they're so enthusiastic asking lots of questions and they're not, you know, there's, there's bigger guys, you know, with tummies that are hanging over their pants and then there's like girls wearing, you know, sports brass and it's, it could be anywhere except the, the amount of gratitude that I experienced from them for it is, is stunning. You know, one thing that I think the Black Lives Matter movement brought to surface, not just for me in America, but globally, are the people that we don't notice. And when I heard slogans like, no Life Matters until Black Lives Matter. In my heart, the first thing that went was like, but what about Middle Eastern lives? Like they don't, they don't count, you know, or there's, I think about that  

Kristin:    00:33:11    A lot.  

Marysia:    00:33:11    There's another thing they said, no one in the world is treated worse than black people. And I think about, you know, Saudi Arabia and how different women are treated all over the world. And one thing that, you know, I know and I'm grateful for some shifts America's making and I think in the Western world, yeah, like those statements very much could hold up, but the world does not revolve around America. We're not the only people. And to say that in the whole world, we're the only ones that are dismissed. It's, I I feel responsible because I only 20% of my followers on Instagram are American. The rest are from all over. And still 20% is, is my majority. And I feel really privileged to also get to share their voices. So I started this project, I don't know if you saw, but it's called the One Human Race Project where Yeah, yeah, yeah.  

Marysia:    00:34:06    So every week I get someone from a different background. I have someone from Turkey coming on tomorrow from Istanbul, but that's like another thing where we had those black and white photos going, circling around on Instagram, um, where it was supposed to be female empowerment, but it started from femicide in Turkey and from women being killed there. And that's where the black and white photos began. And then, you know, true to form, if we forgot about the original source and we just made it about female empowerment and in the pre-interview I asked, um, this yoga teacher, how did it feel for you when the, cause the original cause of the black and white photos was lost. And she said, I didn't really care. We were just glad, like people started to notice and yeah, most people didn't get it in the end, but a lot of people now know about it, you know about it. And I just love that like humble, sweet kind of energy that she had around it where it wasn't this indignant indignant like, well, you know, we've had this going on and no one's been, it was just kind of like, you know, we put it out there. Most people miss the message, but some people got it and I'm really grateful for that.  

Kristin:    00:35:21    And some things better than nothing. Yeah. And there, there are, I mean people are people everywhere. And I always say this like the one thing that travel has taught me the most is just how similar everyone is. I mean, everyone is a unique individual, you know, we're all snowflakes so to speak, but like there is no borders are human made <laugh>, you know, like there's cultural differences and things like that. But people are people everywhere and there are so many people that are just dismissed because they come from a country that during this time in the long span of history has had some civil unrest. And so they basically get written off as like a no-go zone. And then those people can't get passports or can't get visas and can't access the kinds of things that people from more peaceful countries can get. And it's like, that's so amazing that you've been able to go there. Like what are some, this is one of my questions for you is what are some of the countries that you have been able to go and teach yoga in or, or hold your retreats in that I think, you know, people might be surprised that there's Yoga Retreats happening there.  

Marysia:    00:36:34    Well I taught in, uh, Jordan in Amman a few times, and there the women, most of the women wear the hijab and then they come to class and if there's no men in class, they take it off and they're wearing, you know, their sexy yoga wear underneath. And it's so much fun. Um, reminds  

Kristin:    00:36:54    Me, reminds me of Sex in the City where they go into the hotel room and they like take off all of their stuff. <laugh> and it's like designer clothes underneath <laugh>.  

Marysia:    00:37:04    Yeah. I mean Hermas and all those brands are now making the, uh, hijabs for women and a athletic women. Um, but yeah, it was, it was a really incredible experience to be there. And then when I was doing the one human race project, I was looking for someone who is Palestinian. 'cause I had interviewed someone from Israel and then I wanted someone from Palestine because I mean, they're both the same place right? In many ways. Right. Um, but just to have a more well-rounded perspective. And so on Instagram I asked, you know, I, for someone who is from there, and this girl who is living in Denver now messaged me back and she said, my mom got me to start following you. She took your workshop in Jordan. And I am from Jordan, but my, my people are from Palestine. I'd love to be the person that you interview. So again, that's just one of those serendipitous things where she got introduced to me from her mom living in Jordan, who took my workshop while we're living in the same city. Yeah,  

Kristin:    00:38:15    Yeah. You can't even make that up. And then you probably got to there because somebody from, you know, Indonesia or Singapore or one of these other countries that you were in or Hong Kong recommended you and it's all word of mouth.  

Marysia:    00:38:28    Yeah. Well that was actually, social media started to help me at that point. What happened was I was teaching, I was invited to Abu Dhabi to teach from my student in Singapore. So I think that helped with my algorithm to be circulated to other yoga communities around the Middle East maybe. 'cause I was posting stuff from there. But then I also had videos where I always love different looking yoga students. I love it when people who you don't expect to do yoga to be doing it. And so I had a hijabi girl in my yoga videos and I think that that was another thing that helped me connect with that audience. And probably between the two, that's how I started to get invited there.  

Kristin:    00:39:17    People want to see people crave, like seeing people that look like them doing something that they wanna do because it's like a mirror. It shows the possibility for that individual person. And actually this morning I had my friend Agnes on the podcast with, it hasn't been published yet, but she's one of the first digital nomads from Kenya. And like, she didn't have a role model to say like, you can be a Kenyan digital nomad with female entrepreneur with your online business and travel the world by yourself. Like no one said that. And you know, there's women in Saudi Arabia, there's not like a billboard saying like, take this yoga class. Like, it's okay. You know, you have to figure that out for yourself. And so I think that's so amazing that you've been able to connect with women in these other countries that, or, and men that wouldn't otherwise have had access to that.  

