I’m Palak.
I came into this life to transcend the cycles of birth and death by remembering
who I am.
The seed for my life was planted generations before I was born. It is impossible to summarize the journey that led to my parents and ancestors bringing my spirit into this world, but what I can say is this: I came into this lifetime for a very specific purpose. I was born awakened — with clear knowing and seeing. Through the circumstances of my life, the powerful light within me that was able to sense the truth became darkened and left me in a state of suffering, confusion and disconnection.
I experienced intense suffering from a young age — from suicidal thoughts at the age of twelve to long term depression, anxiety, and fears of abandonment. I struggled to find safety and stability in my life. I always felt isolated, living with a fragmented sense of self and dealing with the pain of chronic mental and physical illnesses. There were so many times in my life I thought that I wasn’t going to make it, but even in the darkest moments of despair, a voice reminded me, “This suffering cannot be escaped through death. You will find a way to free yourself this lifetime.”
It took many years to find the courage to face my pain. Ironically, my intense focus and high achieving nature kept me trapped in a cycle of suffering. The more I accomplished in life, the further I got from myself. Everything on the outside became a way to fill the growing void inside of me. To cope with the pressure to fit in and feel normal, I chose to self-medicate with alcohol and drugs. Maintaining relationships was extremely difficult and those who were close to me had no idea how badly I was suffering – I created an outward image of success and managed to hide all of my “bad parts” away. Graduating from NYU with honors and navigating the demanding career of consulting continued to deepen this fragmentation of myself. The more I was “doing well” – the more the traumatized and disassociated parts of myself remained suppressed within my shadow.
All of my moments of success were marked with a feeling of emptiness and unhappiness. There were mental breakdowns, emotional crises and other signs that I needed help but the depth and intensity of shame created so much resistance in opening up what I had worked so hard to bury deep inside of me to survive. My decision to heal would come at the expense of the identity, life and everything I had built to avoid the pain. Triggered by the complex grief from losing my mother and exhausted by burnout from work, I could no longer ignore my mental, emotional and physical health. I began taking small steps and eventually bigger leaps into my healing journey.
I navigated both the Western medical system and Eastern medicine while diving deep into the spiritual practices of yoga, meditation and breathwork. There was no easy or quick fix and often my symptoms felt worse before I experienced any relief. All the while finding more darkness in spaces that I was trying to heal, build community and reconnect to my light. I witnessed and personally experienced the harm caused by the power dynamics created between teachers & students and the reinforcement of trauma through dogmatic practices and expectation to blindly follow an external authority figure. I felt at odds with the escapism culture, spiritual bypassing and general bullshit of new age spirituality – it seemed that everyone wanted to feel good and I wanted to be free. I felt disillusioned by therapists who were unable to help me navigate my trauma because of their own lack of self-awareness & compassion and projection of their own unprocessed trauma. I felt completely hopeless and wanted to give up but I was determined to be free of the suffering I was imprisoned in.
I could not heal in the same environments with the same dynamics that caused my trauma. It was clear that I had to figure out things for myself. I made the choice to walk away from my family, friends, teachers, spiritual practices and even knowledge that had helped me on my path to find my truth. I spent over two years in a period of self-study, leaving behind my life in New York and everything I had ever known. This became what I now call my “Self-Realization Sadhana” During this time, I started to peel back the layers of emotional pain, mental conditioning and so many lies about who I thought I was. I realized how deep the suffering went – it wasn’t just me, it wasn’t just what happened to me as a child, it was on a soul level, it was ancestral, it was collective. I found myself terrified, lost, confused, especially after a harrowing plant medicine ceremony experience.
