Holistic wellness coach. Holistic body rebalancing healer. Bach flower practitioner. These are some of the terms we find in the bio of Pavithra Rajkumar’s Instagram profile. Scroll through her posts for a bit and we get the sense that here’s a gal — with her beautiful smile and lustrous locks — who has inner peace all figured out and is kicking negativity’s butt day in and day out (her 3,847 followers can sure attest to that). We caught up with the ‘curly goddess’ (because she is a natural hair advocate too who rocks her untamed curls) for a chat. Excerpts from a calming conversation:
1. What propelled you into the field of holistic healing?
As a kid, I was always enamoured by anything related to mysticism and spirituality. I experienced my first silent meditation retreat in the sacred mountains of Dharamshala when I was 19. That was my start to an exploration of the ‘self’. My mother has been a strong factor in pushing me towards my healing journey. It also helps that I’m married to a creative geek who pushes me to be better each day and is also my biggest critic. I’m very grateful for a family that is supportive of my journey as a healer.
2. Can you describe your journey from a corporate consultant to a holistic wellness coach?
I started my career in Ernst & Young as a consultant after my MBA. Although secure and glitzy, a career in the corporate world left me feeling unfulfilled. That’s when I left to pursue and discover my passion for healing people. I went on to become a Reiki healer soon after and also completed my yoga teacher training programme from a1000yoga Academy, Bengaluru. I taught yoga to corporate professionals for a while because I knew that they needed it the most. I also went on to explore a few more healing modalities like Bach flower healing and trained in holistic body rebalancing as well.
3. Clearly, you don multiple hats. Are all your roles related in some way?
These roles might seem different but they all come together with a collective focus on healing. Each of these has been such an important part of my healing journey. As a wellness coach, my primary focus is to empower my clients with a deeper awareness to make conscious choices towards a healthy lifestyle. Wellness and health are more than just eating healthy and working out. It is about adapting and growing into better versions of ourselves from a holistic perspective through mind-body-consciousness. It is not just about being disease-free, but taking care of our physical, emotional and psychological self. I coach clients through one-on-one sessions, helping them transform their lives holistically and improving their quality of life.
4. We're curious about the Bach flower healing. How does that work?
Bach flower healing focuses on healing emotional blocks that manifest into the physical as pain or illness. Holding space for my clients and understanding what emotions they are struggling with helps diagnose and recommend this alternative healing remedy. Bach flower therapy involves flower essences which hold the energetic signature of flowers – each dealing with human emotions. Bach medicines are effective on pets too. Holistic body rebalancing is based on the fact that emotions get stored in our tissues, muscles, joints and sometimes even deeper. Although we might have mentally dealt with trauma/issues and think that we are over it, we assume we move on with life, but these unhealed emotional blockages get stored in the body, causing pain/aches and eventually physically manifest in the body in higher intensities – this is what Bach flower therapy focuses on. As a holistic body rebalancing healer, I focus on removing these emotional, energy blockages through bodywork followed by energy work on ‘marma points’. These are the energy centres that open up life energy - 'prana' to flow freely in the body. A session would leave one feeling relaxed and rejuvenated. Also, at a deeper level, there might be emotions that resurface for healing, detox that happens over the next couple of days that might show physically in the body. The effectiveness of this depends on how open, aware and ready the receiver is for whatever shows up during and after the session.
5. How did you come to love your natural hair - assuming that you had found it difficult to manage or unalluring at first?
I grew up hating my hair as most curlies do, simply because we had no idea how to care for it. I always yearned for manageable hair. I started loving it when I was quite literally down in the dumps. I was going through a phase while pursuing my master’s when I just couldn't care less about the way I looked or my hair! So I would just wash my hair and never comb it because I didn't care. And then these curls showed up, more so after a few weeks. Everyone around me started noticing that I had curly hair and were going gaga over it. That’s when I started embracing it the way it was. Years later, I got to know about the CG (Curly Girl) Movement and now, I religiously follow the CG routine and help other curly girls on their natural hair journey as well. This CG journey has been so much more than just hair for me. It is an extension of my pursuit of self-love and self-acceptance.
6. Can you describe a day in your life - What do you do differently? How do you focus on positivity? Any tips for our readers?
My day begins with taking a few precious moments for myself - breathing, stretching and meditating. I set aside 30 minutes to 1 hour in the morning to practice self-care. It could be anything from dynamic dance meditations, gentle flow meditations, yin yoga or high-intensity interval yoga depending on what my mind-body feels like on that day. Gratitude has been the most powerful aspect that has transformed even the toughest of situations with ease. Being aware in any tough situation that shows up during the day has been key in understanding lessons and propelling growth. We are only given things that we can handle, even if it seems like the hardest day. Just remember that you have some precious lessons which will transform you forever. Practising gratitude at the end of the day every morning is so powerful that it rewires our brains to focus on the positives.
