Balraj Persaud
Yogin & Private Executive Advisor
Balraj is a private advisor to senior leaders and professionals, and a yogin who teaches yoga philosophy as the disciplined practice of self-awareness.
Balraj teaches the philosophy of yoga as a direct, phenomenological inquiry into the nature of experience. In his private work, he helps senior leaders and professionals in high‑consequence, scrutinized roles strengthen their composure and presence in high-pressure environments and high-stakes situations. His work trains presence and awareness in functional, high-level leaders, helping them protect their performance, relationships, and reputation under pressure. Alongside executive composure work, he also offers private spiritual advisory for senior leaders.
Balraj’s approach to emotional composure is guided by the contemplative traditions of the Indian subcontinent. Managing emotions doesn’t require controlling them. Managing emotions just requires becoming aware of them before being consumed by them. Managing emotions, in other words, requires awareness.
What is yoga? Yoga is not the strategic and permanent destruction of the suffering of our inadequacies and vulnerabilities; yoga is what remains once we’ve abandoned the quest to “fill up” ourselves with the world. Our desire to find permanent, personal emotional/material security (to finally be “at peace”) actually reinforces the basic sense of anxiety/insecurity that we’re trying to eliminate. In other words, the quest for permanent freedom from our personal suffering—to never again feel small or invisible, ashamed or unworthy, guilty or defective, exposed or inadequate—might be the very thing keeping us from our deepest fulfilment. And this quest for invulnerability doesn’t permit self-awareness: we each are irrevocably embedded in structures of dependence that precede and exceed us, the recognition of which is demanded for/by [our] “freedom”. (Read our comprehensive guide to the objective of yoga or the goal of meditation.)
Balraj received a BA (Hons) and MSc (Oxon) studying South Asia and India respectively. He then obtained an MA in philosophy, defending his thesis on phenomenological method. He received a Diploma in Yoga from Annamalai University and the title of Yoga Vidyā from his teacher.
If you are in a leadership role looking to speak with Balraj about your situation, learn more about who he works with.
To read more about yoga, we recommend beginning with either of our comprehensive introductions to yoga or meditation.