‘There is beauty in paying attention to the season that you’re in and working with it rather than against it.’
Drawing from her own experiences, Tanya Maria Aguila champions a holistic approach to women's health that goes beyond fitness and focuses on long-term well-being.
PHOTOGRAPH BY YUKO SHIMOMURA FOR DAILY TRIBUNE
Wellness is about building healthy habits that support both the body and mind, one step at a time.
PHOTOGRAPHS COURTESY OF IG/ONELIFE
Taking care of your health means creating habits that fit your lifestyle and evolve with every stage of life.
For years, Tanya Maria Aguila believed wellness meant chasing an ideal body.
Like many women who grew up in the late ‘80s and ‘90s, she was surrounded by images that equated health with being thin, toned and constantly active. Exercise was often portrayed as high-intensity routines designed to achieve a particular aesthetic rather than improve one’s quality of life.
But experience would eventually teach her that wellness is far more personal than appearance.
Today, Aguila is the founder and studio director of Onelife Clinical Pilates and Physical Therapy, a women-centered wellness studio that has spent more than a decade helping thousands of women move better, recover stronger, and care for themselves through every stage of life. At the heart of Onelife is a philosophy that challenges the one-size-fits-all approach to health: “Your Journey, Your Pace.”
For Aguila, that philosophy is not just a business slogan but also a reflection of her own story.
Losing herself before finding her purpose
Before entering the wellness industry, Aguila spent 10 years climbing the corporate ladder.
She loved her career, but somewhere along the way, she realized she had neglected herself.
“I found myself crying one day while walking from the parking lot to work,” she recalled during her interview on DAILY TRIBUNE’s Pairfect. “My hair was falling out. I was gaining weight, and mentally I wasn’t in a healthy place anymore,” she added.
Rather than accepting burnout as the price of success, she began making small changes.
Yoga became her refuge. What started as a personal effort to regain balance eventually transformed into a new calling. After completing yoga teacher training, Aguila discovered that helping others reconnect with themselves brought her a deeper sense of fulfillment than any corporate milestone.
That decision would eventually lead to the birth of Onelife 13 years ago.
Beyond fitness
Onelife did not begin as the specialized women’s wellness studio it is today.
Initially, it offered a variety of fitness classes, from yoga and Pilates to Zumba and belly dancing, serving anyone looking to become more active.
However, Aguila and her team noticed a pattern overtime. The women who kept coming back were not necessarily elite athletes or fitness enthusiasts. They were professionals balancing demanding careers, mothers navigating postpartum recovery, women experiencing hormonal changes, and individuals beginning to feel the physical effects of aging. Their needs extended far beyond exercise and that realization shifted Onelife’s direction.
Instead of trying to serve everyone, the studio focused on understanding women, their changing bodies, their different seasons, and the realities that often prevent them from prioritizing their health.
This became the foundation of Onelife’s personalized approach to wellness.
The lesson that changed everything
One of the biggest turning points in Aguila’s journey came not inside the studio but at home.
She became a first-time mother at 37, a pregnancy medically classified as geriatric motherhood because of maternal age. While raising her child, she discovered something many women never hear about. A woman can remain in postpartum recovery for years after giving birth, while at the same time beginning perimenopause as early as her late 30s or early 40s.
For Aguila, the overlap was eye-opening. “I realized I could be postpartum and in perimenopause at the same time,” she shared.
Generations before her often experienced these changes without understanding what was happening. Symptoms were simply endured in silence because conversations about women’s health were limited or considered taboo.
Her own experience inspired Onelife to expand beyond fitness into a more comprehensive approach to women’s healthcare through movement.
The studio now offers specialized programs that support women through pregnancy, postpartum recovery, menopause, pelvic health, and physical rehabilitation which are areas that Aguila believes deserve greater attention.
Wellness has seasons
Throughout the interview, one message surfaced repeatedly. Women should stop fighting the season they are in. According to Aguila, wellness should adapt to life, not the other way around.
A new mother surviving sleepless nights does not need the same workout as someone training for a marathon. A woman navigating hormonal changes may benefit more from restorative movement than intense exercise.
Rather than forcing themselves into rigid routines, Aguila encourages women to listen to what their bodies need.
“There is beauty in paying attention to the season that you’re in and working with it rather than against it,” she said.
That philosophy also extends beyond exercise. Sometimes self-care is not a one-hour workout.
It could be stretching between meetings, taking a short walk instead of driving, drinking more water, practicing mindful breathing, or simply putting the phone away long enough to be present.
“The more boring it is,” Aguila joked, “the more effective it is in the long run.”
Helping women find themselves again
Among the stories that stay with Aguila most are those from mothers who tell her they had forgotten who they were after giving birth.
Many arrive at Onelife feeling disconnected from themselves after years of placing everyone else’s needs before their own.
The studio becomes more than a place to exercise. It becomes a space where women feel supported without judgment.
Some recover from injuries. Others regain confidence after childbirth. Many simply rediscover a version of themselves they thought they had lost.
Those moments continue to remind Aguila why she built Onelife. “They tell me, ‘I found myself again,’” she shared.
As a mother herself, she understands the weight behind those words.
Movement for every woman
As wellness continues to gain popularity in the Philippines, Aguila hopes conversations will move beyond aesthetics and trends.
She believes women deserve better discussions about pelvic health, postpartum recovery, menopause, hormonal changes, and movement that is grounded in science rather than unrealistic expectations.
Her vision is not about creating perfect bodies. It is about helping women live longer, move without pain and feel empowered in every season of life.
For Aguila, wellness is not measured by how fast someone runs, how much weight they lift, or how closely they resemble an image on social media.
It is measured by something far simpler and perhaps far more meaningful.
Finding the courage to choose yourself, one season at a time.
