S1 · Ep 25: Become More, Do Less — The Sustainable Path to Growth | Maria Cherkasskaya | The MindSpa Podcast

In this episode of The MindSpa Podcast, hosts Tina Wilston and Michelle Massunken speak with business and mindset coach Maria Cherkasskaya about sustainable growth that feels aligned, not exhausting. Maria helps entrepreneurs move from clarity to execution, blending practical marketing systems with inner work that truly sticks. She explains why many founders don’t have a mindset issue—they often face a skills and planning gap.

Tina, Michelle, and Maria start with a simple audit to turn “what I don’t want” into a clear north star, then translate that vision into daily actions that support long-term goals. Maria breaks down imposter syndrome for both seasoned experts and newcomers, exploring how proof, practice, and community can help move through fear. They discuss social visibility, showing up online authentically, and the value of supportive networks of entrepreneurs, coaches, or therapists to quiet the noise and accelerate learning.

Manifestation is given a reality check: visualization can prime your brain to spot opportunities, but progress only happens with action. Maria’s concept of inspired action helps prioritise ideas that carry energy and align with values, so growth feels sustainable. They also explore burnout as an internal conflict between competing values, with practical grounding tools—from presence exercises to meditation habits—that translate mindfulness into everyday leadership.

Maria shares insights from her 10-day Vipassana retreat and closes with what’s next for her: scaling her marketing agency, growing Manifest Change Society, and staying open to pivots that keep her work aligned with purpose.

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The MindSpa Podcast

Thoughtful conversations about mental health, relationships, identity, healing, grounded in clinical expertise and steady human insight.

Hosts

Tina Wilston, M.Ed., Registered Psychotherapist 

Co-Owner, MindSpa Mental Health Centre

LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook

Michelle Massunken, MSW, RSW

Co-Owner, MindSpa Mental Health Centre

LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook

MindSpa Mental Health Centre

Ottawa - Kanata & Gloucester

themindspa.ca

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Transcript

Meet Maria: Coach And Builder

Michelle Massunken 0:04

Maria Cherkaskaya is a business and mindset coach, public speaker, and mental health advocate, passionate about helping people manifest their dreams and business on their own terms. As a multi-passionate entrepreneur, Maria runs multiple businesses dedicated to helping others grow with clarity, purpose, and ease. Through her coaching practice, she supports ambitious entrepreneurs in creating and implementing soul-aligned strategies that attract clients again and again without burnout or constant hustle. Her focus is on building structured systems that amplify her clients' authentic voices, helping them grow their businesses with intention and sustainability. In addition to coaching, Maria also leads a marketing agency that helps entrepreneurs expand their reach through strategic marketing, social media, and brand presence. Her approach blends deep mindset work with powerful marketing execution, ensuring that her clients don't just look good online, but that they grow with purpose, alignment, and profitability. Maria is also the founder of Manifest Change Society, a woman's personal growth community designed to help members get clear on their true desires, release limiting beliefs, and step into their vision with confidence and authenticity. A spiritual explorer at heart, Maria once spent 10 days in total silence meditating. She's been nominated as Woman of Influencer and Best Coach in Ottawa 2024, studied with luminaires such as Tony Robbins and Dr. Joe DePenza, and completed Harvard online courses. Born in Russia and now based in Ottawa, Canada, Maria combines business acumen with spiritual alignments, showing that success is not about doing more, but about becoming more. Well, we are excited to have you on this podcast, Maria. Thank you for being here today.

Maria Cherkasskaya 2:08

Thank you so much for inviting. I'm very excited to be here. And I know you um, you know, outside of the podcast, so it's uh great to be here to connect, to share my story, and uh to help as many people as possible. And uh thanks for such a nice introduction. It's quite the bio. Thank you. Thank you. You know, as you were reading this, sometimes, you know, I look at myself, oh my gosh, how much I have accomplished. Because sometimes we forget.

Michelle Massunken 2:38

Lose sight of it.

Maria Cherkasskaya 2:39

Exactly, exactly.

Tina Wilston 2:40

Talk about that all the time. You have to look back, yeah, you know, because when you're looking ahead at the next thing, you're always like, oh, there's more to do, there's more to do. And then you look back and go, Oh, wow, I've come a long way and I've accomplished a lot.

Michelle Massunken 2:50

Yes.

Tina Wilston 2:51

So thank you.

Michelle Massunken 2:52

Thanks for inviting for sure.

Mindset, Plans, And Skill Gaps

Tina Wilston 2:55

Yay, awesome. So to get the conversation started, we just have a few statistics that I'm gonna talk about. So we've found out that 92% of entrepreneurs say mindset directly affects business outcomes. That is such a high number. 70% of entrepreneurs experience imposter syndrome at some point in their journey. I actually would have thought that number would be higher. Um, 67% of online entrepreneurs cite burnout as their number one threat to business longevity. People who practice visualization are 42% more likely to achieve their goals. And finally, 73% of women entrepreneurs say they started a business to create more freedom and alignment. So is that those are some those are some crazy statistics. So we'd love to hear from you um just sort of how you help people with their mindset, how you help them uh with these these issues we were just talking about.

