Starting a New Career at 40

I was waiting outside of Bryan Kest Power Yoga Santa Monica studio, as my teacher Travis Eliot stepped out, he had just finished teaching a yoga class there. He called out my name, Maha? What are you doing here?  It was a few days after I had graduated from my 200 hours yoga teacher training that was lead by him and his wife and business partner Lauren Ekstrom. I told him I'm waiting to speak to Bryan Kest, I want to be on the schedule, I want to teach yoga here, this is where it all started for me. I live only 3 blocks from here. He smiled, and he said, tell Bryan I sent you. And just like that, it was official, I was on the schedule of one of the most world-renowned yoga studios in the world. 

During that same time, I still had a corporate job and was part of the largest merger in Corporate America history, AT&T acquiring DirecTV in 2015. Since I had a master's degree in organizational behavior and studied organizational development, part of the structural reorganization due to the merger, was to move me to a different role and become part of the transition team. While most of my legacy DirecTV colleagues left the company as soon as they could, I remained for 3 more years after the acquisition.

I graduated from my 200 hours yoga teacher training on December 17, 2017, and on January 4th of 2018, less than 3 weeks later, the AT&T- DirecTV merger was announced to be officially complete, consequently, the transition initiative was complete, and therefore the transition team that I was part of was no longer needed. The company gave me notice that I and my entire team will be laid off. I had a choice to either take a severance package, or try to find, apply, interview and receive a new job offer within AT&T in less than 60 days.

Everyone on my team was crying, overwhelmed and concerned about the future of their career. Frantically searching for random openings within the company, in departments that they had no experience in, with salaries less than what they were currently making. It was clear to me how making decisions based on fear and viewing the future from a place of lack, is what keeps people stuck in the rat race. 

I knew deep within that this was a sign! I knew that the universe was nudging me onto the right path, a new path, not an easy path but definitely a meaningful one. It was sending me a clear message, “you need to go this way, you were destined to be a yogi” so I immediately thought to myself , “I see you Universe, I see what's going on”. I took that severance package and ran with it, and never looked back! I got myself out of the rat race, and got busy. I created a plan for myself. Because If you don't have a plan, someone else will have one for you, and if you focus on nothing, you become distracted by everything.

I went on a journey of extensive self-study and discovery. Now that I was unshackled from the golden handcuffs, I have space to breathe and discover who I want to be in this world. What did I come here to create? 

I started delivering the teachings of yoga and meditation that truly saved my life. I started doing work that really matters and sharing it with people that truly care. It wasn't easy and it wasn't an overnight success. I had to make a major mindset shift from being an employee merely following marching orders to leading a business and becoming a true leader and entrepreneur. I was teaching at 6 a.m. at the Bryan Kest Power Yoga studio. I had to let go of my car because I didn't have a job anymore to pay for it. I would ride my rusty beach bike as the sun wasn't even up yet, and sometimes in the rain rush to the studio, only to find one student waiting for me, and sometimes none at all. The classes were donation based, and as a teacher I had to pay rent for my time slot on the schedule and then collect the donations from the students as my compensation. 

I had this unshakeable belief in myself and in the work that I did, even though I was losing money to deliver my work, which really didn't even feel like work because I loved it so much and I was having so much fun along the journey. 

I started reaching out to other Yoga studios in the area, and before I knew it I was teaching at the Yoga Co, the same studio in Venice, CA where I completed my yoga teacher training. I ended up teaching at the most prominent yoga studios in Santa Monica, CA. I expressed to Bryan Kest and his team that I am open to subbing classes. It was the best way for the diehard Brayn Kest fans to get to know me as a yoga teacher.

In fact, I remember one day I had just come out of the shower it was 10:15am, and I received a text message from Bryan's assistant, “Are you able to sub Bryan's class at 10:30 am? It's an emergency, Bryan is stuck in traffic and would not be able to make it in time”. I didn't think twice, I replied “yes I can make it!”. I slipped my yoga pants on, and my “I love Santa Monica Power Yoga” shirt that Bryan Kest and his team designed, and ran to the studio with my hair still dripping wet. 

