Today we’d like to introduce you to Marie Colom.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Marie. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
I grew up in Puerto Rico and my passion was dancing. I’m a former professional ballet dancer with Ballet Concierto de Puerto Rico. Since I was little, I was looking for ways to move and dance and stay active. However being a dancer, an artist, a sports professional or anything related to the arts was (and still is) looked upon as “unrealistic” within the Puerto Rican culture because the opportunities for lucrative work are limited. My parents wanted me to go to college so I could have something else to fall on given that dancers often get injured and sidelined but I really just wanted to dance. It was then my decision to move to Pittsburgh and go to a liberal arts college where I was able to both dance and study. I majored in Arts Management.
Shortly after graduation, during a ballet class, I fractured and dislocated my fifth metatarsal causing me to undergo surgery and stay out of the dance studio for six months. The first time I stepped into a class, I felt like I was never going to recover my strength back and so I decided to stop dancing and move to Miami without a secured job. I quickly found teaching gigs while working full time as an account executive but the work I was doing wasn’t bringing me any joy. I decided to quit my full-time job and go back to school.
I was under a lot of stress and the load of information I had to take in was massive. It was here that I started to look for ways to relieve stress and retain information. So, I started doing a morning routine in which I would wake up at 5:30 am to practice yoga and meditate in my room three times a week and go to spinning classes twice a week. Moving my body and practicing yoga allowed me to create mental space for everything else that was going on in my life. I would wake up and listen to motivational videos and podcasts to keep the momentum going. I then decided to do my yoga teacher training with Ahana Yoga and now I’m focusing on giving my students the opportunity to allow themselves to create that same mental space and relief I found through the practice of yoga.
I’ve learned that motivation gets you started but it’s the results you see when you help someone else that keeps you going. I’ve made it a priority to surround myself with people that support and encourage me to rely on my own strength. I believe everyone has the capacity to access and rely on their own power to achieve great things. And that’s what Move.Sweat.Play is all about. We move to create space, we sweat to release anything negative and we play because it’s necessary to not take yourself too seriously.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc. – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
Consistency and persistence are the two main ingredients to reach a goal and that was (and still is) a big challenge for me. No matter how you feel on a certain day, you still have to show up for yourself and for others. Having patience, trusting the process and being certain of the outcome is what keeps me going.
So, as you know, we’re impressed with Move.Sweat.Play – tell our readers more, for example, what you’re most proud of and what sets you apart from others.
Move.Sweat.Play is centered on motivating the community to take action on starting a wellness routine to feel better and reach their goals. At the moment I offer personalized coaching, yoga, and fitness privates.
Move.Sweat.Play brings on the fun side to mindfulness. I’m focused on sending the message that meditation and mindfulness doesn’t necessarily mean passive and being exclusively physically still. Finding the stillness and awareness within is the center of it all. It is from this point that we find honest movement.
So, what’s next? Any big plans?
The goal is to turn Move.Sweat.Play into an online business, which is now underway, to reach a multitude of people around the world.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.movesweatplay.com
- Phone: 787-438-6848
- Email: marie.movesweatplay@gmail.com
- Instagram: @move.sweat.play or @wynwoodyogi
- YouTube channel: Move.Sweat.Play
Image Credit:
Frank Navas and amintaonline
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