In Conversation With Ektaa Sibal - Inner-Self Transformation Specialist, International Meditation Expert And An Energy Healer.

Ektaa Sibal launches National Well-Being Campaign amidst pandemic creating awareness on mental health, emotional wellbeing and holistic wellness.

1. What was the objective of launching the National Well-Being Campaign?

There are multiple objectives associated to launching the NWC, but the foremost purpose was to help create awareness about Mental Health and Emotional Wellbeing. The pandemic not only impacted people from physical health perspective but it also led to an enormous rise in stress, anxiety, depression and fear amongst people. Hence, creating awareness and talking about how one can cope up in these challenging times is the foundation of my National Wellbeing Campaign.

Since last year, I have observed that the pandemic has created huge shifts in the mindset of people and a wave of negativity, uncertainty, anxiety, stress, fear leading to substance abuse, fatigue, sadness, anger at unpresented rate than ever.

Through the NWC, my aim has been to reach out to people and share some ways and techniques to manage their own Mental Health and bring Emotional Wellbeing in their lives. This campaign from my end is an effort to give back to society and community.

2. How did your campaign help people during the pandemic and even now?

My interest was to reach out to as many people as possible and help them. I believe that when you’re doing something good for the cause of humanity, automatically energies support you. I was invited by various institutions such as Hospitals, Schools, Global Conglomerates to talk on various subjects on wellbeing such as addressing the healthcare professionals/ frontliners of Hospitals, Corporate individuals, school teachers and faculty and the Global Leadership Community.

My signature talks and programs I conducted were for people from all walks of life that gave the audience ways to generate strength and resilience in their lives. As I’m a huge proponent of Meditation, I help people to learn, practice and adopt Meditation as a tool to build a stronger mind which enables them to develop focus and be able to see life and its situations from different perspectives. This shift in our mindset which gets developed through meditation helps us to build our inner strength and increases our adversity quotient.

3. What are your thoughts towards Wellbeing in personal and professional life and how to improve it?

I feel our personal and professional lives are closely intertwined, any impact in one creates a chain reaction on the other. To be able to create peace or be at peace in one’s work life and personal life is most important right now; considering the fact that many people are working from home.

I have been promoting Corporate Wellness Culture even before the Pandemic struck the world. Indian and Global Conglomerates have adopted Corporate Wellness Culture in a big way.

Organizations require to be innovative when it comes to employee engagement and my initiative of promoting Corporate Wellness Culture has also proven to be the need of the hour as organizations are recognizing the need to move their focus from the conventional methods of employee engagement to more relevant and essential methods of building emotional and mental wellbeing. Building Corporate wellness culture is all about focusing beyond physical wellbeing of the employees and building a more focused and resilient workforce

I have been conducting my Signature Programs Nationally and Internationally on topics pertaining to building stronger virtual relations, developing and imbibing Inner Peace, creating socially connected teams during social distancing, managing stress to thrive personally and professionally, bringing business transformation and developing a motivated workforce through a strong Corporate Wellness program.

My advice is that Corporate Wellness Culture should become an ongoing program focusing towards the wellbeing of the workforce as it also demonstrates care and consideration towards the workforce.

4. Share some thoughts on being Appointed as the National Wellbeing Advisor for Shipping Corporation of India, Ministry of Shipping.

It’s indeed a great Honor but more importantly being able to touch lives of people is what drives me. It’s very fulfilling to be able to give direction or guidance to people on how to minimize the adverse emotional impact of the pandemic and keeping our focus on achieving our personal and organizational Goals.

The Shipping Corporation of India and their Leadership is a great example to learn from on how to create a culture of Wellbeing, demonstrating a whole new way of care and consideration for the workforce.

5. What are the types of emotional problems you mostly saw/see surfacing during the ongoing pandemic?

Nobody anticipated such a huge health crisis we would come face to face hence no one was even prepared for the same, similarly how to react emotionally also was a first timer for all of us. Stress, Anxiety, fear, depression etc took a whole different meaning. One thing that this Pandemic has taught us is that a proactive approach towards our health and wellbeing is the solution to keep ourselves mentally strong during these times.

The pandemic has created a strong sense of uncertainty and doubt in everyone’s minds leading to an all-time high of creating fears, stress and anxiety and in some cases even depression. All my signature programs have been focused towards enabling individuals to proactively develop resilience and mental toughness for self-empowerment and self-improvement.

6. While the whole world is struck by the pandemic, are you having any International engagements around your national wellbeing campaign?

Yes, while the whole world combats the pandemic, my efforts and work drew immediate attention and was well recognized internationally too. I was fortunate enough to be invited to conduct my talks and signature programs focusing on wellbeing for several Global Conglomerates. I also got honored and was conferred as the Global Wellness Ambassador for Global CIO Forum, (USA) which connects approx 70,000+ Top Global Corporate Leaders across the world to shape the future for Global Corporate Community through knowledge sharing, Global leadership development etc.

At present, this June onwards until September I’m virtually delivering my Keynote on wellbeing and Corporate Wellness Culture at a Global event of Business Transformation Top Executive Awards in North and South Gulf, Asia and Africa.

7. How has your journey been as an International Meditation Expert and as an Inner-Self Transformation Specialist?

My journey has been extremely satisfying and fulfilling as I’ve been fortunate enough to touch lives of more than 50,000 people across the Globe in my effort to teach and promote Meditation and transform lives of so many individuals though various associations and collaborations etc. I feel privileged that my signature programs outreach has given people to explore and unravel their inner most capabilities to lead a happier and a fulfilling life which in turn gives me immense happiness and joy.

8. What's your advice to people on Wellbeing as we all pass though this time of uncertainty due to the pandemic?

Paying attention to our Well-being, I believe is an ongoing and a continuous process. this pandemic brought forth so many emotions and feelings - some gave us strength to manage difficult situations and some weakened us to an extent where we were unable to move forward. No matter what we all experienced, as we face this pandemic, one of the many learnings has been that to win in this pandemic, we need to be mentally strong, emotionally fit and psychologically balanced to take care of our well-being. Our overall well-being affects how we think, feel and act while managing any situation of our lives.

At this point, my advice is to ensure we take out at least a minimum of 20 minutes in a day for self- care in which you can do some mind relaxing exercises or indulge in mindfulness practices, make meditation as a way of life and consider Counseling or “talk therapy’. Since there is still a taboo on seeking help for mental or emotional distress, it’s pertinent to bring awareness amongst people to seek help and talk their problems out.

9. What’s your future roadmap?

To be well in all dimensions of life – be it personal, professional, social, financial, spiritual and intellectual is what everyone desires. Hence, I want to integrate wellbeing not just in the form of physical wellbeing but also in the form of mental, social and emotional wellbeing in all the sectors such as Education, Government, Sports, Corporate, Healthcare etc.

I believe in empowering people to create their own wellbeing goals and achieving it subsequently. Keeping that in view, I will also be launching my own Well-Being Programs Globally in the form of courses in collaboration with global organizations and institutes/universities.

I also intend to reach out to the world and share my knowledge of how in some simple yet powerful ways each and every individual can make meditation a way of their life and reap its benefits. Along with this, I also have plans to further educate the Global Corporate and Leadership community on the importance of building corporate wellness culture for creating a work environment driven less by stress and more by happiness.