Mind over Matter - Tedx

Okay, a little bit of exercise. Yes, it's 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8. You clap.

5, 6, 7, go. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.

Next time, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8. Right leg only. I'm watching.

5, 6, 7, go! 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.

Louder!

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.

Now it's 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, stomp and clap, 2 together.

5, 6, 7, go! 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.

Wow!

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.

You are brilliant. That's not how I am, and that's not— please sit down— that's not how I was as a kid. I was born in a small middle-class family in Jamshedpur. Meek, mild. My father passed away when I was 13, but I never ever gave up. I was sent off to Mumbai to pursue my college education. Those days it was doctors, engineers. And of course Chartered Accountants. I hated every bit of this. My family pushed me into Chartered Accountancy, and I started my journey as a Chartered Accountant. I finished my Chartered Accountancy by the time I was married. I found my husband in Hyderabad 22 years ago, straight from Mumbai, never ever had been to South India, definitely not to Hyderabad. My family brought me to Hyderabad. Soon after that, I was disappointed with the career that I chose. And so one fine day, without even thinking of what I was going to do ahead, I quit my chartered accountancy. I called all my friends and I told them, let's take all your— take all my books away. That's all. I don't want to do anything. But there was something within me that was burning. Maybe I wanted to do something. I got inspired by my sister-in-law, my husband's sister, who then was a trainer in Yemen. Seeing what she did in Yemen, I wanted to make a change in India. I told my friends and some of my family members that I had lost it completely. Everyone gave me that sad look. So sad, she's quit chartered accountancy and now she wants to change her profession. I started way back in 1993. Those days aerobics was not even recognized. It was like dancing. Everyone thought it was just dancing. I finish a session— when I started, I didn't have a single student. I sat there waiting in my hallway every single day for that one student to appear. I didn't know anything about business. All I knew is I wanted to make a change. I wanted to make a change to lots and lots and lots of people, and I didn't even know how to go about it. My journey began, and that's where I started my story as a fitness trainer. I used to very diligently take my classes from morning to evening. And it was not even a recognized profession. After I finished some of my sessions, people would come and ask me, "So what job do you do?" I was so sick and tired of telling them what job I did. So finally I told them, "I touch my toes for a living." And I'm not ashamed of the fact that even till today, ladies and gentlemen, I touch my toes for a living. I just love what I do. It's my passion, and I have a dream to make a change in our country. The journey went on. I opened centers, business grew, I grew, I matured, and I found that there was a lot within me that I needed to share. A lot about the mind, a lot of— not more about the body, it was more about the mind. And I started realizing that each time I had a hurdle, whether it was in my personal life or whether it was in my professional life or whether it was in my family, The moment I looked within myself for a solution, I got it. The moment I looked up books, the moment I looked up encyclopedias, I wouldn't understand how to go about it. But all the solutions lied within myself. There were times, ladies and gentlemen, when I didn't have any students and I didn't know what to do. I didn't even have money to actually put an ad. So I'd just go in my class, cross my legs, sit all by myself, and all I would do is visualize. I'd visualize that I have so many students around me, and sure enough, within a week's time, I don't know from where, I really don't know from where, loads and loads of girls started coming in. My mission was to make a change amongst women. Women empowerment was my mission. I started off with men and women, and then I realized that women did not have a place to go to. So I shut down my business for men. I got paid less money because there was only one segment of people who were coming to my studio, but that did not make a difference. Money was not what I was running after. I wanted to make a change in someone's life. And that's what— that was the conversation that my husband and I shared 5 minutes ago, and he said that it appears like most of the people have left. I said, it doesn't matter. One, you are there, and two, if I can make a difference in one person's life, I just love it. I started slowly and I grew, my business grew, and as I grew, I had a lot of innovative ideas. I thought that education played a major role in my life. Everything was going smoothly. Yes, that's my friend's dog who has been also inspired by my friend to take control of his life. So if Odie can do it, we all can do it, my friends. Everything was going smoothly— money, fame, family— until one fine day on February 18th, 2005, 4 o'clock in the morning, my friends, I entered the kitchen to light my gas stove for my coffee because I go to work at 5:15. The gas stove didn't come on, and I thought, typical made-in-India gas lighter, it's not working and no one's told me about it. So I ran, got a match light, I lit the gas stove and the whole kitchen was in flames. I was all alone in that kitchen with the entire kitchen, entire kitchen burning all around me. All I did was I just jumped out, called for some help, and I walked into a hospital all by myself. At that stage, I didn't even know what hit me. I didn't even know whether it was an accident. I didn't know anything. When I went in there, everyone— it's typical in India, everyone thinks that maybe I've done something to myself. So I got those suspicious looks. I told him, listen, I need help, and that's how the treatment started. Initially I was told that I was down at 80% burns, but then it was at 47%. Sometimes ignorance is bliss, and you really don't know the difference between 47% and 80%. And I told myself, okay, 'For 1 week, 10 days, I should be out and gone.' Before you know it, the doctors bandaged me up. Ladies and gentlemen, I was bound completely— face, hair, chest, back, hands, legs, feet, name