Kristin:    00:40:13    And social media has kind of been that vehicle for it. And then it's also, it's like a win-win for everybody. And now you've been able to grow this multifaceted online business while helping people of providing things that they need, providing inspiration, better health, just friendship community. You've created this handstand community online and yoga community. So that's just amazing too. And I would love to know a little bit more about, um, how, what your business looked like maybe before the pandemic. Like what were the kind of revenue streams that you were able to start from scratch and grow, and then how has that changed in the past six months since, um, the pandemic started? Yeah, because people wanna know how to adapt. You know,  

Marysia:    00:41:05    I, it really, again, I'm a believer in working from a heart-centered place and being infinitely patient. And then the piece of the puzzle just found me. And when I say right now as we're glossing over things, it sounds like, oh, this thing happened and then this thing happened. And then this, there was a lot of like putting myself out there, all of my heart being rejected, wiping the tears, taking a few deep breaths and putting myself out there again, having my heart. I mean, I've had my heart broken so many times, but I'm resilient. And so eventually things just, you know, sifted out for me. Before the pandemic I was most, it was all, most of my revenue was live events, so be it teacher trainings, workshops, retreats. And then I, I had been, and a few online promotions, so advertising for different brands on my social media.  

Marysia:    00:42:11    Then the pandemic happened. And before the pandemic happened, I was actually in Mexico over New Year's and I was at, um, a big church there. But the whole time I was in Mexico, I was receiving really intense palpitations, especially at the Mayan ruins. And when I was at this church, massive mega church and I had this vision that I saw eyes open or not, it looked like a deck of cards and I was glowing and it was like all these people all over the world holding up this glowing deck of cards at me, of me and, and feeling good about it, <laugh>. And then I got back from Mexico and I had an email from these app producers in Silicon Valley and they said they wanted to build me an app. And they said, you know, it didn't, at that point they were still learning too, so it didn't cost me any money.  

Marysia:    00:43:09    They did all the work. Um, and they just collect a percentage now. So we started building that in January and oh yeah. And then at the end of May we released it. So the pandemic started around the end of March and we were still in the process of building that. And then by the end of May, the app was released. And so I had two months of just chilling. And then, um, 'cause they had to do all the, I I wasn't exactly easy <laugh>, I had a lot, they had like a tried and true formula and they had this other yoga teacher that they made their app for before and they kind of wanted to plug and play mine and see how it went. And I was like, no, no, no. Like,  

Kristin:    00:43:55    We're doing this the Mauritius way. Yeah. Tell us what, what is an, I saw that there's over 200 yoga classes. What are some of the things that were in your app and yeah, how long did it take you to create all of those classes and the content to go in there?  

Marysia:    00:44:09    My App producers call me the machine because I just, I bank, I can crank out content like nobody's business. And that's just, yeah, that's just literally years of, of teaching at a studio in a foreign country, not having slept on a plane and just like, there's the students go teach. So I know how to perform as soon as the camera goes on. So all of my, I'm not a tech person and I don't care to learn. So eventually I hope to have a production company take care of all of this stuff for me and, and have better quality videos. But for now, my videos are great. They're one shot front to end and it can be a 50 minute class, it can be a 90 minute class, it can be a one minute class, but they're all one take. And I just cruise on through with the students and I can anticipate what's gonna happen with the students because of all my years of experience. So I can say, you know, if you're new to Crow, do this. And I, if you're already in Crow, then we're gonna work on this. If you tried Crow this way, then do this. And I can give different virtual students assignments to work on within the same class. So I can teach mixed levels to people who aren't there just knowing what I'm likely to see.  

Kristin:    00:45:25    Are you filming with your cell phone?

Marysia:  Yep.

Kristin:  And I looked at your YouTube channel and your first video was 2014. It's funny 'cause people don't change like your's, just you, in your video of 2014, I wrote down what it was, it was a pool press to handstand in 2014. In 2014. And you wrote in the description, anything can happen. I'm like, I'm like, that's so Marysia. And now, you know, fast forward and since the pandemic, you were saying your YouTube channel went from 5,000 to 45,000 subscribers. And it's like anything can happen, but it's not in a, in a woo woo kind of way. It's like you're doing the work, you've been out there doing these hands downs for a really long time, <laugh> and doing all of these other things. So you know, you're out there doing the work, but then that serendipity and luck comes in.  

Kristin:    00:46:20    And that happens in entrepreneurship, but it's because you miss every shot you don't take. And when you're showing up every day, whether you feel like it or not, which is something that you have really inspired me to do, which I wanna ask you about. It's like things are going to happen just because out of the sheer volume of stuff that you put out and things that you do on a daily basis, and like anybody listening can, can get similar results. If you just show up every day, like something's going to happen, something other than nothing will happen. So was there ever a point where, because when I met you, like I think three years ago Yeah, it was about three years ago and for this whole time, yeah. Your, your main business has been in-person classes, in-person retreats, in-person events. Did you freak out at all when the pandemic happened and you were in Asia and everything started getting canceled? Were you, or were you just like, it's gonna work out? Or did you just not know that it, it was gonna be so serious that you had to freak out at that point?   

