Our expat community thrives on connection, and here at jingkids, we’re all about our readers, and what they need and want in order to maximize their time here in Beijing. Today, we will feature a prominent member of our expat community and get to know them a little bit better.
Marie Pickart is a mum-of-three from Germany, who arrived in Beijing last summer. She is the head of the German Christmas Angels, a group of women and men who make hand-crafted decorations. She teaches yoga classes at the German embassy school (power, hatha and kids yoga) and founded Mama & Baby Fit in Beijing this year to provide prenatal and postnatal yoga and workout classes. She has also partnered up with Taozi Tree Yoga and Aisha Space to offer yoga classes in a beautiful and safe environment. The Mama & Baby Fit workouts are held outdoors in Chaoyang park. Currently she is also educating herself in the field of functional training and gives classes at ActivForever in Sanlitun.
What’s On Your Mind?
I always have a lot on my mind – I guess every mum can relate. A lot of happy thoughts though – planning out the kids birthday parties, scheduling weekend arrangements, preparing for the classes I teach this week, collecting ideas for my social media accounts, getting in shape for the Spartan Race in May – the list goes on and on.
I wake up every day and think – YEAH, LET´S ROCK.
I am incredibly happy and grateful for all the wonderful opportunities that opened and keep opening up for me here, the trust people grant me with, and the wonderful community in Beijing. I simply love being here, and I love doing what I do.
What’s Motivates You To Get Moving?
JUST DO IT – That’s the motto I always felt connected with. I have always felt the desire to move. As a child, I started very early to train on the weekends because I wanted to improve my sports performance. Running, jumping, strengthening exercises. I naturally moved on and signed up at the local gym at the age of 14 because I wanted to become stronger. That was a time when girls were usually only on the treadmills or at aerobic classes, but I started lifting weights with the guys. The gym became my happy place. I trained in gyms all over the world.
It was always like that: I decided to move to a new city. Apart from looking for an apartment and a way to commute, I would always look for the closest gym, their equipment and class schedule and then decide on the apartment 🙂
Yoga became a part of my life at the age of 18 because my doctor prescribed it to me. I was dealing with physical problems related to stress and was supposed to get surgery to fix it. He saw my distress and instead convinced me to do six months of alternative treatments. So we tried yoga and acupuncture and the rest is history – I never needed that surgery and yoga became a crucial part of my every day. For me, its the best holistic and sustainable approach to deal with stress and to stay in balance in every aspect of my life.
How do you stay sane in all the madness?
It’s exercise and being creative!
Exercising helps me to clear my head. Whether its running, doing yoga or working out in the gym – I need to move every day. I also love to go out with my friends and dance the night away. This is what I call ‘Mama/ Me Balance’ and its very important to me – spending time by myself and away from my family, with the things I always enjoyed. That way, I feel energised and refreshed enough to deal with all the daily challenges a family of five brings along. And don’t get me wrong – I love my family very, very much and I love to spend time with them. But by keeping my ‘Mama/ Me Balance’ I can appreciate and enjoy those precious moments even more and have enough energy for all of them.
Healthy habits like eating lots of plant-based proteins and veggies and never having any alcohol or nicotine help me stay sane as well.
By doing handicrafts and creative things I can switch off great as well. I get into a flow of creativity, of creation, of doing something with my hands, which is very relaxing – A kind of meditation. To hold the final result in my hands makes me proud and happy. I love to sew clothes for my kids, paint with watercolours and do decorations like advent wreaths and such. The latter I do with the Christmas Angels, a group of people gathering once a week year-round in our work shop at Siemens to create beautiful handmade items to be sold at the German Charity Christmas Bazaar.
What’s your favorite thing about Beijing?
I love the numerous and endless opportunities this city provides. Opportunities to connect with people, to enjoy delicious food, to go out, to try new things, to educate yourself, to experience the big city life, to get out of the city for a nature-inspired getaway, to climb the Great Wall – and so much more…
I love to experience the Hutongs and this very different lifestyle. I love Chaoyang park as a green oasis with countless great spots for outdoor yoga and workout sessions in front of my door step. I love 798 with its inspirations and creativity around every corner. I love Sanlitun with its busy night life and street food in walking distance. I love the illuminated Liangma River after dawn.
And I am very much looking forward to discovering many new favorite spots with time!
For my last birthday, when I was still an absolute newbie in the Jing, I asked people to show me their favorite spot in the city instead of giving me conventional presents. That way I was able to discover many new interesting spots. I highly recommend that approach 😉
Another outstanding thing in Beijing is the extremely welcoming and helpful expat community. When we arrived last summer I reached out in several WeChat groups while we were in quarantine and the city was closing down due to Covid regulations – I got an overwhelming number of very helpful responses. I am still friends with many of them, which is super nice. That expat community is really something special!
KEEP READING: What Was Enoch Li’s Motivation For Starting Bearapy?
