Yoga is often reduced to flexibility, stretching, or a particular kind of workout. For Serah Barakat and Nader Diab, that definition is too small.
In this episode of The Weigh In, Serah Barakat and Nader Diab join host Steve Hoyek to explore yoga as a way of paying attention: to the body, the breath, daily habits, discomfort, other people, and the choices that shape a life. Their work brings that philosophy together with travel and adventure through Ohana Space Yoga and Yogiventures.
The conversation moves from first yoga classes and personal routines to shared vulnerability, challenging retreats, burnout, and the role community can play in meaningful change. The central idea is simple: an intense experience may create a breakthrough, but its value depends on what a person carries home.
Serah is the founder of Ohana Space Yoga and co-founder of Yogiventures. She tells Steve that yoga was not a career she planned. She fell into it practice by practice, first teaching in gardens and eventually building a studio and community.
Her description of that journey captures the episode's larger theme: yoga did not simply change her life; it changed how she experienced life.
Nader co-founded Yogiventures with Serah and co-founded Ohana Space Beirut. His path began with travel, photography, blogging, climbing, and a yoga class that helped connect his love of adventure with Serah's practice. Together, they developed retreats that combine movement, travel, challenge, and shared experience.
Serah describes yoga as something a person lives and embodies, not only something they do. Physical styles such as vinyasa, ashtanga, and hatha use movement as a doorway into attention. Quieter practices such as yin and meditation approach that state differently.
That broader definition also lowers the barrier to entry. Serah is clear that someone does not have to arrive at a class already flexible or strong. Practice can help build both. More importantly, consistent practice can teach people how they respond when something feels difficult, unfamiliar, or uncomfortable. That beginner-friendly approach echoes a broader principle: starting with movement that feels manageable is often more useful than waiting for a perfect plan.
For Steve and Serah, this awareness can influence choices away from the mat. The more closely someone notices how movement, food, rest, and routines make them feel, the easier it may become to distinguish a useful habit from a trend they are following automatically.
The conversation includes experience-based health claims about yoga, breath, connective tissue, the nervous system, and personal growth. Serah distinguishes between effects that can be measured and changes that are more subjective, such as feeling more intuitive, connected, or intentional.
When Serah and Nader began organizing retreats, they concentrated on the visible ingredients: the destination, accommodation, yoga space, and adventure itinerary. Over time, Nader says, they noticed that participants often remembered something else most strongly—the people.
A group that wakes early, practices together, eats together, and faces unfamiliar situations together can move beyond surface-level conversation quickly. Nader describes retreats where mothers and daughters see one another in a more vulnerable light, solo travelers become part of a group, and participants support each other through physical and emotional challenges.
Serah shares how attending retreats with her own mother helped her see her not only as a parent, but as a woman with her own experiences and history. She also recalls a participant who was afraid to jump from a boat into the ocean. To an observer, the jump might have looked small. For the participant, it marked a significant step beyond a limitation she had carried.
These stories do not mean every retreat produces transformation. They show the conditions Serah and Nader try to create: structure, attention, challenge, compassion, nature, and enough trust for people to try something difficult.
Nader's relationship with adventure is personal. He describes using difficult travel experiences to challenge himself, including tree planting in northern Canada, crossing from Mongolia to China, and hitchhiking in South America.
He also speaks about having fought depression through adventure. That is his personal account, not a treatment recommendation. The broader point he draws from those experiences is about perspective. Going without familiar comforts, navigating uncertainty, or completing something physically demanding can make ordinary life feel different on return.
Yogiventures applies that idea through carefully structured challenges. A participant may ride horses across Mongolia, follow an early morning routine, practice yoga twice in one day, or enter an experience that feels outside their normal identity. The aim is not discomfort for its own sake. It is to create an opportunity to question assumptions and notice what becomes possible with support.
Serah describes a retreat as a temporary bubble. Inside it, routines are organized, distractions are reduced, and people are surrounded by others attempting the same work.
The real test begins afterward.
Can a person bring some of that attention home? Can they keep one small habit, respond with more compassion, make time for movement, or reach out to someone differently? A retreat may interrupt an old rhythm, but daily choices determine whether the experience becomes more than a memory.
Nader makes a similar point when participants tell him they do not want to leave. His response is that they can apply parts of the experience at home. The lesson is not necessarily to recreate the entire retreat. It is to identify the practices, relationships, or decisions that made the experience meaningful and build from there.
Serah argues that wellness is not simply a trend. She sees its recent growth partly as a response to fast-paced work, comparison, constant stimulation, and the pressure to achieve more.
The irony is that wellness itself can become another form of pressure. A person may feel obliged to add more workouts, supplements, protein targets, routines, and rules until taking care of themselves feels like another impossible job.