Marysia:    00:47:26    No, I was charged. I, that was most of my life. When the going gets really tough, I get really clear. Um, I can freak out about stuff or I don't really get too freaked out anymore. And I can talk about some of those techniques as well. But it's the little things that I would get hung up on, you know, where I get anxious about this flight delay or whatever, just stuff that doesn't really matter. But when the pandemic happened, I felt like the world needed to change and there was a part of me that felt really good about being still. And, um, I, I just thought, you know, as horrible as it was, and as much as I was breathing in a meditation practice I have is to breathe in the fear and exhale love. So I was in a position where I've, I've often needed to reach out to my friends when I've been scared or handed a situation.  

Marysia:    00:48:30    I didn't, I mean, I've been deported from Australia and I'm on, I'm banned from there for two more years, <laugh>. But like, when that happened, you know, I've had a lot of bad things happen that I needed to reach out for. And it was almost like this was my time to be there for others where I just felt so strong in myself and I felt so able to listen and support and, and not even respond, not fix any problems, just create like my capacity to hold space for all that people had been experiencing grew so much. And then that even went much bigger when the Black Lives Matter thing happened or when the first real, um, televised riots started happening. Um, I felt even more expansive, um, in my ability to just be a witness, a compassionate witness for others and kind of forget about myself.  

Kristin:    00:49:33    Yeah. Because I, I've heard so many, everyone's heard so many horror stories of businesses closing down and revenue streams being lost, and a lot of that turns into good things, but it's always scary when that happened. And I had to go through that too because my main business was relocation and all of a sudden the borders are closed. And I was like, well, what do I do? And I just replaced my relocation income with writing and consulting and doing other things. Like I had to act quickly. Um, so it's really interesting that you had that perspective because I, I remember hearing a Simon Sinek who's a really big motivational speaker and   and a few other people and on other podcasts, and it was these really big speakers that were getting paid like five and six figure speaking fees to go all around the world.  

Kristin:    00:50:26    And they were panicking because they had spent so many years building this business to be able to charge these high fees. And then all of a sudden their entire calendar was wiped out of speaking fees. And I think, you know, people have experienced different levels of, you know, losing that. And it was really how, how people reacted to the challenge that that defined what was going to happen next. So that, how do you, yeah, what are some of those techniques that you use to show up every day and do the work even when you're not feeling like it?  

Marysia:    00:51:07    Well, I think it's also important when you don't feel like it sometimes to just not show up and to take that time to be still and meditate, go out and be in nature. But I would say don't distract yourself with other things. Um, if you're feeling un uninspired, there, there was a long period of my life where if I had to show up, I would just show up. And that still goes for live events and things like that. But as far as my digital classes, if I don't feel like recording today and I had planned on it, I'm not gonna do it and I'll do something else. And I just know that when I'm inspired, that's when I'm likely to create the best content. Um, but if, if you're in a position before I got to this position where I, I feel so confident in taking time off, um, all, uh, I mean what it really takes is just asking or reminding yourself of what it is you're trying to create. Um, yeah, we wanna make money, but if you can make money almost an afterthought and instead think about like if you're an artist, I need to express myself. If you're a writer, like what do you have to say? And maybe you're not ready to say it yet. Maybe some other inspirations have to come in and, and you should be doing something else in that moment. But filling that, um, discomfort with an activity is masking the problem. I think it's a distraction.   

Kristin:    00:52:40    Like a distraction.  

Marysia:    00:52:40    Yeah. If, if there is a point where you're creatively blocked, I think it's, yeah, sometimes it's good to go out and play if it's persistent. You don't wanna sink into a depression or anything like that. But sometimes it's just good to sit with that awkwardness and, and wait until it passes and see what comes up in the meanwhile.  

Kristin:    00:53:01    Oh, you were talking about your history with type being type A and hard work and that whenever you felt unsure before you would throw yourself into your work and then that one make you feel more secure. But then in the past few years, there's been a shift from hardcore hustle to just, you know, doing things the way that they could happen more naturally. So what used to take you two days of effort to create could now be done in 15 minutes if you wait until you're inspired rather than just pushing. So to like go out and play as opposed to just push. And actually before I asked you on the podcast, like couple months ago, I told you about my burnout that happened and you had similar advice for me, but also because your husband is not in this type of lifestyle. Like he has a traditional job, he works very hard. He's what in finance at a region? 

Marysia:    00:54:01    He's a,  Yeah, he's in a recession proof job and he gets, even now he's getting job offers all the time. So it's easy for me to say that because, you know, worst case scenario, I'm not gonna be going hungry.  

Kristin:    00:54:16    But he's like, there's a lot of people that, um, you know, maybe they, they wanna live a lifestyle of travel, but their partners working full-time in a really high stress job. Is that, you know, what kind of advice do you give to him when he's feeling burnt out and how like, people that are working from home right now, like with kids and they can't take time off and maybe they don't have time to play, to play, um, 'cause you've had to, uh, be there for him. So what, yeah, what other advice would you say?  

Marysia:    00:54:46    Yeah, I have to take the reins on that quite a bit sometimes because he'll, he'll work 18 hour days and just make himself absolutely miserable, but I don't wanna be around that. And it's his life. He doesn't wanna live like that. Um, but he's in healthcare and right now work is extremely demanding and he has it in him to step up. But he has a really intense self-care routine. He gets up at four o'clock every morning, he meditates for an hour and he works out before his calls. So, and that's something that I do too. And even when I'm traveling, I say no more often. Like, especially the past year before Covid, I, I used to be more social with my students outside of class because I was so curious about who they were and what their lifestyle was like. But I had to learn to say no because I was run, becoming run down as well.  

