How meditation helped a former miner beat his mental health problems and start a new career as a mindfulness coach
- Work as a miner in Western Australia gave Hong Kong-born Dino Hira material success but left him unfulfilled; his girlfriend left and he contemplated suicide
- Meditation helped him overcome his depression. He has since had a career in modelling, a stint as a reality TV star and taught prisoners to meditate
When Hong Kong-born Dino Hira was 30 years old, he appeared to have it all: a well-paid job with good career prospects and a big house and fancy car. Yet he felt unfulfilled and began to experience bouts of depression, which were exacerbated when his long-term relationship with his girlfriend ended.
“I was heartbroken and felt helpless,” recalls Hira, now aged 37. “It was difficult to open up to others and discuss my feelings. I thought I’d be seen as ‘weak’ and was too ashamed to ask for help.”
Hira hit a low point when he took a week’s leave from his job – he worked in mining in Western Australia – and checked himself into a hotel, where he came close to ending his life.
“The thought of my family – my parents and my sisters – back in Hong Kong compelled me to hold on for one more day,” he says.
Fast forward seven years and Hira has overcome his depression. Today he teaches meditation, is an energy healer and founder of The Modern Yogi Company, an online portal that helps people create positive change in their life through mindfulness, meditation and spirituality.
“My desire is to provide insights that helped me on the road to recovery and to help remove the stigma associated with men’s mental health struggles. Men are far less likely to seek treatment or help for depression and stress, which exacerbates and prolongs the psychological problems that they may face.”
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Hira moved to Perth, Western Australia, to attend college, completing an undergraduate degree in information systems and business management. After working in the IT industry for several years, he joined the mining sector as a dump truck operator and was soon promoted to mine controller, overseeing the operations of a mine site.
The night before he contemplated suicide, Hira had a “life-changing” dream. “I saw Lord Shiva [the Hindu God, the destroyer of evil] sitting atop a mountain, his eyes closed in meditation,” recalls Hira. “I woke up crying and saw the dream as a divine intervention, a sign that I had to turn inward to find happiness. It was my awakening.
“I knew then that the answers to my problems lay inside of me and I turned to meditation,” he says. Hira was fortunate that his Indian-born parents had introduced him to meditation when he was eight years old.
“Going back to meditation saved my life,” says Hira, who wrote the book A Miner Who Wins Inner Peace (self-published, 2019), which chronicles his battle with mental health and is a resource for those looking to overcome similar issues.
“At first, it was difficult to sit still and observe my thoughts. I started by reciting a mantra, “Om Namah Shivaya” [salutations to Lord Shiva], something I had learnt as a child. It helped me stay in the present moment and avoid the chatter of the mind. The more I meditated, the more calm, grateful and creative I became.
“Whether one believes in Shiva, Buddha or Jesus, they are all representations of our inner true selves. Meditation offered me a lens to view myself in a different way. I went through an internal transformation where I was able to separate myself from the emotion that I was feeling. I realised that I am not my thoughts,” says Hira, who is also a Reiki master, a hypnotherapist and life coach.
Once at peace, Hira pursued his teenage dream to model, and in his thirties won a national male pageant, Mr Australasia, in Melbourne in 2016. Afterwards, he appeared in various Australian reality-television shows while continuing to work in the mining industry.
In 2019, he started teaching meditation at Casuarina Prison, a maximum-security prison in Perth. “It was my first time leading a meditation class so I was both excited and nervous,” says Hira.
Two inmates joined the first class but it soon grew.
“Before I knew it, there were 15 participants in the class, the maximum permissible. We started by gazing at a candle; it brought the participants to the present,” explains Hira.
“Next, we practised Pranayama [breathing techniques] like “Anulom Vilom” [alternate nostril breathing], “Kapalbhati” [the breath of fire] and “Bhastrika” [bellows breath] which relax the body and the nervous system.”
“Teaching meditation gave me an opportunity to make a difference to others and allowed me to see how far I had come. I wanted to share meditation techniques that would suit the modern lifestyle, while not forgetting its ancient roots.”
My purpose is to create a community of meditators so that each one can stand up on their own when faced with challenges, be a light for others and make the world a more peaceful place
Hira has also worked as a volunteer teaching meditation at drug and alcohol rehabilitation centres in Perth, taught online meditation courses to high school students in Hong Kong, and now teaches at Stanley Wellness in the city’s Central district, a centre offering integrative and functional medicine.
In 2015, Hira deepened his understanding of meditation by spending nine months at the Sadhana Mandir Ashram in the Indian city of Rishikesh, in the foothills of the Himalayas, a centre founded in 1966 by Indian yogi Swami Rama.
“In a world that has been battling the pandemic, mindfulness and meditation can help us stay in the present, connect with our inner selves and find true happiness,” he says.
“My purpose is to create a community of meditators so that each one can stand up on their own when faced with challenges, be a light for others and make the world a more peaceful place.”
His advice, especially for men dealing with mental health issues, is to acknowledge that you need help, to know that you are not alone and realise that there is no shame in reaching out for help.
If you are having suicidal thoughts, or you know someone who is, help is available. For Hong Kong, dial +852 2896 0000 for The Samaritans or +852 2382 0000 for Suicide Prevention Services. In the US, call The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline on +1 800 273 8255. For a list of other nations’ helplines, see this page