it. I was a ball of bandage. But I didn't give up. 3 days from the day of my accident, I called for my laptop, I called for my meditation music, I called for all the things that I really wanted to do and I didn't have the time to do. So I once again took I took that as well as an opportunity to make a change in my own life so that I could bounce back. However, there is one thing that I'm going to share with you all today which, other than my family, I've never ever shared it with anyone else. It was the third day of the accident when they needed to change my bandage. The bandage was about this thick. It was like this thick for my right hand. The doctor took me into the operating theater. Put me under anesthesia so that the pain would be less. Soon after he finished the bandage changing, they took me out and I wasn't able to come back. I took hours and hours. I wasn't able to recover from the anesthesia and I was semi-unconscious. And ladies and gentlemen, I suddenly found myself right there up in the sky and I saw, I looked at my body down there. I knew that I had left. And all I could hear is the doctors telling me, "Come on, Denaaz, we need you, we need you, you got to come back." And I just found myself dropped down into my body. It was an amazing experience, and I feel so blessed that for all the work that I have done, I actually even saw life up there, and I'm back again. I took this as a rebirth. Every moment that I spent in my hospital, I was either crying or I was watching a movie Or I was making a change in all the DVDs that I was working on. Every bit, there was a schedule even in the hospital. When I was there, the doctors told me 6 months is what I had to spend in the hospital and not before 1 year I could get back. There were people from the hospital, people in the burns ward were there way before me and way after me. But it was my mind, it was the strong power of the mind that I had, it was the power of the body, it was a fit body and it was the strong mind that I bounced back to work On the 4th month, 1st day, I was really, really weak, but I was strong in my mind, and I knew that I could make a change once again in people's lives. Thank you. The journey continued, and it came about as a thought between my son and myself that why don't we do some nonstop aerobics. So the thought was, let's do about 8 hours of aerobics and raise some money for an NGO. I didn't have money to put in for the event. However, I tied up with an NGO for which I wanted to raise funds to educate the girl child. I struggled for an entire month for some funds and no one came forward. The managing director of the NGO a month later told me, "Dinaz, who would pay you money to dance on stage?" Ladies and gentlemen, once again I was faced with another challenge in my life. I stepped out of his room. I said, "Thank you so much." On my way out, I told myself, I will show the world and I will show India the power of the mind again. Went back to the Guinness rules and it looked very doable for me and I started my practice to work towards the Guinness record. I started with just 8 hours a day. That's it. I used to train just for 8 hours a day and I slowly built it up to 10 hours and 12 hours was every single day. So I'd start at 6 in the morning and I'd end at 6 in the evening. I trained nonstop with a small break, and this went on for 4 months. Periodically I went to 10 hours, sometimes I did 12 hours as practice. So 12 hours of my day I was just doing aerobics. Whether anyone was with me for practice or not, I was motivated enough because I wanted to make a change in society. I wanted people to know how strong the mind can get. Ladies and gentlemen, I could only do this because I didn't think. The more you think, the less you achieve. I always stayed in a state of blankness so that I could achieve something. I never ever thought what would have happened. I just continued. My family supported me, my friends supported me. The journey was beautiful, and the day arrived when I started. I started at 4 o'clock in the evening. I had no thoughts for the next 26 hours. I went nonstop like a clock. There were times I cried, there were times I fell down, but I picked myself up, all because of the mind. Ladies and gentlemen, I'd only like to share with you that the mind is extremely powerful. Everything lies within you, as long as you can tap it within yourself and get the answers for yourself. How do I see myself in the future? The way I see myself in the future is I have the next record to break, which is at the age of 75, I'd like to continue being as energetic as I am today. I'd like to take the same number of sessions, and that's— that way I'm going to be inspiring a whole new generation of people around me. That's where I see myself in the future. And if I can make a difference in people's lives, that gives me immense satisfaction. Business, money, power, fame, nothing gives me satisfaction. If I can make a change in one person's life today, that's all. And I'm really grateful to TED for giving me this wonderful opportunity to come and share my personal experience with each and every one of you. Now we're going to go through a small process of mind and body, so all I'd like you to do is just sit back, relax, and keep your eyes closed. Just keep breathing as you keep your eyes closed. Keep your palms open. Relax your mind completely. Inhale from your nose, exhale from your mouth. Imagine a nice golden light flowing in from the top of your head, going into your eyes, brightening up your eyes, brightening up your face.

Imagine this golden light going through your face, down your neck, your neck and your shoulders, going into your palms, energizing your palms. Imagine this golden light going into your chest, your back, your legs, your knees, and your feet.

Imagine this golden light all around you.

And now it's all around this room.

It's all around Hyderabad. It's all around the globe. You are engulfed with this beautiful Light which is giving us the energy. All we need to do is to look at it, to feel it, to absorb it. Relax your mind completely, clear all your thoughts.

Relax yourself completely in your mind, in your body, and in your soul. Visualize yourself the way you want to be, the way you want visualize what you want to do. Keep yourself in contemplation.

Keep that golden light around you protecting you from all evil. Good thoughts, good words, and good deeds. That's all I ask for. Please open your eyes and gently come back to the room. Thank you so much.