Marysia:    00:55:47    And, um, what we do at home and what I do on the road is I try to take a quiet dinner by myself, especially if I'm teaching the next day and then I wake up around four o'clock and I, it's such a luxury to have all that time to yourself, to just do you before the rest of the world starts pawing at you. 'cause that's what I, I love my job so much, but there is a lot of neediness, a lot of people wanting my attention, a lot of just this kind of gnawing grabbing energy that can weigh on me. And with his work, it's the same so that waking up early makes so much of a difference. And then when problems arise, a big help is what I call breathing space around the problem. So say you get news from your accountant or a lawyer or someone that gives you some bad financial news, breathing space around that truth and knowing that the implications of what that means doesn't necessarily have to be what it means.  

Marysia:    00:57:01    And just holding some space for the X factor and not landing full, full spirit, I guess, into a place of fear and and anxiety. And what I've found in doing that is over and over, I, I mean, recently I got some really scary news from one of my lawyers and I started to, I felt the signs of panic in my body, my heart rate, my face got hot and I just breathed. And then he kept talking and then there was some more bad news and then I breathed and then he kept talking and it, it really didn't sound good, but I, I was going to just keep breathing. And that's actually something my app producers told me before we released the app. They're actually fairly spiritual guys, especially for techie people. But, uh, <laugh>, they, they said breathe through it and then, then there was a shift and the news started to change and there was a glimmer of hope and that hope was enough to help my mind not obsess over it until we got to touch base again on that issue.  

Marysia:    00:58:11    And that's the sort of stuff, there's a philosopher teacher, uh, Dr. Joe Dispenza, have you heard of him? He talks about, he doesn't really talk about breathing space around things, but he talks about the X factor, the unknown factor, and always leaving room for that. And for myself, I like the image of literally 'cause I can feel it in my body, I'm breathing space around this issue. And that sort of a thing can put a delay on your energy changing. A big part of what Joe Dispenza teaches is your frequency, your vibration calls into your life, what happens. And if your resonance is that of panic, then you are more vulnerable to attract reasons to panic. That's how you're gonna perceive information, that's how you're gonna react to information and that's how you're gonna continue to propagate things. For myself, I feel like I, I recently switching lifestyle through the pandemic.  

Marysia:    00:59:15    I've gone through a major shift in, in my career where I'm not the employee. I, I used to be employed by different studios to come and teach. I had a retreat company, but at the same time I had someone else running the retreat. Yeah, I, I was in charge of it, but there wasn't that much to it. But having an app, having a capsule collection with clothing, having, you know, now my YouTube channel and, and all these different things that are popping up, it's so important to, especially if you're not as knowledgeable, like, I don't know about digital content, I don't know about apps, I don't know about selling apps. And sometimes they'll give me information that I don't understand and instead of thinking to myself like I have no idea what they're saying, like what am I doing in this job? You know, going down that track that my younger self may have, I just kind of sit and I listen and I feel like I've embodied more of the boss that I've always been, but just wasn't, I still was attached to this like little blonde girl image that I had of myself instead of realizing that I'm, I am a boss, like this is my business and I know my business, and if I don't know it, someone's gonna teach me.  

Marysia:    01:00:27    And if I make mistake, that's how I learn.  

Kristin:    01:00:30    And that if you don't know the answer, you can figure it out.  

Marysia:    01:00:33    Yeah. Yeah. And sometimes, like when I got banned from Australia, I just made a really bad mistake. I had the wrong visa. And the border patrol there takes that very seriously. I didn't show up to my own teacher training. I had students flying in from as far as Switzerland all the way to Australia to study with me. And I didn't even show up. I mean, that, that was, that's great. That was, I've had a few pretty low blows. That one was a, that one was, that one really sucked. It broke my heart not to show up. It was, um, not good for my reputation as a teacher. It wasn't good for self-esteem as a business owner, you know, to not be able to know that that was something that I needed. And it really made me question, you know, when I was sitting in the detention center with people who were there for far more serious reasons than myself, and I didn't have any way to communicate with anyone.  

Marysia:    01:01:27    And I was just, I was like, what are you doing, Marysia? Like, you, you don't, you don't belong here. Go home and buy furniture <laugh>. Like, don't, don't do this to yourself anymore. Like, you, you don't need this. And then of course that wasn't true. That was a moment of psychosis, but, or fear, desperation. I guess what I'm just trying to say is, you know, self-doubt is part of the course. And having stuff that feels horrible happen and have people speak negatively about you. I've had a, I've had, I've been, you know, in a few public situations where it was really difficult, but they pass it all passes. Yeah. Yeah. And as long as you can continue to be proud of your sincerity and the earnestness of your efforts, and when you make mistake, or if you're doing, making decisions that are more fear-based or anything that isn't that pure, figure it out.  

