Xuan Lan, the yogi who sweeps social networks: "Going to the psychologist is very healthy, I recommend it to everyone"

With a permanent smile drawn on her face and flexible as a rubber band, Xuan Lan (48) says that her secret to enjoying life is getting up every morning to work at...

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With a permanent smile drawn on her face and flexible as a rubber band,

Xuan Lan

(48) says that her secret to enjoying life is getting up every morning to work on her passion, yoga.

But it was not always like this.

This Parisian of Vietnamese origin has gone from being

a financial expert who ran everywhere

to a true salvation in a pandemic for the confined.

"I didn't dislike being an executive, but now I like teaching discipline much more."

He admits that then he studied as his parents wanted, who emigrated to France from Vietnam, and earned a good living but needed a turn after living in New York.

She was right going to a first class invited by her husband.

Not surprisingly, her yoga channel has

more than a million subscribers

She does not consider herself an

influencer

, much less a guru.

However, brands like Veuve Clicquot identify with their values and choose this

eternally young television face

for their actions.

We go to

Sunny Seaside

, taught by her in her beloved Barcelona, where she lives, to chat with her after a face-to-face yoga class where her followers can finally devirtualize her.

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It is almost half a century old.

How do you manage to emanate the vitality and even the appearance of a person of 20? [Laughs].

I think many people only see the gray instead of focusing on the beauty of life.

I have a house, friends, a family, good health and I have managed to combine my personal passion and my work.

Being able to see this, because I am convinced that we can all be grateful for something we have, is what lights up your day to day. But tell us your cream... [Laughter].

I take great care, of course, from the sun.

I don't expose myself to anything and use sun protection.

If I put makeup on for recording, I immediately take it off.

I hardly ever wear makeup because yoga makes me sweat and I want my skin to breathe. Are optimists born or made? Thought patterns are installed.

From one day to the next we cannot go from being negative to super optimistic, but many studies say that brain plasticity is worked through meditation.

When you notice your negative or self-critical thought, you can change it to another idea.

It's like a closet cleaning where you remove what you no longer use for years.

If you do it regularly, little by little, you focus on the good. How do we tell people to be optimistic after a pandemic that has left their mental health and their pockets very affected, in the midst of a strong crisis that prevents them from reaching at the end of the month and with wars in between? It is that if we enter into that bad loop we sink emotionally.

If you have health, already with this, it is a very important assessment.

I'm not saying that they don't worry about what happens, but we can't let ourselves get carried away by that context.

The Tibetan Buddhist monks had a very hard time with the Chinese army where the environment was violent and they maintained their pacifist attitude by working within.

We may not change what happens to us, but we do change our way of seeing things.

People who go through a very serious illness and overcome it are the first to tell you how they have been able to fight: turning it around and seeing the beauty of life.

They are an example of overcoming.

It inspires many people, who are its referents? I have had many yoga teachers but lately there is a French Buddhist monk, Matthieu Ricard, who lives between Nepal and India in a cell of a few square meters, and dedicates his work to the community .

Everything he earns from his books and talks is donated to an NGO and the press has dubbed him "the happiest man in the world."

having very little. Does full happiness exist? I think so.

In my concept it is a stable state, while what is not stable is joy.

I can be happy and sad.

I have my moments of pleasure, like a good ice cream.

Two already leave me saturated.

If someone gives me bad news, I get sad but I'm happy because I live from yoga. Her change from executive to yogi has made her a phenomenon.

Are you comfortable with the guru label? I'm not a guru at all.

It is a word that I have a lot of respect for and there are few in the world.

I am a yoga teacher who reaches many people thanks to the digital world.

A guru enlightens by his elevated consciousness.

I don't know if I will reach that light in this life, but everything I learn I share with others so that everyone can make their own journey on a physical, emotional and spiritual level.

on-line

Now my content is different, but having been there has helped me.

She keeps the networks up to date, is at events like this, records, practices yoga, writes books... How do you get to everything? I am surrounded by an important team that I trust and can support me.

I have always been a hard worker and, when you like your work, it doesn't cost you so much even if it tires you out.

