‘Festival of Wellbeing’ dwells on ways to stay healthy

The “Festival of Wellbeing” was held at The Imperial hotel in Janpath under the “Conference Theme: Wellbeing In The Digital ERA”, on Friday, where the speakers addressed the issue of “baggage of mind caused by bad memories and a consistent pursuit to fit in”.
The speakers explained how to stave off negative memories and get away from bad stress to build a healthy life. NewsX and The Sunday Guardian were media partners of this event.
Speakers at the event also talked about how important habits are to form mental wellbeing.
The opening note was on “the power of intent”, by Dr Annurag Batra, chairman and editor-in-chief, BW Businessworld and founder, in which he said how being grateful is important in life to promote one’s wellbeing and explained how health is important. He re-emphasised “health is wealth” and said: “World does not give you what you want, it gives you what you demand.”
The key note speaker Luke Coutinho, a globally renowned holistic lifestyle coach, gave exclusive insights on lifestyle, health and disease. He said that mental wellness is of utmost importance to be positive in life, and thought process and framing things in our mind help shape our mindset and prepares us for tomorrow. He said the mind impacts the whole body in constructing the life around oneself. He added: “Food is an investment that you make on yourself” and explained how better sleep can bring significant change in one’s life, “Sleep is everything,” he said.
The audience appreciated Coutinho’s session as they connected with him for speaking about relative problems that hamper happiness in social and personal circles. He described the emotional deficit that people are facing socially now-a-days after the pandemic, “To be happy is to communicate positively within oneself.” He also talked about how mindfulness can expedite happiness.
Dr Samir Parekh, Director in the department of mental health and behaviour sciences, Fortis national, talked about psychological health, and emphasized that schools must teach mental health curriculum, and also prepare students with digital media literacy. “One must have help seeking behaviour,” he said. Describing the significance of reinventing the support system, he said that the pandemic changed the attitude of people towards relationships. One always needs to reinvent the entire support system, which means supporting one another to the core. Talking about today’s corporate culture, where big organisations often undermine the emotional wellbeing of the employees, it is important that corporate biggies must realise the significance of mental health. Society must understand that creativity and problem-solving behaviour will help people to stay emotionally happy and healthy.
Padma Shri Dr Prakash Kothari also gave a standalone address on holistic view on enhancing sexual health and wellbeing. He said: “Health is a complete physical, mental and social well being and not merely absence of disease or infirmity.” He established a relationship between nutrition and better sexual health. Healthy nutritious foods help in regularising activities along with yoga. Exercises such as morning walk, exercises, and yoga such as Surya namaskar, Vajroli, Awhwini Mudra and Vajrasan help to stay healthy. He also said that medicines become effective only if the body is in a pure state; therefore, choosing the right food for a healthy life is significant. “Sexual literacy is a primary requirement for combating sexual anxiety and increasing sexual wellbeing,” he said.
Panel two discussion was on “happiness, the new buzzword”, and gemology, palmistry, astrology and numerology vastu, the science of wellbeing, respectively. The second session started with Anil Khandelwal speaking on “age proof your inner self”, followed by a conversation on “awakening and strengthening our inner net connection”.
In conversation with Ruhail Amin, the executive editor of BW Applause and Everything Experiential, Ms Danijela Radonic Bhandari, who is an integrative well-being counsellor and the founder of Dana Veda, said that one should awaken one’s inner self by doing yoga, pranayama, meditation and mindfulness. One must have a clean heart and should be connected to the real side of oneself. This real connection helps in emotional and mental wellbeing.
During the pandemic, people have realised the importance of health and fitness. Fitness isn’t a luxury, but an absolute necessity. Nawaz Modi Singhania, India’s leading fitness and wellness icon and founder of Body Art Witness Centre, said, “One needs to build a strong intent to exercise and practice mindfulness. Since every individual is different, one must accept and acknowledge the diversity.” She said that mental wellbeing and physical wellbeing run parallel. Reminiscing about her childhood, she said that she had a weak immune system, so she constantly reminded herself of wellbeing and that is how her journey started.
Filmmaker Samir Soni, who is an introvert, talked about his journey of mental wellbeing. He said that the definition of success has changed in the modern world, where people find happiness in the materialistic world. “Happiness is subjective,” he said while expressing his journey from anxiety to happiness. He also emphasized that in order to understand oneself, one needs to spend some time with oneself.