Marysia:    01:02:27    You know, check yourself, be humble enough to know, like, you know, that wasn't, that really wasn't aligned with my highest good, that wasn't aligned with others who are involved highest good. I was trying to cheat or do something that wasn't right. Like, be accountable and forgive yourself and move on. But if you don't forgive yourself and if you don't take accountability, both of those needs happen, then you're gonna be stuck in this cycle where, yeah, new things won't happen for you, things won't change. You'll feel stagnant. But if something in your life is not flowing the way that you want it to, the only person responsible is you. And, and that's something that is really hard for a lot of people. Um, but we're dealt the hand that we're dealt. And the sooner we can accept it and decide like, I am a brilliant being who has given these challenges because they're here to make me better, and I'm going to choose to see these challenges as platforms for growth rather than things that are holding me back, then, yeah, it can be painful and humbling sometimes, but once you get over that, the sky, there's no limit.  

Marysia:    01:03:43    There's no limit.  

Kristin:    01:03:45    Yeah. I've learned a lot in stoicism over the years that things that happen are objective and it's the meaning that we attribute to things that happen that is subjective. And something that's helped me recently, especially during the pandemic, is just remembering that you can respect your emotions and observe them and feel them without identifying them. And after sitting in that silent retreat for 10 or 11 days and feeling all of the different hundreds of emotions that you feel throughout the day, it was just a reminder that you can't let that affect you and change your, your course. You know, it might, it might affect you a little bit throughout the day, but if you can laugh about something tomorrow, then it's, the game has changed again. And you've been in these situations getting deported from a country being a no-show at your own teacher training in retreat. And you could have stopped and let that be the end, and then it would've been the end. But you decided to pick yourself up from that and keep going. And how many years ago was that?  

Marysia:    01:04:58    I think that was probably a year and a half ago. So I'm on a three year ban. And, and you know, it's, it's, it's like now I list think of it and it's actually kind of funny. Like <laugh>,  

Kristin:    01:05:09    I laughed, I laughed. It's, it's, I mean, I almost got deported from Australia 'cause I forgot to get a visa because I wasn't paying attention. 'cause I was like traveling too much. I was in Hong Kong and I just didn't even think about it because I am privileged to have a US passport before when we used to be able to get into country <laugh>. And I didn't. And I didn't have to apply for visas most of the time, so I just went. Yeah. So.  

Marysia:    01:05:33    Yeah, it's, I mean, it's really interesting how perspective changes things and, you know, things are hard until they're not. And that's another thing that I tell, tell myself a lot. It's only hard. And my students like, it's only hard until it isn't. And if you can expand your comfort zone to tolerate, um, some heartbreak, some pain, and just deal with it, go through the emotions and know like it will pass. It will pass. Yeah. Yeah. It's just hard for now. Um, but again, if you can be proud of your pure intentions and best efforts, that's something that you can rest on. And the trust in things that will align will come as you continue. It's, it's not like seeing is believing. You kind of have to like believe and then you start to see, and that's, that's a leap of faith. But I think if you want to be one of the privileged people that gets to have your passion be your career, you have to have faith in those desires that are, you're born with.  

Marysia:    01:06:40    These are not things that we choose. They choose us handstands. I mean, that was like the most random thing ever that became like a guiding light in my life. But it, it chose me and I had a passion and I wanted to share that passion. And I wanna keep sharing that passion. And that passion turned into a passion for, you know, women in Istanbul and in the Middle East and people everywhere just seeing one another and loving each other for who they are. Good, bad, all everything in between. I mean, for me, one of the greatest gifts I have as a yoga teacher is that anyone that walks into my classroom, I love them. Like, there is nothing that my students could do or say that would make me love them less. If anything, there was a while there where like the ones who would tell me some pretty gnarly things about themselves would be like, Ooh, like tell me more about who you are right now. It's just became like a fascinating thing to learn about. Like, wow. Like that's how you see the world. Like you're kind of diabolical and that's kind of cool. But, um, then I had to learn better boundaries outside of the classroom. <laugh>  

Speaker 3    01:07:54    Better teachers do boundaries.

Marysia:    01:07:54    Yeah. It's fine in the classroom to like, think that they're lovable because everybody to me is, but at the same time there's gotta Yeah. Outside the classroom, those people gotta be careful of <laugh>.  

Kristin:    01:08:06    Yeah. You wrote in one Facebook post I saw there is no correct way to do a pose. It's simply about learning your options and finding what is the best match for your body and your goals. And that really resonated with me because I thought it's just an extrapolation of life. Not to be cheesy, but there's no, there's no one way to do a pose. There's no one way to live, there's no one way to become a digital nomad. Even like, I tell people that there's as many ways to have the life you want as there are people in the world because everyone can have their own unique career. And, and you've definitely proven that. So I think there's a lot of rest in that realization that there is no one best way to do things. You know, people wanna know what are the steps, what are the hacks? And there can be tips and tricks in different ways, but at the end of the day, you can just kind of make it your own. So yeah.  

Marysia:    01:09:02    And if you're doing, like, you know, you suffered from burnout, but I think part of the reason why you couldn't help showing up is because you passionately wanna empower other people to live with the kind of freedom that you know that there is out there. And when you ask, like, how do you get yourself to show up? I think sometimes when you're really driven by something deep inside of you, you don't, it's, it's not really that hard most of the time. And when you need a break, you gotta take a break. But I think also if repetitively you're dragging your feet to show up to work, maybe it's time we reevaluate what it is that you're doing.  