Serah and Nader offer a less rigid approach. Notice what works. Try different forms of movement. Spend time outdoors. Start with a manageable commitment. Nader tells students that they do not need to attend yoga seven days a week; even one class can be a meaningful beginning. A recovery-first approach to weekly training can help keep that commitment realistic.
The same principle can apply to food habits. If making meals and routines more visible would help, download Journable to log meals and keep calorie and macro awareness manageable without turning wellbeing into another optimization project.
Their own routines are ordinary rather than optimized. Nader talks about laundry, coffee, walking the dog, work calls, travel, and afternoon practice. Serah starts with water, a phone-free dog walk, time in nature, coffee, silence, and sometimes a few pages of reading. The value is not in copying either routine exactly. It is in finding a rhythm that fits real life.
You do not need to arrive at yoga flexible, strong, calm, or experienced. Choose a suitable beginner class and let the practice develop gradually.
Before adopting a new wellness routine, ask what problem it is meant to solve, whether it fits your life, and how you actually feel when you do it.
One repeatable practice can be more useful than an elaborate routine that disappears after a week.
Yoga does not have to replace strength training, climbing, walking, Pilates, or another activity you enjoy. Serah describes it as a foundation that gave her more confidence to explore other forms of movement.
After a retreat, trip, class, or personal breakthrough, identify one behavior you can carry into normal life. Make it small enough to survive a busy week.
Community is not a substitute for individual effort, but it can make difficult steps feel safer and help a new habit last.
This article is for educational purposes only and is not medical advice. Speak with a qualified healthcare professional before making changes related to medical conditions, medication, or treatment.
You can watch the full episode on YouTube, listen to the episode on Spotify, or anywhere else you get your podcasts.
Steve Hoyek:
Today, I'm joined by Serah and Nader, the founders of Ohana Space Yoga and Yogiventures. Together, they've built a community around yoga, adventure, and retreats, creating experiences across places like Bali, Mongolia, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Kilimanjaro, and beyond. In this episode, we're going to talk about yoga beyond the physical practice, what actually happens on one of the Yogiventures retreats, why travel can be such a powerful reset, and how community changes the way people experience health, movement, and themselves. Serah, Nader, welcome to The Weigh In.
Serah Barakat:
Thank you for having us.
Steve Hoyek:
How are you guys? For those in the audience who don't know you. Can you tell us a bit about who you are and what you do?
Serah Barakat:
Thank you for the beautiful intro. As you said, my name is Serah. I'm the founder of Ohana Space Yoga and the co-founder of Yogiventures with my husband Nader. And yeah, I didn't set yoga as a career path. It just happened practice after practice. It didn't change my life. It actually changed the way I experienced life, and it was why I wanted to share this practice with others. And it started through some garden practices that moved into an idea of opening up a studio. And then across my path, I met Nader and we started growing this vision together.
And our mission goes way beyond just the practice of yoga on the mat, but how can we take people into experiencing life beyond what they know of life and how to go beyond their limitations as well through the practice and through adventures as well.
Nader Diab:
Yes. Hi, Steve. My name is Nader. Nader Diab. I'm the husband of Serah. I co-founded with Serah Yogiventures and co-founded the Ohana Space Beirut. To be honest with you, like Serah said, for me, I found yoga. Obviously through Serah. I started my yoga journey in a climbing gym. I used to go to this indoor climbing gym, and they had yoga classes, so I started practicing yoga. I wasn't too invested in yoga, but then I was very invested in traveling.
I'm a travel photographer, and I was a travel blogger for a while. I was trying to build my life around traveling and chose different careers that allowed it. I was living in Canada, and in 2019, when I moved back to Lebanon—it was just a visit, actually—I met Serah. I went to one of her yoga classes and completely fell in love with the space, with the way she was teaching, and with the way she was holding space. We sat down together and came up with this crazy idea of starting yoga and adventure retreats. She's like, “You're an adventurer, I'm a yogi. Let's take people on a journey.” For me, it felt extremely right.
I did not know where I was going to go after that, but I felt like this was the right calling for me. And yeah, that's how I actually started my yoga journey and my traveling journey with Serah.
Steve Hoyek:
Amazing. Serah, you are a yoga teacher. You've been teaching and practicing for many years. What has this journey of you teaching yoga taught you about people?
Serah Barakat:
So many things. So many things, but the thing that stands out is we're not very different. Like people think we're too different, and we all have our own hardships, and nobody understands what we're going through. But when you come into the space of this collective practice of yoga, and where you see people being challenged on the mat and the way they face their challenges, you start to understand how everybody's similar, how we're all passing through the same challenges together, and the practice and this community gives people this outlet to feel more connected to themselves and to others.
