Celebrating Inclusivity, Well-Being, and the Richness of Diversity with Ruhee Meghani
Ruhee Meghani
Lead Facilitator and Founder, Allied Collective
Who Gets Access to Be Well?
Diversity and inclusion conversations often focus on representation. Ruhee Meghani, founder of Allied Collective, Australia's first inclusive facilitation and well-being agency, reframes the question entirely: who gets access to be well? Not just in terms of yoga and healthy food, but across what she calls the 10 dimensions of well-being, a framework she developed that includes occupational, environmental, intersectional, financial, and digital well-being alongside the more commonly discussed physical, mental, and emotional dimensions.
Ruhee is originally from Mumbai, moved to Australia over a decade ago, and brings an academic background in business management, marketing, and psychology. She has been a yoga instructor for more than 11 years. Her facilitation work operates from the principle of nothing for you without you: sessions are designed with the people in the room in mind, not as tick-box exercises.
The 10 Dimensions of Well-Being
The framework covers ground that most well-being conversations miss. Occupational well-being: if you are in a toxic workplace, you cannot show up in any other part of your life. Environmental well-being: some countries face climate crises that are a direct byproduct of Western hyper-consumerism. Financial well-being: if you don't have financial security and autonomy, you cannot look after your emotional, physical, or social well-being. Digital well-being: social media is doing more harm than good in some demographics, with studies showing that today's young people experience more anxiety from social media than people who lived through the Great Depression and World War II.
Ruhee's point is that a lot of these dimensions are systemic, not individual. Policies, systems, and processes automatically advantage some people over others. Awareness is necessary but not sufficient. The needle needs to move from awareness to action, from individual effort to collective impact.
Storytelling as the Essence of Change
Rather than throwing statistics, Ruhee argues that storytelling is the most effective tool for changing behaviour and building empathy. The more stories we hear from people with different lived experiences, the more empathetic we become. She draws on yoga philosophy, specifically three Sanskrit concepts she returns to in difficult moments: tapas (perseverance), swadhyay (self-knowledge and knowing your boundaries), and ishwar pranidhan (surrendering to a higher reality when something is genuinely out of your control).
Ubuntu: I Am Because You Are
The conversation explores the tension between individualist and collectivist cultures. Ruhee, raised in collectivist India and now living in individualist Australia, points to the African concept of Ubuntu: I am because you are. She argues that the constant individualist messaging in pop culture, motivation, and media, the idea that you are the star of your own show, misses the fundamental truth that we would not exist without the people around us. The products, services, and systems that are designed primarily for one demographic, one gender, one race, are a direct consequence of that centering.
Her parting challenge: great minds think alike is actually an incomplete quote. The full version is great minds think alike, but fools seldom differ. The real innovation comes from diversity of thought, ideas, and experiences at the table.
Beyond Translation: The Native Experience Podcast is produced by LEXIGO, Australia's trusted translation and multicultural communication agency.
Beyond Translation: The Native Experience Podcast explores multicultural communication, translation, and culturally diverse engagement in Australia and beyond. Each episode features experts sharing real stories and practical insights on topics from multicultural campaign strategy to CALD community engagement and localisation best practices. Produced by LEXIGO, Australia's trusted translation and multicultural communication agency with triple ISO certification and NAATI certified translators across 171 languages.
Ruhee: Our perspective is guided by the lived experience that we have. So you and I, we both have very specific lived experiences that guide our perceptions of well-being, and we cannot even fathom the whole spectrum of well-being and what it looks like for every human being on earth. And the key word that you mentioned there was, and what I try to explain when I am explaining this concept, is access. Who gets access to be well?
Brian: Today we are talking with Ruhee Meghani, Lead Facilitator and Founder of Allied Collective. She is the founder of Allied Collective, Australia's first inclusive facilitation and well-being agency, specialising in training, consultation, and coaching for leaders and organisations. She has an academic background in business management, marketing, and psychology. Her experience involves advertising, sports management, technology, hospitality, retail, and the wellness industry. She has been a yoga instructor and facilitator for more than 11 years. Ruhee, welcome to The Native Experience.
Ruhee: Thanks for having me, Brian. It is an honour to be here.
Brian: Tell us about yourself and what you are nerding out on right now.
Ruhee: I am Ruhee. My pronouns are she and her. I am based in Melbourne, also known as Naarm. I am originally from India, born in the land of Bollywood, Mumbai. I grew up with two older siblings, I am the youngest of three. I moved to Australia about 10 or 11 years ago. I have studied everything from psychology to business management. I am a yoga teacher by passion. That intersection has formed a huge part of my personality and the work that I do. I come from a humble background and the journey of migrating to Australia, trying to assimilate and find my identity as a South Asian Australian Muslim woman has been incredible.
Ruhee: A fun thing about me is I ride a motorbike. I was the first and youngest female in India to practice parkour at 16. I did not pursue it for very long because it is not great for your knees.
Ruhee: Something I am nerding out on is the intersection of artificial intelligence and ethics. I watched a documentary called Coded Bias in 2020. Doing the work that I do from the lens of inclusion, it is fascinating to see the implications and convergence of those two concepts and how little representation there is in the world of AI when it comes to diversity.