Kristin:    01:09:42    Yeah. And, and we're having this conversation on the kind of the back end, like the hindsight is 2020 side for people. But it was not that long ago that, um, I was, I wrote an article about this on medium years ago. I was laying on the carpet of my living room in an Airbnb in St. Pete. This was like 2016. And I was just staring at the ceiling <laugh> in the fan, and I was like, what am I doing with my life? You know? And we've all had that, that thought more than once, but you can sit with it and it might take years to figure it out. But as long as you just keep taking baby steps and trying and failing and trying and failing and falling on your face in a handstand and whatever it is, eventually you're gonna work your way into the, the next thing that's gonna work for you for a few years.  

Kristin:    01:10:40    And it's never gonna always be easy, but it, just knowing that that's part of the process, then I think that's what you've proven with your hundreds and hundreds of videos and teaching people all of these different poses. And then also bringing like the humanity in by showing people of all different colors and all, all different backgrounds up in your videos and in your interviews and showing how different body types can do these poses. It's like we're just playing, you know, we're all out in life, we're trying things, we're experimenting, we're playing. But this is real stuff because when, when people follow what they want to do authentically, it does have a big impact. Whether you're teaching handstands on Instagram or you're doing a Zoom class with people in Iran, I mean, everyone now is on the remote work bandwagon and there's just a lot of opportunity for people to, um, to make a big impact in the world. So it's great to show different ways of doing that. Um, before I let you go, I wanted to get a couple practical tips for people. 'cause there's a lot of people who've been stuck in small spaces and confined at home during this time, and I saw that you had your husband, John on doing some videos for poses to help people who are working from home. So what are some, some poses that people can do who are sitting at a desk or a kitchen table or something like that all day?  

Marysia:    01:12:13    Oh yeah. I actually have, um, a chair yoga class on my app that I put up because it just feels so good when you're sitting down to stretch. And a lot of it, I would even say you could start off challenging yourself to move intuitively. One other thing that this virus has brought to surface in me is a desire to inspire more people to listen to their bodies. I think it's so interesting how all the world leaders are talking about masks and, uh, you know, all different medical dealings when it's like, just what about, what about eating healthy and stretching and listening to your body? I would love for more people to start to pay attention to this vessel that you live inside of that can tell you when something's off or when it's not. And starting with something simple like stretching in a chair is great because we've spent so much of our life in our head and getting information about our body from, um, an intellectual standpoint instead of an experiential standpoint.  

Marysia:    01:13:28    And so learning, even if you wanna be a digital nomad and you don't even know what your passion is, let's just start with knowing what stretching good feels like. And then from there, maybe you start to go to your fridge and instead of thinking like, do I want healthy food or unhealthy food? You think do, am I in the mood for something? Like what kind of texture am I craving? What temperature food would feel good to me right now? And starting to wake up to the innate wisdom that's in every cell of our body, beyond our brain. And I really see the brain as a facilitator of the heart's desires. What, when we're, when you're someone who's following your passion, things align because that's, that's divine. Like, that's something that's bigger than you and it's connected to the same thing. Everything on this planet is connected to it's, it's our innate nature. And so you can start just, you know, say like, I don't know what I want. I don't know who to trust. I don't, I don't have instincts. Okay, just start, reach your arms up and just see where you wanna go. Do you wanna side bend? Do you wanna back bend? Do you wanna forward bend? That sort of a thing. Um, and then if we wanna get in more detail. Yeah, Kristin, go ahead. Reach your arms up overhead,  

Marysia:    01:14:46    Interlace your fingers, and then press the tops of your hands to the ceiling. And then lengthen your torso up. So imagine your rib cage could lift off of your hips, and if you can't literally do that, just imagine you could do that. And then keep the right side of your waist long as you bend to the right. So don't completely collapse, but just give it a stretch. And I'm giving that direction to you because you're more flexible. But for people who are tighter, just go for the full stretch and then inhale back up and switch sides.  

Kristin:    01:15:25    I hope everyone's stretching right now. <laugh>.  

Marysia:    01:15:29    And while you're doing this, maybe see how your breath impacts the intensity of the stretch. Come back to center and then release your hands. Take your left hand behind you to the back of your chair, and the right hand, press it into the chair and twist. So your right hand is pushing back and your left arm is pulling you to face the back. Do you feel that?

Kristin:  Yeah. Yeah.

Marysia:  And while you're doing that, lift the center of your chest up like a backbend.  

Kristin:    01:16:03    This feels really good. This feels really good.  

Marysia:    01:16:05    Awesome. And then switch sides.  

Kristin:    01:16:09    I heard a crack.

Marysia:    01:16:10   Yeah, you might get a few free chiropractics in the keep the chest lifting. And then with the inhales, think of lifting up and the exhale, taking you further into the twist. And also don't push so hard that you could tweak your back out. So come back to center, interlace your fingers again, but the opposite way. So however you interlace your fingers before, just switch the index finger and then all the other fingers, let them follow suit, reach up again, good. And inside, bend to the right again. And now drop your chin down and lift it up and link your breath with the movement. As you do that, inhaling up, exhaling down, and then come through center and switch sides. So every direction I give, I usually recommend students only do 80 to 90%, because in other sports, you kind of push through because you have a goal and you gotta get there and you give it your all. But in yoga, we're more receptive. We wanna feel the feedback the body's giving. So you should be dropping your chin down and lifting up, and then come back to center and then reach your arms back, try to straighten through your elbows and reach back a little. Pop your chest up.  

Kristin:    01:17:46    See, that's like so simple. And yet that's probably the first chair stretch I've ever done. <laugh>

Marysia: Right

Kristin: And that took one minute. 

