Spotlight Sessions: Nima Patel, Mindful Champs
Today on the blog we’re interviewing children’s mindfulness specialist, Nima Patel. She speaks about her business Mindful Champs, why mindfulness is so important for children, and how she found starting a business in the middle of a pandemic…
Hi Nima, thanks for joining us on the Studio 77 spotlight sessions today! How are you today?
Hi Ruby, thanks for having me! I’m good thanks! It’s been a super busy day today as we’ve got some really exciting projects in the pipeline that have been taking up most of my time at the moment! How are you?
Tell us a little bit about yourself and your business...
I never know how to start this question in interviews as I feel like I’m wearing so many hats at the moment haha!
So, I am a former primary school teacher with a family background of over 30 years experience in Early Years education. With my knowledge and experience in children’s education, combined with my passion for mindfulness, I have recently started my own business, Mindful Champs! Mindful Champs aims to bring mindfulness to the lives of children through our products.
I am also a qualified Conscious Parenting Coach, trained by the renowned Doctor Shefali. Conscious parenting is, in short, about being mindful and conscious in all our interactions with our children. It is about connecting with your children at a deeper level and nurturing their essence, without projecting our own needs and desires onto them. It requires a change in the way you view your child’s behaviour so we can respond consciously to their needs.
What inspired you to start Mindful Champs?
I’d say a combination of my experience as a teacher, as well as my own personal life experiences too!
During my years as a teacher, I recognised quite quickly that there was not enough emphasis being placed on children’s mental health, which I believe is fundamental in nurturing their emotional well-being. I feel like as adults, if we are not giving them tools to cope with their emotions or deal with their BIG feelings, they will not know how to manage their challenges in life in a healthy way. Actually, in my coaching, I support adults in regulating their own emotions first, before helping their children. I teach parents (and non-parents) to parent themselves first before they parent their children. We can’t enter the parenting paradigm with our best foot forward if we aren’t looking after ourselves first.
“When we reach the stage of adulthood, so many of us have already experienced issues with mental health, for example, depression, anxiety, and much more. We were not taught these fundamental skills during childhood, many of us are unaware how to regulate our emotions”
We see mindfulness championed by most brands these days, although it’s typically aimed at adults. Why is Mindfulness so important for children?
Well, in short, children are the future! I have found that when we reach the stage of adulthood, so many of us have already experienced issues with mental health, for example, depression, anxiety, and much more. As mentioned in the previous questions, we were not taught these fundamental skills during childhood, hence many of us are unaware of HOW to regulate our emotions. We take part in avoidance behaviours, for example, binge eating, drinking, overworking, etc. Just like Maths and English, emotional regulation is a skill that needs to be taught. Rather than waiting until we are in our mid 20’s or 30’s (even 40’s), to learn these skills, I am a big advocate of starting young.
You launched Mindful Champs in the middle of 2020, how have you found it starting your business in the middle of the pandemic?
I was actually working as a Nursery Manager before the pandemic so for me personally, it has been great because it has given me time to get creative and start something of my own. If it wasn’t for the pandemic, I may not have had the opportunity to take the plunge!
In addition, I feel that since the pandemic and people being in lockdown, there has been a surge in the awareness of the importance of mental health and well-being. We are finally talking about it more! So to launch Mindful Champs during a time like this has actually been really good!
We had the pleasure of working with you on the Mindful Champs brand design, how have your audience responded to your brand?
We have had lovely feedback from customers! They love it! It’s got the perfect balance between being fun and child-friendly, as well as a calm feeling to the brand. You got my vision right from our first chat and it has honestly been a real pleasure and breath of fresh air to be working with you on bringing the brand and the products to life!
“You got my vision right from our first chat and it has honestly been a real pleasure and breath of fresh air to be working with you”
What’s one piece of advice that you would give to anyone starting a business?
If you’ve got a burning passion for something, DO IT! Even if you’re in a full-time job, try to even spend a few hours a week on your passion project just to get the ball rolling.
AND, as much as people’s social media journey of an entrepreneur might be portrayed as being swimmingly easy, just remember Instagram is a highlight reel and not always the reality. So, if you’re not getting your business off the ground as fast as you’d have wanted, don’t be put off! But just be WELL prepared for the hours of work, setbacks, failures, rejections etc that come along the way! Don’t let them discourage you though, use them as opportunities to bounce back! It really does only take ONE yes!
Do you have any exciting product launches coming up?
Yes, I do! So I have recently launched My Grief Journal for Children. This is aimed to support children who have lost a loved one. Death can be an extremely challenging concept to explain to children and each child will express how they are feeling in surprisingly divergent ways. This can come down to personality as well as developmental age. The Grief Journal is designed to not only help connect to children after a loss, but also to aid them to gradually go through their grief process in a loving and gentle way.
My next product launch is the A-Z I Love Me matching pairs affirmation puzzle! Children are able to learn positive ‘I am’ affirmations and the alphabet at the same time! This is aimed at children aged 3+ and I’m super excited for this one!
What’s been your proudest moment with Mindful Champs so far?
My proudest and most recent achievement is having our Grief Journals stocked in the iconic Liberty London! This is quite surreal and a pinch-me moment!!
Any last words of wisdom?
Thanks so much for having me! It’s been so nice to catch up! BIG love to Studio 77!
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You can keep up to date with Nima’s new Mindful Champs releases over on her website www.mindfulchamps.com. And you can see some more of the designs that we’re done for Mindful Champs over on our portfolio page.
If you’re interested in developing your brand with us, then please get in touch!