Maria Cherkasskaya 3:47

Yeah, for sure. It's a definitely very loaded equation, and let's just unpack topic by topic. So definitely mindset that's a huge, huge uh component when it comes to growing a business, changing your life, 100%. Uh before I'm gonna dive in more in a mindset, I just also um what I discover when I work a lot with my clients, sometimes it's action plan that would stop people from actually doing work, you know. So for example, when it comes to like growing a business, when I talk to people, sometimes they're not really afraid, they sometimes simply don't really know what to do. Or they don't have an action, they don't really have an action steps to get it done, right? And I want to make sure that sometimes before we put in pressure on ourselves, or there's something wrong with my mindset, I encourage you to ask you do you actually know how to run a business? Do you actually know what you need to post on a social media? Because sometimes it's all about knowledge that we don't really have and not necessary mindset because I feel like sometimes we play too much ourselves, or we're not good enough, we're scared when we in reality we just don't really have enough knowledge to execute to get to our goals.

Michelle Massunken 5:06

So, should you have your plan in place before getting your mind?

Maria Cherkasskaya 5:10

It's it goes it goes both hand in hand. So, and when it comes to mindset, uh what I like to break this down, it's always about first clarity. What the heck do you want to have in life? How's your life gonna look like in five years? What do you do right now? What activities support your long-term vision? And is that both in the business and in life? 100%. Simply sometimes we live on an IDA pilot. We simply sometimes don't we don't really know where we're going. And how can we go there if we don't really go? So it's about getting clarity and a simple exercise, you know, just like you sit down, you're quickly assess your life, and just simply by listing what you right now don't want to have in a life, that's a good foundation point. Okay, well, I don't really like my job right now, I uh don't really like my relationship right now. Okay, well, my health is not really doing very well. You know, these things I don't really want to do, and this is a good starting point where usually what you don't want to have, it's opposite of what you want to have. So, and uh this mindset first, it's about okay, what do I actually want to want to have? Right.

Michelle Massunken 6:32

And yeah, I like that. And I was listening to something the other day where you talked about like doing an audit, right? Essentially kind of what you're talking about, doing an audit, how do I spend my time? How is my finances? Auditing my relationships, auditing my business, but basically taking stock and a full picture, auditing it, and then based on that, now you know the direction that you want to go. Do I need to go left or increase what I'm doing in this capacity or in that piece there? But being able to have that first step of a clear picture, what you're wanting now helps you with that. And so once you do the plan, what comes next after that? So once you've done the action plan and you have that in place, how do we go from there to get the mindset on board with things?

Clarity Audits For Life And Work

Maria Cherkasskaya 7:10

And that's when the difficult part, execution part, and this is when it gets procrastination, fear, doubt, fear of failure, feeling failure for for sure. And this is when it gets, we need to take step at a time and see, okay, well, what's holding you back? Because I truly believe what you have right now, it's your bare minimum of life, it's a bare minimum of what you're able of your potential, the bare minimum of what you manifested in your life. So, what's the next point? Like, let's talk about like more concrete, like let's talk about business. So, right now, a lot of entrepreneurs use social media, and this is what I coach a lot. I talk about most social media a lot. So, for example, you were afraid what other people are gonna think about you. That's a that's a big one, especially when it comes to sharing your knowledge expertise online. What people are gonna think uh about me. And for example, even before this podcast, right, we were sitting in a room and I mentioned to me, you know, mentioned to you guys, okay, well, I've been doing podcasts and the public speaking for a very long time, but because my English is not my first language, I make mistakes no matter what. And even though I'm excited to be here, I'm still a little bit worried and nervous to be here. Yeah. So, and in this case, you need to figure out, okay, well, what do I wanna do about it? Do I be brave enough and still take action and still show up? Even though people gonna, you know, maybe gonna say, oh, you know, she doesn't really know what she's talking about, or for example, people not gonna understand me. So it's a fear of what others gonna people gonna think about me. And there is like you have a partner, you have friends, and some people don't really understand when you mention, okay, well, I don't want to do run a business, they're like, eh, just stick with your job, like yeah, right? Stay in your comfort, don't quit your day job. Yeah, exactly. Right. So having this support system is just so important because you're always gonna have a people that not gonna support you and not gonna judge you no matter what you do. I like yeah, I like to say like you cannot say you cannot say the right things to the wrong people.

Michelle Massunken 9:48

So, in a lot of ways, there has to be sort of like this common mindset around that support system.

Maria Cherkasskaya 9:54

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Michelle Massunken 9:55

Otherwise, that can impact the goal and the dream and the vision if they're not of the same mindset and the same wavelength.

