We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Jihan Basyah. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Jihan below.

Jihan, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today We’d love to hear about the things you feel your parents did right and how those things have impacted your career and life.

I love this question. Solely because I wouldn’t be where I am today, or quite frankly WHO I am today, if it weren’t for the parents and grandparents before me.

And so what my parents and grandparents did right? Well, they knew what it means to instill character in me. The values I hold, the character I stand by highly, it’s all thanks to them. Back in Indonesia, my grandfather would always tell us “give back, and God will bless you tenfold”. He knew the essence of what it means to be a spiritual person: that when we bring generosity to the world around us, the universe will have its way in blessing us back. And when we surrender to the uncertainty and live by the right intentions, then trust that we will be guided to the right path.

And so for me, all of my life’s choices, segues, drawbacks, failures ended up bringing me to even greater part of myself and my purpose. And I wouldn’t be where I’m at: studying spiritual psychology, working with an amazing team at an industry I love, and speaking at my convocation ceremony, if it weren’t for all the closed doors and doors opened that brought me to where I needed to be. And all those segues, lost moments, and redirections? I was exactly where I was supposed to be then too.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I’ve been writing for over 10 years now. School papers, college journalism, interning at well known publications and even published more online. But the more I got into the writing career, the more I fell out of it. As creatives, I’m sure we all go through this: where we love the craft so much we decide to build a career out of it. But overtime what should’ve been nourishing to the soul ended up being draining and money-driven instead. And what happens when art becomes too lost in the pursuit of wealth? We lose the essence of why we dove into art in the first place.

That’s what happened to me. I was chasing deadlines and paychecks, writing about topics I didn’t care about, balancing multiple jobs just to survive New York. What should’ve been a career I loved became a source of burnout.

Eventually, New York got too expensive and I moved back to my family home in Indonesia (yes that’s right, it was a BIG move), and it ended up being a huge blessing for me. Indonesia was where I had my spiritual awakening. Indonesia was where I had to reset and ask myself: am I truly creating with intention or am i simply creating to make ends meet?

That question, combined with a chronic health condition I’ve been navigating since I was 15, led me to completely reorient. Health became my north star, which led me to holistic wellness and deepen my knowledge on holistic health with the Institute of Integrative Nutrition, which eventually led me to pursue a Master’s in Spiritual Psychology at Teachers College, Columbia University. I took a job at Othership, a wellness sauna/cold plunge space specializing in breathwork to support my day-to-day, received a scholarship for my program, led school organizations focused on coaching and mindfulness and somewhere in that season, I found my way back to my craft. This time with clarity.

Instead of saying yes to every project, every opportunity that came my way, at some point in my career I knew I had to really hone in to my intentions. Saying yes to a lot of opportunities early in my career was a great way to put my foot at the door and get to know and try out where I felt most curious to grow. Once that curiosity was found, diving deeper into that world made me fell in love with my craft even more.

Throughout my studies I got to lead Spirituality at TC, a school organization on wellness and mindfulness spaces which ultimately led me to the work I’m doing now: facilitating spaces for healing and embodiment.

This career change also got me to discover deeply about myself and who I am as a person: that I am capable of stepping into a leadership role. That I have the guts to stand on a stage at my graduation ceremony to speak in front of an audience, including the President, Vice President, and Provost of our institution. That what felt like a step down having burned out and lost my passion in art led me to an even more intentional build of my craft.

And while I still have quite a journey ahead of me, by all means I don’t consider myself a success (nor a failure) in any sense, I’m very much content to the work I’m doing and where I’m headed. And that’s all thanks to working with intention and having faith that all will work out.

I’m not here to claim success. I’m simply someone in the middle of her own becoming. And that’s exactly who I’m here for. Today my work lives at the intersection of writing, teaching, and breathwork, for anyone navigating their own health journey and looking for a space to heal, reconnect, and come back to themselves.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

When I first started my career into the wellness space, the mission I had told myself was “heal my hormones and my health, and I’ll learn to heal others who are going through the same.” And while that is still part of what I want to build, I realize overtime my mission statement evolved to “guide people home to themselves, through the body, through breath, through story. And show that the path back to ourselves is also the path forward.”

In many ways the mission’s essence remains: heal and heal others. But ultimately I knew that every person’s journey is unique. That my journey with my hormones and health is not equal to another, and so instead of having to “coach” someone, I realize I want to combine qualities in my life that I hold dear: be part of a community, building impact with intention, and honoring words through my own unique voice.

And every day I wake up with the belief that I get to build a life and craft by my own terms, and what’s meant for me will come find me. And that takes out all the pressure of money, of fame, of ego out of the way and just trust in my own journey.

How did you build your audience on social media?

I don’t consider myself the most popular on social media but I do think that when you bring in the right intention, you’ll attract what’s meant to come find you.

And so for me, I never pressured myself into building content that would get the most hits or views or what’s most trending at this moment. This isn’t to say that we should just any random content because we like it. I do still think it’s smart to be up to date on what’s happening, what trends we’re seeing, what the tone or vibe check with a particular industry you want to be in, but I truly believe the best content out there are ones that are most natural, most authentic, and most genuine to the creator.

My one viral hit reel so far was the speech I gave at Teachers College. Sure, from a logical point of view, I did my best to optimize viewership by adding subtitles, cutting the reel to a certain length, highlighting the most important part of the speech and granted, a speech at an Ivy League Institution could get you so far. But ultimately what makes people want to stay and watch if the heart of it all: the messaging. The authenticity that came out.

And as artists, that to me is what makes any person’s craft remarkable. You don’t follow the trends, you recognize them, but you come back to honoring yourself and what works for you. And eventually the right audience will come find you. And that’s why my grandparent’s teachings on intention and having faith really helped me in my career: we can’t control the outcome of success or craft or work. We can only do our best, bring forth what we intend to bring forth, and just trust that if it’s meant to be, life will have its way of rewarding.

So for anyone out there building an audience, I’d say that there really is no real formula to making it big. You might want to ask yourself first what success would mean to you. I don’t consider myself a success for having at least a certain number of followers, etc. To me, my success is making sure I had the courage to do something I never thought I did (give a speech/public speaking) or to share my knowledge and heart to help just one soul out there (which my speech got to do). And that’s all the drive I need to keep going.

So just build on a craft that’s authentic to you, but be smart and keep up with the trends of today (video formatting, audio, short form vs long form content, etc.) and when you educate yourself on these trends while finding your own voice, you’d make one killer of a content creator. Because you’re unique to you, and that’s what makes you stand out.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://jihanbasyah.squarespace.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jihanbasyah/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jihanbasyah