I walked into the yoga room, and it was wall to wall crowded with what I gathered to be at least 100 people. I felt my knees starting to shake, so I went to the bathroom and locked myself into one of the stalls, trying to center myself. I put one hand on my heart and one hand on my belly, and I kept telling myself “you do this every day, just teach the same class that you've been teaching all week. You're a solid teacher, you know that to be true, I can, I will, I AM”. I kept repeating,  I can, I will, I AM… I can, I will, I AM.

I can sense their eyeballs tracing me as I was setting up the teacher’s space and the music. I can start to hear whispers in the background. I even see two people in the back beginning to roll up their yoga mats and sneak out of the yoga room. A woman came up to me while I was connecting my iPhone to the sound system, and said, “no offense, but I'm a yoga teacher, and I never take public classes, I only leave my house for a Bryan Kest class”. Another woman came to me, and said “I drove all the way from Malibu and hired a nanny so I can practice yoga with Bryan”. 

I know too well that feeling of disappointment when you have planned out your day and cleared out your schedule and drove all the way to practice with your favorite teacher, only to find out that the class has been subbed with a teacher you don't even know. Imagine that you go to a concert to see Elvis, and a new “up-and-coming” artist that no one has heard of, shows up instead. 

As I mindfully navigate my way across the room, trying to spot a few inches of the oakwood color shade of the hardwood floors for my feet to carefully land between the crowded yoga mats. Suddenly, I feel hands grabbing my ankle, and squealing voices of excitement, “Maha, are you going to be subbing this class?”. During that time, I was a yoga teacher trainer assistant to Lauren and Travis, in their 200 hours yoga teacher training. The same training I graduated from a year ago. The excited and friendly voices belonged to two of the trainees Stephanie and Ana, whom I was working with for 12 hours of training only two days prior. It was comforting to see friendly faces. They stood up and gave me big warm hugs. I whispered to them jokingly, “I think you are the only people who are excited that I am teaching this class and not Bryan Kest. 

I knew I had to act quickly before I lose the crowd.  I stood up and welcomed everybody, with a confident yet warm tone, even though internally my stomach was hollow and in knots. I told them that Bryan sent his sincere apologies, that there was an accident on the freeway, the roads are blocked and he would not be able to make it in time for class. I continued to say that I have been practicing with Bryan for more than 15 years and come from his lineage and yoga school, and assured them that they are in safe hands. Terrified from the 100 disappointed faces gazing at me, I immediately said “let's start in childs pose” and guided them to drop their heads down.

Although I was feeling extremely nervous, there was also this sense of deep confidence within me. I felt that I  truly belonged in the seat of the teacher. It was no accident that I was holding that space for those specific people, at that specific studio. I had laid out the groundwork for this moment in time, and I was going to claim it and stand in my power. I taught an invigorating, powerful yet holistic and spiritual 90 minute Master Yoga class, filling in for the most famous teacher in the United States of America. The teacher that introduced Power Yoga to the western culture and achieved celebrity fame status. The teacher that introduced me to yoga, internal power, and inspired me to become a teacher.

As soon as I ended the class, and uttered the words Namaste as I bowed my head to them in gratitude. I heard a big round of applause, which never happens after a yoga class. Then people started to form a very long line, to talk to me after class. I lift my head up and look outside of the glass walls of the yoga room and see Bryan Kest standing in the background and people talking to him as they leave the room. The two women that told me that they only came to practice with Bryan Kest, the yoga teacher that never takes public classes, and the mom from Malibu that had to hire a nanny, both came up to me and gave me the biggest hug. They sincerely apologized to me, and told me that, that was one of the most incredible and transformative classes they have taken, and they have been practicing yoga for more than 30 - 40 years. After the crowd began to fade away, Bryan came into the yoga room and gave me a big thank you hug, and he laughingly said “people were blown away, they didn't even care that I couldn't make it”. Saying that he had never seen anything like it, he told me “good job Maha!”, and then he smiled at me and said I also like your shirt. 

