Women In Wellness: Kevyn Zeller On The Five Lifestyle Tweaks That Will Help Support People’s Journey Towards Better Wellbeing
Pour your thoughts out onto paper first thing in the morning. Similar to meditation, this allows you to observe what is in that mind of yours. Once you see it on paper you can choose consciously what you want to hold onto and what you’d like to release. I think of it as cleaning my mind first thing in the morning, just as important as brushing my teeth and washing my face!
As a part of my series about women in wellness, I had the pleasure of interviewing Kevyn Zeller.
Kevyn Zeller is the owner and founder of Kevyn Zeller Pilates+. She fell in love with Pilates more than 20 years ago when she was recovering from a knee injury. Kevyn found healing in her practice and the experience changed the way she approached movement and life. Kevyn went on to study Kinesiology and work with Master teachers at The Pilates Center in Boulder, Colorado. She believes the key to health and healing lies in One’s ability to connect with his or her deepest, most authentic center physically, spiritually, and emotionally. Kevyn works with entrepreneurs, celebrities, and executives out of her NYC studio and recently expanded her practice to include global wellness retreats.
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Our readers would love to “get to know you” better. Can you share your “backstory” with us?
I began practicing and fell in love with Pilates 25 years ago. A knee injury during my years as a long-distance runner in Mexico led me to discover Pilates as a means of rehabilitation. The practice not only healed my knee but also profoundly influenced the way in which I approach both movement and life in general.
I received my Pilates Certification and Master’s Certification at The Pilates Center in Boulder, Colorado. Concurrently, I obtained a B.A. degree in Kinesiology at The University of Colorado at Boulder. My degree in Kinesiology enhances my understanding of and fascination for biomechanics and physiology, allowing me to back the artistry of my Pilates teaching with scientific method and research. Throughout my years of teaching, I have worked with clients of all ages and fitness levels, helping them recover from injuries, build strength, reshape their bodies, and develop healthier lifestyles. While my approach to Pilates training is subtle in that I prefer to allow the student to internalize the changes that are optimal to their body, my enthusiasm is contagious, and sessions are powerful. I have also expanded my practice to include life coaching and global wellness retreats. Wellness takes many forms and I want to support more individuals in their journey.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you started your career? What were the main lessons or takeaways from that story?
In the early days of my career, I was invited to be the face of a global Pilates brand. It was exciting and humbling. We were talking about opening studios across the globe and discussing how this was going to catapult my budding career. I was up to my neck in research for the project and thrilled as I dreamt of the potential that this opportunity held. That is until the woman funding the project began shifting her vision for the company to a place that no longer aligned with mine. Stepping away from that opportunity was difficult and extremely uncomfortable, but worth it! The entire experience made me become much clearer on my professional values and on why I do the work that I do.
It has been said that our mistakes can be our greatest teachers. Can you share a story about a mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
The biggest mistake that I made when I was first starting was prioritizing my business over my personal needs and my health. I opened up my entire week and even the weekends for clients to book teaching often up to 12 hours a day. There was a period of time in fact where I was teaching 12 hour days 7 days a week. I cringe remembering how on the cusp of burnout I was during that time.
As challenging as that experience was for me, I am grateful for it. It taught me to recognize my worth and to never look back. I hired a business coach, raised my rates, scheduled my own personal meals, workouts and downtime into my calendar and began honoring them as I would a session with a client. I also now cap my teaching schedule at 7 hours a day and never teach on the weekends. I have also begun leaving 15 minutes between sessions so that I have time to recharge and reset before my next client arrives. I spend more quality time with my husband and two precious pups and travel often. I do what fuels my soul so that I am a better guide and teacher for my amazing clients.
Let’s jump to our main focus. When it comes to health and wellness, how is the work you are doing helping to make a bigger impact in the world?
Pilates and life coaching are about healing. I am grateful to have been able to share that healing experience with so many people over the course of my career. My experiences and my practice have inspired in me a purpose that is so much bigger. I want to make an impact for women who are living with stress, fear, or anxiety. I want to give women the power to own and hone those emotions toward productive progress and peace.
The inspiration for the bigger impact that I am helping to make in the world runs deep. My beautiful mother was sexually abused by her father from a very young age. While she worked hard to become the brilliant and incredibly successful woman that she became, the shame, sadness and grief consumed her and ultimately led to her untimely death at age 37. So perhaps I was born with remnants of her trauma to work through, but it wasn’t until my college experience was briefly up ended by an attack that this sort of work felt much more personal. I was lucky, the perpetrator was caught almost immediately. When with friends I played it off like nothing had happened, but they noticed, and I noticed, that I was constantly looking over my shoulder making sure no one was following me. There was a true paranoia there initially that was distracting until it evolved into a heightened intuitive sense. For example, I would step into a room filled with people, or be walking down a bustling street in NYC and out of the blue feel the hair stand up on the back of my neck. I would often immediately remove myself from the room or cross the street, but I would also brush the feeling off as paranoia.
