Sakshi Sanghavi and Unnati Shah are childhood best friends who created Humanhood, a self-help/wellness business that creates products that focus on inner wellbeing.
Sakshi and Unnati went to the same school then high school and even travelled to the same university in Australia for their Masters degrees. While most Masters graduates try their hand at corporate jobs, these two 24-year-olds had spent their Masters brainstorming a startup idea. They knew that working together would be perfect because they claim to be poles apart. Sakshi’s calling is marketing and business development while Unnati’s is operations, human resources, and finance. Some believe that two friends working together is a bad idea, because friendship may take a backseat in the face of business, but in their case, they couldn’t balance each other out any better.
Sakshi and Unnati knew that a startup was their way forward but it was only when the pandemic hit did they find the perfect idea. They both had the vision to empower the people around them and motivate them to work on their own self-development. It was the combination of this vision and their realization of the importance of mental health that led them to start Humanhood.
After months of brainstorming, Sakshi and Unnati came up with a range of self-help products that act as simple tools to help individuals live their best life every day. With the aim of catering to older age groups who desperately wanted ways to take care of their inner wellbeing, Humanhood was launched in October of 2020. Sakshi and Unnati explain that the products in their store were born from personal practices, like affirmations, or personal problems they wanted to solve, like budgeting. Let’s take a deep dive into a few of the Humanhood goods.
‘Build confidence’ bundle:
“At this age, everybody is trying to figure out who they are, what they want from life and what they want from themselves. It was the same case with us. Four years ago if someone would have asked me about myself, I would have said, ‘let me ask my best friend she knows me better’. We should know ourselves extremely well and we wanted everyone to find answers about themselves for themselves.” – Unnati
As someone who is transitioning from part-time roles to a full-time career, the mistakes I make grow to be more and more significant. Not in terms of how they affect me, though I’m sure I will have a few good cries in my future, but in how they help me better myself. Especially as a woman, I feel the pressure of having to be perfect in every aspect of my life. As a student, we are expected to have nothing less than As but a mark that’s lost here and there doesn’t really impact our lives. Why? Because a) We may not really care about the outcome, an exam is really part of the Indian student’s lifestyle and b) Because once a course is over in university, you never see it again. But there are parts outside of our studies that nobody prepares us for and that’s why the Self-awareness journal excites me. I’m confident that none of us graduates starting at zero, but unless we take the time to get to know ourselves, we really won’t know how awesome we are! If the Self-awareness journal is a way to get to know our past selves, then the Success and Failure cards are a way to prepare us for the future.
Affirmation flip-up:
“I affirm every day in the morning. No matter what is going on in my life, those one or two minutes really have the power to change my day because it changes my outlook. We believe in the power of affirmations. But, affirming in my mind in the morning restricted me to the morning. What if my mind starts wandering to the negative in the afternoon? We wanted you to have affirmations in front of you all through the day. This flip-up can remain on your desk always.” – Sakshi
When you scroll through Instagram you usually have two divisions of people – those who believe in affirmations and those who don’t. But, in my opinion, those who don’t have just never made the time for it. I’ve recently gotten into the habit of saying good things to myself, and while I may end up with an inflated ego, I’m more than happy to affirm my way through a busy work week. This is such a creative way to do that!
The 101 Bucket list:
“We wanted to bring it to life because we have never come across this. An actual bucket where you can put in dreams you want to achieve in your life! The concept was to have 101 dreams because it sets you to think big. Even if you start with 10 you know that you need 101 so there’s so much you want to do. It‘s for your whole life.” – Unnati
“We wanted to make this whole process interactive. We wanted to put down the practice of actually penning down your goals because that increases the possibility of them coming true and makes it more fun. Whatever we create it has to look good and be functional so we chose coins instead of chits.” – Sakshi
I’m someone who loves dreaming of the future. I have Pinterest boards dedicated to trips I long to make and I have outfit ideas for different kinds of conferences. I really take my nerdiness and love for organization to the next level. But the problem is, my dreams and ambitions are a little all over the place. And I mean literally; I’ve got a dream board on Pinterest and half-thought-out bucket lists in my notes app. You’d think I’d organize my organized future! The 101 Bucket list is the perfect way to add fun (and intention) to this habit. My future self will definitely thank me.
Brain dump journal:
“The journal came from this idea – Sakshi and I are so passionate about what we are building that whenever we start our work it starts with ‘today in the shower we thought of this’ or ‘we dreamed of this let’s do it’. But then the day to day activities take so much of our time that by the end of the day the idea is gone. So this gave birth to the concept of the brain dump journal. It’s a fact that everyone gets thoughts in the washroom. We are all forgetful of these tiny tiny things that can become important.” – UnnatiWhen asked what’s next for Humanhood, Sakshi replied, “The entire vision is not just self-help tools. We want to make a platform where every single part of wellbeing is catered to. When it comes to short term goals we want to make our products globally accessible which we want to kick off this year. We want to delve into different aspects – podcasts, blogs, and so many avenues through which we can empower people. We want to tap onto each one of these.” – Sakshi
We live in a fast-paced world where our lives revolve around what we want to do next. We rarely watch Netflix shows that don’t have all of the season already out! But along with this quick movement, we often forget to listen to our own thoughts. A fleeting idea never returns and without the habit of taking a note of what could be the next big thing, we let go of what the future could be. Ironic when all we care about is tomorrow. This journal will remind me that for my ideas to be valid at a round table discussion, I need to appreciate them first!
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To check out Humanhood, head to their website here or their Instagram page.