And yeah, that's the main highlight of just like this collective hardship that we all have, and that we can all work through that hardship together through yoga or through other practice, but the more we come together, the more we can be able to attain those to empower each other actually in those challenges.
Steve Hoyek:
Nice. And for the audience, many of whom have never heard of yoga, what is yoga? And what are the different types of yoga that people should be aware of? When we say yoga, what exactly is it that we're talking about?
Serah Barakat:
Yeah, I know everybody thinks yoga is mind, body, spirit, but it goes way beyond those three words that are like the general sense of what yoga is, but I feel yoga is in everything, and it's you don't do yoga, it's like something that you live, that you embody, and you can practice it through the physical practice. There are practices like vinyasa, ashtanga, hatha, where the body is the outlet to come into a meditative state.
And then you have yin yoga and meditation, some softer practices that soothe you into this meditative state, but also there is the practice of connection, of love, of compassion that actually brings people together and take you into that state where you feel also in a meditative state. So I feel like yoga is many outlets, but for the general audience, if you've never practiced yoga before, you don't have to be flexible to be able to come to class. It actually gives you the outlet to become more flexible, whether it's physically, whether it's through your mind, through the way you face your life. You don't have to be strong to come to practice. Also, the practice will build up that strength.
The more you show up, the more you're disciplined, will build up the strength again physically through the mind and through the heart. So the practice does reinforce the more you're disciplined with it, the more you show up to it continuously, the more it gives you space not just to tap into physical strength and flexibility and empowerment, but also beyond that through your mind, through the way you face everything in life.
Steve Hoyek:
Super interesting. Very insightful, actually. So, from the lens of a yogi, how do you think people can live healthier lives?
Serah Barakat:
I think for people to live a healthier life, I think they shouldn't go into those optimize more, do more, let's add one more workout routine, a new workout modality, a new morning ritual, a new supplement here and there because it's a trend. I feel it's just to connect more to their habits and to see what habits are working for them, and what habits aren't working for them, and it's a very personal experience, I feel. And the more connected you are to your body, the more you can listen to your body. I know it's a way to express it, but listening to your body is really being intuitive about what you're doing in terms of movement. Does it feel good? Then I should do more of that.
What am I having as a morning ritual? Does it feel good? Should I continue with that path, or I should shift things around? So it's just being more aware and listening more to how the body feels and reacts to certain habits and shifting from there and not like having to go through a list of like the trend is this, and we should follow through those trends.
Steve Hoyek:
Yeah, I think we both know this from first-hand experience, and I've seen it in so many others: that when we discover the practice of yoga, and when we start practicing yoga consistently and regularly, it just teaches us so much about ourselves and naturally makes us inclined to take healthier choices in life, eat better, because we start to really feel the difference between living healthily and living unhealthily. So, yeah, it's super interesting.
Serah Barakat:
Yeah, definitely. When you're connected to your body more, you're more aware of everything that you put into your body or everything that you experience, you would notice the instant shifts because you are really more connected, as you said, to your body as well. So, yeah.
Steve Hoyek:
So, this comes as one of the, let's say, the benefits of yoga, which is the cultivation of mindfulness, right? And understanding your body, understanding your physical body, how you're feeling, and the ability of interoception, if we wanted to use the technical term. So, obviously, there are many benefits to yoga as well that come from the many different practices as well. What are some of these, the health benefits of yoga, let's say?
Serah Barakat:
All right. So, first off, as you said, like the connection to the body. One, you're more connected and more intuitive, so you make better choices every day. And as well, the practice of yoga, when you show up on your mat and practice consistently, there is also a huge shift in the way you breathe and the way you give your breath capacity in the body and the way it you allow the breath to give you more space when you want to react to something or the way you approach something in life, it gives you a better reaction with your breath as well. So you're more in connection with the breath and with your body. And as well, it does hydrate your fascia as well, your connective tissue.
It lengthens your muscles, it strengthens your muscles because the practice of yoga embodies this duality of strength and softness. Of grace as well, and more fierceness. So there is always this balance. So you're always finding that strength through the body, through the muscles as well, and through length as well, through the fascia, which are your connective tissue, which allows you to release any tension that has been built up years after years after years. So you can actually start to reform the way your body shows up in practice, in the way you move, in the way you breathe, in the way you drive.
So it does affect everything you do, but showing up on your mat consistently, that's what the practice, this is where it starts from. Super interesting.
Steve Hoyek:
And obviously, a lot of these are things that we've recently learned and validated through modern science. But these are practices which are thousands of years old for some of them. And so, obviously, there are many things that modern science has not yet captured about, let's say, the health benefits of yoga.
