Her Story
About Kristina
I've been in the wellness field for 23 years, continuously adding certifications and letters throughout my career. I opened a yoga studio in 2006 and built such a beautiful community around it for 15 years. One of my students took over the studio when I moved to Nashville to focus on family. In Nashville, I worked with Fahrenheit, one of the Premier Studios, where they asked me to mentor younger teachers. As someone who was really older in the field, I had my choice of schedule. During the pandemic, I'll never forget the first class when they reopened - there were 80 people in the room, 10 feet apart, and I wasn't allowed to leave my mat. There was so much fear and tears pouring down people's faces, and that's the moment when I knew I was in my calling. I branched off to work more intimately with women's groups. I also completed my nutrition and dietetics degree, thinking I would work in hospitals, but after our first clinical patient passed away, I realized it was so hard on me because I'm so empathetic. I decided I don't want to work with dying people - I want to work with living people and help them live their best lives. Two years ago, we were cut out of a car in a really serious accident. I had a brain injury and broke my back, and my comeback is the miracle of the story. My Pilates community was so embracing and warm on my return, cheering me on from the sidelines. Now I teach on the beach and do privates at my studio in my backyard. I've moved into working more with the geriatric community, and I didn't think I was going to love it as much as I do. I mostly work with women now, and I'm able to be discerning about my clients because my hours are limited. I've also moved into healing through plant medicine after my accident, which has been so powerful for me, and I'm surrounded by neuroscientists and really well-educated practitioners in that community.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Kristina
01What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
I was 3 or 4 years into teaching, and another instructor who'd been in the field longer said to me, never teach a posture that you can't execute. At first I thought that's crazy talk - everybody's body's so different, and I feel like we should embrace that other people could do things we can't do. But what she meant was, like, really difficult things - if you can't do it, you can't really say how to guide them through it. I think that to some degree, as we get older, I can now teach everything from advanced to basics. With the geriatric community, it's so amazing - such a little amount of movement creates such a large amount of impact in their bodies.
02What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
Always be open-minded and always be learning. I'm turning 50 this year, and I feel like there's still so much I have to learn in this field. I am a wealth of knowledge, I'm an anatomy nerd, and younger girls come to me for advice, but I also have mentors and people that I confide in and seek advice from. I'm always learning. Even the other night I went down a rabbit hole researching this new disease because I'm curious. You never stop being a student. What happens now in the Pilates community is that something gets very popular and suddenly there's people sprouting up like instantly. But I just feel like being a perpetual student is so important.
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