Chris Pan paused for a few minutes mid-conversation to make sure his staff had ordered their lunches from a nearby vegan restaurant, and to remind them that the day would end with an in-person sound bath healing. A few of his colleagues were seated on the floor in the living room of his Los Angeles home in a strategy planning session, instead of working solo in their individual homes. The vibe was collaborative and creative, like a more conscious WeWork . It felt just as it should do for Pan, who left behind a lucrative tech career at Facebook to begin a second act helping people feel better about their lives. “There’s never been a time when we’ve needed more mental support,” said Pan, wrapped in a long grey cardigan, seated in a cosy nook in the pretty back garden of his house. “It’s obvious that there are lots of people dealing with fear.” In early June, Taiwan-born Pan launched a new wellness platform, a significant evolution for his four-year-old company, My Intent (myintent.org). It was launched to make bracelets and necklaces holding tiny doughnut-shaped tokens that can carry any word or message the user chooses. Singer Beyoncé , talk show host Larry King and journalist Katie Couric have them, and many more celebrities besides. Customers can ask for a word that means something to them – popular examples include “Breathe”, “Faith”, “Blessed”. But after the coronavirus pandemic hit, Pan realised he needed to go further. He put US$1 million of his own money into a new platform, which offers free live-streamed classes via Zoom in subjects as of-the-moment as meditation, breath work and journaling. 3 exciting new wellness trends that could transform our lives There are guided conversations on “Transformation Through Action”, sessions on healthy cooking and holistic beauty rituals. Anyone can join in. “We serve people who don't necessarily have resources,” said Pan. “We want to make inner work and self care exciting, enjoyable and accessible. That’s part of the movement we are creating. We’re like a spiritual food pantry, taking care of peoples’ spiritual needs.” Pan’s current life is a far cry from where he was a decade ago. He was living in Palo Alto in the US state of California and working for Facebook, where his responsibilities shifted from mobile advertising to user growth, while helping founder Mark Zuckerberg finesse his Mandarin-speaking skills. “I worked with him twice a week, talking to him about Chinese culture and language,” said Pan. When he left in 2012, he was “financially free, but was unhappy and unfulfilled. I thought I had everything to make me happy, and yet I was not”. He met an executive coach who introduced him to mindfulness practices . “One of the first things she said to me was to pause,” he recalls. “I remember thinking: ‘Pause? Who does that?’ But she started introducing me to all these different practices, and I made a commitment then to bring these ancient technologies to the modern technologies that we now possess.” Pan was about to buy a house in San Francisco when he met another spiritual teacher who said to him: “‘I have a message for you, your next mission is in LA, you need to go there and help people.’ It brought tears to my eyes. I immediately moved here.” Pan concedes that he never fancied himself a terribly spiritual person. He was four years old and living in Taipei in Taiwan when his parents moved to Cincinnati, Ohio for their graduate studies, leaving him to be raised by his grandparents for a few years until they got their green cards and were ready to send for him. His father had been born in China, literally on the side of the road, as the family fled to Taiwan. “My family struggled to survive and provide,” he said. “It’s in my DNA. It left me wanting to take care of people.” In Cincinnati, he focused on academics – straight As were non-negotiable, as was learning an instrument (he picked the clarinet). His parents goaded him towards a “safe and respectable career that was good for society”. Going into business for himself didn’t initially fit that mould, but they have somewhat come around; Pan’s dad, a former aircraft engineer, works with him in the business, as does Pan’s younger brother. “Culturally, I don’t know if my parents appreciated the value of therapy and inner work,” he says. “It’s a generational thing. There’s still a perception that those things are for people who are weird or weak or mentally ill.” His goal with My Intent is ultimately to teach “emotional literacy”, he says. “Why is it that we teach kids maths and how to read and write but not how to be emotionally literate?” he said. “If we want to have the kind of world that is harmonious and where we all get along, it’s important to help educate people to be more empathetic. Imagine what the world would be like if we all knew how to forgive, and how to simply listen.”