That is until I met Evis Bejko. I was invited by a friend to take a Self Defense course he was leading. I was apprehensive because previous experiences with Self Defense classes had stirred up a lot from my own attack. But this class was different. Evis stands out because he is passionate about teaching women not only how to get out of a choke hold, but also why this method works. And perhaps, most importantly, he teaches women how to avoid 99% of dangerous situations in the first place. His key takeaway is that by honoring that gut instinct we all get as women (especially women who have been attacked) and getting out of the situation BEFORE anything happens, we avoid most, if not all, dangerous scenarios.
He taught me to never, under any circumstances, question that hair standing up on the back of my neck. To trust that my body is sensing real danger and to respond accordingly. This was empowering because in an instant it shifted my narrative from “I am someone who was attacked and now I live in fear,” to “I am someone who was attacked and now I can accurately sense danger.”
The experience for me was so profound, that I wanted to create a unique experience in which other women could benefit from this wisdom. So, I developed a Holistic Women’s Wellness Retreat that incorporates Pilates, Self Defense, Kickboxing and Strength-Based Yoga.
This upcoming retreat in June in Costa Rica is the first of a series designed to build strength mentally and physically. I want to give women (and eventually men and couples) who have unhealed grief, trauma, or those who want to develop better self-care practices, the tools to heal and recognize that they are enough. We are also building a community so that our message and our work will also reach beyond our physical retreats.
Can you share your top five “lifestyle tweaks” that you believe will help support people’s journey towards better wellbeing? Please give an example or story for each.
1. Pour your thoughts out onto paper first thing in the morning. Similar to meditation, this allows you to observe what is in that mind of yours. Once you see it on paper you can choose consciously what you want to hold onto and what you’d like to release. I think of it as cleaning my mind first thing in the morning, just as important as brushing my teeth and washing my face!
2. Smile. It’s so simple and easy to do. I think many of us are often in a rush, especially here in NYC. We don’t pay attention to what our face is doing as we scurry past one another en route to our next destination. Taking the time to smile and potentially acknowledge the person next to you will make your day better, I promise!
3. Slow down. Admittedly patience is not my strong suit, so this one doesn’t come naturally to me. But I find that especially when my schedule is filled to the brim and my instinct is to move faster and get more things done, I take five slow deep breaths, feel my feet on the ground and proceed more slowly, with greater integrity and presence.
4. Hydrate! My husband calls me a water pusher… and it’s a good nickname because I am always drinking water and encouraging everyone I know to hydrate more as well. Drink 32 ounces of warm water with a squeeze of lemon first thing in the morning and continue to sip on water throughout the day.
5. Spend time in nature. This one is listed last but is valued as my most important “tweak.” The further we stray from nature, in my opinion, the further we stray from health and wellbeing. Luckily, even though I am in NYC I live right across the street from Central Park and make it a habit to go on at least two long walks a day and try to get my shoes off and bare feet in the grass whenever possible. If you aren’t able to get to a park or the beach or mountains, I recommend that you look out your window and observe the birds. There is something so grounding that happens when you watch them interact with one another. It is a great way to connect with nature from the comfort of your own home or office!
If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of wellness to the most amount of people, what would that be?
I would institute mandatory time away from everyone’s day to day that is devoted specifically to resting, reflecting, and healing in nature. I believe strongly that this sort of downtime is shamefully undervalued in our society. If everyone took this self-nurturing time for themselves on a regular basis, I believe they would become more grounded, present, aware, and peaceful. Imagine that world!
What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started” and why?
1. Do not neglect your personal needs. Nothing works well unless I do! I learned this one the hard way!
2. When bringing on a new teacher or team member, remember that their credentials, while important, are not nearly as important as whether or not they are a good fit for your brand.
3. Trust your intuition. Not having a business degree made me so unsure about choices I was making initially. I spent way too much time second guessing myself.
4. There will be haters and that’s ok! For so long I didn’t want to put myself and my message out there out of fear that it would be rejected. Now I put myself out there regardless of what people may consequently think or say about me, because it isn’t about me!! None of what I do is about me. It is about the amazing humans that I get to teach and coach day in and day out. I want to show up for them over and over again no matter what some people may say or think about me.
5. The more success you have in your business the more you will need to show up for it. My business and I grow together! I suppose a naive part of me thought that at some point it would get easy, and just like in Pilates, it never gets “easy,” it just gets “different.”
Sustainability, veganism, mental health, and environmental changes are big topics at the moment. Which one of these causes is dearest to you, and why?
The work that I do is focused on helping my high-stress clientele learn to set what they are unable to control aside and focus instead on what is within their control — this being, their minds and how they manage them. Embodying the human experience is a lot and it isn’t easy. Linking breath with thoughtful movement is a way to feel how the mind and body are intrinsically linked and a gateway into understanding how what we allow our minds to think and eventually believe shows up in our bodies as emotions. Emotions that remain there if we never fully process them. My combination of Pilates and Life Coaching in a peaceful and safe space provides an opportunity for clients to practice this embodiment safely. They learn to allow their emotions (even the difficult ones) to process through and recognize the power and freedom that exists in doing so.
What is the best way for our readers to further follow your work online?
Connect with me @kevynzeller on IG and visit my website studio.kevynzeller.com for more information about our global wellness retreats, accountability coaching, and Pilates.
Thank you for these fantastic insights! We wish you continued success and good health.
