Lifestyle

Meditation For The Masses And Education For All – David Hans Barker’s Ultimate Aims

Published

4 years ago

August 8, 2021

David Hans Barker may not have had the best start in life but has turned things around for himself. Now he’s made it his mission to help others gain mastery of their own lives, through meditation and education.

Born in Mysore, India, to a British Indian mother and a father of Jewish European descent, David is the Founder of YogiLab, Co-Founder of Guide Education, and a meditation teacher. His early years were spent trapped in a cult called ‘The Children of God’, until his mother escaped with David and his three siblings. They all fled to the UK, where she raised them as a single parent in a rough area of London. In his teenage years, David found himself involved in gang-related violence and crime, until he realized that he had a choice to break this regressive mental cycle.

“I was just full of all this hate and blame. I remember blaming everyone – my poor mum for struggling to look after us. Then my dad for not being there, blaming God, blaming the government, whoever, my friends, the other kids we were fighting with were all at each other’s throats as well. And then I just realized that none of this was happening without me choosing to be involved in it.”

Finding himself angry about everything, he now believes it’s the best thing that could have happened to him. “It was a rock bottom moment, as I call it my quarter-life crisis.”

Turning Point

Realizing he didn’t know the answer to his problems, David decided to experiment on himself to work out what actually produces happiness. This self-experimentation went on to inspire the current-day YogiLab logo – a yogi inside a conical lab-flask, “because the whole point is that we’re all our own laboratory”.

“My family and I always thought we were victims, because we were poor, raised by one parent, we didn’t have any money. And I realized that that’s not the case, that we’re the ones creating our lives, and so I just started experimenting with myself to see what I could do right now to make my life and my family’s life better.

By the age of 27, David had achieved financial independence, and not soon after he was a self-made millionaire. But David has never forgotten where he came from, nor the difficulties he overcame. He was finally able to properly thank his mother for working so hard to support them all by buying her a dream home in the leafy West London suburb of Ealing – not far geographically from where he grew up, but socially a long way from the streets of Southall.

“I got to buy my mum her dream house, a double-fronted Edwardian place in Ealing. I told her that my bosses had given me some properties to manage, and offered to show her around. When we finished the tour, I gave her the keys and told her it was actually hers. She burst into tears – we’d managed to bring our whole poverty circle full cycle.”

Giving Back

Seeing first-hand how much meditation helped himself and his family deal with real-world issues and how it had such a profound effect on his life, he now wants everyone to have access to the same power, regardless of their circumstances.

“Meditation is a practical skill – not just a spiritual hobby of the elite – which is why we’re bringing it to the people,” he says.

His mission is clear: to deliver meditation to 80 million individuals – 1 percent of the current global population, in line with The Maharishi Effect. This is linked to the belief that if 1 percent of the population meditates, it will produce measurable improvements in the quality of life for everyone.

One starting point in this mission was the creation of YogiLab, established to deliver meditation as a real-world skill, bringing the worlds of business and spirituality together, and applying meditation to all areas of life.

Their physical space is The Istana in Uluwatu, Bali, which today harnesses the experiences of each of his tribe to bring a multi-purpose and next-level venue on the cliffs of one of the world’s most spiritual locations. Having originally offered free meditation online during the pandemic, when meditation centers were forced to close down, YogiLab now has over 15,000 people signed up and has reached over 130,000 people since July 2020.

New methods are being adapted to reach even more, including the creation of YogiLab Meditation Hubs, guides to help people create and run their own meditation centers. And not forgetting ‘Spiritual Hustler’s Day’ to bring meditation to the real world, and to create the 80 million meditators needed to trigger the Maharishi Effect.

David has just launched his new book ‘Vision: Master Your Inner World to Shape Your Outer World’. On why he wrote it, David says that visualization works but it’s got a bad reputation because there are some missing elements to the process that don’t usually get taught. “I feel so strongly about this, that I think visualization should be taught in schools to kids. It should be the first step in us planning our future.”

Guide Education

David is also passionate about making education accessible to everyone, which he’s already started to achieve with Guide Education, a UK-based EdTech platform that he co-founded with its CEO Leon Hady.

According to a UNESCO study, 68 million more teachers are needed to meet global education demands, and Guide Education aims to help fill this gap.

“We want to be the ‘Netflix for Education’ in that world, to get it to everyone,” he explains. “In the same way that we are sharing meditation with everyone via the Yogilab, we are aiming to give mainstream education to everyone through Guide Education.”

Having already provided free education services to over a million people, Guide recently received over US$8 million in funding from the UK Government Future Fund and other private investors.

With COVID-19 having precipitated a shift towards home-based and remote learning, David and Leon saw the possibility to offer high-quality education and lifelong learning opportunities for all.

