#ANOKHI20: The ANOKHI Emerald Brunch Highlighted The Importance Of Mental Health Awareness Within The South Asian Community

The second fabulous event as part of the ANOKHI EMERALD SERIES celebrating 20 years of ANOKHI is the ANOKHI EMERALD BRUNCH. Held at the Westin Airport Hotel in Toronto on Saturday, June 17^th, The ANOKHI EMERALD BRUNCH hosted a lively and attentive full house who were ready to listen, learn, and share a crucial topic that doesn’t get much attention: Mental health and the South Asian community. 

If you weren’t at the ANOKHI Emerald Brunch on Saturday, June 17th, you missed out on truly unique discussions surrounding mental health in the South Asian community that only our very own CEO, Raj Girn could facilitate in such an empowering fashion. In celebration of Maha Parvati Shakti, who is often called upon for strength, the event  sought to continue the ‘Circle Of Trust’ initiative through the sharing of lived experiences and learning from one another in hopes of helping to uplift each other.

CEO Raj Girn, looking fabulous as ever, kicked off the brunch with a vulnerable speech that included some painful memories from her childhood when it came to racism and mental health. She set the tone for the afternoon as she showed us that these moments don’t have to define us. One of the most important aspects of the afternoon was #ANOKHI20’s mandate of raising funds for the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH). The readily available QR code for everyone to scan to donate continued throughout the ANOKHI EMERALD EVENT SERIES raising funds for this worthy organization.

Sunny Sodhi, the Chief Legal and Corporate Affairs Officer at Meridian Credit Union, delivered the Presenting Sponsor address for the attendees. Sarah Ahmed, Research Coordinator at CAMH, then provided a fascinating keynote where she shared an extensive study that she conducted on the South Asian communities’ complicated relationship with mental health assistance and the therapy space. She shared some of the findings of her three years- long study that targeted mental health treatments for South Asians, specifically. Ahmed explained that “is our ability to sustain holistic wellness. It’s a part of our entire experience as human beings and it’s integrated into everything.” After reviewing their findings, Ahmed’s team sought to create a form of Cultural Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) that would be taught to therapists who could then better cater to the needs of South Asians across Canada. What’s unique about this treatment is the “holistic approach… including meditation, alternative forms of medicine, such as Ayurveda, massage therapy, [and] dietary considerations. Spiritual and religious aspects being integrated into treatment, was also recommended, where appropriate. Understanding the role of family and how it can be both helpful and harmful.” With greater appreciation of the South Asian culture, treatments could be applied that South Asians could relate to and get lasting help from.

As part of the overall #ANOKHI20 celebrations, The ANOKHI Emerald Award recognitions continued throughout this afternoon. The special honour was bestowed upon those who have broken barriers and created spaces for others to thrive in the past twenty years.

The ANOKHI EMERALD HONOUREES 

There were 5 honourees across the Beauty, Business and Entertainment categories, presented By Meridian Credit Union:

Excellence in the Art of Wellness, presented to Thara Natalie

Excellence in Arts & Entertainment, presented to Karen David

Excellence in Arts & Entertainment, presented to Natasha Chandel

Excellence in Business & Politics, presented to Dr. Ruby Dhalla

Lifetime Award in Excellence in Beauty Arts, presented to Tamanna Roashan

Circle of Trust Segment:

• Energy Healing Session, Sound bowls, Meditation and Intention Setting with Thara Natalie: Natalie helped everyone get into a more relaxed state that lends to the mindset needed when having such vulnerable conversations. I’m not always a fan of meditation because I never know if I’m doing it right, which then distracts me throughout the session. However, Natalie’s soothing voice guided us through the process and explained that it’s perfectly acceptable to have other thoughts as you meditate. Instead, what’s important to remember, when other thoughts enter you mind, is that you can acknowledge them and then refocus on your meditation. If you’re looking to get further into meditation, I’d definitely recommend seeking out Natalie’s meditation sessions.

