00:00:06 Yusuf: What if success was not something you chased, but something you wrote? Not in a business plan, not on social media, but in the quiet choices you make every day. How you move your body, how you train your mind, how you speak to yourself and no one else is listening. Welcome to

00:00:28 Yusuf: Healing Horizons, a space where we explore growth in ways that are inclusive, grounded, and deeply human. I am Yusuf and today I'm joined by Kat, a health coach who has been leading wellbeing workshops and events since twenty nineteen, both in Barcelona and online catwalks at the intersection of movement, mindset and personal responsibility. And today we are talking about why inner success is not accidental. It's intentional how daily movement, mental training and a personal contract with ourselves can quietly reshape our lives from inside out. With that, I welcome my guest, Kat, to the show.

00:01:20 Kat: Thank you very much for having me. Perfect.

00:01:25 Yusuf: Let's begin. Gently. Okay. When you say write your own book of inner success, what does that phrase mean to you personally? Not as a coach, but as a human being?

00:01:39 Kat: Yeah. Have you ever read a book that changed your life?

00:01:44 Yusuf: Yeah.

00:01:45 Kat: Yes. You have?

00:01:46 Yusuf: Yeah.

00:01:47 Kat: In which area?

00:01:50 Yusuf: Uh, for my mental health.

00:01:53 Kat: Okay, perfect. Yeah. So that's, um, what I'm meaning. So the. You can create actually, your own book that changes your life. Because I've read a lot of books, and as you said, they have changed my mindset. They have changed the way I behave. But, um, they have never been a book that changed completely in my life. I always felt super inspired and implemented a lot of what I was, um, reading. But the motivation and inspiration didn't last long. Um, so when I wrote my own self-help book, something changed. I became. It became my compass and my guide. So many clients who took part of this journey and wrote their own book. They say it's like to have their own Bible. Yeah. So I believe having your own book is the secret to inner success, because there are so many distractions out there that it's really easy to lose ourselves. But when you have your own book, you reconnect with your values, dreams, goals, and with the person you want to become.

00:03:15 Yusuf: Hmm. Yeah. So writing a book almost feels like you are writing your own constitution or own Bible, which that which many of many of the times people don't know what their value values are because they don't have that much time to think upon. And I think when they are writing that book, they read those subconscious thoughts out into conscious. And when it is written, when they read it, they make it their own and they start following it?

00:03:50 Kat: Absolutely, yes. And there is a way how to do it. Yeah. Because you need the right, um, soft reflections questions. You need a mindset practice and. Yeah to to actually know what to write. Yeah. It's not easy. It's not easy. So I think it's important to have a guide, something that is guiding you through this process. And this is actually what I'm doing. I'm having a thirty day journey where I guide people through this, um, journey.

00:04:29 Yusuf: Okay. I'm curious. When people hear success, they often think achievement, status, productivity, that what do you feel we have misunderstood about success in the first place?

00:04:46 Kat: Yeah, I think success is not something that comes from the outside. So like, money or status can't fulfill you. So I think fulfillment is like having inner peace, having self discipline and a purpose. Yeah. If you don't have this tree, it's really difficult to. Yeah to be happy in life.

00:05:13 Yusuf: Mhm. And what tends to happen when someone builds their life around that external version for too long.

00:05:25 Kat: Um, I believe that they get lost and they, they can't enjoy it because. Yeah. If, if you don't um, if you're not having purpose and what you are doing and if you don't have inner peace, then yeah, it's really difficult to enjoy it. So you are just like an autopilot, right? So yeah, maybe like making others happy. Or maybe people are looking at you and I think you are like, uh, you have the dream life, but you don't have it. And I think life is not about impress other people. Yeah, it's about to live the life you want to live. And many people, um, I believe, you know, they want to as well. Impress the family. Impress the the the friends. Yeah, but they are not, uh, fulfilled inside. They are feeling empty inside.

00:06:26 Yusuf: Hmm. Yeah. You know that that is powerful because it sounds like the real cost is not failure. It is disconnection. Disconnection from our body, our truth, our inner compass. And and that's that's the stage for why writing our own definition matters so deeply.

00:06:50 Kat: Yeah. That's true. Yeah. I totally agree with you.

00:06:56 Yusuf: And why do you think so many of us struggle to create our own definition?