Serah Barakat:
Yeah. First off, modern science did back up the benefits of yoga, as you said, like because yoga for many people might be might stand out as a spiritual practice. But I feel like in the modern days, science has validated why those practices really benefit the body, really benefit the mind, really benefit your parasympathetic system, affects your breath, affects your muscles, your nervous system, your digestive system, even your hormones. Everything is connected because we are focusing on mindfulness, on breath, on taking those moments of awareness and also moving your body, which is like medicine in itself.
But what I think modern science doesn't capture, and I feel like it's something that is more felt than is measured because science is like all about facts and measuring stuff. I feel it's more about this internal personal growth that one has when he shows up to the practice. It's about having a better intuition. It's about, as well, listening to your body. It's something that cannot be measured, it's only felt. Connection to others, maybe a better intuition as well. Those are things that I feel like science cannot measure, or maybe didn't find a way to measure them yet. But yeah, there are things that can only be felt when they are experienced.
Steve Hoyek:
Amazing. Let's switch gears a bit, okay? So, obviously, as Yogiventures, you organize some of the world's best retreats, the best yoga, and adventure retreats globally as recognized by TripAdvisor from the years 2022 up until this year. And in fact, just as of half an hour ago, you won the Travellers' Choice Award for 2026. So you are obviously doing something right. Tell us a bit about some of your retreat. Tell us a bit about what Yogiventures retreat is.
Nader Diab:
So the Yogiventures Retreat is a combination of, like you said, yoga adventure, wellness, community. And then, when we started doing retreats, you know, we came together with both our passions, and we thought that this is a good balance, you know, yoga. So, Serah does the yoga, I do the adventure, and we take people on these journeys. And then a few years in, we started realizing that yes, we're going scouting to all these beautiful locations from Bali to Mexico to Sri Lanka, we're going to all these destinations, and we're trying to find the best hotel and trying to find the best yoga shala. And we want to make sure that everybody is having an amazing experience.
And obviously, that's a very important part. You know, people want to be comfortable, they want to be in a setup that is beautiful. But then we started realizing that what people are connecting, what people are happy about, is the people themselves in the retreat and the connections that were being made. And we also realized that whenever Serah and I were comfortable holding space in a retreat is when we see people being happy, waking up early, coming to the practice, even if they're going biking in Jatilui between the rice fields. They're just caring about biking together rather than being solo. Even if we're doing a water blessing, they want to take a picture, all of them together.
These are small things that we started realizing, and we started reflecting on these things. And we're like, okay, so this is really the essence of a successful yoga retreat. Yes, we're very happy and very proud to have won the TripAdvisor, Travellers' Choice five years in a row. And it does come with hard work, but also our responsibility is also to showcase what we're doing and to ask people to write reviews. And they were just writing legitimate reviews on this platform. And yes, we also wanted to take that platform to be international, but we also realized that there are a lot of people in our region that, actually would want to come together.
And yes, we invite people from all over the world, but at this very time being, we're attracting people from the Middle East. And, you know, people are coming together and they're just connecting over the yoga and over the adventure and over the physical aspect of going out and adventuring and hiking and trekking and all that. But again, it comes always back to people connecting with one another. That's a very important part in the work that we do in the Welcome Circle. But even it starts when people start inquiring about the retreat. They call us up, they want to get the guidebook. We're always happy to go on a call to explain. I think the human connection is extremely important.
And yeah, in a nutshell, that's what the Yogiventures retreats are about.
Steve Hoyek:
Amazing. So, I would love to know what's something that you learned from one of these retreats about the human condition?
Nader Diab:
You know, I can't think of one example, but I can tell you, for example, we do have a lot of mom-daughter coming to our retreats, and it's amazing how sometimes they come together and you feel that yes, they are a mother and daughter, but they have their differences and they're not always connecting, and they're kind of judging each other because they're comfortable saying to each other, oh, don't do this, mom, don't do that, you shouldn't do this. And then when they come to that retreat, it's like the bond between the mother and the daughter becomes so strong because both of them are being vulnerable. So the daughter is watching her mom being vulnerable, vice versa.
And that for me is beautiful to watch and beautiful to see when you know that you're reinforcing bonds. And another example is we do have a lot of solar travelers, and that's something that we witnessed when we started doing the retreats. I'm like, oh my god, it's nice. You know, Lebanese people usually are like, let me see if my friends are coming and I'll book. And I'm like, no, no, no. I would love for you to bring a friend. It's good to bring a friend, but I would love for you also to come by yourself and meet other people. And then so, you know, I guess that's also how you build the community. There are different ways of building community.