Tina Wilston 10:02

A hundred percent. It sounds like it's important for entrepreneurs to surround themselves with other entrepreneurs too.

Maria Cherkasskaya 10:07

Yeah. And you know, job security for us, guys, because we you know in this space where and it's okay to ask for help. It's you might I feel like if you don't have right now a therapist, a life coach, or some kind of like kind of support, why? Like, why are you making this so hard for yourself? Right.

Tina Wilston 10:29

This resource is right now available, so I feel like they used to be built into community back when we lived in more sort of tribe-like surroundings, and now people are so isolated and they do need those sounding boards of like-minded people and that type of stuff. Otherwise, you are. I find people who have decided not to go into entrepreneurship, a lot of them again from that fear place, yeah, will then put that fear on you. Like, well, what if you fail? Or what if you can't do it? Yeah, what about this? Exactly. And you're like, I did think of that, and I had to per push through. Yeah, we'll figure it out.

Maria Cherkasskaya 11:06

Yeah, that's one of the news entrepreneurs. Exactly. Growing is a flow. Growing is a flow, growing with it. Growing is a flow, yeah.

Tina Wilston 11:15

Oh, I've never heard it said that way. Yeah, yeah. I love this too. I was thinking about that, so that that uh imposter syndrome piece because one one of the things in our line of work in particular, I think a lot of entrepreneurs do this where they start out where they are the actual, they they work in their business. So for us, we worked as therapists and then we decided to grow a group therapy practice. I think a lot of professionals do that, but we you have no idea how to be an entrepreneur. You just know how to be a therapist, for example. And so that comfort zone, your comfort zone is therapy, not being an entrepreneur. So then that's when imposter syndrome always kicks in, is that gap between what I'm used to doing, what I feel confident, what I feel comfortable in, and then this the huge learning curve. Absolutely a huge learning curve. So, how do you help people overcome the imposter syndrome specifically? Okay.

Execution, Fear, And Social Visibility

Maria Cherkasskaya 12:11

So there's uh multiple ways how I can um work with the impostorum syndrome, depending on a client, obviously, because what I found a lot of feedback that I'm getting, I don't really use very traditional sometimes approach. I like to a little bit challenge you in a way. Um, so let's talk about two scenarios. Let's say if you have a lot of experience and you still deal with the impostor syndrome. So, in this case, um definitely you need to go back and all this reminder how much experience you have. You need to pretty much screenshot of all beautiful positive things that your clients uh tell you about. So, in this case, it builds you this confidence uh level. You need to remind yourself every time what you have accomplished and uh you know talk about some of the transformation, how you help people. So, this is where the advice that I'm gonna give you to more experienced person, right? So to actually look back and uh remind yourself what have you accomplished so far, and making sure that you're only 1% better every day.

Tina Wilston 13:20

Okay.

Maria Cherkasskaya 13:20

So that's where I would approach to more experience. But when it comes to like, let's say if you are still new being a business, you're supposed to have imposter syndrome. It's okay to have a normalized. Yeah, exactly. It is okay. And I know that you're supposed to feel you know not confident, you it's natural. And uh what you need to do is again, like get the support, have an action plan, and step by step get this experience. You're gonna fail, you're gonna make mistakes, and uh that's part of the process. You just need to make sure again, like you have the support systems that are going to encourage you to keep going because when you build a business by yourself in this early initial stage, you have all this noise from your partner, from your friends, what are you doing, and then you make mistakes. Of course, of course, you're gonna uh most likely give up because you because you're dealing with all these unknowns and imposter syndromes, you're still not there yet where you might you might gonna say confidently well what you accomplished so far. So, and you know, when it comes to this newbies, I wanted to say like it's natural to have imposter syndrome. Very natural, and that's how you should feel to be honest.

Tina Wilston 14:38

We've learned our best lessons actually through making mistakes, absolutely, yeah. And things going wrong, and then we're like, oh, to course correct for this thing that goes wrong, we need to do this, we overcome it, and then we go, now I'm confident. Yeah, because if that thing were to go wrong again, now I know how to deal with it.

Michelle Massunken 14:53

That's kind of what you're referring to, right? Just don't lose sight of that one percent. Like you're one percent better in doing this exact task than you were in doing it yesterday, and that's that's a sign of growth and a sign of progress, which we don't want to always lose sight of.

Maria Cherkasskaya 15:06

100%. Yeah, dreams and repeat, dreams and repeat. Yeah, the same, like how we how we learn walk, right? So you're not gonna uh get it right right away. Yeah, run like run marathon, right? Let's say if you want to run marathon, you you start with uh you know being maybe consistent as you're working. So the same is the business, the same when it comes to like dealing with this imposter syndrome. The fact that you're not able to run marathon when you never exercise is surprise.

