We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Marianila Acosta. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Marianila below.

Marianila, appreciate you joining us today. Let’s kick things off with your mission – what is it and what’s the story behind why it’s your mission?

I firmly believe that we should all do what really makes us happy, that is the basis for the development of the human being in all areas of life. I also firmly believe that economic stability can be achieved by doing what you love, no matter how difficult an activity may seem or even out of the ordinary for the rest of society. I have experienced it first hand, I came from my country leaving a Chemical Engineering degree to be a Holistic Therapist and be able to support people in different situations and even encourage them to find what really fulfills them.
I have found that 80% of what paralyzes a person and even makes them sick is a lack of confidence in life and in themselves. That comes from many life situations that we live from a very young age, ample to analyze here.
In my particular case, leaving a career as an engineer seemed to many to be madness and economic suicide, especially if we consider that within holistic therapies the one I use the most is Therapeutic Tarot as a resource for coaching and to understand what is that unconscious that my client is affected.
But you know what? I am absolutely happy and that fact alone is worth it! and, best of all, financially prosperous helping many people.
I combine these unconventional therapies with what I have studied with a more scientific basis, such as Neuroscience and Buddhist Psychology, which is the study of self-knowledge, to name a few. This is how the Neurotarot and Psychotarot arise, for example.
GratitudSpa, which is my company, and Marianila Acosta, which is my brand; They were born in the parks of Orlando teaching free meditation classes as the basis for a personal transformation. I am evaluating returning to this activity here in Tampa where I have little time to move. I am here to support the community from my resources and my experience. It would be interesting to know who joins this initiative, it would be nice to see you forming this community with me.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I am going for 5 years in this country, first in Orlando and then in Tampa. Like many immigrants, I went through different jobs such as housekeeping, always knowing that I wanted to do something different with my life than what I had done up to that moment. Many people did not understand why I simply did not look for a job in the Petrochemical Industry when with my 14 years of experience it would have been easier and would earn more money. What I can tell you is that I loved and enjoyed my career very much, but that no longer made me happy. In my country, Venezuela, I studied many holistic therapies in parallel with my scientific career, so this change of life that emigration gives you also gave me the opportunity to look deep inside myself and decide to start completely from scratch.
Deciding to experiment at almost 40 years of age can be very scary, especially if you are alone in an unknown country; but it was the moment of all or nothing! to do in practice what he preached with the words: Trust myself and trust in life (God, Universe, Energy or whatever you want to call it).
I didn’t know where to start so I started giving free meditations in Orlando parks and doing free Thanksgiving cocoa ceremonies for the community. It was also my way of thanking the United States for opening its doors to me after a long economic and political crisis in mine. That’s how I started.
In this time I have studied several additional tools such as neuroscience, Buddhist psychology, biodecoding, transgenerational analysis, mindfulness, chakra healings, to mention just a few. From that place I offer online guidance to people with a holistic view of the four bodies of being: physical, mental, emotional and spiritual.
In this field of holistic therapies there are many wise and special people, I think that in my place what differentiates me is that mixture of science and spirituality that for me should be the basis of everything, because the human being is not only spirit nor only body, is a mixture of everything and must be treated as a whole. At least from my point of view.

I am proud to have started from the unconditional support of the community in the parks, now I live from my therapies but I need contact with people. So I’m thinking of going back to the parks, now in Tampa, to humbly continue contributing from my experience.
I know that my way of looking at life and my service are a bit extravagant perhaps, but I am proud to be me and to be happy and, from that happiness that is doing what you love, to be able to serve those who simply allow themselves to look at something different . We can ask many of the greatest characters in history who were unconventional at the time but they are the ones who have left us an important legacy contributing to the society that we are today.

What’s been the most effective strategy for growing your clientele?

The references, my satisfied clients have been my biggest and best way to grow because they are the ones who send me more clients and they don’t stop doing it despite having spent time and finished their queries.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

The biggest resilience challenge for me was daring to be unconventional. To not offer the same thing just because for marketing or strategy it was the best and simply be me and create my own way no matter if it seemed strange. Because there are many holistic therapists, there are many coaches, there are many tarot readers and so we can follow the examples. But there is few combining these tools in a single session and helps you look at the integrity of your being. Based on the above, the first thing I had to achieve was to reconcile with myself so that I could later show people my vision even though it was not easy for them to understand.
Go ahead despite my own judgments and those of others. And even in spite of the economic odds when you offer unconventional services.
However, here I am, achieving it step by step, pulse by pulse.

Today with these letters I just want you to know that no matter what you want to achieve, no matter what… it’s possible if you believe it is.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.gratitudspa.com
• Instagram: @marianilaacosta
• Facebook: @marianilaacosta
• Twitter: @marianilaacosta
• Other: [email protected]