Yoga coach Yana Korotieieva: “It seems like magic to an ordinary person that exercise has such a profound effect on the mind”
29 April 2024 13:54
MOTHER OF THE BRAND
as part of the all-Ukrainian project “MamaBrand” dedicated to Mother’s Day,"Komersant Ukrainian" is publishing a series of interviews with successful Ukrainian women who have managed to realise themselves in business and give life to their own brand, which has gained popularity and recognition.
The 5 key questions of the 
project are answered by Yana Korotieieva, a yoga trainer and mother of her personal brand.
1. Yana, how have yoga and sports changed your life?
Yoga has changed my life dramatically and irrevocably. When I met people who practice yoga, I saw how cheerful and active they were, despite their age – from 16 to 83! Then I realised that life can actually be lived differently. Not like the majority of people who work from 9:00 to 18:00 and are overweight, have osteochondrosis, stoop, and a midlife crisis at the age of 40.
To be honest, when I started practicing, I knew nothing about yoga, so I didn’t expect anything. I was not physically developed – I was even dismissed from physical education at school.
If you took me back to my 23 years and showed me a picture of my current life, I would not believe it. It is completely different now. I’m talking not only about events, but about changes in the vision of my own life and my role in it. The perception of the world itself has changed a lot. A stage of my development has begun. To an ordinary person, it seems like magic that exercise can have such a profound effect on the level of consciousness. But that’s how it works: I began to understand myself and others better, and received answers to questions that bothered me. That is, when consciousness changes, life changes. You stop clinging to old habits, change patterns that have been ingrained since childhood, and work on your own character flaws. Now I feel happy because I have found my way. My work gives me energy, not takes it away from me, so even when I’m tired, I still feel happy. Every day I hear, see and read how yoga helps others. But first of all, I helped myself. I gave birth and took a break from training. I came back to yoga when my back started to hurt because I was constantly carrying my baby and couldn’t sleep anymore. Now I help others.
2. At what point did your passion for yoga become a profession?
When I moved to Kyiv, I had to leave my old job. I had to decide whether to continue my career as an HR manager or try something I love. After all, what do I have to lose? Moreover, I had a teaching certificate at the time. I got it just in case at one of the many retreats I attended. I tried it, and immediately doors began to open and people began to gather in front of me.
3. Has the demand for spiritual and body practices increased since the start of the full-scale invasion? Among which age group is it the greatest?
I can’t tell you for sure. I have always had a demand for training and a lot of people. My husband says it’s because of my sincerity and giving to others, which is always in excess. I think he is right. Yoga was popular even before the war, and now, when thousands of people work abroad, many of them have sedentary jobs, people want to plunge into a sense of calm, relief and safety for a moment. For these reasons, online training is now very popular. I can only compare people’s requests: before the war, most complaints were about back pain. Now, anxiety, lack of sleep, and hormonal disorders have been added to this. Mostly women do yoga, and this is logical because all men are at war today.
4. What are the rules for running a successful business in the field of spiritual and physical practices? Especially when your potential client often forgets about their own needs due to constant fatigue, anxiety and fears.
Of course, any successful person has to be disciplined, and my father taught me this since childhood. You also have to love what you do. It is important for me to be useful. I feel people very strongly, and not everyone, for example, I will agree to work with, but such people are rare. I feel people’s pain, I hear their requests, and I sincerely want to help everyone. People can feel it. As a rule, people see my values in life and are attracted to me with similar vibrations. That’s all. A spiritual bond develops between a student and a teacher. They trust you, open their hearts and souls, share their pains. When they trust you like that, you become close. You want to see them healthy, happy, and smiling. And happy people will spread goodness further into the world. In general, a yoga teacher is not a profession, but a mission.
5. Are there any simple wellness practices that are accessible to everyone and that help you to control yourself in critical situations, for example, during a panic attack or as a result of stress? How does yoga help to combat stress, including that caused by the war?
Yes, there are breathing practices that are available to everyone. For example, square breathing: inhale – hold – exhale – hold (equal time intervals).
In fact, when I was waiting for news from my husband at the front, when I was panicking and afraid, I think I would have either gone crazy or fallen seriously ill if it wasn’t for the practice. The incredible stress that spreads throughout the body sometimes paralyses the mind. How yoga works: exercises help the body relieve stress by mimicking the fight-or-flight response, and help the body’s systems to let off steam. In response to stress, the human body produces several hormones: adrenaline, norepinephrine, estrogen, testosterone and cortisol. They trigger a whole range of physiological reactions that tense the muscles of the whole body, making us ready for a sudden jerk. Training relieves this muscle tension. Yoga switches the brain because it combines movement and stability, balance and coordination, concentration and relaxation. Stretching, proper joint function, and a straight back give you a surge of energy and, consequently, strength. A healthy body can cope with stress more easily.
Read more about the MamaBrand project here.
