In Conversation with Bhavini Kalan, International Wellness Consultant & Vinyasa Kundalini Yoga Teacher
Bhavini Kalan is an international wellness specialist who works with leading destination spas, wellness centers and resorts around the world. The Cornell business/law graduate conducts corporate wellness workshops, retreats, and individual programs across the world, helping people find balance within and at their workplace. She has also been instrumental in designing unique sacred spaces and wellness centers in India, Vietnam, Egypt, Morocco, Ethiopia, Bhutan, South Africa, Thailand, and Bali. Her academic background and in-depth training in yoga have helped her carve out a unique yoga style called MetaFlow which allows people to connect with their innate intelligence, what she terms as, the “authentic self”. Bhavini will be teaching at The International Yoga Festival held from March 1-7, 2018 in Rishikesh, India, a festival for which she also spearheads global marketing partnerships. [1]
Bhavini is on point on her choice of business as well as her passion for holistic healing. That’s because the next trillion dollar industry globally will be the health and wellness space, according to a report by the Global Wellness Institute. The global wellness industry is a $3.7 trillion market, dominated by beauty and anti-aging product sales at $679 bn, followed by fitness and mind & body exercise ($390 bn) and healthy eating, nutrition and weight loss sales ($277 bn). [2]
Bhavini Kalan,International Wellness Consultant & Vinyasa Kundalini Yoga Teacher. Photo Credit: Bhavini Kalan
Organic Facts caught up with Bhavini Kalan to ask her more about her wellness mantra and businesses.
OF: You have set up yoga & meditation centers in a number of countries across the world. What inspires you to do this?
BK: The international market for wellness is growing, given that people are trying to search for more ways to lower their stress levels. I teach in diverse countries such as those in Africa, Vietnam, Egypt, Bhutan, Ethiopia, and Iran and there is openness for people wanting to tune into their innate mind-body intelligence and live better. Corporates are including wellness hours for staff productivity. I also do one-on-one MetaFlow consultations and offer yoga and meditation recommendations.
Mind and meditation are becoming key, as people are learning that meditation is medication in whatever spiritual background or religion they come from.
I am happy to see innovations in international meditation and yoga studios. For instance, there are breathing rooms like Just Breathe, where therapeutic grade salt is aerosolized and sprayed into the air. The salt is naturally anti-microbial and anti-fungal and helps provide natural relief to those with colds or ear infections. Meditation studios like Inscape offer fully immersive audio-guided experiences for meditation and relaxation. People are aiming to be authentic, that’s the new cool, and embracing yogic ways allows for the authentic awakening.
My inspiration is training wellness hospitality partners, managers, spa therapists and so on, so they are able to become ambassadors of yoga meditation, breath-work instead of selling it off the menu.
OF: You have collaborated with several international experts and spiritual leaders through your career journey. Can you tell us about what you consider the highlights?
BK: The teachings of the different lineages and their unique aspect of study renders the whole is more than the sum of its part approach.
International wellness experts and spiritual leaders are inspirations of awakened living or living with self-awareness. They are mindful and eventually start working through their heart intelligence. Given their years of work, their teachings bring a pure authenticity to them, making everything they say or do becoming imprinted in the mind, heart and cellular psyche.
Once they reach a certain level, their teachings is that of LOVE. However, these teachers and experts remain students of life daily and continue on their evolving journey. They do not miss the ‘God of Small Things’.
OF: As an entrepreneur, what have been the challenges that you have faced? And how have you overcome them?
BK: Given that I am a business development consultant and yoga and wellness studies specialist, the challenge has been finding a career as an independent consultant to merge these skills and create unique value-add offerings, so that it is financially viable for me. I overcame them by being associated with key wellness hospitality wellness investors around the world that are looking for innovative spa and wellness business development programs and strategies, right through from program design and development, to trainings and annual refresher work and courses, taking yogic living concepts into policies, into the resort experiences, into products and amenities etc. I get referred word-of-mouth as the work I do is super niche. The nicest thing is that I get to travel to unique places and work with amazing professionals from around the world.
A picture of Bhavini Kalan taking a yoga class at the bank of a river. Photo Credit: Bhavini Kalan
OF: What is the single biggest wellness mantra that you think will trend in 2018?
BK: Restful living, how to find your own wellness flow and own it, authenticity and inner mastery through deepening your mind, body, and energetic intelligence. Above all, live from the heart.
OF: As a changemaker in the space of wellness, what is the thing that you are most proud of that you have achieved?
BK: I am proud to have merged my business consulting skills with wellness. In this way, I can blend my passion for business creativity and innovation in the field of wellness.
I am proud to have made a mark in Africa and the Arab worlds, somehow my teachings appeal to these crowds a lot. Travel has become a study for me where I get to experience wellness trends first-hand in different cultures.
After all these years, personally, I am finally happy to have embraced restful living and what works for me so that I am able to give my best to people and projects in a restful way. Hence, I have launched my initiative called MetaFlow which takes all my years of yoga and wellness and Ayurveda into a more relevant modality for the current times, I aim to make wellness fun easy and beautiful.
