Esha
I spent years building a life. Then I began asking who I was underneath it.
My path to meditation wasn’t linear.
I didn’t leave school knowing exactly who I wanted to become.
Building
I began in care, and became an entrepreneur.
As a carer in a nursing home, I saw how many people wanted support at home. At 24, I started Afea Care Services.
Three months of 80 cold calls a day. Then one person said yes.
In 2016, the NDIS reforms cost us 60% of the business almost overnight. We rebuilt. Today it is Leora Healthcare, which I lead with my partner, Gaurav, across Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane.
For years, my life revolved around growth.
Building teams. Solving problems. Taking responsibility. Raising a family. Creating opportunities. Looking after people. Becoming increasingly capable of carrying more.
And I loved much of it.
Achievement taught me courage, resilience and what’s possible when we commit ourselves wholeheartedly to something.
Along the way
A few moments from the years of building.
2008
Founded Afea Care Services at 24
2014
Finalist, Young Business Women’s Award, Telstra NSW Business Women’s Awards
2016
Rebuilt the business through the NDIS funding reforms
2021
Emerging Leader in Health, Women’s Agenda Leadership Awards
2021–24
Australian Financial Review Best Places to Work, four years running
2022
Founded Leora AI · Australia India Youth Dialogue
2023
Speaker, Indiaspora G20 Forum, New Delhi
2024
Afea and Leora AI become Leora Healthcare · Most Outstanding CEO/Director, Australian Disability Service Awards
2025
200-hour Yoga Teacher Training, Sattva Yoga Academy, Rishikesh
200-hour Yoga Teacher Training
Sattva Yoga Academy, Rishikesh · 2025
Turning inward
My journey inward
Meditation first gave me moments of stillness. Eventually, it showed me how much of my life had been lived from the outside in.
How much I was doing. How successful I was. Even how my body looked.
Without the usual noise, I began noticing what was underneath:
Thoughts I had mistaken for truth.
Patterns I had mistaken for personality.
An identity deeply intertwined with what I did.
I began understanding something that now sits at the centre of my work:
Transformation isn’t always about becoming more.
Sometimes it’s about removing everything that prevents us from experiencing who we already are.
I haven’t rejected ambition.
I still believe in building things, in meaningful work, in discipline.
But I no longer believe achievement and inner peace sit at opposite ends of our lives. The path is embodying peace whilst being able to achieve.
Can we be ambitious without abandoning ourselves?
Can we lead without constantly operating from stress?
Can we create success without expecting success to tell us who we are?
They are my work.
