Today we’d like to introduce you to Shereen Yusuff.
Hi Shereen, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I grew up in the Middle East and spent the first decade of my life in Oman, and the next decade in India after which I travelled and lived in multiple countries for work (China, the UK, Brazil, Colombia, Ivory Coast and the US). I worked in the Oil and Gas industry for 17 years before I decided to quit this past month and pursue my master’s in Public Policy and Administration. I started out by working on deepwater oil rigs as an engineer and worked across the industry in the fields of Drilling, Reservoir, Production and Strategic Planning.
My first love was tennis – I started playing at the age of 4, till about 16 after which I took on other sports, and ended up participating in marathons, ultramarathons, ironmans, thru-hiking and mountaineering.
It was my intense fear of the cold that first drove me to take interest in the Wim Hof Method which I ultimately got certified in and have been teaching for 4+ years now. I am an advanced level instructor in the same, and I am also certified in the Buteyko breathing method. I have my own studio that I started in 2018 called “Suda Prem Studio”.
I help people build awareness around their internal road blocks that prevent them from living their happiest life through the modalities of ice, breath and movement.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
When your journey has involved relocating, changing roles at work, starting your own studio while maintaining a full time job, and converting your religion (I converted from Islam to Christianity in April 2021) – seldom is the road smooth. However, the confidence I have in my resilience would not have occurred, if it weren’t for the numerous times that I have fallen and gotten back up and continued walking my path. I have on more than one occasion, lived in countries where I couldn’t speak the language, I greatly suffered from loneliness during those times. In the oilfield, I struggled with being the only girl most of the time when I was on oil rigs.
When I converted to Christianity earlier this year, it caused my family a lot of pain, and it was tough for me to watch them struggle as much as they did because of my decision. I have also been married twice in the past and am currently single. These are some of the struggles that come to mind, however each one of them required for me to be patient and persevere through the troughs. I am extremely grateful for the experience of hardship, for it has made me very compassionate towards others who are going through their own struggles. One of my favorite sayings, which I learned in Brazil is – “In the end, it is always ok; if it is not ok, then it is not the end.”
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
The name of my studio is Suda Prem which means “Pure Love”. It is what Wim Hof first called me when we met, I loved the name and it stuck. Much like the name, through breath and ice, we develop a sense of connection not only within ourselves but also with others around us. Since I am the only teacher at the studio, every person that enters develops a personal connection not only with me but with others that come. There have been so many people who ended up having deep and close-knit relationships with others that have frequented the studio.
Every person that enters the studio, has a unique story and more often than not, I have the good fortune of being able to witness people’s journeys as well as their growth towards a healthier, stronger and happier life. A lot of my friends have stemmed from the Wim Hof method community. The bond that is present between people who do breath and ice is quite strong. At the studio, I offer weekend workshops, private sessions and weekly group sessions. I also work online with people who aren’t based in Houston, Texas.
Can you talk to us about how you think about risk?
Every person has a certain risk tolerance and knowing it is crucial when it comes to decision making. I believe taking risks is almost like a muscle you have to exercise in your brain. The more risks you take, the more comfortable you feel taking them. I do remember an episode when I was a child, where I played it safe – I had the opportunity to hold an eagle but I felt scared and declined. As soon as I saw another child hold it, my heart broke thinking I lost such an incredible opportunity because of my initial trepidation.
Aside from witnessing the sheer awe in that child’s eyes, I knew that child’s life would never be the same again. Ever since then I have always walked towards what I fear. I never wanted to miss out on opportunities that could change the course of my life. Looking back, here are a few examples of taking risks that come to mind: going to China when SARS broke out there; living in the part of Rio de Janeiro where locals didn’t speak English and I would be forced to learn Portuguese quickly; climbing past 20,000 ft on a mountain in Argentina where I was the only woman in a team of 10 men whom I didn’t know; diving with great white sharks in South Africa and orcas in the Galapagos islands; and, attempting my first ironman and completing it with no training (I did end up losing a couple of toe nails. 🙂
Years of risk taking has allowed me to fully recognize that showing up and continuing my journey, regardless of the outcome, has made all the difference in my approach to life. Those experiences made me feel alive, despite the initial struggles to overcome my fears, adversity, or pain. The way I mitigated the risk was being as prepared as possible – whether that meant learning martial arts to defend myself when traveling alone, practicing stoicism, self-discipline, and denial of certain pleasures, staying fit to be ready for physical rigors or reading voraciously to prepare myself for the environment I was entering.
However, as I have grown older, I have realized that no matter how prepared I am or tried to be, life always throws us curveballs that can bring us to our knees. So, lately my focus has shifted from risk taking to following the will of God. Today, my spiritual growth is my highest priority. I don’t feel like I take risks when I follow the path revealed to me when I sit in silence. This year alone – I changed my religion, changed my citizenship, quit my job of 17 years, ended my second marriage, decided to do my masters in a subject where I am studying everything from scratch, agreed to facilitate a womens-only bible study and be the chair of the fall festival at my church, after being a Roman Catholic for only a few months.
As of today, I don’t feel like I take many risks anymore. I try to follow God’s word in the most obedient way possible and go in the direction that I believe He has laid out for me to follow. I try to do this with all of my heart, mind and soulfully knowing that when I throw myself at Him with a child-like abandon, that He will take care of me. This approach has definitely increased my sense of being in a more consistent state of happiness.
Contact Info:
- Email: info@suda-prem.com
- Website: www.suda-prem.com
- Instagram: sudapremstudio
- Facebook: breathconductor
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbIts7R4SHZ21qRXu2iVBBg/playlists