Anil Khandewal, Managing director and CEO for Yogicsecret and Healthcare Pvt. Ltd., said, “Our body is made up of 70% water, so it is important to drink water for healthy functioning of the body. To become a healthy and better person, one needs to drink enough water and follow the principles of Purity, Patience, Politeness and Sweetness.” Since people are not aware of how their body functions, most people ignore healthy habits that enhance their lifestyle and keep them healthy.
In a one-on-one conversation with Anurag Batra, His eminence, the 8th Choekyong Palga Rinpoche of Ladakh, the Buddhist teacher and religious speaker, said, “When I earned a great fortune of wealth, I wasn’t happy, rather disillusioned by materialistic pleasure. So, I returned to the basics and adopted a simple lifestyle.” One must use awareness to learn from the pain and understand life wholeheartedly. Being compassionate towards others also helps one to understand life. Humility and getting awareness through meditation and wisdom will help one to move on peacefully in life. “By doing good Karma, we can eliminate bad Karma,” he said.
Another key speaker, Dr Ashish Ambasta, the founder and CEO of HappyPlus, said, “Most people at their workplaces are not happy due to their managers and compensation. Such a toxic environment also affects their learning and development. So people always look for the organisations which make them happier.” People who enjoy their work believe that work is not a burden, rather it is a way of expression. Good leadership will enhance with great action plans, change in policies and changes in the attitude of the managers, and the workforce.
Chef Ranveer Brar, celebrity chef and restaurateur, said that a person falls for food as it stimulates all the senses. “If a person prioritises the stomach, it will be wrong, a person should taste everything, You should taste everything; that way you are feeding your senses and not the stomach.” He said: “I always say taste everything and eat nothing.”
Ms Suzy Singh, a mental health coach in her standalone address on shattering karmic untruths, asked: “Have you known anyone whose life goes only like this (upwards)?” She added: “everyone’s life goes like this (up and down).”
Singh said, “We have been conditioned to fear suffering, to escape suffering but without churning the milk, there is no butter and without suffering there is no growth.”
She continued, “If you have a self worth issue or a confidence issue, start building other people and because of their success and I can tell you this it is a magical formula because it will transform your own relationship with your own self.”
Singh’s address was followed by panel 3 discussion on “Key to a better wellbeing and need for incubators for wellness startup”
Antano Solar John and Ms Harini Ramachandran shared their views on how sleeplessness has come in the way of wellbeing. Ramachandran said the mind is seeking a sort of satiation and is not very satisfied at the end of the day because there are several things that come in between, “because we look at every aspect of our life and think of fixing them” and of all, the most important is sleep, it should start with sleep.
Followed by a conversation on science of yoga, the simplest way to practice wellbeing and spirituality, Advait Yogbhushan talked about unattended imbalance caused in one’s life, he said, “There is no way to eradicate your memory of your past, once you have gone through a tragedy, you should put yourself in the same alignment and move forward, the chemicals in your body will work properly and you will become balanced. Enlightenment means to be sorted in your life.”
Another standalone on “mind is medicine” was addressed by Dr Micky Mehra where he interacted with people be getting them to participate in yoga. He said: “Let’s look at each other and laugh.” He told the audience to let go of your breath and relax. There was a special address by S.K. Shivani, a spritual guide and mentor, on “rebuild trust-corporate culture gradually overcoming distrust developed due to pandemic”. She asked the audience, “Who is the creator of my thoughts and feeling?” The audience replied, “One’s own self creates the thoughts and feelings.” She said:”It’s one’s own self that needs to change to be happy.”
Renowned lifestyle coach and speaker for the event, Gaur Gopal Das, explained several commandments that ensure wellbeing of an individual’s lifestyle. While explaining the importance of the first commandment, he said, “Taking responsibility for the physical, mental, financial and professional wellbeing is one of the keys for an individual wellbeing.” Similarly, another commandment is all about giving priority to what we value in our lives. Such practice of prioritizing will bring attention, and that attention will help to invest one’s energy in the things we value in life. Such actions help in bringing out the transformations. Constant comparisons affect emotional wellbeing and will lead to envy, security. Similarly, one must avoid toxic positivity which is imposed by others and oneself, so it is important to avoid the approach towards toxic positivity. Also, authenticity helps in the realization that one gets, only if they stop giving attention to become or be the subject of others’ opinions. The insightful “Festival of Wellbeing” was followed by the unveiling of the BW Wellbeing World Leadership Takes and 40 under 40 issues. The event concluded with an award ceremony where the winners were awarded for their innovative business ideas in the field of wellbeing and fitness.