Dimple's Blog: My Intro To Health & Wellbeing

Let me introduce myself...

Hi I’m Dimple Sthankiya and I would describe myself as an expert in yoga and health as well as being a serial entrepreneur, running a couple of businesses, more of which I shall talk about later.

I’m here to share some of my tips with you about how to live a healthier and happier lifestyle. Over the months I’m going to share with you what I have learnt and experienced in my own life and hope that you get to take a gem or two away with you from my fortnightly blog. I’m also going to try and demystify ‘YOGA’ and ‘MEDITATION’ what it is and how it can radically make your life happier, healthier and stronger in mind and body.

I’m always being asked questions about nutrition, yoga, body ailments, meditation, spa/yoga holidays, transformational courses, recommendations for studios, yoga DVDs, yoga books, goal-setting, coaching and healthy living - so I’m going to do my best to give you a round up of what I think really works and why it works. I’d like this to be a two way conversation between you and me so if you’ve got some great tips, experiences and opinions to share then I’d love to hear from you because I think everyone’s experience counts and your idea or opinion may really help someone else. So please write in and let me know what you think.

Okay so what do I do? I run a yoga and coaching company ‘dimpleyoga’ www.dimpleyoga.com which is currently London based and provides the highest quality yoga teaching and coaching to individuals, groups and businesses enabling them to lead more fulfilling, healthier and balanced lives. In 2009 I am going to be expanding ‘dimpleyoga’ to include beautiful sassy yogawear that lasts, made from cutting edge fabrics, natural luxurious and organic materials that fit like a glove, celebrating the petite and the tallest amongst us. ‘dimpleyoga’ also pledges to give away 10% of its profits to communities in the world where amazing textile craftsmanship skills can be maintained. I don’t know about you, but I’m tired of wearing boring same-same clothing for yoga and leisure and I want to bring some oomph and humour into the world of yoga/leisure wear. I’ll also be opening up my first ‘dimpleyoga studio’ in the beautiful ski resort of Chamonix in the French Alps.

I also run a consulting firm ‘The Blue Seed’ which focuses on executive coaching and consulting to high net worth individuals from the worlds of business, sport and entertainment. Both my businesses work with CEOs, A-listers and Elite sportspeople which is unbelievably inspiring in so many ways.

The Last Millionaire BBC reality TV Programme...

This year I got to take part in BBC Three’s ‘The Last Millionaire’ Programme. In the TV show I faced a different set of challenges as one of twelve of the most successful young entrepreneurs in the U.K. competing to see who could create the most profitable business in six of the world's most exciting and demanding cities. www.bbc.co.uk/lastmillionaire/ There are still a couple of episodes to go so I won’t be telling you what happened other than the remaining participants are all inspiring, special souls who have been much inspiration for me, more in hindsight than being aware of it at the time.

What can I say about the experience other than it was just amazing and incredibly challenging. All our normal lifelines were taken away from us, we had only 4.5 days to make cash based around a theme in demanding cities. As Oliver Zissman, Founder of Totally Fitness and Lady Luisa says, ‘The language barrier, the amount of time, the partnership with someone you know nothing about, the challenges here were incredible.’ The cities we went to included Istanbul a party playground full of the beautiful people, Berlin where talented artists abound in their droves, Cairo hot, historic and where the weekend starts on Fridays. Then there was Naples where Jason Graham Co-Founder of Below Zero and Absolut Ice Bar and myself won our ticket home selling a Michelin Starred food and drink experience to Event iNapoli. The final two weeks were Bangkok where the final fours’ focus was Sport & Leisure and the final week – Hong Kong where East meets West. To find out who becomes The Last Millionaire you’ll have to watch. The 7th and final episode airs on Christmas Eve and looks back at the competition – most probably the best bits.

I also learnt so much from my fellow entrepreneurs. They all run successful businesses and the things I would say that we all had in common was our desire to break the rules, to challenge normal thinking on what was possible and to break some boundaries. Although at times challenging, being around a bunch of people who have such high aspirations and abilities has totally inspired me to go global with both my businesses and most importantly I’ve have made some new friends with whom I can reminisce the experience, months and years from now.

Finally even yoga came into it. I practiced whilst doing the experience usually on days when I felt really anxious, unwell and tired to boost my energy, to calm my nerves and to ground myself as best as I could in what was such a pressure cooker environment. Also yoga is a lot about being in the present and the beauty of the experience that dawned on me even whilst doing it and something Lianne Miller (Founder of Young & Pure) and I talked about frequently was how we couldn’t look back on yesterday’s or last week’s experience or even bring ourselves to think about where me might be next week or the next day. We had to live in the moment, to create a successful business from scratch. While I am writing this all I can say is that I feel a tinge of sadness because it really was one of the most amazing life experiences I’ve ever had despite having reservations beforehand and The Last Millionaire adventure is nearly over now. So I will leave you with this…..

‘It is better to have an adventure regardless of the challenge, the heartache and anxiety you think it may bring because that doesn’t even begin to compare to the amount of confidence, friendship, inspiration and opportunity it brings’
So go on do ONE thing this week that scares you, that you think you can’t do and I bet you once you’ve tried, even if the outcome isn’t what you expected, you’ll feel happier and stronger than before.

Until the next time…………..Namaste Dimple x