We move. We sit. We thrive. The joint energy of our collective effort sustains our growth. We show up to train our bodies and minds and watch our internal GPS activate. With movement and meditation as our go-to tools, we are well-equipped to evolve.

Hello! My name is Olga. On paper, I’m trained as a journalist, barre fitness instructor and meditation teacher. In real life, I’m a mom and a Buddhist. I’m also a sensitive, which means I love working with my intuition.

Becoming a mom taught me how to take care of others. However, I completely shut down when it came to receiving care myself. I dreamed of doing all these things but felt paralyzed when it came to doing them.

Looking back, I know I was missing what you can call a personal practice. A reason to come back to myself, over and over. A way to take care of myself both physically and emotionally. A tool to learn to focus better on my goals. In short—a practice to work out my karmic resistance to move in the direction I wanted to.

According to Buddhist teachings, which I love study, we grow when we practice. So what is practice exactly? It’s the simple act of repetition. The act of coming back to something again and again: to the present moment, to yourself, to others, to that project you’re working on. I like to think of it as the opposite of abandonment.

Once I had my personal practice in place (and showed up for it as much as possible) things began falling into place. By loosening my resistance with my daily practice—movement and meditation in tandem—I created access to the natural energy that fuelled positive changes in my life.

Esoteric or not, this approach was all about action. It became the Fifty-Fifty Method—based on the idea of training both your mind and your body; in other words, taking good care of yourself.

I even came up with four S’s of Success to summarize this transformation—all derived from personal experience and present in everything I do now.

The first S stands for Sensitivity. I struggled the most when I was oblivious to my natural sensitivity. Everyone is sensitive, but we rarely pay enough attention to our sensitivity. From how we feel after overeating, to where we store tension in our body, to the visceral feeling coming from our hearts when we’re doing something we love—our sensitivity is meant to guide our actions. This is when I finally asked myself: “What do I need to do to be even moderately happy?” The answer was I needed to act on what mattered to me—my mental and physical well-being, as well as expressing my creativity in healthy ways.

Structure, the second S, came to my rescue. Structure is the soil in which we grow the seeds of our future. It’s discipline rooted in respect. Structure is what captures our creativity. Think routine with purpose—small daily actions that support your bigger aspirations energetically. It’s starting your mornings with warm lemon water if you want to stay healthy. It’s your regular journaling practice to boost your creativity. Movement and meditation became my go-to practices for structure.

The third S was a big aha moment, an epiphany. (I used the term Self-Realization from Western psychology but gave it my own meaning.) At this point of my journey, I realized that we are bigger than our egos. It also means we can stop thinking about our problems obsessively. Phew! We begin to open our hearts to the world and realize—to our great surprise—that we all have the same basic needs, that we’re not the only ones struggling. Naturally, our perspective shifts from “me” to “we.”

And this is how we get to Service, the final S. At this exciting time, we discover our talents; we learn what truly brings us joy. (For me, it was helping others.) Our projects become bigger than us. We feel inspired! We finally find our groove and use the tools we’ve acquired to continue on our unique path.

As you can see, the Fifty-Fifty Method is based on the simple idea of showing up to do your work, regularly. Only you can do it. But the combined energy of our collective effort can help sustain our individual growth. Our strength is in numbers, literally—how many of us show up and the number of times we show up for ourselves individually. That’s why I created this virtual wellness space for us—so I can do my work alongside you; I’m right there in every workout and meditation with you because it’s my personal practice, too. Join us when you feel ready. O