The Asian Women Festival 2021 took place virtually this year. Award-winning BBC Radio Presenter and Deputy Director as Asian Woman Festival Shay Grewal moderated all sessions. The opening address was delivered by Festival Director, Shani Dhanda.
The Power of Putting Yourself First
Dr. Radha is a practising NHS GP, broadcaster & campaigner for wellbeing. She explored why we don't put ourselves first, how to put boundaries in place, navigating our own identities in a culture based on co-dependency and dealing with community guilt. Many women (over 1500 viewers across the globe) joined the festival and asked questions regarding putting yourself first which Dr Radha addressed. Some of the key takeaways from this session were about self love, giving time to yourself, finding 30 minutes to just quietly reflect on your day, finding your favourite things to do, and navigating through joint families in South Asian cultures while trying to make our own identities as women.
How To Take Control and Live Life On Your Terms
Award-winning founder of Asian Women MEAN Business, Rupinder Kaur is quite passionate about helping Asian women to reach their full potential. Her session centred around why unrealistic, generic milestones don’t matter and how to set your own.
Award-winning poets Nikita Gill and Shagufta Iqbal also participated in the festival this year.
Nikita is a poet and writer. She has written and curated six volumes of poetry. She uses social media to engage her audience and she has 605,000 followers on Instagram with just over 370 posts. Shagufta is the founder of The YoniVerse Poetry Collective and Kiota Bristol. longlisted for the Jerwood Compton poetry fellowship, is an award-winning writer, filmmaker, workshop facilitator and Tedx Speaker.
Cut the BS and Reframe Your Mindset
Poonam Dhuffer, a wellbeing practitioner and founder of YSM8. took the viewers on a journey connecting their minds via their body and energy through self-reflection, mindfulness practices and loving-kindness meditation. The workshop included self-reflection prompts, practical tips that you can implement on a daily basis.