00:07:01 Kat: Because there are no what they want. I believe many people. Um, so I met many people like, um, when I'm coaching people, they don't know where they are. And if you don't know where you are, how do you know what you want? It's difficult. Right? So you have to understand who you are, and then you have to find out what you really want in life, and then just go for it. Yeah, I think many people, they are more in their head. You know, we are always in our mind and we don't spend so much time in our heart. Yeah. And I think that's that's really important. Yeah. Because all the answers, everything what we are looking for, it's inside us. So we have all the answers, but we have to disconnect from our ego and connect with our true essence, our heart.

00:07:56 Yusuf: Yeah. That's true. But when someone hasn't moved their body consistently or trained their mind intentionally, does that make it harder to even hear their own voice?

00:08:12 Kat: Yeah, I believe that, I believe that. Um, I mean, it's really important to listen to listen to your thoughts, to listen to yourself. So that means you have to spend time with yourself. Yeah, yeah. Otherwise, you don't know why you are feeling unwell. Or maybe you are not happy. Or maybe you are not feeling well. Yeah. So I think it's really, really important to. Yeah, have a self-reflection practice and to have a meditation practice. Yeah. And to. Yeah. To observe your thoughts. Yeah, this is about meditation. It's not about stopping thinking. Yeah. You can't stop thinking as you can't stop breathing, but you can observe. Yeah. And when you spend time with yourself and you observe, you will find you will find yourself. This is actually how I started my journey in my life. I started with meditation and movement. Yeah. I always say, if you sleep ten minutes more or less, it doesn't matter. But if you move, it matters. And we all know to be healthy in life. Yeah, we have to move our body. It's really important. Yeah. And it gives us energy. Yeah. If you move your body, if you go to the gym, for example, or if you go to yoga class, you would never say, oh, why I did that. Yeah. You don't feel bad after, right? You feel like, oh my God, that's so amazing. Why I'm not doing this every day.

00:09:41 Yusuf: Mm. Yeah. That's true.

00:09:46 Kat: Yeah. So the connection is really important like mind and body connection.

00:09:51 Yusuf: Mhm. You know that connection between body and clarity feels very important because it is not just philosophical. It's it's like psychological as well. Because if we are not regulating ourselves physically it becomes harder to think clearly and act intentionally.

00:10:16 Kat: Absolutely, yes. I think as well, if you move your body, you you not even feel good. You you look better. So at the end, yeah, it's really important how we see ourselves. If we look at the mirror and we don't like what we see. Um, I think it's really difficult not to be happy if you don't like yourself, if you don't like how you look. Yeah. But if you look at. At your mirror and you know you like what you see, then you automatically feel happy. Yeah. It's like a kind of self love what you do. Yeah. It's, uh, you you show up for yourself. Yeah. You do something for yourself. And if you do something for yourself, you know, everything goes together. You. You feel so much, um, alive and happier and more energy. Yeah.

00:11:13 Yusuf: In your workshop since twenty nineteen, what patterns do you see? How does how does this lack of inner authorship show up in everyday life?

00:11:25 Kat: This connection really? People doesn't know who they are. They are completely disconnected from themselves. They are so distracted. And, yeah, they don't take the time to to. Yeah. To spend time with themselves and many people um, do jobs that they don't like because they are not taking the time to reflect and to work on themselves to find the right way. They just keep going. Keep going. And if you keep going, nothing will change. So you have to, uh, take a minute or take a moment to just stop and reflect, okay? My life is not going the way I want. So I have to change it. And I think this is what people avoid the most. Having a meeting with themselves.

00:12:12 Yusuf: Yeah.

00:12:13 Kat: This is what I see a lot.

00:12:17 Yusuf: So? So the transformation is not dramatic at first. It's subtle and it is consistency. It is keeping small promises. And that's how chapter begins to form.