Brian: Tell us about your journey and how you started Allied Collective.
Ruhee: When you are multi-dimensional and you can relate with almost everyone, it can be an isolating or lonely experience because not a lot of people can relate to you. But it is a journey I would not change because one of my core values is curiosity. I studied psychology and that is where my love for people came about. I pivoted to business because I have a very entrepreneurial family. My mum is a yoga teacher. She inspired me since I was very little. When we think of yoga in the West, we think of being flexible and bendy, but that is the tip of the iceberg. There is so much in yoga philosophy that guides the way I live, work, and navigate problems.
Ruhee: Concepts like non-stealing, asteya in Sanskrit. In the modern world, we talk about valuing people's time, energy, ideas, giving credit where it is due. Those principles were already programmed in me when I studied yoga. A lot of people were talking about diversity and inclusion and burnout. But not a lot were talking about that intersection of who really gets to have well-being. Is it accessible for everyone to be equally well? That formed the foundation of Allied Collective in 2020. Started as a side hustle and took it full time early last year.
Brian: What is well-being and does everybody get it?
Ruhee: Our perspective is guided by our lived experience. We cannot fathom the whole spectrum of well-being for every human being on earth. The key word is access. Who gets access to be well? A lot of things are in our control, but a lot are outside our control. They are systemic. What are the systemic policies, systems, and processes that automatically put certain people over others?
Ruhee: The framework I developed is called the 10 dimensions of well-being. When we think of well-being, we think yoga, healthy food, therapy. But the lesser talked about dimensions include occupational well-being. If you are in a toxic workplace, you cannot show up in other parts of your life. Environmental well-being: some countries face climate crisis as a direct byproduct of hyper-consumerism and modern colonisation of waste. Intersectional well-being: as a woman of colour, I have certain disadvantages that a male identifying person might not. Data shows women receive more qualitative feedback based on personality traits while men receive more substantial, actionable feedback. Financial well-being: if I do not have financial security and autonomy, I cannot look after my own well-being. Digital well-being is getting more important with social media doing more harm than good in some demographics.
Brian: Are you seeing growth in the right direction?
Ruhee: Yes and no. I can pull out evidence where we are making headway. There is a website dedicated to women in AI ethics championing hundreds of leading voices. But there are so many things where we go one step forward and five steps back. From awareness, we need to move to action, where we come together to collaborate and have greater impact. That is where the collective name comes in. We are stronger in numbers.
Ruhee: Storytelling is one way to change the world. It is how we shape people's behaviour. If I throw statistics at you about how things are messed up, or I can tell you my story about how many women of colour have had to work twice as hard to get half as far. The more stories we hear, the more empathetic we become.
Ruhee: In the world of cultural intelligence, we talk about individualist and collectivist. India is very much collectivist. Australia, the West, is very much individualist. Neither is good or bad, they just have qualities. There is an African term I love: Ubuntu, which translates to I am because you are. We exist because of each other. The individualised ideologies constantly fed to us through pop culture, motivation, media, books, film, it is like I am the star of my show. Whereas we would not exist without the people around us.
Ruhee: One of the principles I operate from is nothing for you without you. I go into a session thinking about your needs as a person, recognising you are not some tick box activity or a bucket to put you into. Race is a construct developed by humans to put people into buckets. But racism is an actual systemic thing that harms people. If we do not have awareness and conversations designed for people in mind, we cannot change the world.
Ruhee: We often talk about culturally diverse communities. That begs the question, diverse from whom? Even twins will be diverse in their thoughts, lived experiences, and personalities. What we are actually trying to convey is equity and inclusion. They are non-negotiables for us to feel a sense of belonging. If one thing connects us as humans, it is connection and that everyone deserves to feel safe, to belong, and to exist.
Brian: If we could just learn to value and respect the next person, we can solve so many problems.
Ruhee: When it comes to conflict resolution, what often gets in the way is ego. Anything that differs from our experience feels like an out-of-body experience. It activates our fight or flight. But if you swap that for curiosity and what I call cultural humility, leaders who are revolutionary have that one practice in common.
Brian: Great minds think alike is actually an incomplete quote.
Ruhee: The complete quote is great minds think alike, but fools seldom differ. Which actually means great minds think differently. When you have diversity of thought, ideas, and experiences at the table, the more innovative the products, services, and solutions are.
Brian: Any parting thoughts?
Ruhee: There are three words from yoga philosophy that I come back to in times of struggle. Tapas is perseverance, keeping that higher purpose in mind. Swadhyay is self-knowledge, self-reliance, knowing where your boundaries are, knowing when to say no. And ishwar pranidhan is surrendering to a higher reality. When nothing goes your way, it is a waste of your time and energy to keep trying to change something out of your control. What is in your control is how you respond and the choice you make for yourself. That is where you take back the power.
Brian: Ruhee, thank you so much. It has been amazing to chat with you.
Ruhee: Thank you so much for having me, Brian.
Brian: Ruhee Meghani, Lead Facilitator and Founder of Allied Collective. Remember, always strive for authenticity and embrace the power of native experiences.