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Women Empowerment and Healing
To celebrate women’s month and honor the divine feminine, we connected with one of our beloved brand ambassadors here at Organic India: Radhika Mukhija, Women’s Mentor and Coach. We are so excited to share her inspiring story and profound offerings around women empowerment.
Learning from elders and ancestors
“From a young age, I was exposed to the Satvic way of living, as they say in Ayurveda, which is aligned with nature-based practices, harmony and higher consciousness,” says Radhika.
Whether it was her grandmother using Amla (Indian Gooseberry) from her kitchen pantry; her father, an Engineer by profession but Homeopathist by hobby, offering alternative healing methods for gut, skin, and just about any other issue that she had; or her mother sending her to yoga summer camps as a teenager – holistic wellness was ever-present in her upbringing, though she didn’t realize how much of a role it would play in her journey.
Corporate life
After graduating with a Master’s Degree in Human Resource Management, Radhika spent the early part of her career hiring C-Level Executives for clients across the globe in the banking and financial sector. “I was passionate about my work and an absolute workaholic, just work work work all week, and even on the weekend as well I’d find time to work,” she says. “Five years in, this intense, fast-paced, unconscious lifestyle caught up with me — I was chronically tired, stressed out, and my digestion was a mess.”
Reemergence of wellness
It was an unfortunate event that brought Radhika back to her roots of herbal wellness, yet it had a silver lining that redirected the course of her high-stress life. “When my mother was diagnosed with cancer, it came naturally to lean back into alternative healing, herbal wellness, juicing, detoxing, meditating, pranayama and other holistic practices to try to help her.” After caring for her mother 2-3 years between remissions, sadly, she passed, which became a major turning point for Radhika.
“When I lost my mother, I leaned into yoga to help me overcome her loss, which was such a profound experience that I decided to go back and study to become a yoga teacher; and while doing that, I realized I wanted to go back and study nutrition and health coaching, and all of the other practices I delved into while helping her,” Radhika shares. “That’s how I transitioned from my corporate work to wellness work — my mom’s loss was an organic catalyst and when I do this work I feel I’m honoring her soul.”
Holistic mentorship for women
She started formalizing her offerings around women, particularly executives who lead busy lives, who she can mirror and relate to. “We go beyond the surface level goals, and dig into the visceral level to find that deeper purpose behind these goals,” she says. “So I created a unique methodology based on my real life experiences, combined with my education around Ayurveda, yoga philosophy, biohacking, functional nutrition, holistic life coaching and neuroscience.”
She takes her clients beyond the notion of ‘doing more’ all the time, to doing less, being still, and lovingly observing. “The sweet medicine is in those moments – for example, in the practice of Pranayama, it’s not just breathwork, it’s the moment we have the inhale, exhale and pause, and that pause is where the magic is,” Radhika shares. “When you see a beautiful sunset or aspect of nature, you’re in that place of awe and you’re not really inhaling or exhaling you are just there, in that sweet space; in this culture of just go go go and capitalism, we miss that aspect and when we miss that aspect we lose our true inner wisdom, we are almost unconscious.”
Addressing patriarchal guilt
She acknowledges the need for her clients to embrace rest and self-care. “I think a lot of my clients, myself included, have embedded in our DNA that whole patriarchal guilt that I have to keep doing something, I have to be productive; I see 90% of my women clients feel guilty to even do nothing on a weekend, they think ‘oh let me organize cupboard or pantry or organize my child’s closet,’ because they have this resistance to rest,” she says. “That all revolves around this patriarchal guilt embedded in our DNA from ancestors and way before, so a big part of my work with my clients is helping them understand that rest can be medicine for them, and it’s not something that they need to feel guilty about.”
A kindred connection
“In terms of the work I do, I always like to promote regenerative living and all of the products I use I like to embody before recommending to clients; I really appreciate the health giving, life giving qualities of Organic India’s products. My first interaction with Organic India was actually in India, in Bombay where I grew up – I became interested in their products because I was exploring conscious companies and they were one of them,” she says. “It’s a unique synchronicity I have with Organic India having been born in Lucknow, where the company’s India Headquarters is; and now living in Colorado, the site of the company’s U.S. headquarters – I look forward to a continued partnership.”
Radhika Mukhija is currently offering 1:1 holistic mentorship, as well as teaching in workshops and trainings. She is also launching her new course – a self-paced program called Practical Embodiment – which offers tools and resources for seasonal living. She continues to honor her mother’s legacy, and is in the process of writing a book on her methodology based on ancient wisdom for an unstoppable life.
To learn more or schedule a session, visit HolisticPrana.com, follow Radhika on Instagram or contact her at Radhika@HolisticPrana.com. Register here for her new course, Practical Embodiment. Find her new meditation releases on Spotify and wherever you listen to music as artist Pranaandsky.