Marysia:    01:17:55    That's also like, that's another thing, like what is chair yoga? I don't know, I just made that up. <laugh> <laugh>. You know, like I, I had a, the reason why I started teaching chair yoga is close to the start of Covid. My godmother got, had a stroke and she was stuck in her little hospital room through all of Covid. She could not leave. She was losing her mind. And she, and she had a trauma too. And so I started giving her chair yoga lessons. And it's, once you learn a certain pri, a few principles in movement and things like that, you can make up whatever you want. And the same goes, I mean, for diet, I get asked all the time by people like, what do you eat? And when I was younger, I tried to control my diet. And over the years I've let go of control more and more.  

Marysia:    01:18:44    Now at this point, I just eat whatever I crave. But I'm, I've trained myself in a way to crave healthier food. So, but that, that takes a lot of slowing down. You know, so often we reach in the fridge, we're fatigued, we just grab whatever is sweet. But, you know, with the covid, with the slowing down, I would hope that people can say like, you know what? I'm craving sweetness right now. Maybe I'll, I'll get an orange juice and I'll take a bubble bath instead of  you know, just looking for a rush of instant gratification from more synthetic sugar to having a natural sugar, giving yourself a boost of vitamin C and also like being sweet to yourself, laying down and, and giving yourself some love. Because a lot of times what we're craving, if we're craving fattier sweet foods, is we're craving comfort.  

Marysia:    01:19:36    And there are other ways to give yourself that comfort that, um, if you practice listening, you'll start to wake up to. But because so many of us have spent so many years being disconnected to our body, you will make mistakes. Like if you try to follow your instincts, maybe your instincts will, will have you trust the wrong person. Okay? Reflect back, learn from it. But don't give up on yourself or your instincts. Just know that the, the, the wires got crossed because there was some thought patterns, some, something from your past that distracted you from your ability to tap into, uh, a real truth that was present the whole time. You just weren't tuned into it for whatever reason. There was some lesson there for you. And those are truths that I've always held dear to myself. And it's one that releases any sense of bitterness. Anger takes time, it takes a lot of practice, it takes a lot of breathing and it takes, you know, sometimes trusting the wrong person or getting yourself in the wrong situation. But as long as you're doing your best, things will work out.  

Kristin:    01:20:44    Yeah, that's, um, you said in another post, no one knows what's best for you, better than you. And that is such simple advice that quite frankly, nobody ever tells us, we are bred to believe that this book has the answer, or this teacher or this class or this school, or this major, or this news story or something has the answer and it's like, maybe, probably it's inside of you. And I like the connection again with the body. Something so simple as how do I feel? Which way do I wanna stretch? That leads quite effortlessly into what experience do I wanna have? Or when you're in tune with how your body's feeling, how your mental and physical health are feeling, I use that same strategy to decide where to travel to. Because people are always asking me, where's your favorite place? How do you pick a destination to go to live in or to go to travel to?  

Kristin:    01:21:47    And I think, how do I wanna feel? What kind of experience do I wanna have? What do I wanna see when I wake up? And I have this, this step called Designing Your Days. It's like a strategy that I have talked about at the Nomad Summit before. And I have, actually, I'll link to the video on YouTube and it's all about envisioning how you want your day to unfold. What kind of foods do you want to have available to you, what kind of activities do you want? What kind of people do you want around you? What view do you have from your desk or your window? And that's how I choose where I want to go. <laugh>.  

Marysia:    01:22:22    That's awesome. Yeah. I was telling someone recently, like the people that you look up to, you know, I'm sure you have people that look up to your lifestyle. Yeah, it's good to, to have someone to look up to, but doing exactly what they did won't work for you. Like you can, you know, wanna be Steve Jobs, but his techniques worked for him and you also weren't with him. We don't know how well it worked for him personally. We don't know his level of personal satisfaction day to day. But at the same time, beyond that, just the mechanics of, you know, I do this, I do that, whatever he worked with this company, this would be good. Or, you know, he dropped outta college, I shouldn't go to college. Those are things that worked for him, but they won't necessarily work for you. And I think it's really good to have people to look up to. It's good to be inspired, it's good to try on things that people have done that you may be interested in, but at the same time it's, it won't work the same way for you because life is an adventure. <laugh>, there is no guidebook. Like you gotta have some faith, you gotta have faith in what's in your heart and faith in yourself and faith in the way things are gonna align if you want to really live that adventure.  

Kristin:    01:23:44    Yes. And very coincidentally in the video that I made about our trip to Serbia, there is a shot in that video that's a Heineken ad or something, a sign at this music festival and it says, live your adventure. And I remember that 'cause it takes me so long to edit these videos over and over, over and over again. But it's like, it sounds cliche, but it is really true. And the, yeah, the, you gotta balance being practical with being spontaneous and then rolling with the punches when things go wrong. And all of us, you and I especially, we've found ourselves in really difficult situations. You know, you've had public criticism and lawsuits and things and I've had people stealing commissions from me and it slander on forums and like all kinds of stuff. But you know, you just keep going and things work themselves out. And the next thing you know, you and I are standup paddleboarding and Cyprus on a Wednesday <laugh>. Yeah.  

