What would you do if you’d built a successful career, rising to be a Chief People Officer but found that perhaps you were possibly chasing the wrong dream?
For one woman, the choice was simple. Blow it all up and embrace what the universe had been planning for you all along.
After all, Vinni Taneja was subconsciously preparing herself for this her entire life. But society had pushed back her choice.
“Here I was, waking up at 4:30 every morning, going to the gym, coming back home, taking the bus to the city for work, then after a long day there I’d still be checking emails long into the night. The stress was there, and there was no off switch. But the universe was still sending me all these dreams and messages that I was called to do something else.”
Yet she knew that this was a decision that wouldn’t be as easy as it was necessary.
“I just knew I was getting burned out and needed a transformation, almost like a butterfly coming out of its cocoon. It came down to realizing that I needed to prioritize self-care before I could evolve. I was just getting so burned out and then I really started like putting up stronger boundaries, realizing that I needed to fill up my coffers because how am I going to help heal the world if I can't help myself? Accepting that mindset, that self-care is not selfish and it's OK to put boundaries even with the people you live with, because you're coming out better for it and then you can help people better than with with nothing left in the tank. You've got to fill your tank in order to help other people."
“Having that steady paycheck for 20+ years was important, and it was a decision that impacted not just me, but my whole family – my daughter was still in high school at that time. But inside, I felt like if I didn’t do this, I’d just die. A piece of me on the inside was dying and my soul was screaming. So, I found myself on a journey to Nepal to plunge myself in a yoga shala and become certified in yoga after being a practitioner of it for many years. I’ve always been very immersive in my education whether it was my traditional career or my spiritual one. Now I was going all-in.”
“Throughout my time climbing the corporate ladder, I felt as though I was also concurrently climbing what I like to call my ‘soul ladder’,” explains Vinni. “Even when I was very young, I was always super intuitive, before ‘empathy’ was a common word. I’d listened to some unseen voice when I was a teenager to go vegetarian. I was talking about being organic and GMOs before they were mainstream and grew up with ayurvedic ways. I studied a variety of holistic methodologies simultaneously to feed by soul. So I guess I was being guided by my higher self to ready myself for this, in a way.”
Honestly, she’s been on a bit of a spiritual journey since birth. Her first name is actually Vandana, which means “prayer” in Sanskrit, given to her by her father.
It was also her father that launched her new path. He’d gotten sick, and the family rallied around him in their signature ways. Her brother (a doctor), and her mother, a “Mother Theresa-like caretaker”, and Vinni, the Eastern-inspired spiritualist. “The oncologist gave us what they expected his timeline would be. We told him ‘You don’t know our family.’”
“I went down a huge rabbit hole,” she says. “What’s in the food that we’re eating, the clothes that we’re wearing, what we’re putting on our skin? Where are all these carcinogens coming from?”
This was not a choice. He was going to keep on living. They weren’t ready to give him up yet.
In the end, they were right. Her dad far surpassed the oncologist’s expectations. But her dad’s unintentional push down her rabbit hole was one that inspired her to do more.
She has taken multiple international journeys to learn more and more about things that have ultimately led her to being a trailblazer for her own spiritual journey that she’s sharing with others.
Now, she blends her Eastern spirituality with Western pragmatism as a Certified Reiki Master, 700 Hours Yoga Teacher, Sound Healing Practitioner, Qi Gong Instructor, and Mind-Body Intuitive Coach. When she meets with clients, she seeks to provide therapy to the things that are causing them spiritual distress. Her Caldwell studio is filled with spiritual things she's gathered from her travels, to Nepal, to Bali, all available to her community to enjoy. She even has some "soul shopping" available there as well.
The way she describes it is that she’s found her Spiritual Guruness™. And she’s particularly proud of the work that she’s done for women to help them empower themselves spiritually.
“What I’ve seen throughout my career is that sometimes women don’t always embrace the knowledge inside of them. You don’t always have to rely on something outside of you. As a society we tend to push women down, that they don’t matter as much. Cultural conditioning is powerful. So they need to step into their divine form and power. That’s what I hope to teach my clients – these amazing souls that come into my life.”
That’s why the intersection of both paths in Vinni’s life gives her such a unique perspective in helping others in their quest. Her spiritual journey is the impetus for most of her clients to come to her. They come to her emotionally vulnerable, open to finding something inside that’s missing in their lives on an unseen plane. But her previous life, the vocational one, where she spent time both as an auditor and an HR Executive, gives them guidance and strategies that can help them realize their professional dream pathway. Vinni often taps into both of these sides to help those who come to her in their pursuit of a higher actualization and wellness.
“I really gravitated to that imagery of the butterfly,” noting that it’s so important to her that it’s part of her company’s logo. “I'm all about helping people go inwards like go into their cocoon and transform, to spread their wings and release. It's a very transformative journey.”
“I look at it as a ‘one stop shop’ for helping people find their way. I engage the ‘spirit team’ to help them prepare for who they can be inside, but I also can help to guide them in how to implement a plan to get them to where they want to be in society. Each person has their own spirit team behind them to help them. I know I do.”
In a society that rallies behind the power of prayer, those seeking spiritual wellness can’t find a more powerful, empathetic guru than a person whose very name literally means prayer.
To find out more about how Vinni can help you on your overall wellness journey, reach out to her at her Chakra Wellness studio in Caldwell via her website, chakrawellness.io
Changing from helping people along their corporate journey to guiding them in their spiritual one takes a real leap of faith. It's never too late to find the right path.