The Founder of Solana Bali on leaving Silicon Valley, redefining success, conscious hospitality and creating a life with purpose
FACE WELLNESS | WELLNESS WEEK | BALI EDITION
There are many ways to define wellness. For some, it is movement and nutrition; for others, it is stillness, meditation or time spent away from the noise of everyday life. For Anshu Singh, Founder of Solana Bali, wellness is something more fundamental: the feeling of being fully alive.
That philosophy sits at the heart of Solana, a retreat created not simply as a place to rest, but as an environment in which people can slow down, reconnect with themselves and rediscover parts of their lives that may have been lost beneath the demands of modern living. From the moment guests arrive, Singh says, the intention is to create a shift—one that begins almost imperceptibly as the body encounters greenery, water, natural sounds and space.
For FACE Wellness, that idea of wellbeing as an evolving relationship with ourselves is central to its editorial journey. During the Bali edition of FACE Wellness Week, Global Wellness Editor Priyangee Porwal explored the people and places redefining contemporary wellness, including an exclusive conversation with Singh about the philosophy behind Solana, the personal journey that led him there and his vision for the future of conscious living.
What emerges is not simply the story of a luxury wellness retreat. It is the story of a founder who spent more than two decades pursuing conventional success before asking himself a question that ultimately changed the course of his life:
“If this is success, why am I not happy?”
Anshu Singh — Reimagining What It Means to Feel Alive
A Place Created for Transformation
For Singh, Solana is, at its heart, a place for transformation.
The experience begins before a guest has attended a single session. Walking through the property, surrounded by greenery, water and the sounds of nature, the body begins to respond. Breathing changes. Shoulders relax. The nervous system starts to settle.
That response, Singh explains, is intentional.
His original vision was to create a place where people could step away from the relentless stimulation of everyday life and reconnect—with their bodies, their energy, nature and other human beings. His definition of wellness extends well beyond the absence of illness. It is about energy, purpose, love, laughter, movement and the ability to experience genuine pleasure in being alive.
Ultimately, he hopes that guests leave Solana remembering something about themselves that they had forgotten.
From Silicon Valley to Solana
Solana did not emerge from a conventional career in hospitality or wellness. It grew out of Singh’s own experience.
He spent more than 25 years in technology, much of that time in Silicon Valley. From the outside, his life appeared to represent the conventional definition of success: a successful career, financial independence, a family and a beautiful home in San Francisco.
Yet beneath that achievement was a growing sense of overwhelm and burnout.
Singh had spent years achieving, solving problems and moving towards the next objective. Eventually, however, he was forced to confront a more uncomfortable question: whether the life he was building actually made him happy.
That question became a turning point.
His search for an answer led him towards yoga, meditation, breathwork, tantra and different approaches to healing and consciousness. He began to understand that wellbeing could not be separated into neat categories. Physical, emotional, mental, energetic and spiritual health were interconnected.
Solana was conceived from that understanding—not as a clinical wellness facility and not simply as a beautiful hotel offering yoga, but as an intentionally designed retreat where people could slow down sufficiently to reconnect with themselves.
When Success Stopped Being Enough
Singh says he did not wake up one morning and decide to leave technology behind and become a wellness entrepreneur.
His life had to unravel first.
Being driven had served him well professionally. He enjoyed achieving, solving problems and moving towards the next goal. But eventually, the rewards of achievement could no longer silence the question he had been carrying.
If this is success, why am I not happy?
He came to Bali as part of his own healing journey, initially undertaking yoga teacher training simply to deepen his personal practice. He had no intention of becoming a teacher.
Yet teaching produced a sense of fulfilment he had not experienced during his professional career—a feeling he describes as beautiful and almost indescribable.
Slowly, his definition of success changed.
The entrepreneurial instinct never disappeared. He still enjoys creating and building. What changed was the reason behind it. He wanted what he built to have meaning and to make a difference in people’s lives.
For someone who had spent decades operating within the world of technology and achievement, it was a fundamental shift: from asking what he could accomplish to asking what his work could contribute.
BUILDING SOLANA FROM THE GROUND UP
Creating a retreat of Solana’s scale was far removed from simply imagining an idyllic wellness destination.
Singh and his team built it from the ground up—from finding the land and developing the architecture to creating the gardens, assembling the team and eventually shaping the complete guest experience.
The process came with construction problems, financial pressures, delays, cultural differences and countless unforeseen circumstances.
One quality became particularly important: resourcefulness.
Singh does not believe a founder needs to know every answer at the outset. What matters is having the confidence to find the right person, information, solution or alternative route when a problem arises.
His technology background proved valuable in this respect. It had taught him how to take a large vision and make it executable, while remaining focused when numerous competing problems demanded attention.
Yet Solana also taught him a lesson that technology and business cannot necessarily solve: not everything can be controlled.
Sometimes, he says, a founder has to listen, adapt and allow what is being created to become something different—and perhaps better—than originally imagined.