I kept wanting someone to give me the answers, to heal me, to free me from my suffering but I kept facing the same lesson – the only way out was through trusting myself. Everytime I looked to someone for answers, I was pushed inwards and often painfully so – I could not escape the wound of self-abandonment. The inner work was not glamorous and the transformation was slow. The majority of the work was simply sitting with myself and feeling everything I had pushed away for so long. I had never cried so much in my life but slowly I began to heal my nervous system and see myself clearly for the first time since I was a child. Being in nature allowed the experience of truly feeling seen, held and loved. I communicated with the land, plants, and animals — they served as my teachers and guides. My psychic abilities and spiritual gifts became reawakened. I became energetically sensitive again. It took discipline and daily consistent work to become attuned to my own inner experience. The voice in my head finally became the voice of truth. I felt deeply connected, alive and free. My external reality began reflecting my inner reality — a person who felt whole and was unconditionally loved, no matter what the circumstances in life.
I am able to see now that the trauma I experienced as a child was my sacred initiation into self-realization in this lifetime. I was able to survive and free myself through the guidance of my spirit and my inner child. I have healed ancestral trauma through my own process and received the gift of their knowledge, love and support. The medicine that saved my life was within me. All the phases of my life — living through the trauma, coping with it, and the lessons along the healing process were all part of my path to finding my dharma.
I transform the spaces I travel through as a mystic, shaman, teacher, consultant, coach, facilitator, and artist. Palak Patel Ventures was birthed through dharma — my personal, sacred purpose in this lifetime. I create offerings from my spirit which allows freedom for them to evolve as I am guided deeper on my journey of self-realization.
In a practical sense, I’ve completed extensive education, training and certifications across many disciplines of work. I am trained in the traditions of Ashtanga & Hatha yoga and initiated into Sri Vidya and Kaula tantra lineages. I am a certified yoga teacher and trauma informed breathwork facilitator. I have received Reiki attunement and initiated into working with Kalavana energy medicine. I have over a decade of experience in management consulting, organizational development work and leadership coaching & team facilitation. I have completed formal coaching programs, studied various methodologies and dedicated hours of professional development. I have completed intense studies in depth psychology and psycho-spiritual approaches to mental health.
While all of these efforts have provided a valuable experience (and built a great resume!) they do not dictate how I facilitate my work. My dharma is rooted in direct experience of self-knowledge. All that is needed to fulfill my life’s purpose is within me – I teach this by embodying this. Through experiences of self-realization, I have accessed skills mastered from past lives and ancestral knowledge that predates any books, traditions or practices found today. The source of my wisdom comes from remembering.
True to my nature as a Scorpio rising and a lover of Kāli, I am able to channel power that comes from experiencing death, transformation and rebirth. It is through this process I discovered my personal magic and medicine of alchemy — the ability to transform what is rooted in fear and ignorance through the light of consciousness and loving awareness. In my current role as a multidisciplinary entrepreneur, I infuse alchemy into my offerings to facilitate healing, organizational transformation and immersive experiences. I have mastered the art of navigating duality through my previous careers by playing with opposing energies and bringing them into harmony through a beautiful dance. I balance my intuitive knowing with research & analysis, blend spiritual and psychological aspects of well-being and ground intelligence into the felt, somatic experience. I intentionally choose to work in ways that disrupt the status-quo and catalyze change in environments that are rooted in external & hierarchical authority structures and disconnect people from their self-knowledge. My inner child has the energy of a trickster and l love unveiling the beauty of spirit in unexpected and surprising ways.
I believe that spirituality — a direct connection to one’s inner experience is a universal right and my life’s work is to make this accessible to anyone who wants to venture on the sacred journey to self-realization.
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I am currently based in La Ventana, Baja Sur California. I have spent most of my life in New York City and consider it a spiritual and ancestral home. My ancestral lineage comes from India while my soul’s history spans thousands of years across different cultures and places. My spirit feels at home in the desert, inside the ocean and under the sun. I am a lifelong athlete with a passion for running, biking, skiing and most recently swimming & free diving. I enjoy spending time in silence as much as I do traveling and going on adventures. I choose to move through the world as an energetically sovereign and free being — knowing that every place I live in is a gracious home provided by Mother Earth.