Marysia:    01:24:46    And like, exactly. And sometimes it takes years like I, you know, there are, there are things, you know, even with handstand it took me five years to learn how to do handstand. So if that's a frame of reference, like just, I have this phrase that resonates in my brain all the time. And it's endless patience, endless patience. And also when you're starting up, you are not necessarily going to get to work with people who are great at their job when you're making connections or doing different projects. And it's important to be patient with other people that you're working with as they figure it out because we're all in this together. And I've noticed like if someone loses patience or alienates someone who's, you know, we're, we're all going from the ground up and to be grateful for those whose paths cross yours, people who have the opportunity to uplift you, but al also at the same time, you know, know that people are people and we're all gonna be going through this human thing together and we might as well make it a little bit more fun for one another.  

Kristin:    01:25:58    Yeah, I think that's one of the benefits that's coming out right now is that people can, can mess up a little bit more and it's more casual. I feel like right now compared to pre covid corporate professional workplace, things are just a bit more relaxed because people are in their houses and their dogs and their kids are in the background of the Zoom calls. And you know, I think people are being a little bit more forgiving hopefully of themselves and each other. And I think of you, you don't know this, but every day after I do my workout at home, I do a backend because I used to be really flexible and then I lost it. And I see your posts all the time and how consistent you are and I know how long it took you to learn your handstand. And so every day I do one back bend and one handstand right after my workout and I've gotten a lot more flexible at it. So if you guys all listening want some Marysia motivation for you, it's infectious. You can't not be motivated after watching your videos. So where can people connect with you to learn more about your app and get some of your free trainings on social media?  

Marysia:    01:27:10    So I have my Instagram, which is Marysia, M-A-R-Y-S-I-A do, it's a Polish name. Uh, so it's not pronounced the way it's spelled, so it's Marysia Do <laugh>, which is a Vietnamese name 'cause my husband's Vietnamese. Um, my website is, and, and on my Instagram there's a ton of free instructional videos also with the reels. Now if you just want like a 32nd knowledge bomb, it's quite accessible there. Uh, I have a YouTube channel with some great content there that's fairly well organized. Most of the videos are a bit older, but they're still totally relevant. And that's also Marysia Do and my app is in app stores and that's, it's really a culmination of everything that I've ever done. We have classes on there, we have tutorials, we have journaling, there's meditation, there's yin, there's breath work. So if you're interested in learning yoga, it's a great way to get a taste of the other facets of yoga as well. And there's classes for all levels. It's really, uh, well laid out too. Um, like I said, my app producers are a couple of magical creatures, so together we made Marysia Do Magic, that's the name of the app. And um, let's see, we got YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, it's also Marysia Do and I think that's, that's all of where I'm at right now.  

Kristin:    01:28:45    Well, we'll definitely link to everything in the show notes and yeah, I love that your app has all of these different things like your, you know, morning routine and journaling and gratitude and all of these other aspects because life is multifaceted.  

Marysia:    01:29:00    Yeah. And there's also some really cool challenges on the app. So if you're someone who's fairly athletic, maybe hasn't done much yoga right now, I created a challenge for that personality type where it's a upside down challenge, 30 minutes of yoga for 30 days. It's a little bit faster pace, but at the same time, uh, there's more clarity in the connection between the stretches and the strengthening exercises you're doing and the inversion so that you feel more connected to what you're doing and you get a quick dose of the yoga knowledge, but also a good workout. And then at the same time I drop in just philosophy ideas throughout class that are intended to help you stay inspired and, uh, good about yourself as you're potentially falling. And then also all of my tricks to, to make that falling happen less and less <laugh>.  

Kristin:    01:29:55    Nice. Nice. <laugh>, do you have any other handstand challenges coming?  

Marysia:    01:29:59    We have, we had another one. This one is more proper yoga. It's called, uh, the Handstand Habit. And that was a 21 day challenge. They say it takes 21 days to form a habit and that one is 45 minutes to day for 21 days. And that one, I mean we had, I had a, I had a Handstand Grandma who in my opinion was the winner of that challenge. I mean, she posted about it every day. She was in it to win it. People of all ages, backgrounds, if you're interested in getting upside down, there's, it's just fun. It's lighthearted, it's playful. And um, there's, the agenda is essentially just to make you feel good about your body and um, more free to be who you are, all of yourself, uh, while we're in that yoga space. And also give you the tools to memorize that feeling when you're going about your life.  

Kristin:    01:30:57    Yeah, that's important when you're not feeling it, when you're feeling like you need a boost. Handstand Grandma and Chair Yoga, <laugh>, no excuses people. Well thank you so much Marysia, for joining us. And can anyone expect any retreats possibly in 2021?  

Marysia:    01:31:18    Yeah, What's the status there? My retreat, gal is still very keen and we still have a, a pretty large group that's interested in doing it. Um, we canceled the one last May, so perhaps this May. Um, either Vietnam or Cambodia. We had a private island in Cambodia, but uh, that got sold the hotel that was there and so we're not quite sure. Um, and Vietnam is a little bit more accessible for people, but we'll see. The numbers for Covid have been really low in Vietnam. It's just a matter of will they let me in <laugh>?  

Kristin:    01:31:55    I'm sure everyone's gonna be antsy to travel again soon. So soon, uh, I'll be following along to um, to go definitely 2021. That's our year, everyone. Yes.  

Marysia:    01:32:05    So right now, right now, the right now is the time. Right now is the time. Now is the time. Tomorrow is also a great time. Yeah, <laugh>.  

Kristin:    01:32:14    So thank you so much. We'll link to all these resources below and stay inspired. Stay badass everybody. See you next week.

Marysia:    01:32:23     Bye badass.  Bye. Kristin,  

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