Fireside Chats

Fireside Chat #1: ‘Women In Arts & Entertainment’, Featuring Actor Karen David And Actor, Writer, Comedian Natasha Chandel, Brought To You By Home Of Dentistry

David is an actress and singer/song writer and Chandel is a comedian, writer, podcaster, producer, and actress. Both women have achieved so much success throughout their careers, but remained so humble as they joined Girn on the stage for the first Fireside Chat of the afternoon. David shared her early struggles and the fact that her name seemed to be a huge source of confusion when she’d audition because it didn’t ‘fit’ her profile. Nonetheless, David persevered and didn’t let the stereotypes others had of her dictate the rooms she dared to enter. Meanwhile, Chandel explained that after struggling with Lyme disease for years, once her health improved, she got on a bus to New York to pursue her dream of being a comedian. Her road to success wasn’t easy, but the support of her family with her choice of a non-traditional career path made a world of difference that has helped to keep her grounded.

Fireside Chat #2: ‘Women In Business & Financial Confidence, Featuring Dilys D’Cruz VP & Head Of Wealth Management, Meridian Credit Union And Dr. Ruby Dhalla, CEO, Dhalla Group, Brought To You By Aloe Accounting And Tax Professional Corporation

Money, especially in these trying times, can be a huge source of stress. While the common lesson for South Asians is to save their pennies (or nickels, nowadays), how to best manage money or deal with financial hardships are not discussed and are often a great source of shame that families will go to great lengths to cover up. In particular, conversations about money are often not open for women to participate in and that’s a problem.

D’Cruz knows what she’s talking about as a Senior Executive at Meridian Credit Union. This is a major accomplishment for women and South Asians, particularly in the wealth management industry, as Girn noted it is largely dominated by men. After going through some personal ups and downs, she found herself overwhelmed by her finances, despite being in the financial industry for years. However, after getting to Meridian, she began to “…do a number of interviews on educating women. [This led to her] ‘ah-ha’ moment: if I, in the financial services industry, had full access and easy access to financial advice and I was feeling overwhelmed, how are women feeling when they are leaving their marriage or they’re single and they don’t have access to financial advice. So what ended up happening was I had this ‘ah-ha’ moment and it became a passion of mine and I’m [incorporating] the passion into our business strategy, called Her Cents, that has a lot of educational [pieces]” to help women take control of their financial journey.

As well, Girn covered another important topic: why don’t women, particularly South Asian women, seek out leadership roles when it’s proven that they do well? D’Cruz shared her experience: “when I was looking to move up in my career, I worried when looking at women in senior roles that you have to give up something. Firstly, having a diverse population at your senior leadership table of women and South Asians is very important. But as a senior leader, I actually had a lot of flexibility, but I would be sitting in a hockey arena doing emails. However, I let my teams know, until this day, that that’s my time to work. It’s important as senior leaders to share that you don’t have to give up stuff.”

You heard it here folks – with communication and understanding, you can make your way up the ranks and still enjoy your life!

Fireside Chat #3: ‘Women In The Competitive World Of Glamour’ Featuring Founder of DressYourFace,  Tamanna Roashan, Brought To You By Glow College Of Artistic Design: 

The OG of beauty vlogging is Tamanna Roashan who came from Los Angeles to celebrate with #ANOKHI20! During her Fireside Chat she candidly discussed her journey as a global beauty educator and is the first South Asian beauty content creator to collaborate with a major beauty brand. The audience was focused in on what she had to say when it comes to building her online brand.

The floor opened up for questions throughout all of the fireside chats encouraging audience members to ask a question or share their own personal experiences when it comes to their own life journey in the context of mental health. Stress balls were also handed out as part of the lively afternoon.

What struck me the most about the entire afternoon was that every speaker, despite their success, was so humble and allowed themselves to be vulnerable about their struggles in front of strangers. One of the common themes in the advice and stories shared throughout the day was this: support provides strength. It makes a world of difference when you have someone to turn to in your times of hardship and as a community, we’ve got to forget about keeping up appearances and be there for each other so we can heal and do better for generations to come.

The ANOKHI EMERALD BRUNCH was an incredibly, enlightening, candid and supportive afternoon which could have easily lasted longer if time permitted. However one thing is for sure that the time spent was priceless.

Main Image Photo Credit: © 2023 ANOKHI LIFE. Photography By Nisarg Media Productions.