Its wealth of offerings include free resources such as revision guides for students, home-schooling advice for parents, and lesson planning tips for teachers. Other resources range from Guide Connect Teacher Development portals and teacher-training courses, Tuition Kit exam revision modules, and Exam Marker guides.

“The whole purpose of this company was that Leon and I both came from poor families, and we wanted to make education available to everyone around the world,” David says. “Education levels the playing field and as long as we lack quality teachers, our education systems will always be unequal. That’s why we want to get this to everyone. It’s time for the monopoly to be over.”

Lifestyle

The Missing Piece in Self-Help? Why This Book is Changing the Wellness Game

Published

1 day ago

June 29, 2025

Michelle Langton

Self-help shelves are full of advice — some of it helpful, some of it recycled, and most of it focused on “mindset.” But Rebecca Kase, LCSW and founder of the Trauma Therapist Institute, is offering something different: a science-backed, body-first approach that explains why so many people feel struck, overwhelmed, or burned out — and what they can actually do about it.

A seasoned therapist and business leader, Kase has spent nearly two decades teaching others how to navigate life through the lens of the nervous system. Her newest book, “The Polyvagal Solution,” set to release in May 2025, aims to shake up the wellness space by shifting the focus away from willpower and onto biology. If success has felt out of reach — or if healing has always seemed like a vague concept — this book may be the missing link.

A new way to understand stress and healing

At the heart of Kase’s approach is polyvagal theory, a neuroscience-based framework that helps explain how our bodies respond to safety and threat. Developed by Dr. Stephen Porges, polyvagal theory has transformed the way many therapists understand trauma, but Kase is bringing this knowledge to a much wider audience.

“The body always tells the truth,” Kase says. “If you’re anxious, exhausted, or always in overdrive, your nervous system is asking for support, not more discipline.”

“The Polyvagal Solution” makes this complex theory digestible and actionable. Instead of promising quick fixes, Kase offers strategies for regulating the nervous system over time, including breathwork, movement, boundaries, and daily practices that better align with how the human body functions. It’s less about pushing through discomfort and more about learning to tune in to what the body needs.

From clinical expertise to business insight

What sets Kase apart isn’t just her deep understanding of trauma but how she blends that knowledge with real-world experience as a business owner and leader. As the founder of the Trauma Therapist Institute, she scaled her work into a thriving company, all while staying rooted in the values she teaches.

Kase has coached therapists, executives, and entrepreneurs who struggle with burnout, anxiety, or feeling disconnected from their work. Regardless of who she works with, though, her message remains consistent: the problem isn’t always mindset — it’s often regulation.

“Success that drains you isn’t success. It’s survival mode in disguise,” Kase explains. Her coaching programs go beyond traditional leadership training by teaching high achievers how to calm their nervous systems, enabling them to lead from a grounded place, not just grit.

Making the science personal

For all her clinical knowledge, Kase keeps things human. Her work doesn’t sound like a lecture but rather like a conversation with someone who gets it. That’s because she’s been through it herself: the long hours as a therapist, the emotional toll of supporting others, the realities of building a business while managing her own well-being.

That lived experience informs everything she does. Whether she’s speaking on stage, running a retreat, or sharing an anecdote on her podcast, Kase has a way of weaving humor and honesty into even the heaviest topics. Her ability to balance evidence-based practice with practical advice is part of what makes her voice so compelling.

Kase’s previous book, “Polyvagal-Informed EMDR,” earned respect from clinicians across the country. But “The Polyvagal Solution” reaches beyond the therapy community to anyone ready to understand how their body is shaping their behavior and how to create real, sustainable change.

Why this message matters

We’re in a moment where burnout is common and overwhelm feels normal. People are looking for answers, but many of the tools out there don’t address the deeper cause of those feelings.

That’s where Kase’s work lands differently. Instead of telling people to “think positive” or “try harder,” she teaches them how to regulate their own biology. And in doing so, she opens the door for deeper connection, better decision-making, and more energy for the things that matter.

As more workplaces begin to embrace trauma-informed leadership, more individuals are seeking solutions that go beyond talk therapy and motivational content. Kase meets that need with clarity, compassion, and a toolkit rooted in both science and humanity.

A grounded approach to lasting change

What makes “The Polyvagal Solution” stand out is its realism. It doesn’t ask readers to overhaul their lives but instead asks them to listen — to pay attention to how their bodies feel, how their stress patterns manifest, and how even small shifts in awareness can lead to significant results over time. Whether you’re a therapist, a team leader, or someone trying to feel more at ease in your own skin, this book offers a way forward that feels both grounded and achievable.

Rebecca Kase isn’t just adding another title to the self-help genre. She’s redefining it by reminding us that we don’t have to muscle our way through life. We just have to learn how to work with, not against, ourselves.

And maybe that’s the real game-changer we’ve been waiting for.