We recently connected with Soojin Kim and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Soojin, thanks for joining us today. We’d love to hear the backstory behind a risk you’ve taken – whether big or small, walk us through what it was like and how it ultimately turned out.

I remember myself as introverted, the shy, quiet girl who would open up after I felt safe and more comfortable, maybe… My early twenties I lived in a world where I didn’t quite understand what self-love was and played it safe. I graduated from the University of Michigan and wanted to go to Parson’s and move to New York. After being accepted into the fashion marketing program and sharing the news with my parents, my father immediately objected the idea. I was raised by immigrant Korean parents who were overprotective but wanted the best for me in this world but had funny ways of showing it. I know they were doing the best they could with what they had and knew (a realization I would later understand through my healing journey). My father basically said he would disown me at his disapproval for pursuing fashion and moving to NY. I decided to follow my gut and intuition and moved away from home. My relationship with my parents at this time was not very close, the kind of deep emotional understanding or sharing that I didn’t know I was craving.
I found myself in a program with so many talented souls and felt way in over my head. I remember being in the computer lab for hours trying to create denim patterns in Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop. I had very little experience with these programs and I was basically teaching myself because of my love of expression through fashion.
The first year was torturous, lonely and beyond competitive. I somehow didn’t let this deter me on my path. There was this strong inner drive and voice guiding me forward. I remember just trusting and showing up everyday. I was also taking 22 credits due to the expensive tuition, working and adjusting to living on the east coast. The second year felt more grounded, I felt resilient and very creative. I had internships at Allure Magazine and Bottega Veneta which were eye-opening. I remember forging my own path and it opened so many doors. I wanted to make it in NY. I was starting to receive so job offers as at the end of the program. My family was definitely struggling without me at home. I was the rock, the translator their everything being the oldest daughter and the one who usually took care of things because of the language barrier and beyond.. My family needed me to be home, come home. They really needed me because things were falling apart, my parents health were of concern and family is so important. I had to make a decision to move back to Michigan but this was devastating to my being and soul. There was a deep level of sadness inside of me as I tried to find creative jobs in marketing but only found soul sucking jobs that didn’t fulfill me. I started practicing yoga. I fell in love with yoga because it connected me to my body and spirituality. I have always wondered about purpose, our why. Why are we on this earthly plane? What is the meaning of life?
I was working meaningless jobs, being there for my family and diving deep into yoga. I took a yoga teacher training because I wanted to learn more about the history, the asana and deepen my own practice, not because I wanted to teach.
After training, so many of the trainees and teachers at the studio encouraged me to do feedbacks and try teaching. The thought of this was mortifying. I remember blacking out for presentations in school and did not like to be the center of attention. The more I would delve into the practice and finding myself, the more I realized I had to confront these fears, the inner dialogue. Sweaty hands, being afraid to speak my truth and getting vulnerable were my experiences during this training.
I received my 200hr RYT certification and started to teach yoga. I remember the first few years of teaching as a blur, with constant pep talks even though I was trembling on the inside. The more I immersed myself in the yoga community, the more I loathed working in the corporate world. I decided to leave my job and pursue being a yoga teacher full time. I travelled to India to study for a month at the Vedanta Ashram in Pune. I was fully diving in and following my intuition. I didn’t really find my voice for several years because I was still finding myself, learning ways to accept and love myself along the way. So much perfectionism to war against, the incessant comparing and not enough beliefs. I really struggled to make a living and probably questioned if I had made the right decision 1,000 times. I moved studios at started teaching at Citizen Yoga, an alignment based studio where I had to learn the fundamentals and alignment yoga. I had major impostor syndrome and felt so inadequate because I never could never know enough. Fast forward 9 years later, and I am still teaching yoga full time. I have found my voice, discovered healing through self-love, connecting to the divine feminine and goddess archetypes that help me invoke the power and magic I have always had inside of me. I have learned the power of community, human connection, healing the body and heart through movement. I feel grateful beyond words to be able to host yoga retreats all over the world reminding people of their power and to live life deeply and fully. It is a privilege and honor to share a practice that has changed my life beyond my imagination. I get to hold myself accountable and remind others to trust and believe in themselves in safe and brave spaces.

Soojin, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I never thought I could or wanted to be a yoga teacher. The power of believing in yourself can truly manifest anything you want. I offer alignment based yoga and therapeutic yoga while weaving in many modalities such as somatic movement, creative expression and exploration, Qi Gong, and dance. I love offering pranayama, Kundalini yoga and infusing mudras into classes. Holding a safe and brave space is extremely important for me. I hold this as one of the most important elements in my teaching. When we feel safe and supported, we can really do anything. I have 700+ hours of teaching from hatha yoga, restorative yoga, kundalini, Yoga Nidra, Ayurveda and therapeutic trainings. I focus on playfulness and connecting to the inner child. I am a huge advocate for shadow work and creating sisterhoods through empowering spaces for women.

My love language is to remind people how extraordinary they are and that they can accomplish anything through healing the body, mind heart connection. I love to remind people to be in their weird and connect to their senses as a liberating practice for healing. My intention is to create devotional spaces for healing and curiosity. I love rituals because they create more meaning in our lives welcome more sacredness in our lives.

Have you ever had to pivot?

I have so many mentors and teachers that I look up to, whom I’ve learned from and teachers that are beyond remarkable that inspire me. In my early teaching days, I looked up to teachers like Elena Brower, Suzanne Awan, Todd Tesen, Kacee Must, Tracee Stanley, Justine Lemos, Ashleigh Sergeant, Meg McCracken. I taught from a place of who I thought the studios I taught at wanted me to be or who I thought students wanted me to be with pieces of Soojin. I remember a significant shift, really during the pandemic, after losing my father and navigating a long-term relationship where I was engaged but knew deep in my heart this was not the place of the love I thought was possible. A relationship where I was nourished on a soul level, a partner that supported my dreams and someone who was was genuinely interested in them and a partner who did their own work to be the best version of themselves. My fiancé at the time was battling alcoholism and there was so much betrayal. I left this relationship. I truly received the rose and thorn of impermanence from the loss of my father. I started to just let my FULL weird out, experimented in my classes even more and allowed myself to share fully and deeply all of me without holding back not worrying about what people would think because my soul was begging me to show up in my rawness and boldness. I showed up fully as Soojin without holding back and not worrying so much about how I should be and embodying more my truth. This has created the most freeing experience in my teaching and I have not turned back since. We only have this one life so why not dance and embody everything you are and share everything you want with the world because this is what the world needs more of. The loss of my father constantly reminds me about the impermanence of life. That we only have each day and this one life to show up as authentically and open hearted as we can because we never know when our last breath will be.

Are there any books, videos or other content that you feel have meaningfully impacted your thinking?

Vedanta Treatise by Swami Parasarathy created the building blocks to manage my mind and ego. From here, the philosophy of tantra allowed my garden to bloom with flowers and roses and unimaginable ways of living through embodiment. Sally Kempton’s book Awakening Shakti connected me deeply to the divine feminine. Pleasure Activism by Adrienne Marie Brown taught me that pleasure is a birthright so we can taste all the flavors of life deeply and intentionally. The To Be Magnetic podcast by Lacy Phillips has helped me manifest and trust in my powers to manifest and create more deeply. The Path of the Practice by Maya Tiwari, a beautiful guide to weave sacredness and meaning through Ayurveda.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.thesoojinpractice.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/soojint/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/soojin.kim.140

Image Credits
@debose__ @soyelmarcodelasfotos