Kasia Gendis
I am a Yoga Teacher and a Holistic Health Coach.
I live in Warsaw, Poland at the moment, where I am originally from.
I would love to share my journey with you, developing into who I am today.
As a young teenager I started getting interested in healthy foods. I still lived with my parents then and I used their kitchen to prepare my “inventions”, as they used to call my cooking. I loved experimenting with foods and creating dishes with unique combinations of ingredients. I was exploring mainly vegetables and particularly all kinds of salad ideas.
In my twenties I stopped eating red meat, as I decided it was no longer serving me, thus I started cooking more and more plant based options.
Meanwhile, in my professional life, I studied law and trained to become a barrister. I started working in a legal office and spent time working in court cases, too. I worked for a wonderful barrister, who was also my mentor, and who helped me develop not only my legal skills, but also gave me a lot of useful life advice, throughout the 7 years I spent there. I appreciate all his advice till today.
My working lifestyle was stressful. I traveled a lot around the country, spent many hours at the office writing legal letters, and attended court cases. I had very little time to relax. Even though I tried to eat the best and healthiest I could for my knowledge at that time, my lifestyle was not too healthy as I partied quite a lot to balance the stressful professional lifestyle.
Around that time, my Spanish teacher mentioned YOGA to me.
It intrigued me a lot and we chatted about it often.
I had an intention to try it but could never make it to a class due to my busy schedule. At least that is what I thought was the reason.
It still took me a couple of years before I actually made it to a yoga class, after getting married, leaving my profession and moving to Asia, in 2001.
I spent 3 years in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia practicing my dream yoga under a vigilant eye of Manoj Kaimal, the founder of Manasa Yoga.
Till today I can not believe how lucky I am, or maybe I should not call it luck but universal guidance, to have met this wonderful teacher who changed my life completely. His teachings, with a strong focus on ancient yogic philosophy, are very unique, deep and change the perspective and outlook on your whole life approach.
After 3 years of practising, I went through a teacher’s training course at Manasa Yoga School and I started passing on to others the knowledge I was gaining from my guru.
Around that time, I gave birth to my first daughter. Yoga was a big part of my pregnancy journey.
In 2004 we moved to Jakarta, Indonesia where I continued teaching yoga daily at a local yoga studio. I gathered new students around me and organised a workshop where I assisted my teacher Manoj, who came to visit.
I also learned more about Asian recipes and a way of preparing and combining unique, local ingredients.
My second daughter was born during our stay in Indonesia.
In 2006 the family moved to Africa. We were based in Nairobi, Kenya for 2 and a half years.
New life, new yoga students, new experiences, beautiful nature, fascinating wild life and new cooking flavours. A lovely chapter in life with plenty of outdoor activities and lots of healthy fruits, veggies and herbs grown in our garden (including a massive avocado tree:). As well as, Manasa yoga classes and workshops for a new crowd of dedicated students.
From there, in 2009, life took us to Lagos, Nigeria, where my 3rd daughter was born (well, I came to Poland to give birth, but I took her back to Lagos when she was only a month old).
My 5 years in Lagos were mainly about teaching yoga and gathering a beautiful community of yogis around me, as well as cooking healthy, whole foods. We had to make a lot from scratch as not everything was available, which only improved the quality of the food we ate.
I have organised a few charity yoga events that were very successful. One of them was ‘Yoga for Haiti’, where we collected money for the hurricane victims. Another was ‘Yoga for water’, where with a help from friends, we used the money from the event to fix the well for running water and installed water filters at the local school in Ikoyi, Lagos.
I also ran quite a few yoga workshops that included yogic philosophy.
As the community was getting more and more into the practice of yoga and started appreciating physical and mainly mental changes it was giving them, they were becoming more aware of their body, breath and mind. Thus, they also wanted to incorporate a healthier overall lifestyle, including nutrition and self-care. Yearly, we ran a detox group to cleanse our bodies and shared healthy tips on a daily basis.
Helping people to stay healthy through implementing yogic practices and increased nutritional awareness into their lives, lead me to studying and researching those areas more. I took up a year-long course at the Institute of Integrative Nutrition, located in New York and became a certified health coach. During my education there, I gained a lot of tools to work with people in the programs, assisting them in becoming the healthiest version of themselves in their physical bodies, careers, relationships and spirituality.
As life is a constant change, my life also has changed yet again.
After my marriage ended, life took me and my 3 lovely girls, all the way back home, to Poland.
Being back home gave me another opportunity to work in my original profession, as a lawyer. I enjoyed it for a couple of years but I could not let go of teaching yoga and coaching, as I got to love it so much and it has become such a huge part of my life.
For a while, I tried to do both, teach yoga and coach clients, as well as have a legal practice running.
It came to the point where I realised that taking care of the house and 3 kids on my own, while running two separate businesses was too much, so I had to choose one path for myself….
I followed my heart….
Yoga practice has become a part of me. I try implementing the teachings of my guru into my daily life. It is a great joy to be able to share it with other people and help them in their paths.
Now I teach yoga classes in Warsaw, but also stay in touch with my international students. I coach people face to face here, but also on-line, so potentially anywhere in the world.
Every year, I attend yoga yatras (pilgrimages), led by my guru Manoj in Asia, mainly in India. I also constantly stay in touch with the teaching of Manasa Yoga School in on-line workshops and group chats.
The yoga teachings have changed my life, made me who I am today and sorted out my priorities. They also changed the way I see life and how I live it everyday, increased the awareness of my body as a whole, but also brought more of it into every other aspect of my life.
My big passion for eating healthy, clean, local and seasonal whole foods, what I like calling the real food, is stronger than ever before!
I organise healthy cooking workshops and I try to educate people through talks about healthy lifestyle choices. I also run individual programs for people who are ready to embark on the journey to a healthier, happier, improved, upgraded, BOOSTED version of themselves, who need my lead, support and advice.
That is why I created Boost by Kasia Gendis. I would like to help people improve the overall quality of their life and to share with them all that I have learned along my journey.
Now, at 46 years of age, I am healthy and happy, living again in my lovely home country, with my daughters who are growing up to become beautiful, strong and confidents individuals, with a new partner and a new baby girl.
Life really can not seize to amaze us and surprise us.
It is worth having the courage, motivation and determination to live it to the fullest.
I wish that to all of you. Take your life into your hands.
You always have a choice!
Stay healthy and happy
Thank you for visiting my page.
I hope you will find a lot of useful information&tips here and you will become a part of our healthy&happy community.
Namaste