WHEN A BUSINESS BECOMES A PURPOSE
There was no single dramatic moment when Singh realised that Solana had become his life’s purpose.
Instead, the realisation emerged through the people who came through its doors.
He would watch guests arrive carrying stress, grief, exhaustion, uncertainty or simply the feeling that something was missing. Then he would watch them change.
Sometimes the transformation was visible within days. A person’s body would soften. They would laugh more, connect more freely, cry, dance or rediscover parts of themselves that had been buried beneath responsibilities and expectations.
There were also moments when guests would approach him at the end of a retreat, tears in their eyes, and say that the experience had changed their lives.
Those moments made it difficult to think of Solana simply as a business.
For Singh, the retreat became a living expression of a purpose that had once existed only as an idea.
DESIGNING A RETREAT THAT BELONGS TO ITS LAND
Nature was the starting point for Solana’s architecture and design.
Singh did not want to build something beautiful on the land. He wanted Solana to feel as though it belonged to the land.
That philosophy is reflected throughout the property, from bamboo and rammed earth to natural textures, gardens, water and open spaces. Guests hear birds and frogs, watch dragonflies move across the water and, on a full-moon night, can watch the moon rise over the jungle.
Nature is not treated as scenery.
It is part of the experience itself.
Singh believes that this immersion may help explain why people often report feeling different almost immediately upon arrival. His view is that the nervous system can recognise a sense of safety before the conscious mind has fully understood why.
His definition of luxury is equally revealing.
It is not marble and gold. It is space, silence, clean air, nourishing food, nature, time—and the feeling that somebody genuinely cares about your wellbeing.
For Singh, love is the foundation of Solana, and he and his team strive to bring that principle into the way they care for themselves, their guests and one another.
CONSCIOUS HOSPITALITY
For Singh, personal wellness cannot be separated from environmental wellbeing.
“I don’t believe we can talk about personal wellness while damaging the environment that keeps us alive,” he says.
That principle influenced Solana from the beginning. Bamboo and rammed-earth construction, reducing plastic consumption, recycling organic waste into the gardens, conserving water, using biodegradable products and increasingly generating energy through solar power are all part of the property’s approach to sustainability.
But Singh’s understanding of conscious hospitality extends beyond environmental responsibility.
It also encompasses people.
Solana operates within a Balinese community, and Singh believes the people around the business should benefit from its presence through employment, opportunity and community initiatives.
Ultimately, conscious hospitality comes down to a simple question: Can everyone touched by this business benefit from it—the guest, the team, the community and the earth?
That remains an ongoing ambition for Solana.
WHAT DOES TRUE WELLNESS MEAN?
For Singh, the answer can be expressed in one word:
Aliveness.
A person can have perfect blood tests and still feel completely disconnected from life.
True wellness, he believes, involves energy in the body, clarity in the mind, emotional freedom, meaningful relationships and something that creates a genuine desire to wake up in the morning.
Purpose itself can be a source of vitality. When Singh feels connected to something meaningful, he says, he experiences an extraordinary amount of energy.
And wellness should not exclude pleasure.
Good food, movement, nature, intimacy, laughter, rest, friendship, dancing and human connection are all part of the equation.
His personal philosophy has increasingly been about moving from pressure to pleasure—not pleasure as indulgence, but as the permission to experience the joy of actually being alive.
WHEN TRANSFORMATION FOLLOWS YOU HOME
Singh does not want guests to experience an extraordinary week at Solana only to return home and resume exactly the same life.
For him, transformation becomes meaningful when it enters ordinary life.
The retreats therefore offer practices that guests can carry home, including breathwork, meditation, movement, nutrition, emotional awareness and approaches to regulating stress.
Yet some of the deepest changes, he says, happen outside the scheduled sessions.
It might be an unexpected conversation after dinner, dancing with people who were strangers only days earlier, watching a full moon together or crying alongside someone who has suddenly become a friend.
Sometimes it is as simple as waking up after a deep night’s sleep and realising that it has been months since the body felt genuinely rested.
These moments, Singh believes, remind people what it feels like to be human rather than perpetually productive.
WELLNESS DOES NOT HAVE TO BE SERIOUS
One of Singh’s strongest objections to the modern perception of wellness is the idea that it must always be serious.
People can imagine a retreat as a period of deprivation—strict diets, endless meditation, silence, discipline and an obligation to fix everything perceived to be wrong with oneself.
Singh sees it differently.
Healing can happen through joy.
It can happen through dancing and laughter, delicious food, lying beside a pool doing absolutely nothing or having a beautiful conversation.
Transformation can certainly be uncomfortable, and there are moments when people may have to confront aspects of themselves that they have avoided.
But wellness should never become another arena in which people feel compelled to perform perfectly.
Life is meant to be lived.
THE DISCONNECTION BENEATH THE STRESS
After welcoming guests from around the world, Singh says he sees one emotional challenge repeatedly:
Disconnection.
