I help busy business professionals and entrepreneurs, on-the-go moms, and creative types, amongst others, to attain their goals. We identify your needs; I offer personalized solutions. While someone might want to learn how to fight stress off at work, another person might need help finishing his or her book on deadline. I will be available as a mentor, guide, and wellness advocate helping you reach your goal. I have experience in both Western and Eastern philosophies of wellness, allowing me to create programs that help you feel calmer, unstuck, and supported. I came to this work after holding leadership positions in the corporate world and freelance positions in the creative world, and realizing that success doesn’t always equal health and fulfillment. For the past few years, that has been my obsession.

Let me tell you how I came to realize that success and wellness go hand in hand. A few years ago, while still in my thirties, I hit a brick wall. Someone I was mentoring organized an attack on me to gain access to my publishing contacts and networks. Here I thought I was a smart woman—with three master’s degrees (including from an Ivy League), over a decade of experience in marketing in leadership roles, several awards, and nine published books at the time—but I didn’t see any of it coming.

I was hard on myself. My confidence plummeted and my faith in my own self became questionable. “How can I consider myself astute and street-smart when I didn’t see that I was helping a deceitful person?”

I fell sick. Repeated bouts of pneumonia. Weeks of high fever. While I was still emotionally healing from the attack and recuperating from my sickness, my mother passed away suddenly in India. She was in her sixties and headed on a vacation with my father but ended up in the morgue instead.

I couldn’t wrap my head around everything that was going wrong in my life. I turned to anger and wine. My writing started to suffer. My productivity declined. My health deteriorated. I over-victimized myself. I started to ask myself hard questions about life, relationships, career, and wellness.

And then, one day, something inside of me changed. My doctor warned me that if I didn’t take care of myself, I could expect serious health troubles. I knew there were only two ways: either to stay buried under sorrow and self-pity or rise from the ashes and make my life count.

I turned to yoga, Ayurveda (“Science of Life”), and meditation. I learned to pause in my life. I learned about gratitude, compassion, and mindfulness. I started to live a holistic and mindful life even off the mat. I forgave myself for the mistakes I didn’t and did commit. I started to focus on those who lifted me higher and added a distance with people who drained me out. I concurred that self-care was the root to becoming better.

I went to school and got certified to teach yoga and then AyurYoga (teaching yoga using the ancient but scientific Ayurvedic principles based on people’s individual body constitution and need). I also realized that the food that we eat impacts not only our health but also our emotions and performance, so I studied Ayurveda to become a Holistic Health Counselor and make lifestyle recommendations. I am also certified as an Ayurveda Holistic Chef. The Eastern nutrition degree complimented one of my master’s degree, which was in Sports Nutrition.

In a few months’ time, I gained a healthy perspective on life, loss, and longing. I had learnt to manage my stress and expectations better. I got a book contract and was appointed as a columnist for a leading wellness magazine. I started to teach yoga to female survivors of violence. I volunteer for Exhale 2 Inhale, an organization that brings yoga to survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault in New York City, Connecticut, and Los Angeles through weekly classes at shelters and community-based organizations.

While all this was going on, the doctors suspected that I had cancer. For weeks we didn’t know that it was a false alarm. But I didn’t freak out even once. The Type A New Yorker in me had changed for my own good.

My editors started to notice the change in my writing (my voice was calmer and more confident). People in my personal space started to acknowledge how peaceful I had become. When I worked with digital marketing clients, I understood their behavior intuitively. The consumers of my handmade, organic, massage oils confessed that they had never slept better. My yoga students said they felt safe and protected around me.

Funny, my Mom wanted me to become a doctor. She believed that I had the power to heal people and touch their lives. She talked about Ayurveda and I saw my Granddad practice yoga asanas. But I wanted to make a difference in people’s lives with writing.

Little did I know at the time that NimmiLife would become a reality. Little did I know I would be able to combine yoga, Ayurveda, meditation, and writing to help others. My students at the writing retreat in Panchgani, India—where I combined wellness techniques with creativity—reported feeling protected, supported, and productive. The quality of their personal lives enhanced over the coming months. Ninety percent of them went on to get published.

After seeing what wellness techniques have done for me and for people I have been privileged enough to work with, be it bankers or doctors or creativity professionals or students, my dream is to take the confluence of wellness and creativity and productivity tips and help people get unstuck, reduce stress, and achieve their goals while elevating their wellness. Because success and wellness go hand in hand.

My mother’s name was Nimmi and she knew more about life than anyone, hence the name NimmiLife.