And I know community today, the word itself is too mainstream. And, but I guess also people understood that building something, building a community or building a group of people that are coming and being supported by all these practices is what makes it solid, right? Is what people want to come and witness. And it's also to end on that, it's also showing when people are approaching us to come to our retreats. You know, they're not like, I want to see where we're going, I want to know the adventures. Oh, I like what I've heard so much about what you guys are doing in terms of community work. And I have a lot of friends that felt so comfortable coming to your retreats. And I want to come.
So, yeah, I think
Serah Barakat:
I want to add to that as well. When you were talking about the mother-daughter experience as well, my mom has attended so many of our retreats, and it did allow me to see my mother as her own, like as a woman who isn't just my mother, who also is a girl, who also had her own experiences and journeys, and to get to where she is right now. And this is a very beautiful thing to witness because it does allow each person that shows up to see everyone as a human on their own journeys, getting into their own experiences or their own vulnerabilities, and to always have that compassion for one another.
And one thing that stands out with me when it comes to like a moment in our retreats where it just was an aha moment that I'm on the right path and we're doing the right thing. Was one of our first ever retreats. We were in Turkey, and there was a girl that was afraid to jump into the ocean. And yeah, she was standing at the edge of the boat, and we were just encouraging her lightly, and she jumped into the ocean for the first time. And for her, it was like a huge moment.
Yeah, it was a huge milestone for her, which was amazing. That was a testament that we were creating the right space for people to feel safe, feel vulnerable, and allow themselves to take time in their healing journey. To witness that was a blessing in itself. It continued with more and more leaps of faith—people leaving their jobs, shifting their careers, or changing their entire lives. But because of its simplicity, that moment was so beautiful to witness.
Steve Hoyek:
What is it about retreats that creates these transformative experiences, where some people make life-changing decisions and others come back with a completely different way of life? Maybe we can tie this into some of the health benefits of yoga and adventure retreats like the ones you organize.
Nader Diab:
So, what I realized over the years is that the health benefit of a retreat is the discipline that you're giving to yourself throughout the whole retreat, right? Whether it's a nine-day journey, or a seven, or a ten, or whether you're hiking, or whether it's a more inwards retreat, there's discipline. We are putting discipline. People have to wake up at seven, you know, they practice, they fast, then they have a very healthy breakfast. They take some time to relax. We encourage people not to smoke. We encourage people not to drink. We encourage people to not be on their phones. We actually encourage people to not even take pictures during the retreat. That's partially my job.
But I think when you're creating that environment for yourself for nine days, soon enough you start realizing that if I live my life every day like this, I'm going to be healthy, right? So that's one aspect. The other aspect is that you're giving permission to other people to enter your space and for them to listen to you and for you to actually tell your stories, or if you have any traumas or whatever because people feel vulnerable and they feel comfortable to share, right? So imagine you live your life like this. Imagine in your surroundings with your neighbors every day.
You wake up, knock on your neighbor's door, and say, “Let's go run.” Then you come back, eat healthy, and share your stories. That would be an ideal scenario, right? Some people do it—yogis, shamans, and people who live in temples. They commit their lives to discipline, and basically, that's what we are trying to bring in terms of the health benefits of a retreat. That's the physical aspect. On the mental aspect, I think that's where most of the adventure comes in, but yoga comes in too. I'll let Serah talk about the yoga aspect.
In terms of adventure, for around 15 years I fought my depression through adventure. What I mean by that is I put myself in situations that were extremely tough. When I went tree planting and stayed for over seven months in northern Canada, I was physically and mentally exhausted. When I crossed from Mongolia to China over six weeks, I came back physically and mentally exhausted. Nothing booked, nothing planned—just putting myself out there, like when I hitchhiked in South America. These are some of the things that I did. When we came up with the idea of Yogiventures, that's exactly what I wanted people to understand.
I wanted people to go to Mongolia, ride horses for three days, not shower for three days, and actually understand what it's like to be a nomad. You're not going to be a nomad. You're going to return to your daily life and have a bathroom, a shower, and a bed. We take these things for granted. Imagine when you come back after these trips how much abundance you feel. I think that works its magic on the mental side because you start embodying that perspective. It doesn't last forever, but while it lasts, it helps you understand. That's why people come back to retreats.
We have a lot of people that do come back, not because of the destination again, not because they want to experience something new. So, I guess on the adventure aspect, but there's also the yoga aspect for me that is powerful.
Serah Barakat:
Very well said. So our motto in Yogiventures is “seek beyond.” It's about going beyond your comfort zone—experiencing discomfort in a way where the challenge can give you a breakthrough. For some people, the challenge is waking up at 7 a.m. and showing up on the mat to practice. On retreats, our practices are usually long, between two and two and a half hours, because we take people on an immersive journey and they practice twice a day. This discipline and devotion to showing up on the mat consistently every day isn't presented as a choice for people.