00:12:32 Kat: Absolutely. Yes. I mean, um, if you just, uh, show up for yourself. Like saying I started with three minutes meditation and ten minutes movement. Yeah, if you just do it. Yeah. It gives you so much, um, self-trust. Yeah. So you start to believe more in yourself because you can see a change. Yeah. So if you are moving, for example, every day for months, only for ten minutes, something will change. You will see it, and then you realize, oh, God, okay. If I can change my body through consistency, yeah. Then I can, um, achieve everything in my life, right? So you can put the same concept, like ten minutes a day learning a new language or starting a business. Yeah. Working on your idea every day, ten minutes. It's a lot in one year, right? It's better than nothing. Something will change. Something will shift. And I think this is as well what I see a lot in in my coaching sessions, in my workshop and yoga sessions that people think they have to do it all, you know, so they have to put everything or nothing. They have really big goals and it's important to have big goals, big dreams. But it's important to start with smart, with small goals. Yeah, with small action with baby steps. Yeah. So because they are motivated they do it. Yeah. Like okay I'm going for a run every day thirty minutes. And then after five days they fail and then they feel like a loser. Yeah.

00:14:14 Yusuf: Yeah yeah.

00:14:15 Kat: Mhm.

00:14:19 Yusuf: If someone listening right now and feels disconnected from their own book where do they start. Is it movement first, mindset first or the personal contract.

00:14:31 Kat: Mhm. Yes I would really say to, like, stop. Yeah, and just find out. Okay. What is it? What I want if you don't know what you want. So when I quit my job many years ago, I really didn't know what I wanted in life. So I started with movement. Yeah, because with movement, you can see how your body changes, as I said before. So you can see change. Yeah. And if you meditate every day, you can't. You can see the change after a few weeks. Yeah. But with movement you can really see it in the mirror. So then it's more easy to, uh, to get more self to us and to believe. Believe in yourself.

00:15:26 Yusuf: Mm.

00:15:28 Kat: And then you move with the other things. Yeah. So I always say if you feel lost, start with movement. If you don't know what to do in life. Yeah.

00:15:38 Yusuf: You mentioned a personal contract with ourselves. What does that actually look like in practice?

00:15:46 Kat: Yeah. So I believe commitment creates change. So a contract with yourself is a declaration, a promise to keep showing up for your dreams, your grow, your peace, no matter what happens around you. So, I mean, if you are not happy with your life, you need to change something. Yeah. Because if you keep going over and over, your life will stay the same. And if nothing changes, your life won't change. And if you. When I. When I signed up a contract with myself. This this, um, thing that I wrote everything down. And then I signed up and I committed, it gave me power. It gave me something. Um. And I had as well, like a guide. Right. So I had a plan. And I think it's really important to have a plan in your life. Because if you don't have a plan and you are feeling like the next day you wake up and you don't feel motivated, then you fell back. But if you know exactly what to do, then it becomes easier. It becomes part of your system, right? So if you do something everyday, it becomes part of your system. It's like brushing your teeth. Yeah, you, you you need this routine. You need this practice. Otherwise you don't feel good. Yeah.

00:17:18 Yusuf: Mhm. Yeah. You know I, I love that because it's not punishment. It's a partnership contract not based on pressure but on respect. And the regular self checking becomes a mirror not a judge.

00:17:35 Kat: Yeah, because I mean, if you think about it, if you start a new job, you sign up a contract, right? And you show up every day. You show up every day. You be on time. You respect your colleagues, you do your job. You do it. Even if you are not feeling well, you just do it right. And if we apply the same discipline in our daily life, can you imagine what will change?

00:18:02 Yusuf: Yeah. Kat, for listeners who want to explore your workshops or connect with your work, where can they find you?

00:18:10 Kat: Yes, they can find me on my website. It's Kat Yoga or I'm on Instagram as well. It's Kat Dot ensemble where you will find a lot of free resources there, like, uh, a free workshop. Um, if you are feeling stuck and you, uh, you feel like you are capable of more, you can join my free workshop.

00:18:37 Yusuf: Perfect. And to everyone listening, all these links are in the show notes, so just go and check those out. Kat, is there any last message that you want to leave us with?

00:18:50 Kat: Yes. Just start with one thing. You know, like if you're listening to this, write one thing down that you would like to start and think in small steps, like if you would like to have a healthier body, a stronger body, write down five minutes every day for the next twenty one days.

00:19:14 Yusuf: Yeah. As we close today, I want to leave you with this. You don't have to rewrite your whole life overnight. You just have to write one on a sentence today. Move your body, train your mind, check in with yourself. and that is how chapters are built. Thank you for listening to Healing Horizons. If this conversation resonated, share it with someone who might need a reminder that their story is still being written. Until next time, stay curious, stay steady, and keep healing forward.