For the founder and CEO of Simply Body Talk, a company that focuses on various applications of non-verbal communication, Khyati Bhatt, there’s no substitute for exercise or spending time with loved ones. Bhatt works with corporates and individuals to fine-tune their body language and help understand people better. She answers the Thrive Questionnaire. Edited excerpts:
Thrive Global India: How do you unplug and recharge?
Khyati Bhatt: My way of recharging is to go out in the open ground or the sports area within our society to work out every single day. That could mean playing squash or badminton, depending on who I have for the company, or plain jogging or walking, depending on mood. But there necessarily has to be at least 30 minutes in which I allow my body to tire out early morning, because for me, that is the way to think better and with a fresh perspective.
And I like spending time with my six-year-old daughter. That is a time when I forget about everything else on my mind and become a child as I play along with her. It is a great way to unwind on a daily basis and does not require much efforts.
TGI: How do you deal with negativity on social media?
KB: Professionally, I require putting up regular updates and advertisements on the social media as a part of our brand building and marketing exercise. However, I have staff, different people looking up different parts of “me” out there on the web.
Personally, there is little which I myself post which means I don’t get onto these platforms unless it is to check how my company is doing, or else to get fresh ideas from others who are inspiring in their own field of work. Thankfully this keeps me away from whatever stressful posts or competitive environment could be present on the internet.
Also, being a keen observer of human behaviour, the only impact so-called negativity could have on me would be to arouse curiosity to explore the root cause of such behaviour.
TGI: Tell us about your relationship with your phone.
KB: My usage of the phone for its primary functionality of calling others is very limited. There might be hardly one or two calls I personally make per day unless some business proposal is being closed, and then the calls are strictly during business hours. But because our era has evolved the phone into the “smart tool”, a lot of functionalities necessarily get done using the phone like tracking travel routes, reminders, and such like.
I do like to keep in touch with my friends who might be based overseas or travelling, so communication via the chat tool is intermittently helpful in keeping ties intact. However, I am not someone who uses too many apps and I have no game installed on my phone. I am also not much of an online shopper by nature, and that, I believe cuts down my use of the phone to quite an extent.
TGI: When was the last time you felt burned out?
KB: This may sound strange but when I am away for too long from my work without mental and physical activities, I experience a burnout. I have chosen a field of work which is really close to me, and the thrill of my day is actually when I am using my mental power to its full capacity.
That being said, I am ultimately a working mother and the senior member of our family, so that comes with a lot of other responsibilities as well. So I ensure that I keep taking regular breaks every two to three months. These would be short spurts of vacations, not more than four to five days, but during those times, the only connection I have with my work life is the daily one minute update I receive from my team members.
TGI: How do you incorporate well-being into your daily life?
KB: Well-being is a state of mind. I believe my routine of starting and ending the day early has helped me keep ahead of the curve quite a bit. I can feel a huge difference in my productivity if I have a good night’s sleep and that requires the discipline of letting go of a lot of socialising which generally happens during evening parties. I am also a believer in limiting consumption of outside meals as far as possible. This helps me implement a healthy lifestyle for not just myself but also my family.
Also, a part of what I do professionally is teaching people to introspect their reactions to stress, by paying attention to their body’s signals, so that they can arrest stress when it is in the initial stages. I myself practice what I teach. Introspection is a great tool to understand one’s state of mind and has helped me refine and guide my thinking and emotions over the years.
TGI: What would you do on an ideal day?
KB: My day starts around 5:30 am. The day starts getting planned out in my head much at the same time as I am awake and I plan out the tentative schedule for the day by the time I am done with brushing my teeth. I reach office around 9:30 am after finishing breakfast, seeing my daughter off to school and my daily workout.
For me, work in the office is different every single day. Some days I would be planning out my next workshop so that would mean doing a lot of research. I also take coaching sessions so that involves meeting my clients on a regular basis. I would have to sit one on one with each of my staff to understand their updates, and their plan for the day. I travel frequently for meeting corporates to introduce our offerings, since what we do is niche and most people want to understand a bit more in person before closing a deal with us. I am working on new avenues of business expansion and that requires a lot of brainstorming and can take up quite some time. Office ends around 6 in the evening and I spend an hour walking in the garden. As I supervise my child playing there, I take time to muse through my day or speak with someone from my family who stays physically away from me. We have early dinner as a family and retire by 10 pm.
TGI: What’s your favourite well-being tip?
KB: My advice would be to not let stress mount till it becomes too big to handle. If you can learn to understand yourself and how you behave when you are under any type of emotional or cognitive stress, it can give you a tremendous advantage in terms of being more productive and emotionally stable. And learning how to do this is not very difficult.
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