We're like, you have to show up because this is part of the work that you're showing up for. So for some people it is the mat and showing up on the mat and this is where most of the breakthroughs happen, and you would think that it's in the adventure, but it's on the mat where people start to realize that they really passed a certain threshold or a certain box that they were, they put themselves into, or the layers that have been put on them because they had to be in a certain way because of society, or they had to show up in a certain way. So, this is like the challenge they have on the mat and in the yoga practice.
And it's easier to do it within the retreat because everybody is showing up. Like they encourage each other. Everybody's showing up. We're there. We hold them with so much compassion, and there's one saying we say at the end of the retreat that this is not real life, this was a bubble.
That you were testing if you carry this bubble with you into your own life, and you really apply those, as Nader was saying, throughout your small daily habits, or the next time you see your neighbor and you smile at them, and you show them that same compassion, you show that person with you in the circle, this is where you can start to shift your life, to change your life, whether it's like on this mental aspect that will affect you physically and vice versa.
Nader Diab:
And I can proudly say that because people came on so many of our retreats, and I'm talking about students that are teachers today living here in Lebanon or abroad, they came to our retreats, and then I remember very well most of them at the end of the retreat. They're like, I don't want to go back home. This is so good. And my answer is our answer, but the answer is: like, this is like, you can take this and apply it back home. How do you apply it? Change your lifestyle. Change your friends. Change your surroundings. Change your habits. Go do a teacher training. Come back and travel. Make this your life. You know, like for us, it wasn't presented, but it was just, you know, it was.
I don't want to say it was an opportunity; it was a series of life choices that brought us to where we are today. For me, those choices were around traveling and connecting with people. That's what I was doing through my travels, and it's actually how I connected with Serah. People ask us, “How did you connect?” She messaged me through my travel blog, I replied, and we realized we were both Lebanese. I came back to Lebanon, and we connected. I always made an effort to connect with people who reached out through my travel blog, invite them, and create a relationship.
What I'm trying to say is that the retreats, yoga spaces, and all these places we are creating help people understand what this is all about.
Steve Hoyek:
So let's change gears, shift it back. So obviously as Yogiventures you're organizing retreats, and these days we hear a lot about wellness retreats. The wellness industry as a whole has grown a lot and has become very trendy, many different physical practices and wellness practices. Wellness spaces as well. Wellness spaces, all of this. So, why do you think that is, and why now?
Serah Barakat:
Yeah, I think wellness isn't a trend. It's always been there, but I feel like nowadays it's become a response, a response to the fast-paced life everybody's living, wanting to do more, to achieve more. Because of the media, you can see everything everyone is doing, and you want to compare yourself, and you want to achieve more than the other person's achieving. It's beautiful to dream and want to achieve, but at the same time, sometimes we overdo it and we arrive into a burnout, and that's like those are the people that show up to our retreats: are people who are burnt out that work, work, work, work, work so much. And they just need a space to pause.
They need a space to just be able to not think about doing the next step. That's why they come to organize retreats, because they want something to be organized for them. And like for our retreats in specific, you know, there are so many retreats all over the world and so many wellness spaces all over the world. And we all share the practice in a different way, but we have the same message. And for us, the way we like to share it is giving people the space to practice yoga, to be in nature, and to be in community, as we mentioned before.
And I feel like those pillars really give people the space to like slow down their rhythm and start to really realize what's going on in their mind and who they are. Because we think who we are is a result of all of the layers that we have from family, from work, from media, from this comparison, and I feel like people are resorting to those spaces because this is where they start to like, oh, one layer out, one layer out, one layer out, and they're like, okay, now I know more who I am, and they start to show up to their lives in a way that's more connected to their own truth.
I feel like people now want to know the truth about themselves and slow down their rhythm. Those are two of the pillars attracting people to these spaces. People love people, and we're made to connect with each other, with nature, and with living beings everywhere. There are so many aspects, but yeah.
Serah Barakat:
If you want to call it a trend, at least it's a healthy trend.
Nader Diab:
Some people jump on the trend because they see an opportunity in it, and there's nothing wrong with that, right? If you want to open a business around creating a health space or a wellness club, I think it's extremely valid as long as people are benefiting from that. When people enter those spaces, something changes. Whether they're doing a workout, a cold plunge, an ecstatic dance, or whatever it is, as long as it doesn't involve unhealthy habits, then it's good for you.
Steve Hoyek:
totally agreed. On this topic, let's say someone was looking to live healthier, would you recommend someone to just do yoga, or do you think it is not complete as a physical practice for one's physical well-being?
