Meet Mariel Witmond | Yoga Instructor & Life Coach

We had the good fortune of connecting with Mariel Witmond and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Mariel, can you share a quote or affirmation with us?
Happiness is not a goal. It’s a dividend. It’s the incidental consequence of the intentional commitment to fulfill your whole capacity for living. And when you focus your energy on that first, it just shows up. Because happiness isn’t the target – happiness is what you get for hitting the target.

I think the same in many ways can be said for success. We think success is the target when in fact it is what comes from doing the things that drive and fulfill us to the point where failure or mistakes dont hold us back. When we stay focussed on doing what we love the “why” that drives that love, success is what comes from hitting the target.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
Born in Puerto Rico to a Mexican mother and English father, I have lived in Connecticut, England, Panama, the Dominican Republic, Italy, Argentina, Malaysia, Mexico, India, NY, and LA. I currently reside in London.

Looking back, I lived my life in overdrive – adapting to my surroundings as I hid the uncertainty of who I was beneath malleable masks of conformity. I made friends easily everywhere, but never truly felt I fit in anywhere.

At the end of 2015 I left what many would consider to be a dream job. I had finally come to the realisation that I wasn’t being true to myself or what I wanted out of life. In one of my favourite Ted Talks, travel writer Pico Iyer said: “…making a living and making a life sometimes point in opposite directions.” This resonated so profoundly with me that I left a job and position I thought defined me as a person, to start all over again. Leaving 11 years in the entertainment industry was one of the hardest and yet most rewarding decisions I have made so far in my life.

As often happens following years of burning the candle at both ends, my body decided it was time to let me know what was going wrong with my health. The day I left my job I also quit taking – cold turkey – my attention deficit medication after 10 years of using it to “perform” better, and the effects of this were (and at times continue to feel) crippling. Following several blood exams and a very uncomfortable endoscopy, it turned out I had Hashimoto’s (a problem with my thyroid known as hypothyroidism), a 3cm hernia in my stomach and alkaline gastritis with excessive bile build up. At the time I was 31 years old.

My decision to take control of my life was one that countless of us struggle with every day. Yet in making that decision, my life changed as if by magic – and though it wasn’t magic… it was magical.

Since then, I became a yoga teacher and life coach, and in 2020 I went on to build a company called Kula. In the heighet of the pandemic we raised close to £700,000 for the business which was eventually bought by another company called Sudor.

Realising that my true passion was working directly with clients, I went back to teaching yoga and working with individuals on a 1:1 and group basis through coaching programs and retreats. It has not been an easy journey, but I dont think I would be where I am today if it had been. So much of our struggles teach us about who we are by showing us who we are not. I didnt want to be back in the corporate world running teams in a 9-5 desk job, and that realisation has inspired me greatly to focus on what I do best, which is to help women return to their innate, embodied wisdom through movement and mindfulness practices.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
We moved to Ibiza in January and I have to say that magical island has won my heart. I would take them on majestic hikes and go eat on the beach at a chiringuito. I have met some of the most interesting people there exploring regeneration, sustainability and every possible profession within holistic health. The other place would be Tepoztlan, Mexico, where my family live. There energy there is very similar to Ibiza, full of mysticism and history.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I think the first person that I would give a shoutout to would be my mother. We had a fractured relationship growing up and it was yoga that started to mend that relationship. Since then she was the one that encouraged and supported me to train as a teacher and life coach, and in many ways it has been the desire to heal the wounds in our lineage that have led me to where I am today.

Website: https://www.marielwitmond.com

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Image Credits
Mathilde Deer for all images except the yoga one