Corporate Health: God made us; Personality defines us

Keeping healthy and also achieving a good ‘body tone’ is perhaps one precursor that image management consultants believe in for building confident and charismatic individuals. Akanksha Agrawal, a certified corporate trainer and Image Consultant, shares her experiences in grooming professionals and businesses to harness a touch of their individual ‘style quotient’ and people skills so as to steer them towards rewarding opportunities at work and beyond

Think positive and look positive

“I see fitness in a broader term which is mind, soul and body. I meditate every day to keep my mind calm, focused and nourished”, said Akanksha Agrawal, Founder, Corporate Trainer and Image Consultant at The Verve Image Consulting.

Like any working professional, Akanksha too has to rush through her mornings and meditation is a refuge. “With my erratic training schedules and my daughter being so young, the mornings are a rush and I practically have to steal some time for meditation”, she adds.

Managing Self-Image

Akanksha works towards establishing self-confidence and helps to instil a belief that ‘God made us, but personality defines us’, this whilst ensuring successful, happier and fulfilled lives for each one of us. Her simple aim is to help integrate the inner and outer persona of an individual, so as to achieve a well-groomed and balanced personality.

“Managing one’s image is nothing but, feeling good about yourself inside out. It’s about raising your self-esteem and appreciating yourself the way you are and then transforming yourself on aspects of dressing, grooming, body language and etiquette for that added confidence and for that impeccable and impressive image. Of course, fitness is an inseparable element to attain a charismatic persona,” said Akanksha.

She recommends her clients to adapt to some form of a fitness regime so as to sync in with their regular work schedules and doing this is not an option but, ‘mandatory’. “Doing so helps to feel active and productive throughout their day,” she said.

While her image-building course does not include fitness as an integral package, about 50 % of their corporate clients get inspired to imbibe fitness after consultation with their team. Subsequently, there are highly motivated individuals who come to her for fine-tune their image makeovers. “I do get a lot of clients who are already following a fitness regime or have knowledge of fitness. That’s where my job gets simpler, where I have to focus primarily on aspects of image building for overall personal grooming, she adds.”

“Managing one’s image is nothing but, feeling good about yourself inside out. It’s about raising your self-esteem and appreciating yourself the way you are and then transforming yourself on aspects of dressing, grooming, body language and etiquettes for that added confidence and for that impeccable and impressive image. Of course, fitness is an inseparable element to attain a charismatic persona”

Akansha Agarwal - Enabling Total Grooming - Inside Out!

Syncing health and building self-image

Staying Fit

For Akanksha, her first aim to being fit is to be healthy and second, is in achieving a ‘good’ body shape. “I maintain a balance between mindful diet and regular exercise in the form of walking, yoga or Zumba”, she said.

Syncing in her mantra of connecting to the purity of soul and a fit physique, Akanksha has her own daily regime.

For a dynamic and energetic lifestyle, she practices Zumba and Yoga.

“For purity of soul, I like to read and listen to ‘Secret’ and ‘Gaur Gopal Das’, which are my favorites for an understanding of human values and ethics. I try to practice it in my business as well. I also read and discuss articles relevant to human values, ethics, good deeds and try and practice my learnings in my daily business dealings to”, she adds.

For a fit body, Akanksha is very regular with her evening Zumba fitness sessions. “Zumba in the evening works perfectly for me as I am not a gym person and find exercising very boring. Zumba is a perfect form that includes dance-based exercises, set to groovy music and acts as my perfect stress buster at the end of the day and keeps me energetic too”, she said.

Holistic Well-being

Akanksha begins her day with a shot of lemon and honey in lukewarm water or coconut water; followed by a healthy breakfast. She consumes a lot of water during the day to keep her body well hydrated. “I make sure to carry lukewarm water for my training sessions so that my throat is not dry for the continuous 5-6 hours of sessions because of the need to speak constantly. During the day I eat in small portions and dinner time, the food is very light with no chapati or rice (carbohydrates free),” she said.

For adhering to a healthy and fit lifestyle, Akanksha’s mantra is to, “Find the right form of workout that gels with your vocation (hobby). It will make sure that you enjoy going for it rather than forcing yourself into doing it”, she rounds off.

By Sangeeta Ghosh Dastidar