Hi Yaana! Thanks for talking to us. You are known for your
ultra-toned body. Tell us, what does good health mean to you?
The English word “health” comes from the Old English word
hale, meaning wholeness, or being whole so in that sense to be “healthy”
doesn’t just mean one is free from illness or pain on a physical level. It is
more than that. Being healthy means being balanced on many levels, it is about
the condition of one’s mind, body and spirit. So to me optimal health would be
an ability to deal with all life’s challenges (physical, psychological,
emotional) without experiencing stress or resulting in any imbalance.
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Tell us more about your fitness regimen. How often do you
exercise in a week? What kind of workouts do you do? Do you prefer running,
yoga, sports etc.?
I exercise every day (unless I am travelling a lot but even
then I find some time to stretch, at the very least). My fitness routine has
changed over the years as I evolved as a person and came to a point where I
understood my body’s needs and followed them, rather than following my mind,
working out for the purpose of achieving some ‘perfect’ body shape. Before I
understood this, I used to work out very intensively (doing weight training or
cardio) for an hour every day which I feel now was too much for my body (and
caused physical stress) as I often pushed myself too hard (after I got high on
double espresso so I could manage to even
pull it off).
My routine today is much more peaceful as my goal is purely
health and happy/balanced state of mind. I love to sweat a lot (plus that is
what makes the exercise healthy as that is what gets the toxins out) so I do
work out intensively sometimes, but for much shorter periods of time (perhaps
20 min) and then I go into something I call a ‘pleasur-ise’ . It’s a combination of all the movements I
find pleasurable and fun to do. It includes lot of dance movements, stretches
and bits of yoga and it’s very spontaneous and different every time. I just
follow my body and do whatever it needs and feels like doing in that moment.
The main goal of this is to connect with my body, stretch it in such a way that
the energy starts flowing through my whole body and mainly do it all with feeling
love for myself. At the end I feel very positive and I end up laughing a lot
too as I sometimes develop some new crazy weird funny moves or stretch my
facial muscles by making funny faces at myself in the mirror. It’s all a lot of
fun and a great way to start your day and make it a kick-ass day!!!:-)
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Tell us about managing stress. You’re in an industry that
can be quite unpredictable. How do you stay calm and happy?
I think lot of stress diminishes when one stops running
after achieving things all the time. My focus is; whatever I do, I should enjoy
it or else not do it at all. Money and fame is not what gives you any happiness
anyway, so better to focus on just enjoying each moment, being creative and
doing what you enjoy and giving your best even if it doesn’t bring you money or
some other outcome. Outcome in general should not be the reason why we do
things, it’s should be the enjoyment of the process itself.
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