Tina Wilston 15:33

I like that though, because we know we know how important it is to actually normalize people's experiences. Because if you think because I have imposter syndrome, that means I'm doing it wrong, that means I'm not ready, that means I can't do it. You'll never actually ever venture outside of your comfort zone because you think you're supposed to feel some other way. And I feel like it's the same thing as like feeling like an adult, because I'm 45 and I still don't feel like one. So I've now realized, and I've spoken to people older than me, and they're like, Yeah, no, me too. Still I don't. And then you realize, oh, there isn't this feeling that comes with I think the same thing as entrepreneurship. You don't all of a sudden like feel like a boss person. I was actually having a conversation the other day, and I think it was actually you and I, and I'm throwing out all these terms that I remember not knowing what they meant. And when I strung it together in a sentence, I was like, ooh, I sound like I really know things. But I was like, I'm using these appropriately. But it's just like, okay, you have that moment, but it's like a really split-second moment, and then you just kind of move on and focus on the things you still don't know. Yeah, exactly. But there, you do have like, I think we've had a few little moments here and there we're like, okay, we're we're getting the hang of it. You know what we're doing, kind of sort of.

Michelle Massunken 16:37

Yeah, yeah, exactly. More than we did yesterday. Yeah. Um, we were talking earlier about like just even putting things out there manifestation-wise as entrepreneurs and even in the mindset piece. Tell us a bit about that. How have you found the idea of manifestation? What are some of the misconceptions around that? And how what role do you find that that plays in entrepreneurial shit?

Support Systems And Entrepreneur Community

Maria Cherkasskaya 16:58

Oh my gosh, I love manifestation. I can talk for a very long time. So I do believe that we manifest 24-7. So I do believe that it's a power of thinking, whatever we're gonna put our beliefs, our minds on it, that's gonna be manifested in your life. Um, and uh, some of the common misconception I would say is about first that manifestation doesn't work. So it's it's a biggest misconception, it does work. So be manifest uh if you want it, if you don't want it. Uh so whatever you think it's gonna appear in your life. And I think the the biggest one is uh definitely an action taking action. So a lot of people think, okay, well, I'm just gonna visualize. Visualization works, but only if you're going to follow the plan. And I think this is when it comes to the biggest misconception that people think, okay, well, I'm just gonna sit down, I'm gonna meditate for 10 minutes, right? And then magically it's gonna happen. Some magic happens for sure, because I do believe there is like synchronicity or things just kind of lining up perfectly. Right. Exactly, right? But I feel like at the same time, it's your brain looking for these opportunities. Your brain is looking for different ways how you can accomplish. Your brain is like kind of like a machine, right? So, for example, okay, well, I want to go and build a business. Your brain starts looking for this solution because you put this intention. You might not really think about it, but at the same time, manifestation, it's pretty much, I would say, scientifically proven. It's the way how your brain solves the problem in your life, and you put in this intention in your life, okay. Well, here's what I want, here's what I want to believe in terms of my goals, and then I make gonna do some kind of action plan, I'm gonna take steps, and I'm gonna keep going until I'm gonna achieve it. It might it's gonna take me a year or two, and it's okay that it takes time, and then also I feel like you know, misconception is like, okay, well, I wanna lose like 10 kilograms, 10 pounds. Visualize what that means the more myself. Exactly, right? Some some changes takes take time, and you need to be patient, uh, trust the process and uh follow your heart.

Michelle Massunken 19:32

Yeah, that's a key point. There, the feet have to follow. It's not enough for just the mind to be there, but the idea of like where the mind goes, the feet follow, right? And so I have to visualize it, but I also have to do something.

Maria Cherkasskaya 19:41

Exactly, exactly.

Michelle Massunken 19:42

I have to act in that in alignment with it.

Maria Cherkasskaya 19:44

Yeah, but I feel like when you put this intention, you clear on what you want, you have this intention, you visualize, it's much easier for you to follow this plan without even thinking about it. And that's I think the beauty when it comes to manifestation that it starts feeling effortless. Like exactly.

Tina Wilston 20:05

It makes me actually think of we have something called the miracle question in therapy, where it's sort of like, let's imagine a magic wand and all the issue that we're discussing is completely gone tomorrow morning when you wake up. Let's walk through exactly what would be different. And it's actually my favorite way of going to sleep. If I think I'm not going to be able to fall asleep, I'm like, what would my perfect day tomorrow look like? Yeah. It's like I wake up with without my alarm going off. That's my favorite way to wake up. I hate waking up to the sound of an alarm, right? And it's sunny outside, and I open up my window, and you do you do like really fine grained details of then I go brush my teeth, and then my favorite outfit is clean and ready to wear, and you kind of go through it. But then when we go through that, we recognize there are things that means um you need to go to bed and get enough sleep so that you could wake up without your alarm going off. So we actually have action steps that come from that exercise because you're absolutely right without the action, and I think that's why people think it's woo-woo because I think if they did think they missed the action, the key component of it is the doing, right?

