As a Strategy Director at some of the world's leading advertising agencies — Ogilvy, Geometry and VMLY&R — I worked with global brands including Dove, Cif, LEGO, Panadol, Coca-Cola, Bose, Lenovo, Ben & Jerry's, Sunsilk, Pond's, Penfolds and Lipton, among many others.

My work was always about looking beneath the surface. Understanding the human truths that shape how people think, feel and behave. What drives their choices, what influences their decisions, and what triggers their responses.

Working across Southeast Asia, South Asia, East Africa, the United Kingdom, Mexico and Russia gave me the opportunity to understand people across different cultures and contexts.

Over time, I began recognising patterns, connecting the dots, and understanding that beneath our different behaviours often lie deeply human needs, fears, beliefs and emotions.

I spent two decades trying to understand what makes people behave the way they do.

Alongside my professional journey, I was on a deeply personal one.

I began noticing how some of my emotional reactions felt much bigger than the situations themselves. In my relationships with family, with people close to me, and eventually, with my own children.

I became curious.

Why was I reacting this way? Why did certain situations affect me so deeply? What was really happening beneath the surface?

And so, I began turning that same curiosity inward.

Through coaching, therapy, energy healing, family constellations, meditation and spiritual practices, I started exploring the stories I had been carrying for years.

And slowly, I began to see something that changed everything for me.

Often, what I was reacting to wasn't just what was happening in front of me. It was what that moment was stirring within me.

As my self-awareness deepened, I began noticing changes in how I responded to the people around me.

I could see my patterns more clearly. I could question beliefs I had held for years. I could sit with uncomfortable emotions rather than immediately react to them.

And nowhere was this shift more powerful than in my relationship with my children.

I began to see that some of the moments I found most challenging as a parent were also the moments revealing something about myself.

My fears. My need for control. My expectations. My own unfinished stories.

My children had become my mirror.

And as I began understanding myself differently, I began showing up differently for them.

Not because I had become a perfect parent. Or because the challenges had disappeared.

But because I was beginning to understand what was happening within me, rather than focusing only on what my children were doing.

I had experienced firsthand how deeply self-awareness could change the relationship we have with ourselves and, in turn, with the people who matter most to us.

I began to believe that so much of the growth we seek is already possible within us. Sometimes, we simply need the space, awareness and courage to look inward.

And I wanted more parents to experience that possibility.

That curiosity and purpose eventually led me to train formally as a Certified Life Coach (accredited by CDF) and Parenting Coach (accredited by ICF), where I learnt how to create a safe, non-judgemental space and guide others through their own process of reflection, discovery and growth.

Two decades of understanding human behaviour across cultures, brands and people.

And a deeply personal journey of understanding myself through relationships, inner work and parenting.

Through Ritika Seeds, I bring both into the conversations I hold with parents.

Not to tell them how to raise their children.

But to help them understand themselves, recognise the patterns they carry, and discover the choices that become possible with greater awareness.

Because I believe parenting isn't just about raising our children. It's also one of the most powerful opportunities we have to grow ourselves.

And I'm on that journey, too.