Wellness Curated is a collective community, founded by Anshu Bahanda, to help to empower people with health, wellness and joy. The team seeks out extraordinary health, wellness and beauty experts all over the world and gives you access to them via podcasts, Instagram Lives and direct appointments.
Since the podcast was launched in March 2020, it has featured topics varying from Brain Optimisation to Anxiety to Living with Long Covid and spoken to more than 50 practitioners, experts and therapists from both western and alternative medical traditions. Nutritionists, fitness professionals, psychologists, therapists, business people, yogis and more have joined Anshu to share and discuss their knowledge, expertise and research.
We spoke to Anshu about her work and Wellness Curated.
Please tell us about yourself, background, family and education
I grew up in Delhi, India in a family which was very involved in Art, Culture, Healing and Heritage. I did a Bachelors in Economics from a college called St Stephens College in Delhi University and then went to Boston University for Masters in Computer Science.
I now live in London with my husband and 2 daughters. I have gone from working at Lehman Brothers and Deutsche Bank to the African Art Business and the Health and Wellness Space.
I have weekly podcasts on Health and Wellness called Wellness Curated, and I also run an art platform called Aabru Art.
What is the demographic that you cater to? Can you share some insights from the digital interactions you’ve had under this programme?
For Wellness Curated, I have to say I struggle to define a demographic - the only thing I can say is that we cater to anyone who is interested in health, wellness, joy and beauty. The pandemic made us all realise that health is the singular most important thing in our lives, and is very important for everyone, everywhere - no matter which country you’re from, what your age group is, what your gender is, what your sexual orientation is or what your profession is.
I have interviewed about 64 people on health, wellness and beauty from different parts of the world, right from Canada to Thailand; different age groups, 29 to 72; and different professions. Here are some of my favourite insights -
The first step to helping yourself is recognising that you need help – whether it’s your mental, physical or emotional health.
No matter what your age group is, what you do today is going to affect how long you live and how well you live.
Never say never! Never give up! You would be surprised how much knowledge, healing and therapy you can find if you look for it - no matter what your ailment.
The world is changing so fast - change is our only constant.
Dis-ease is strongly linked to cellular memory and past traumas - you can heal yourself if you manage to cleanse from the above. I think of disease as a dis-ease, not being well in ourselves and also not being at ease with some aspect of ourselves or our situations
You can do anything you want if you do it with love.
I started Wellness Curated to empower people with health, wellness, joy and beauty; and create a collective community. What’s happening now is magical - people are reaching out to me and introducing me to incredible experts ( that I can interview on the podcast ) - they are taking ownership of this community and making sure we all collectively empower each other! Sheer Magic!
How much do you think Asians specifically understand about health and wellness?
I think Asians have a tremendous understanding of health and wellness.
I grew up in India - physical, mental, emotional and spiritual health and wellness are beautifully interwoven into our everyday lives right from the Yoga we did as children, to the chanting which is a part of our lives, to the respect we were taught to have for our elders.
I have friends who grew up in other countries in Asia - the sense of community, the social interactions, the importance of food and exercise all contribute hugely to health and wellness.
Do you think the pandemic will change the lifestyle and life choices of people in terms of health and wellness?
Yes, I do think the pandemic will change people's lifestyles and life choices in terms of health and wellness. People are beginning to recognise that no matter how healthy you are, things can change any minute- life, health and wellness are precious gifts that we cannot take for granted but have to nurture with great care.
People are working in a hybrid office/home office now. They have realised they can be a lot more mobile and live in different places.
Not being able to see friends and family for extended periods of time during lockdown has made a lot of people reassess their priorities and people are conducting their lives differently.
When people stopped ‘running’ during the pandemic they began to really value things like outdoor space and nature - things that a lot of people had taken for granted!
Sustainability and conscious living are on the rise!