5 years later, to me subbing the famous Bryan Kest class, I began to reap the fruits of my labor, the very people who thought I was reckless to quit my corporate career to become a yoga teacher started to come around and became curious. My old corporate colleagues began to ask me to share my yogic tools and techniques with them. That led to me delivering corporate leadership development training, coaching assignments and guest inspirational speaking engagements. I started teaching executives and c-suite level leaders at Fortune 100 corporations the mindfulness techniques that lead to a an optimized state of mind, and as they began to reap the benefits of these tools and techniques at work, they kept inviting me back in and asking me to share my knowledge with the entire organization. One thing led to another until I launched my own company Women in Leadership Space.

I have since led inspirational speaking engagements on massive stages at the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, and spoke on stage in front of thousands of people from all around the world. There has been an HBO documentary filmed about my story, that is still currently in production during the writing of this memoir. I lead international yoga retreats at five diamond resorts across the globe and created my own Yoga-Alliance School where I lead my own 200-hours yoga teacher training.

You see, I had this mental toughness and resilience wired in from surviving a brutal upbringing of being enslaved as a female in Yemen, forced into arranged marriage twice, surviving multiple death threatening situations, and two civil wars before arriving in the U.S.. I found my freedom and true self through the practice of ancient yogic and modern neuroplasticity techniques, and I decided to dedicate my entire life to spreading the transformational techniques that saved my life and allowed me to become the successful female entrepreneur that I am today. 

My purpose in life is to be of service and to teach people how to live their best possible life and reach their highest expression! To sing their song and shine their light. If I can do it, literally coming from under a cave, so can you! This is the purpose that drives all the work that I do. All designed to help people heal, transform and manifest their best life.

I can tell you that never in my wildest dreams would I have imagined that I would be represented by an elite Hollywood talent agency that represents the likes of Bill Clinton, Matthew McConaughe, Kevin Hart and Ryan Reynolds, but that would be a lie. I did imagine this and I indeed manifested this! I imagined this in my mind's eye and felt the emotional quality of its manifestation deeply in my heart before the actual event took place. I rehearsed it in my body, matched its vibrational frequency and evidently attracted it to me.  I teach this very technique in my Manifest Your Dreams meditation advanced workshop and that is why I am writing this memoir, as proof that this stuff works! And I am just getting started!

When my reality did not resemble anything near success or glamor. I still closed my eyes, breathed fully and visualized my desired future. When I was almost getting deported, when I was handed my eviction notice, when I filed for bankruptcy, when I got fired from my job, when my boyfriend broke up with me and when I was quarantined all by myself. When people around me thought I was delusional, unrealistic and held interventions because they were so worried about me and wanted me to get a “job”, I still closed my eyes each and every day, first thing in the morning and last thing before I sleep, and visualized an optimistic future where I can spread the very teachings that I deeply love and saved my life and help as many people as I can on their own transformative journey to heal, transform and manifest their best life. 

I know many of you reading this memoir have been with me on this manifestation journey from the beginning. Moving from overcoming to becoming, and the journey keeps unfolding in the most stunning way. I used to be so camera shy, and I remember my knees would be shaking to the bones when I stand on stage to deliver an inspirational speech, but I did it anyway! Because I knew that it is the only way to share my gifts with the world, and others would benefit from my teachings. 

Don’t be scared to challenge yourself, there’s so much beauty waiting for you on the other side. If it was easy everybody would do it. One of the definitions of courage, is feeling scared but doing it anyway. Because if it wasn’t scary then it wouldn’t take courage to do it. Joseph Campbell famously said, “the cave you fear to enter, holds the treasure that you seek”. Remember to follow your bliss my friend!