Michelle Massunken 21:08

And we tell clients that all the time, but it's in the doing. It's one thing to think about it and to want this and get clarity, right? Yeah, but I actually have to take steps towards it. I actually have to move like 100%, and I actually have to do things that are in alignment with what I'm seeing and visualizing.

Maria Cherkasskaya 21:21

Yeah. And I want to touch base a little bit on uh action because you know, manifestation contains like getting clear what you want, having the right mindset, the right belief, and then what I like to say is um not just action, it's inspire action. So tell us more. Like that. Yes. So I do believe that when you have ideas that come to your mind, usually it means that you have enough energy to execute it. So let's say, yeah, probably in my life, it never never crossed my mind that I have to go and study to be a doctor because this is not my purpose, this is not who I am. So if you can differentiate your brain thinking and your internal voice, your internal voice in most cases helps you to drive you in the right direction. So when you have this energy all of a sudden, this idea that comes to your mind, I like to execute it right away because I feel like okay, well, if you're some kind of like the universe, God, or whatever you want to believe, you have this spark that you need to follow. And usually, in most cases, when you follow this energy, there's something beautiful unfold and you're getting closer to your goals and your dreams. So it's not just like action where that could potentially lead to burnout, especially like when you're entrepreneurs, when you work in 24-7, 24-7, and like, okay, I'm gonna do it, like no matter what, I'm gonna do it and gonna do it. But there's also this component of inspire action. Does your business right now bring your joy? Is there something that you might want to potentially change because it doesn't feel in alignment with your bigger vision? So putting a work, it's nice, but having this inspire actions that align with your vision, I think that's a little bit component that a lot of people need to make sure that they tune in. Yeah, tune in. Yeah.

Tina Wilston 23:26

I love that because one of one of the things that I think of is there's like the thinking brain, and then there's who we are that's hearing the thinking brain. And you're talking about who we are being in alignment. And I think the thinking brain can get in the way of that. So you can see how self-doubt, for example, you could have that inspired feeling, but then you don't take the action because the thinking brain tells you, what if this happens, what if that happens, and then you listen to this instead of listening to that.

Michelle Massunken 23:52

It's almost that intuition, right? And just being able to kind of follow suit on that and challenging the unhelpful parts of our thinking brain that might get in the way of what we feel on the gut level.

Maria Cherkasskaya 24:02

100%. 100%.

Michelle Massunken 24:03

You touched on burnout a little bit, and so how do you stay grounded or how do you coach your entrepreneurs to stay grounded and aligned with the vision of their business when burnout comes into the equation or it gets hectic or all the all the what-ifs come up for them? How do you stay in alignment with that?

Imposter Syndrome: New Vs Experienced

Maria Cherkasskaya 24:23

Yeah, for sure. Let me just give my takeaway when it comes to burnout, and there's could be something that's going to contradict it to each other, but um, whatever helps at the end of the day. So I believe the concept of a burnout, I don't want to say it doesn't exist, but I feel like this is when you have internal conflict within yourself. That's when burnout is gonna happen in your life. So in this case, let's say if you wanna take care of your kids, if you wanna uh lay down, if you wanna take a rest, but you end up working, so you have internal conflicts uh inside of you. And that's the reason why you have burnout. So what you need to do is unpack on your internal conflicts and pretty much honor your needs what you need. So in this case, it helps a little bit with this burnout, and I wanna make sure when you feel in this burnout, you actually have an honest conversation with yourself. Where do I feel right now I betray myself? What do I actually wanna have uh right now in my life? Do I really need to spend like an hour or two working on my business? Or maybe if I'm gonna spend like this time you know spending with my family, I'm gonna get more recharge, I'm gonna have a little bit more fresh ideas that gonna to gonna improve my business in a long-term perspective. So this burnout is coming from this internal conflicts, and of course, you guys more know about burnout because you you you have a little bit, I guess, more experience, but that's something that crossed my mind. You know, so this is the expression that I saw once, and it's really put me in a bit different perspective when it comes to burnout.

Tina Wilston 26:06

I love that. That's that's because I would say for us, slightly different wording, but like if there's a values misalignment, like or a values conflict, I really value being, let's say, a very hard worker and being viewed as very, let's say I'm working at a job and I want my boss to view me in a certain way, which is like hard worker and I'm contributing and all that, but I also want to be viewed as a good mother.

Maria Cherkasskaya 26:28

Yeah.

Tina Wilston 26:29

And how sometimes I don't know how to make both those things happen. And I'm often because I work with a lot of people where they feel really guilty when they're at work that they're not with their family. And but when they're with their family, they're very guilty that they're not working on work. And we very much work on, okay, when you are at work, focus to be your best that you can. You've got that one hat on right now, just do that the best that you can. And then when you're at home, we've got that hat on now. And so we have to do that the best that we can, and we have to put the rest of it aside because if you are trying to do both all the time, you're never gonna feel like you're doing a good job at either of them ever. So I feel like it's very similar. You're gonna burn out very fast if you're trying to be good at both things at the same time. While neglecting your own needs at the same time, yeah, because where's that third value by value?