Serah Barakat:
Yeah, I feel like I personally do a lot of practices, and first off, I started yoga because of the physical practice, didn't you? I don't know. We all did. Most people. I think most people discovered. Maybe at that point in my life, it was the thing that attracted me to the practice, but then learning more about the practice itself, and as I told at the beginning, how it was changing the way I live my life that attracted me to go deeper and deeper into the practice. But I love moving my body, like Movement for me is the constant thing that grows with me. And I'm curious about a lot of ways of moving.
And yoga gives me this curiosity because it allowed me to explore my body in a way was like, oh, I can do that, and it gave me the strength and the trust and the courage. So that now, when I go climbing, I have that courage and that mindfulness. And now, when I go to the gym and I work out and I lift weights, I do it with purpose, and I have certain goals, whether it is physical or not physical. Like having physical goals isn't wrong, even if you're a yogi. Like you need to work on your temple, which is your body. But what yoga gives you is beyond that. It gives you the courage as well to go into different movement modalities as well.
And I encourage people to do everything, but start someplace. And I do encourage that they show up on their mat, not just at the gym, because it will open like a huge array of movement modalities just by practicing yoga.
Steve Hoyek:
Love it. Love everything about what you said. Let's move on to the section of the podcast called The Protocol. This is where we learn a bit more about you, your own practices, your own routines, and your opinions on certain things. So, Nader, we'll start with you. What's your morning routine for sixty to ninety minutes? No filter.
Nader Diab:
My morning routine is usually that I wake up and do laundry—and I'm serious. Sometimes I wake up and meditate. I also find that doing little things around home helps wake up my body. I'm always on the run and have [unclear] calls. We work a lot because we manage different spaces and retreats. When I wake up, I try to wake up my body through these small tasks. Then I kiss my wife and say good morning, kiss my dog, and start my day by doing my calls and finishing up my work.
And usually in the afternoon, that's when I head to the spaces, I love to do my wife's classes.
Serah Barakat:
You missed your coffee and your morning biscuit.
Nader Diab:
I like my coffee in the morning, and I like my chocolate biscuit, but that I stopped. I like my dates. Anyway, I try as much as I can not to look at my phone in the morning. I put it on airplane mode. Genius hack. Then in the afternoon, I practice, and that's mainly how my day goes. I drive a lot, I go to a lot of places, and I do a lot of meetings, but I really enjoy everything that I do. I enjoy every call that I do. I'm very grateful to be able to do that. On retreats, I like that I'm even more disciplined. At 6:30 I have to wake up.
I have to go set up the shala, make sure everybody's up. And I like that. I like this routine wherever we are, for example, in Bali, wake up, you walk through the rice fields. Every time I wake up in Bali and I'm going to the shala, I'm like, what an amazing job. You know, so yeah.
Steve Hoyek:
Maybe you can take a page out of the book that you were reading from earlier and let these practices from the retreats translate into your daily life as well. Serah, morning routine.
Serah Barakat:
Morning routine. As a yoga instructor, I do not wake up and meditate the first thing in the morning. I actually maybe do, but in my own way. So I wake up, water, and then I have my electrolytes with collagen, and then I walk my dog and without my phone. So that's my meditation, being in nature, listening to nature, waking up as well. And sometimes it's 15 minutes, sometimes it's 30 minutes, and that's like one of my favorite parts of the day. And then I come back and I do my coffee and I sit in silence. I do wake up like at least two hours before him, just to have like I like to just sit in silence and not have to think or do anything.
And some days I read five pages from a book that I'm reading. Yeah. Most days you read. Most days, yeah. Most days. I forgot about that. Yeah, I read. I walk Shanti at night in case anybody is wondering. Yeah, we take shifts walking the dog at night.
Steve Hoyek:
Shout out to Shanti. Nader, what is one health habit that you would never compromise on? Just being outdoors?
Nader Diab:
I guess. That's a good one. Being outdoors, traveling, and always doing something—being active. I've been active since I was zero. It's important to work out and practice yoga, but it's also important to be active, be outdoors, and create a healthy life where you enjoy what you do. When you enjoy what you do, you're active. When it's also related to the outdoors, that's mainly what's always in the back of my mind: What's the next trip? What's the next retreat?
What is the upcoming destination that we're going to go explore? Yes, we travel six times, seven times per year, and we're still going to these destinations. And I guess that is my anchor when I come back. It's like, okay, what's the next retreat that we're going to, the next trip, the next adventure. But also, you know, here at home in Lebanon, I'm, you know, we live in the mountains, so we're always outdoors, like walking the dog as well. You know, these are like small things, going for a walk. Yeah,
Steve Hoyek:
Serah, what's one health habit you would never compromise on?
Serah Barakat:
Movement—moving the body in any way at least once a day.
