At BrilliantRead Media, it is our constant endeavour to bring meaningful and powerful stories from India and around the world to empower and motivate our growing community. As part of this, we invited Riddhi Shah for an exclusive interview with us. She is a Leader, Coach, Nutritionist, Yoga Trainer, Influencer, and Change Enabler. Let’s learn more about her incredible journey, background, and valuable advice for our growing community!
Excerpts from our exclusive interview with Riddhi:
We are aware of your contributions to the ecosystem; talk us through your background and your journey, please;
I am a Holistic Health Coach with a degree in Nutrition, a trained Yoga professional, a certified counsellor in Nutrigenomics and Diabetes Education. With an experience of 15 years of nutrition counselling, I have had the privilege to help people live a healthy and productive life by making dietary changes and lifestyle modifications. Since my school time, I had a passion to make a career in the Health and Wellness industry. I took up Nutrition Science in University to be able to serve people and make them healthy and fit. It’s been 15 years in the wellness industry and the journey has been a great experience.
My idea of health is being fit not just physically, but also mentally, emotionally, socially, occupationally, financially and spiritually healthy and fit! At the age of 12 years, I was fascinated with the different poses in Yoga, that are named after animals, birds and are in synchronicity with the nature, which made my little curious mind embrace Yoga as a way of life.
And here I was, a class 7th student attending Yoga classes every Sunday, without giving it a miss a single day! As one of the Yog Sutra of Patanjali says – अथ: योगानुशासनम्, which means Yoga is Discipline! And that got instilled in me, which I intend to inculcate in the people I heal!
I have been fortunate enough to work with different kind of people from various backgrounds of life. It’s a privilege to have been able to change so many lives by changing their eating habits, incorporating a regular physical activity routine and helping them heal through rest, relaxation and hydration habits.
‘The Sattvic Soul’ is such a unique name; talk us through more about it, please. Our audience would also love to know what kind of problem you are solving?
Well, you must be wondering- why this name? What is Sattva? “Sattva Guna being pure, is illuminating, and it frees one from all reactions of bad karma. Those situated in that mode become conditioned by a sense of happiness and knowledge.” – Bhagavad Gita 14.6
As a firm believer of the Yoga philosophy, I have always wanted people to follow a healthy, balanced, pure and holistic lifestyle to live a disease-free life.
Sattva is a quality that brings out the best of physical, mental, emotional & spiritual health in a human being. By following a Sattvic regime to regain your health, you shall be reducing the root causes of disease and following the path of holistic and balanced living, thus contributing to achieve positive and holistic health, and reducing the Rajas and Tamas Gunas that bring ill health.
Thus ‘The Sattvic Soul’ was born, with an aim of enhancing the Sattva Guna in a person – right from the food you eat to the thoughts you allow to enter the mind, you shall manifest the Sattvic element.
The LIFESTYLE we are living in nowadays is the main concern! Yes, from a traditional method of eating food, exercising and working, we have shifted to a modernized way of doing these things.
Whether it’s eating your meals on time, sitting down in a cross-legged position and relishing every morsel, to just picking up a quick lunch, erratic meal timings, increasing stress levels with the increasing competition, poor sleep patterns, lack of physical activity due to availability of time and effort saving devices, we have messed up our own health! This is the main reason why our grandparents lived a longer life and were active even at the age of 80!
Thus, with this increasing concern of the growing number of deaths due to a sedentary and poor lifestyle, and with my passion to help people break their modernized routine in which there is no time for health and fitness, I conceptualized The Sattvic Soul.
How does Yoga help achieve a holistic life?
In today’s scenario, we human beings, are so disconnected from our bodies, from each other and from nature. It is the beautiful philosophy of Yoga that introduces this balance and connect with our environment and our bodies.
This made me realize my goal, passion and inclination towards helping people live a life that is in a perfect balance with the environment and helps them achieve a holistic life.
Thus, at ‘The Sattvic Soul’, I am living my dream of providing a holistic approach towards health and most importantly making lifestyle changes that become a way of life! After all, good health is not only for ‘Now’, it should be ‘Forever’!
What are some of the best practices you advise your clients and How does it help achieve a holistic life?
In today’s times, we hear a lot of morbidities and deaths arising due to illnesses at a very young age. Earlier the age at which a person contracted a lifestyle illness was generally above the age of 60. This came down to the 50s, and later to the 40s.
But now, a lot of people are falling prey to lifestyle diseases like diabetes, cholesterol issues, heart disease, thyroid troubles, digestive disturbances etc. at a very young age like the 30s !!!
This is quite alarming as your 30s are the years when you actually start living life and exploring opportunities! So the question is, what happened over these years that it changed the spectrum of disease? What made the young people fall prey to these lifestyle morbidities?
What does your Lifestyle Modification Program at ‘The Sattvic Soul’ includes?
(1) Modifying the eating patterns
(2) Incorporating the right food choices in the diet
(3) Regularizing the right form and intensity of physical exercise
(4) Improving the quality of sleep and rest
(5) Incorporating spiritual practices like mindfulness and practising gratitude and journaling in day-to-day life
(6) Relieve stress through yogic practices
(7) Improving your fluid intake
(8) Supplementing with the right nutrients, if missing from the diet.
How do you help your clients transform their lives? What approach do you follow?
I have a unique, holistic program for women, called the “Nourish and Nurture” program that includes coaching on key areas of Self-care, Mindfulness, Sattvic living and Yoga that help improve their holistic wellness.
My approach is simple- improving mental health to improve physical health, as it’s a known fact that more than 90% of all diseases are psychosomatic, i.e., the problem starts in the mind, and it manifests in the body!
Modern-day stress leads to panic, anxiety, overthinking, depression and other mental and emotional health issues that lead to the physical form of disease, especially Diabetes, Obesity, Thyroid troubles, PCOS, brain fog, gut issues, hormonal imbalance and infertility issues. Hence, with a Sattvic lifestyle, I aim to create a holistic change in my client’s life because after all, “As the food, so the mind!”
Sattvic lifestyle includes the following:
> Consumption of vegetarian, organic, fresh foods
> Avoiding commercially packaged, preserved and processed foods as they are Tamasic in nature and invite health issues.
> Cruelty-free living based on the yogic concept of Ahimsa (non-violence)
> Mindful eating strategies
> Cooking meals in the right frame of mind (yes! it affects the quality of the meal!)
> Eating in the right frame of mind, for getting the maximum benefit of the meal.
> Taking care of the body, mind and soul, with the help of self-care practices
> Embracing positive psychology and practising gratitude for everything that we have in our life!
> Making Yoga, Pranayama, Kriyas and Meditation a part of the daily routine
> Importance of Mantras to boost holistic health
> Including essential oils for improving physical and mental health
> Focusing on the other important pillars of self-care i.e. good water intake, sleep habits, organic skin and hair care.
BrilliantRead is committed to bringing stories from the startup ecosystem, stories that reshape our perspective, add value to our community and be a constant source of motivation not just for our community but also for the whole ecosystem of entrepreneurs and aspiring individuals.
Note: If you have a similar story to share with our audience and would like to be featured on our online magazine, then please write to us at [email protected], we will review your story and extend an invitation to feature if it is worth publishing.
