Upon meeting Rani, one feels calm, and deeply “seen”. Her sincere interest in others is expressed with kindness and an otherworldly warmth. People who have met her said that it feels like she glides gently rather than stepping on the earth.
A true bohemian, she has purposefully learned to navigate through all experiences and curate an independent, autonomous, creative, expansive life without forcing it.
She was born in France of Franco/Indian parents and lives in London. But as she says: “with one foot in Colombia” as her grand-daughter Sol was born there a few months ago.
Rani was a sensitive young child and teenager, and found the world to be unfair and somewhat cruel. It simply did not seem right or normal to her. She escaped by following her strong creative urges to paint and study art in an attempt to make sense of life and tell stories. Story-telling however came when she went to Film School and studied documentary filmmaking; travelled the world armed with her camera and her smile, making films on Human Rights, Social and Health issues, and the Arts. She has been giving voice to people and issues that have been pushed under the carpet for far too long. She is an active and internationally respected documentary maker to this day and has been teaching and lecturing for over 25 years. Her work can be found on: www.youandeyefilms.com.
Her innate curiosity and interest in others and other cultures led her to also create and facilitate diverse, international workshops: Shake Your Gift (London), Smartfone Ninja filmmaking (London, Colombia), Storytelling (London, India), Stories from the Heart (Russia), The Ash Tree (UK).
Twelve years ago, she trained with Michel Odent to become a Birth Doula. It was unexpected, beyond any logical steps deriving from her filmmaking career. But it was connected to her own wonderful experiences of giving birth to her two children. It was an inner knowing that she could help support pregnant women to give birth. It was also the beginning of her working consciously with energy, the natural elements and healing.
Rani always felt a strong pull by the spiritual realm and its practical applications, and has been practicing yoga and meditation for over 30 years. She has been studying Chakras and Healing for the last 5 years.
Her passions, as she explained are: healing and creativity, indigenous wisdom and knowledge, justice and truth, taking care of Mother Earth, birth and death and bringing harmony between the feminine and masculine energies. Her favourite words: beauty, magic, joy, kindness, openness, poetry, curiosity, adventure, exploration, learning, collaborating, and playfulness.
Her spiritual practice and learning combined with the different aspects of her work as a filmmaker, teacher and doula have fed into her unique approach as a facilitator. She uses her doula approach and brings to it creativity, energy work and healing tools catering to the needs of the group, to create and hold the space for all the participants.
Rani kindly accepted our request to join our retreat as a facilitator and she will be leading the early morning sessions in preparing our mind, body and spirit prior to entering the daily sessions. We feel that her diverse life experience expressed as a deep love for humanity will elevate our retreat.
She continues to follow her heart, she sees herself as an elder of the world tribe, inspiring humans towards a Good Life.