Steve Hoyek:
Okay, Serah, what's the most overrated advice that you hear spreading online?
Serah Barakat:
Optimizing optimization, like take that many supplements, eat that much protein, work out that much hours per day. And I've mentioned it before, I feel like listen to your body and like this over adding of rituals and habits and things of wellness that we should do is like overrated.
Nader Diab:
That's a good one. Same answer, honestly. When you're overdoing it and giving advice that this is how people should lead their health, these are the habits they should follow, and these are the foods they should eat—no. Everything is about balance, right? I always say that to students when they tell me, “I can't come. I have work, I have this, and I go to the gym.” I'm not asking you to do yoga seven days a week. Come once a week; it's more than enough. If someone is told, “Just come once,” they're already taking a great step, like with everything in life. So I totally agree: don't overdo it.
Steve Hoyek:
Totally agreed. But then let's flip the coin. What is the most underrated advice, or what's the best advice spreading online?
Nader Diab:
With trends on social media and what you follow and like, you're always getting different advice, and there's no single right answer. Like Serah said in the middle of the podcast, you have to find what you like and apply it. There's no best advice or best trend. You can try yoga and not like it, and that's fine. You can try and love Pilates, or discover rock climbing and think, “Oh, wow.” I can't think of an answer to that specific question other than that.
Serah Barakat:
I think being in nature—going out every day and just feeling the air on your skin, the sun on your face, or the sand in your toes, whether you're at the beach or on the mountain. There's a lot of talk about nature being like medicine, and I really believe in that. Even if it's just five minutes in nature, I feel that's a healing modality. Walking barefoot.
Steve Hoyek:
Yeah. Being in nature and walking barefoot—very yogi of both of you.
Nader Diab:
Anytime you can walk barefoot, walk barefoot.
Steve Hoyek:
Serah, what's your guilty pleasure? We're human, right? Even as a yogi.
Serah Barakat:
There are so many. I can't pick one. I have dropped some guilty pleasures, including smoking and drinking. I haven't done either for the past three years, so now my guilty pleasures are desserts, and in summer it's mostly ice cream. We love ice cream. Ice cream is the best.
Nader Diab:
She got me hooked on ice cream. I hated ice cream for about 15 years. Is this also your answer? What was your guilty pleasure? My guilty pleasure is sushi. I love sushi. Sushi is great. I'm always debating whether it's healthy or not because there's a lot of salt and raw food in it. But “healthy” is a stretch—not when you get a kidney stone.
Steve Hoyek:
All right. To land the episode, what's one thing you would like to leave the audience with today? Serah, we'll start with you.
Serah Barakat:
One advice I would give to anyone watching right now: you're where you're supposed to be. And just take it one step at a time. We all want to grow. We all want to change. Just allow your journey to be very mindful. And this is how you can attain your dreams and your goals.
Nader Diab:
I guess, you know, for if you watch this episode and you feel like I want to be there, I want to change something, I want to learn. It's just like start now, you know. If you're not happy where you are, change your habits, change your friend's circle, start something new, go on a trip, go volunteering, do something that will put you out of your comfort zone, and you're going to question everything that you're doing. And once you question what you're doing, find the answers. Don't stop there. Oh, am I happy? no. Find the answers. And if you can't find the answers, then find people that can help you find the answers.
Whether it's us or people out there, just find somebody who can help you find these answers.
Steve Hoyek:
Awesome. Any call-outs or shout outs you'd like to make before we end?
Nader Diab:
I would like to give a shout out to our beautiful teachers and to our beautiful staff that keep showing up. I was going to do teachers and stuff, and you're going to do teachers. No, but I mean, you know, the shout out to everybody that has ever entered our circles, our spaces, that has taught, that has given, that has cried, you know, everybody that is part of this beautiful collective that is Ohana, Yogiventures, Nader, Serah, Steve, everybody, you know, like it's not it's not about us, it's about the whole thing, the whole community.
Serah Barakat:
I wanted to say the same thing. Like everybody that trusted us to show up on in our retreats or in the space and just allowed us to guide them in their journey, whether it's teachers, students, or people who work with us and who have supported us for so many years. So, yeah, thank you.
Nader Diab:
I want to thank my mom and my dad.
Steve Hoyek:
How can the audience reach you or connect with you if they'd like to?
Serah Barakat:
On our social media channels: Ohana Space Yoga for our yoga space, Yogiventures for retreats, and personally, Serah Naturalessa. You are welcome to come to our spaces in Metn, Beirut, and Batroun. Ahlan wa sahlan fikon.
Steve Hoyek:
Thank you so much. It was a pleasure. Thank you for listening to The Weigh In Podcast. Make sure to follow or subscribe on the platform on which you are listening. Thanks.