Maria Cherkasskaya 27:15

Like, I need time for myself. Yeah, yeah, no, exactly, exactly. And you touch a very good point when it comes to staying present. We have this brain that non-stop, so we need to learn how to stay present and to be grounded. So, for example, you know, that's why I actually love meditating, no matter what I try to meditate every day, because it's not about for me to be and relaxed, it's the ability to uh train my brain to be in this present moment which apply in real life. So, because you know, we might be here, but at the same time we might be thinking about like family and friends, you're not there, so you you're constantly tired, you have this noise all the time in you in your in your in your brain, so ability to stay grounded. And for example, like so let's say if I'm feeling overwhelmed, and let's say I'm driving between meeting or between clients, so I'm like I'm driving, right? So nothing I can do about it, right? But for example, there is an exercise where you choose specific color, and when you're driving, you're start paying attention to these colors. That's what it does, your brain starts focusing on on different topics and you it makes you a little bit feel more grounded. Oh yeah, like something something simple like that. You know, you can put like some little bit relaxing music, you can call your friend to complain. And again, like I'm driving, I'm driving in my car, right? So there's a way how you can incorporate it. Exactly. I feel like people looking for this magic pillow when magic pillow is um in a simple things.

Tina Wilston 29:08

It's so true. Yeah, I feel like this is a perfect segue though. I really want I think we really want to hear about her 10-day uh silent retreat. Let's have a moment of silence for that. Because I can't imagine. So I would love to hear tell us about that. What happens over 10 days of silence?

Maria Cherkasskaya 29:29

So, first, let me just uh set the stage. If uh five years ago I never meditated.

Tina Wilston 29:35

Okay.

Maria Cherkasskaya 29:36

So if someone would tell me that I'm gonna end up being 10 silent days meditation, uh like Okay, so you went from never meditating straight to 10 days. No, like I started, yeah. I start I start meditating and eventually I felt like I was ready to go to this longer meditation. It's called Vipassana. So this is a specific specific name. We do have a beautiful place close to Odawa, like uh in Montebella. Okay. Um idea is that it's a silent meditation. You are pretty much meditate. So there is no eye contact. You're not able to have like eye contact with other people. No one. No. You're not allowed for the whole ten days? For whole ten days. Wow. You don't feel painful. Just thinking about it feels painful. Yeah.

Michelle Massunken 30:28

Is it because you're it's you're trying to stay grounded?

Manifestation Myths And Action

Maria Cherkasskaya 30:30

Yeah, it's yeah, it's all about uh looking at yourself and uh doing some internal work and it's all about you. Okay. And uh pretty much I thought that okay, well I'm just gonna I hope you know it's gonna be good good weather. I can go outside, I can go for some You're not able to even to walk there. You can you know, there's like a very small like back backyard, I would say. Like you can kind of go outside, like when it's a little bit breaks, but at the same time, it's all this is what you see what what you do. You just sit and you meditate with your closed eyes, and you wake up at 4 a.m. to to do a first meditation. That was insane. Um, definitely challenging from a mental perspective. Yeah, oh my gosh. But first, um, some of the like insights, crazy insight, uh, and I was very proud of myself for the person that was not able to be in a silence. You know, I used to always have like some kind of like TV or music to be in this silent mode where I fully accept who I am, what I do. That was such a big accomplishment uh to me. And what exercise that you do, you focus on your breathing. Okay. I like this concept there where you don't force your breathing. You so there's a concept that you don't really um you don't force your breathing. You don't try to breathe deep or you don't try to do anything just an actual rhythm of your breath. Yeah, exactly. And you just see it for and you you you just like what you know, whatever how whatever you breathe, you just breathe. You brain start wanders, you come back to your breathe. Okay. You feel like you wanna you feel d pain in your back, you come back to your uh breathe.

Tina Wilston 32:33

Because does it have to be a certain like seated meditation? So is there like a pillow that you're expected to sit on in a certain position and all that?

Maria Cherkasskaya 32:43

So uh there are some people that uh ask for back support. Okay. I wasn't one of them. My my my first day or my second day, my back hurt it a lot. Okay. But the idea is that you learn you don't react to external factors. You feel discomfort in your body, you focus on your brain. Just notice it. You just not like the sleep though, because just notice it.

Michelle Massunken 33:12

But you're losing. You're about to pass out, just notice it.

Tina Wilston 33:19

Oh my god, just be aware.

Maria Cherkasskaya 33:27

Pretty pretty much, pretty much that idea. Yeah. Well, you still can you know move if we even need it. It's fundamental. No, you're allowed to move.

