How to lead a happy, healthy and meaningful life
At one of the TLL sessions, Akcelina Cvijetic, the British “Ultimate Wellbeing Specialist”, said, “All exercises are important, but it is more important to differentiate between them, on the basis of their timings. I will highly recommend morning exercise, because after each exercise, more hormones are released and they are both feel-good hormones and distress hormones. Therefore, those who tend to exercise late in the evening have problems sleeping. Morning exercise is, therefore, the best exercise because it really activates your metabolism throughout the day.”
Cvijetic uses a multi-disciplinary approach of Eastern and Western therapies to treat the mind, body and spirit. These therapies include: Nutritional Therapy, Thought Field Therapy (TFT), Neuro-linguistic Programming (NLP), Clinical Hypnotherapy and Life Coaching.
Talking about how to be agile and happy in our dayto-day hectic life, she said, “Apart from exercise, different types of yoga, meditation, specially breathing exercises are important. Pranayama we must do, no matter how busy we are, and it does not take much time. Above all, mindfulness is most necessary. Be mindful in whatever you do, whatever you eat. Creative visualisation— using imagination to make dreams and goals come true—is also very helpful.”
Understanding our emotions is one of the keys to live happily. Cvijetic said, “There are no positive or negative emotions. Emotions are honest. They are part of our emotional intelligence. Emotions try communicating something. For example, anxiety is some kind of underlying fear that informs us that we are not ready or prepared for something. A positive message it communicates, is that we care and we want to do well in whatever job we are doing. If we ask such meaningful questions, we can cope with such problems as well.”
She added: “I tend to call depression, suppression— suppression of emotions, suppression of joy, suppression of intentions, suppression of plans, suppression of spirit. For example, suppose if we belong to a family of doctors and want to continue that tradition, but failing to do so, we should relook our desires and hobbies and find different outlet to do things, nourish them. Depression is a complicated subject but we can live happy by reworking on our suppressed emotions.”
On the subject of life coaching, Cvijetic said, “We can do our personal exorcism, by exercise, by thoughts—listening to our inner coach rather our own critic, by how we feed ourselves.
The definition, significance and meaning of luxury have evolved over the centuries. From the time of erstwhile Maharajas and royalty with their luxe styles to haute couture Parisian and international luxury design houses, it has been a long journey.
Luxury has different meanings, it is a subjective experience. For the famed designer Ritu Beri, luxury is getting to sleep. For many, it is comfort.
At the Luxury League, a session called “The Luxury of Fashion, Beauty, Wellness and Grooming” was held. Put together by the famed styling doyen Rashmi Virmani, the session featured emerging designers. Among the panellists were Gaurav Gupta, Founder of Akaaro; Chinar Farooqui of Injiri; Sonal Verma of Rara Avis; Rina Singh of Eka and Nakul Bajaj of Darveys.
They collectively agreed that when they are designing, it’s about comfort, evolution and utilization of India’s vast and varied crafts and techniques.
Rina Singh said, “Luxury changes from one point in time to the next point. Fashion is an experience. It is meaningful; one breathes it and lives it.”
Indian designers are very skilled, talented and understand the local indigenous crafts of India. Gaurav Gupta said, “Indian designers don’t need to go to the West for validation at all.”
Sonal Verma is grabbing attention in the stylish handbags domain. Having participated in a variety of international trade shows, she has been able to take her Indian brand global. She said, “I have like-minded women interested in my craft. I get buyers from stores all over. They connect through Instagram, informing me of their visit to India.” Definitely technology has played a huge role for these millennial designers.
Chinar Farooqui, a textile designer said at the event, “Our country has been highly skilled with textiles, handcrafted and woven to amalgamate with luxury for centuries. But yes, highly skilled craft and artisanal products are expensive. So luxury is about like-minded consumers for sure.”
Nakul Bajaj talked about how the luxury industry has changed. He said, “We have seen a huge bump up of 250% growth spurt from 2013-2019. Not just with the high net worth individuals, but also in terms of more markets and consumers who desire to buy luxury. The consumer base is evolving to be more varied and diverse. Advent of online retail platforms has helped a lot.”
All these young and talented designers think that advancement of technology has enabled them to carve a path for themselves in the clothing and accessories design space.
At the Luxury League, a session called “The Luxury of Fashion, Beauty, Wellness and Grooming” was held. Put together by the famed styling doyen Rashmi Virmani, the session featured emerging designers. Among the panellists were Gaurav Gupta, Founder of Akaaro; Chinar Farooqui of Injiri; Sonal Verma of Rara Avis; Rina Singh of Eka and Nakul Bajaj of Darveys.