I enjoy all the tasks that you have just mentioned and for my platform I have external help.

Books are written with time.

Events are prepared to arrive relaxed.

And I always try to cover a lot for my concern, but my close environment often tells me that I can't do everything, even if it seems interesting to me, and I try to listen to them.

Knowing how to say that it is not something that I will work on this summer, because I always took my cameras with me even to record on vacation.

Is there any phrase from the pandemic that has particularly affected you? You saved me from confinement is the phrase that I have heard the most in the last two years.

It has been a distressing time and I am glad that many people have discovered the benefits of yoga so that they can use it later when they can return to it.

Getting people to know that yoga exists to take care of themselves is a mission.

Part of my vocation. He is a very notorious person who teaches a very intimate practice in which you look inside.

How do you deal with this duality that seems contradictory? I do my own practice, I train, I read a lot, I meditate and that is my part of introspection.

Then, due to my analytical spirit, I try to spread the word looking for the simplest and most flexible way for people to understand it.

You can take a class at your beach house for just 30 minutes at the easiest level.

That is your moment.

Your space to meet again. The networks show an idyllic vision and at the same time generate a lot of hate.

Why, under cover of anonymity, do they say things that would never be said to their faces? I manage my networks alone, I read the comments and try to answer them, because there people tell you what they need.

And I must bore the

haters

because I don't give chicha, I'm not controversial and I talk about healthy habits, like yoga.

It has happened to me once or twice because negative criticism is easy behind a name on social networks, but my yogi followers defend me.

I don't like to justify myself because what I try to do is spread some teachings and avoid conflict.

If I had to tell them something it would be to do more yoga but they are not aware in their gray world. Do you like the word

influencer

?I am a content creator and I do it through my books, the creation of classes, concepts, events... I don't want to influence people's lives, I propose yoga and they can use it or not.

How much time do you dedicate to yoga? When I started creating my own company a year ago, I was totally focused on it, so I had to learn to organize myself better.

I mix practice with the platform, self-practice of my sequences and occasionally face-to-face to receive from another person.

In the end, it's three to four times a week. Is mental health returning to normal? Going to a psychologist is very healthy.

I recommend to everyone who at some point feels overwhelmed by something to go.

And yoga is a prevention practice to release tension through postures and distance yourself from negative thoughts.

We cannot separate mental from physical health.

It is a big mistake that has been made in society because you do not see the health of your mind, while an X-ray does.

But they go hand in hand and it is proven.

Stress generates cortisol and this affects the immune, digestive, and nervous systems... As we already know, people take care of their diet, physical exercise, sleep... And that makes them balance their minds.

We treat each other better as a whole.

Health is comprehensive.

A discipline of healthy habits gives you references in your life, and you notice if you are more tired or energetic.

You look at yourself, because we are not the same one day as another.

If you have tools, you can adjust. It usually happens that on vacation comes the slump. We are so stressed that as soon as you relax from that adrenaline holding and holding is when you get sick.

What a pity to stop a week or two on vacation and see you exhausted!

To avoid that, my prescription throughout the year is to go to the psychologist, practice yoga and meditation or any other sport that you like.

Three times a week is enough and, if you prefer to run, you can mix both things, talk to people and socialize and if you are sad to say it.

Nowadays people don't dare to say that they are not well. How do you take care of your diet? I wake up with plenty of time to eat breakfast.

It is a moment that allows me to order my day without looking at the phone.

There is nothing to interrupt me.

Then I'm active and I see all that list of tasks as a businesswoman.

I try to eat very healthy but forceful.

A good meal that includes lots of vegetables, carbohydrates, occasionally fish, and I avoid meat.

At night I eat little because my digestion has changed and I no longer burn like I did when I was 30 years old [laughs], so at 48 I try to eat lighter. It is really difficult to disconnect, we are very addicted to mobile phones, but going for a long walk on the beach in the morning, aimlessly and without a phone, or with your dog in the park, is wonderful.

Looking around is.

People now only walk looking down at a screen.

And we are already locked up with a computer all year, let's see what surrounds us!