Tina Wilston 33:41

Okay, you're allowed to move. And I understand the difference between like just my posture is getting tired or sore versus my legs is like so you sit for one hour, there's a short break.

Maria Cherkasskaya 33:54

You sit for one hour, there's a short break. You sit for for two hours, there's a short break.

Tina Wilston 33:59

So how do they let you know there's a break? Is there like a bang?

Maria Cherkasskaya 34:01

A bang, like a bang. There's like gong. Okay. Yeah, yeah, okay, yeah, yeah. Wow. Yeah.

Michelle Massunken 34:07

What I guess what what how did you find that, I guess, interesting challenging what would for many of us be like intuitive and natural things, like making eye contact or like moving around posture-wise. Like, how did you find that that helped you overcome certain things that are naturally, I guess, what we do?

Tina Wilston 34:24

Very fundamental to being human.

Maria Cherkasskaya 34:29

Well, I don't want to say there was like I uh came out there from like a totally different person, right? Because I did a lot of internal work on myself. So for me, it was uh I was very comfortable uh to be by myself, even though I got I got bored. There was times that I got bored, yeah, right. But and I think it was like day five. Day five, okay. Well, I I made it five five days, okay. Like, you know, there's more. Um so I mean Do people leave? Like, yeah, people's not a prisoner. Exactly. You're not a prisoner. It's it's by choice. By choice. Yeah, some people decided to leave. But the whole thing was 10 days, like the whole yeah, okay. 10 days. So it's actually like 12. So you arrive first day, right? And then day one, 10 days, and then departure. Yeah, departure, right? So it's a full time. You're allowed to make eye contact on departure day? Yes, okay, yes. And it it is very weird. Do I want to say it was transformational? No. Do I want it to say that I have learned new things about myself? Definitely right now. Okay, well, I did 10 silent meditation, right? So if I need to wait like in a waiting room for five minutes, I I I can do it, right? Okay. So, and you this experience where you fully so I guess this experience when you don't react to external factors. So you train your brain. Very often, when it comes to emotions, everything that's happening to us, we used we used to like, okay, well, we react.

Tina Wilston 36:10

Yeah.

Maria Cherkasskaya 36:11

And I like to train my brain so I don't always react. Wow. Right. I think that's oh, that's massive.

Tina Wilston 36:19

That space between like the trigger and the reaction. Because that that space is when you get to make the decision on how you're gonna respond to the situation.

Maria Cherkasskaya 36:26

Yeah, and I I don't not gonna lie, you know, I have my you know, my best friend here right now. She's gonna tell me that I do have a like mental breakdown sometimes. Not like I'm perfect, but but still, but still, you know, sometimes there's some situation that happens right now. I feel more at ease because I don't really react. And at in a moment, I choose to look at a positive side. Yeah. And I think that's some of something something that I really wanna to continue doing in my in my life. And it's all about okay, well, I done this 10 10 the day silent retreat. You know, it's how I'm gonna apply this to real life. That's that's a that's a real equation.

Tina Wilston 37:03

Did they give you a reason why it was 10 days?

Maria Cherkasskaya 37:05

Was there like research behind it? Or yeah, there is a research behind it, and there's a like whole concept. It's like it's called vipassana. So all the 10 days is part of the vipassana. Yeah, it's part of vipassana. So there's actually uh uh one-hour lecture where we listen some philosophy behind it, and he talks about it the exercise that we can do when it comes to breathing. So you actually focus on only a small part of your uh body. So it's uh right here.

Tina Wilston 37:40

So for everybody listening, she's pointing right under her nose.

Maria Cherkasskaya 37:46

Yeah, so for five days we focus on this uh under our nose section, and uh you sent us goes so high after a while. You like you can like you can feel your breathing and ever everything. It's it's it's insane.

Tina Wilston 38:04

Am I safe to assume too you can't take notes? You can't like journal or not.

Maria Cherkasskaya 38:07

No, no, no, no, no, no journal.

Tina Wilston 38:10

So I'm not gonna remember this.

Maria Cherkasskaya 38:13

And again, it's uh it's about able to sit with yourself, even though even when you're not comfortable. Right. Just sit with the thoughts that are coming up for you. Yeah, exactly. Wow, that's remarkable. Yeah, and it it's uh, you know, we have this like one hour lecture, and he always uh starts with okay, well, that day one, you have nine days left, and then it's a day two, you have eight days left.

Tina Wilston 38:41

So every day he started lecturing with this, and I'm like How did you feel on like day nine when you have one day left? Did you do you remember how you felt when you know, okay, the light is coming at the end of the tunnel? Is it like I'm excited for this? Am I like, oh, I'm kind of enjoying this now?

