Women In Wellness: Samira Daswani Of Manta Planner On The Five Lifestyle Tweaks That Will Help Support People’s Journey Towards Better Wellbeing
An Interview With Candice Georgiadis
Set your boundaries. I’m a self-proclaimed workaholic. I love what I do and enjoy working hard. I need to understand my limits, set my boundaries and respect the boundaries I set. I’ve been doing that. I’m now fairly strict that by 6pm in the evening my laptop is closed, my email inbox will not get responses and my phone messages (work-related) will not be answered.
As a part of my series about the women in wellness, I had the pleasure of interviewing Samira Daswani.
Samira Daswani is the Founder and Creator of Manta Planner, an all-in-one planner for cancer patients and caregivers that works as a companion tool from diagnosis to survivorship. A health care executive and breast cancer survivor and thriver, Daswani sought out to create a tool that weaves hope with organization, helping patients and caregivers to make decisions about treatment options, track and manage symptoms, stay organized, and mindfully check-in with emotions. Manta Planner was newly launched in February 2022 and is currently available online for purchase.
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Our readers would love to “get to know you” better. Can you share your “backstory” with us?
I’ve worked in healthcare for the last decade of my career. I started out at McKinsey & Company as a Business Analyst focused on healthcare. I then went on to become a Director at a young cancer-startup called COTA. Soon after I became the Chief of Staff/VP at Accretive, a private equity firm that incubates & launches new companies. I helped launch 2 companies — one in the fashion-AI space and the other in the healthcare space. I took a sabbatical from work and came to Stanford University to get my Master’s in Healthcare-Design. My master’s thesis focused at the intersection of design-healthcare-and AI. After graduation, I am the VP of Product at a medical diagnostic company — Visby Medical where I helped launch a COVID-19 product.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you started your career? What were the main lessons or takeaways from that story?
I like to say that it’s unfolding right now! Manta Planner came from my personal experiences as a cancer patient. It wasn’t meant to become a product. However, the response from others has been incredibly meaningful. It’s the main reason I keep doing what I’m doing. It is incredibly humbling to create something that can support a person through one of the toughest chapters of their life. I’m not doing this work to make an income, I’m doing it because I truly believe it’ll help someone in their darkest moments. And in that lies my own fulfillment.
Let’s jump to our main focus. When it comes to health and wellness, how is the work you are doing helping to make a bigger impact in the world?
Manta Planner came from my personal experiences as a breast cancer patient. I was diagnosed a week after I turned 30. As an AYA cancer survivor, I am on a mission to help patients, survivors and caregivers gain back some control over our cancer journey.
I was lucky — I had a lot of support from my loving family and wonderful community. Despite being relatively well-prepared (yup, that’s a thing!) this was the most overwhelming 2 years of my life. Sometimes I still feel out of control.
Planning helped me and my loved ones know what is going on and what the next day/week/month will look like. Together we designed Manta Planner as a way to give back to this wonderful family that we now belong to.
Can you share your top five “lifestyle tweaks” that you believe will help support people’s journey towards better wellbeing? Please give an example or story for each.
1. Establish habits, one at-a-time. Starting on a lifestyle change can feel overwhelming. Start with 1 thing at a time. Give it at least 2 months, or until it becomes your default. In my case, I started with changing my diet. I gave myself all of 2021 to identify a nutrition plan that was right for me, learn how to shop & cook within it, and for it to become a part of my daily lifestyle. 2022 is all about gaining strength.
2. Nutrition is key to overall health. When I completed treatment for cancer, I started reading a lot about how to prevent a future recurrence from happening. I tried going vegan, gluten-free, sugar-free and fasting. None seem to truly work. I did a personal-genomic test upon the recommendation of my doctor. We discovered that in my specific case, I needed to eat a heavily plant based, low-carb (not keto), pescatarian diet. I’ve now been doing that for the last 6 months, and I feel great!
3. Focus on the small things that make you happy — I ask myself each day — if I only had today what would I do? And most days I try to do that. It’s usually the small things — a good cup of coffee, a walk with my dogs, calling my parents, sketching/painting.
4. Move daily. It can be whatever works for you — yoga, walking, gym, swimming,
5. Spend time in nature. I realized that I got a lot of energy from being out in nature. We now go daily. Our dog walks are our excuse to spend time amongst the trees, grass and ocean.
If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of wellness to the most amount of people, what would that be?
I think I’m doing it now through Manta Planner. My experiences as a patient made me realize that I needed to have more control over my medical decisions as well as my overall wellness. I want others to be able to i) identify what makes the most sense for them (i.e., personalize wellness) ii) support the creation of new habits (i.e., lasting / long term wellness) iii) to ultimately feel in control of their mind + body.
What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started” and why?
I’m applying this to the “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before Starting Cancer Treatment”:
1. The road to recovery is long and slow. You have to be the tortoise (not the hare)
2. Set your boundaries. I’m a self-proclaimed workaholic. I love what I do and enjoy working hard. I need to understand my limits, set my boundaries and respect the boundaries I set. I’ve been doing that. I’m now fairly strict that by 6pm in the evening my laptop is closed, my email inbox will not get responses and my phone messages (work-related) will not be answered.
3. Stay organized over your health information — if you don’t, no one else will. Our doctors rely on the data we provide them to make decisions on our short + long term health. We need to stay organized. Leverage the tools you have or get new tools to help you.
4. Asking for help is an act of courage. I am a very self-reliant person. I don’t enjoy asking for help — it makes me feel weak. Cancer is the ultimate knock-you-down moment. However, it can also be a moment where asking for and accepting the help you get allows you to reckon with yourself.
5. Breathe, and literally take one day at a time.
Sustainability, veganism, mental health and environmental changes are big topics at the moment. Which one of these causes is dearest to you, and why?
Mental Health and Mindfulness. I learned from my personal experience that cancer can be an overwhelming journey for both patient and caregiver alike. The idea for Manta Planner came to me as I was going through treatment, and scribbling treatment notes on scraps of random paper in my purse — it was a scattered, unorganized way to approach my treatment and it affected my mental health. I knew there had to be a better, and more mindful way, to effectively organize the different touchpoints of my cancer journey. That product did not exist, so I decided to create it.
Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this.
Women In Wellness: Samira Daswani Of Manta Planner On The Five Lifestyle Tweaks That Will Help… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.