How many of us get health guidance from Hrithik Roshan and then in turn guide Hrithik towards achieving his highest potential at work? Laughs Arfeen Khan,“I was grossly overweight when I met Hrithik and after our interaction, he told me that he was really into what I was saying (to top his professional performance through my sessions), but that I needed to lose weight.”

Hrithik even handed him out a diet for ten weeks, with a goal of losing 10 kgs.“I went back to him after following the diet and had lost 14 kilos in 10 weeks and looked visibly different. He was shocked.” A friendship struck and Arfeen became Hrithik Roshan's mind coach.

How different is a mind coach from a psychotherapist or a mentor or guide.“Most of them hate me. I am not interested in your back story. I want to tap into your present, guide you towards your highest potential and help you achieve it.”

The light eyed, light skinned, British-Indian accented Arfeen grew up in London in a disciplined household. His own journey led him to the world of mentoring, coaching and till date he has transformed the lives of over 900,000 people and more. He is married to actor and coach Sara Arfeen Khan and the couple have twins. While he appeared as Katrina Kaif's brother in Mere Brother ki Dulhan, his recent stint was at Bigg Boss but he was evicted after five weeks.

“Some people dissuaded me from entering Bigg Boss, but I wanted to reach out to 300 million people. They would know my name. I enjoyed it.” So, did he coach any inmate?“Yes I did. The contestant Chahat would cry often and I gave her some tips. But the first person she attacked was me,” he laughs. He found the show a great place to understand human behaviour.

In my earlier interview with Hrithik Roshan, he had mentioned how during the early stages of his career, he was pressured with the idea of perfection and this was the analogy.“A dog constantly followed me and I knew that I had to run faster than the dog. Today that dog isn't there,” he had said. To which Arfeen has the perfect antidote.“ Most people operate like that under pressure, like being chased by dogs. When you change pressure into a challenge, the journey becomes an enjoyable goal.”

“There are many like Hrithik who want to get to an outcome and those are the champion mothers, fathers, actors etc. The change is in the mindset - from living a life purely to avoid pain and transform to someone who gets charged with the pleasure of achievement.”

Arfeen is also called a peak performance strategist.“Yes and I operate through the heart and not the head. The first sign of life in an embryo is a beating heart. But we are conditioned to crown thought over feeling. Courage comes from the heart even if the mind tries to stop it with logic. That is why you should depend more on your heart and not your brain. So you can call me a heart activator,” he adds.

Arfeen has a team of 4,000 coaches across the world and his Dubai chapter is very active.“They are trained to be 'system operation fixers,' and to activate your heart so that you can let things happen in a pleasurable way rather than in a pressure filled way.”

Does prayer elevate your mood? How?

“There is an Arabic word called Askiya, that means purification of the heart. Prayers done well, do that to us and are like interventions in our life. Our breathing gets even, the heart centre is activated.”

Where does he place intuition in this world and 'gut feeling.' Adds Arfeen.“Gut feeling is a feeling but intuition is like 'spidy sense.' It is like a whisper and then gets louder if you listen to your inner self well.” He adds,“I was being interviewed by this journalist and in the middle of the session, I asked her if she was abused as a child. She broke down and asked me how I knew. It is this emotional switch we all have but we don't activate it.”

Arfeen is planning homeschooling for his kids since he believes that typical schools can stunt the growth of kids.“I don't want them to learn by rote and say 'yes ma'm', 'no ma'am,” and be forever imprisoned by thoughts imposed on them.

“Live in your heart, not your mind,” he concludes.

MENAFN18082025000049011007ID1109943709