People arrive exhausted from constantly doing, achieving, caring for others and remaining perpetually available.
Technology has connected the world in unprecedented ways, yet many people feel profoundly lonely.
Beneath the obvious stress, Singh often sees a deeper question emerging:
“Is this really how I want to live my life?”
Sometimes, he believes, people do not need another strategy.
They need enough silence to hear themselves again.
THE FOUNDER’S OWN BALANCE
Singh is candid about the fact that he does not maintain balance perfectly.
He remains an entrepreneur. He loves creating, becomes excited by ideas and sometimes takes on too much.
What he has learned, however, is to recognise when that drive has gone too far and he is losing connection with himself.
Yoga, movement, breathwork, meditation and nature help bring him back. So do his children, friendships, travel, dancing, laughter and meaningful conversations.
Sometimes the reset is even simpler: watching a dragonfly, seeing the sunrise or remembering that life is considerably larger than whatever problem seemed overwhelming five minutes earlier.
For Singh, wellness is not a state he has achieved once and for all. It is an ongoing relationship with himself, supported by daily practices that help him remain connected to that feeling of being alive.
THE PRIDE OF SEEING AN IDEA BECOME A COMMUNITY
When Singh looks back at his journey with Solana, his proudest moments are not necessarily connected to the physical property itself.
What matters most is seeing something that once existed only in his imagination become a living community.
He speaks about watching the team grow, seeing facilitators from around the world bring their communities to Solana, and witnessing strangers arrive and leave as friends.
There are breakthroughs, laughter and tears.
And then there are quiet mornings when Singh walks through the property, sees the gardens, hears people practising in the shala and watches the team prepare for another retreat.
In those moments, he sometimes stops to think:
“Wow. This was once just an idea.”
The feeling, he says, never gets old.
BUILDING WITH PURPOSE
For entrepreneurs dreaming of building a purpose-driven business, Singh identifies three qualities that have served him particularly well:
Purpose. Resourcefulness. Focus.
Purpose provides a reason to keep going. Resourcefulness means being willing to learn, ask questions, experiment, find the right people and look for another route when something fails. Focus keeps the founder moving towards the larger vision instead of becoming consumed by every individual obstacle.
But Singh is careful not to romanticise entrepreneurship.
Purpose alone does not build a business.
There must also be discipline, financial understanding, systems, resilience and the willingness to make difficult decisions.
He also believes founders should not wait for everything to become perfect before beginning.
Solana was not created from a flawless master plan. It evolved. Singh made mistakes, changed things and learned along the way.
His advice is simple: you do not need to see the entire staircase. You need to know why you are climbing it—and possess enough courage and resourcefulness to take the next step.
THE FUTURE OF WELLNESS: HEALTHSPAN AND JOYSPAN
Singh believes the global wellness industry is moving beyond simply treating illness towards helping people optimise the way they live.
Longevity will undoubtedly be part of that future, but he hopes the conversation does not become solely about extending lifespan.
He is more interested in healthspan—and joyspan.
What is the point, he asks, of adding ten years to our lives if those years are not filled with energy, connection, curiosity and meaning?
He also believes the next decade will bring two worlds closer together: ancient wisdom and modern science.
Yoga, breathwork, meditation and traditional healing can coexist alongside diagnostics, regenerative medicine and longevity technologies.
The more important question, however, may not be how long we can live.
It may be:
“How alive can we be while we’re here?”
WHAT’S NEXT FOR SOLANA
For Singh, the next chapter of Solana is among the most exciting.
The team is developing a new day-retreat centre focused on vitality, energy and longevity—a natural evolution of what they have learned through Solana.
The philosophy behind the new project is straightforward. Rather than asking only how people can live longer, Singh wants to explore how they can feel more alive.
The experience is expected to bring together ancient wisdom and contemporary longevity practices, including movement, nutrition, sauna and cold immersion, acupuncture, red-light therapy, IV therapies, bodywork, lymphatic therapies and other modalities, all within a natural environment.
Yet Singh does not believe longevity needs to feel clinical.
Technology and treatments have their place, but so do sunlight, nature, nourishing food, movement, human connection, stillness and joy.
For him, longevity is not simply about adding more years to life.
It is about adding more life to those years.
DON’T POSTPONE YOUR LIFE
If Singh could leave readers with one message about living consciously and creating a meaningful life, it would be simple:
Don’t postpone your life.
People spend years waiting for the right circumstances—until they have enough money, until their children grow up, until the business succeeds, until they lose weight, until they meet someone, until life becomes less complicated.
And then, suddenly, years have passed.
One of the deepest lessons of Singh’s own life has been recognising that life is not something waiting for us in the future.
This is it.
Find something that gives your life purpose, he says, but pay attention to the small things as well. Breathe deeply. Smell the flowers. Notice the butterflies. Dance when you feel like dancing. Love people while they are here—and tell them. