Q and A with Mai Ka from Saint Paul, Minnesota



“Like a plant that’s meant to grow in the wilderness, one cannot be tamed if they’re meant to soar.”

Q: What are you passionate about? 

A: I am passionate about healing, inner success, and inner happiness. The passion I have for the work I do is mainly inspired by my own personal experience of 16 years of mental health issues. I learned a lot and realized a lot of things from those years. I am an artist and an entrepreneur. My current work involves life coaching on self-healing, photography, and spiritual healing.

I recently became a life coach after having healed from my most traumatic wounds and am inspired to help others make that powerful change in their life. Through my own experience, I learned that no one’s coming. If I don’t save myself, no one’s going to save me. I also learned that no matter how good we are at providing guidance and advice, if we don’t practice those ourselves and if we don’t take the chance to work on ourselves, it’s useless. The changes that we crave will never manifest themselves into our reality and we’ll never truly understand the hardships behind them. 

Photography for me was therapy at the beginning. It started as a way for me to capture and remember the purest, most peaceful, and happiest moments during the darkest time of my life. I love landscape photography and being out in nature, going to parks and trails. I wanted to capture these memories to remember. From there, it expanded into this passion for helping others embrace themselves and their presence. As for spiritual healing, it is a gift I am blessed with in this lifetime to be that of a vessel for both realms. I get to be of service to all life forms and be that of a healing guide. Aside from these current projects, I have a long-time project that I have been working on. It is a nonprofit organization that is currently in the development stage. The goal of the nonprofit is to nurture, empower, and educate orphans worldwide.

The 16 years of my mental health experience is the inspiration behind this nonprofit project. At the time, I realized that as an individual who grew up rich, with families, with friends, and with a home to go to yet still have to go through all this agony, then life must have been extremely indescribable and unimaginably challenging for those who grew up with little to nothing. By creating the nonprofit, I hope to be able to lead orphans down a more positive and less difficult path.

Q: What were your younger years like?

A: I grew up in a very traditional and conservative family. My family immigrated to the United States when I was six years old. Since then it felt like I was forced to grow up. On top of that, I am also the oldest of six siblings so there was this invisible pressure to be a good role model for them and for any younger ones within my extended family. Seeing how my family struggles internally and externally really inspired me to do what I do today. I may seem rebellious for creating a life that I would enjoy that’s different from the traditional ways of life, such as having a 9-5 job, or getting all sorts of degrees only to have a good-paying job. However, through all of my hardships, I am proud of myself because as a cycle breaker, I got to pave a new path for my younger siblings to walk on and I got to introduce everyone to limitless opportunities.

Q: What is something valuable you’d like others to know?

A: A valuable lesson I learned is to never forget who I am and where I came from. Our humble beginnings are not a burden, it is a blessing. It is a laborious but beautiful experience. It teaches us the true value of life and allows us to appreciate the burst of color there is to life. When we have little, we crave more, but when we have a lot, we have nothing. Life is simple and beautiful the way it is, but if we don’t appreciate it, we become lifeless.

Q: What does feminism mean to you?
A: Feminism to me is connection. Through the vulnerability of women, it allows everyone to connect on a deep authentic soulful level.

MORE FROM MK: Another inspiration for my work is all of the people I met over the years, especially those who supported me. I believe in the ripple effect of paying it forward. Through my work, I hope that one day all the goodness I put forth will come back to let them know that the kindness, the effort, and the energy they spent on me didn’t go to waste. This is my way of thanking them.

Thank you for reading!

Website: everestmk.com

Facebook: 

Main profile: MK Biz (www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100087293029861&mibextid=ZbWKwL)

Photography: Only we know photography by MK (www.facebook.com/everestmky)

Shamanic Blog: Remember, MK (www.facebook.com/remembermk)

Nonprofit: Lenses & Perspectives (www.facebook.com/lensesperspectives)

Instagram: MK Biz (@maimai.itsmk)

Song: Behind Your Shadow – MK  (https://youtu.be/pgT4e6SXV0c)

Video: This is My Story (https://youtu.be/OaNBoR9Jrmc)