Maria Cherkasskaya 38:59

I feel like I have my moments, ups and downs. There was like a moment where I'm like, okay, well, I'm excited, I can do it, and I'm like, why am I even doing this? You know? So there was a time and I'm like, uh, but then so there's like ups and ups and downs, ups and downs, but I'm like, okay, I'm here, why not just uh, you know, good for you for sticking it out.

Tina Wilston 39:18

Yeah, that's amazing. Because I can see the amount of times your brain would be like, I think we're eight days is good. I was I wanted to stop three days ago and I didn't, so good for me.

Inspired Action And Intuition

Maria Cherkasskaya 39:27

So but I feel like after day six, yeah, I think after day six, you're like, okay, like four days left. Like if I made it this far, exactly that's true. Yeah. Yeah.

Michelle Massunken 39:38

So that's amazing.

Tina Wilston 39:40

Definitely not recommend to anyone. No. To anyone or everyone? Do you mean I wouldn't recommend it to anybody else, or I wouldn't recommend it for everyone?

Maria Cherkasskaya 39:49

I wouldn't recommend for everyone. Okay. Because I feel like you need to be uh definitely in a very good, strong mental health and be prepared, you know, especially right now if you already have some issues in your life, if you're gonna be by yourself. I think people with like sort of abandonment uh stuff that might be really tough to do for 10 days, yeah. You know, I like to I like to compare this, like let's say uh how some people learn to swim, you know, there's like you throw yourself on in the water, right? And then you end up learning how to swim. The same idea, right? If you want to deal with you some of the internal issues that you have, if you want to go with a hard path, okay, well, lock yourself in a 10 days guarantee you're gonna improve a lot, but that's gonna be a very, very difficult path. So I feel like some of the benefits of being there you can achieve right now by going a little bit more gentle way.

Michelle Massunken 40:44

Just ease into it a bit more than going to the deep end.

Maria Cherkasskaya 40:47

Exactly, exactly. That's amazing. Well, thanks so much for allowing me to share this because it was a while ago and like that's amazing.

Michelle Massunken 40:59

So, what's next for you?

Maria Cherkasskaya 41:01

What's next for your business? Okay, what's next? Uh so a few things. I'm currently working on it. Uh definitely uh because I have my own marketing agency, I want to scale uh much more. So I do have right now looking for more people to join. So I'm stepping in in a more uh in more even leadership role where I have to not just take care of my clients, else I have to take care of my employees. Um, so that's uh my definitely a new chapter. I wanted to do more events for manifest change community, uh especially in person. Right now, I do have a very private close group where we focus more on um you know on some of the activities, how to improve life. So I want to expand this uh for sure a lot. So that's I think my uh top two things that's uh right now in on top of my mind. Um, I do have all the time, like I always develop and I always learning. I feel like there's a beauty when it comes to okay, what's the next uh step? Because I feel like when we stop growing, we start feeling stagnant. It should be like a very good balance between pushing yourself, but at the same time not pushing too much. Um so at least this is my two goals right now when I want to place a good uh focus. Uh, but honestly, I'm pretty much open for anything that's gonna throw my way, and uh I feel like sometimes we like to put put ourselves in a box, so that's how life should be. And when you listen to your inner thoughts, so sometimes you're allowed to change, you're allowed to let go, you allow to move, you're um you're allowed to do pretty much anything that you want, and I feel like the beauty when you decided to follow your heart and pretty much make anything that you want traditional, not traditional, quit job, uh you know, so move to different countries. I think this is the beauty of this. You know, this is my two goals right now. But if I'm gonna have my inner voice that I need to all of a sudden to stop my business, I'm gonna stop my business and I'm you know, gonna go to maybe retreat to India for a year. Who knows? Right? Exactly, exactly, right? So I feel like when you follow your heart, magic happens in that when the universe supports you, and uh we don't need to put ourselves like in a in a box, okay. Well, here's what next. Of course, you have like long-term vision, but being open for so many possibilities that can come your way, I think that's that's a magic that's when magic happens. We call that pivoting all the time.

Michelle Massunken 43:58

We pivot power. Yeah, sometimes we get so rigid, right? We get so rigid with comfort what we're comfortable with and what we have as our normalcy, but yeah, sometimes being able to pivot and being flexible really is such a strength. Yeah, for sure. For sure. Well, this was very helpful and informative.

Maria Cherkasskaya 44:14

Thank you so much. Thank you. I appreciate you guys for allowing me to share my story and uh rumble a little bit, hopefully provide valuable insight.

Tina Wilston 44:24

Very definitely yeah. And we'll make sure that all your contact details are in our show notes so people know how to find you. Especially my last name. That's great. Yes, I'm gonna give it a shot. Cherkaskaya. Cherkaskaya. You got it. You got it.

Maria Cherkasskaya 44:40

No, I appreciate you, Young, for saying my last name, so that's good. That's good. Thank you.

Tina Wilston 44:48

Thank you for tuning in. We'll see you next time.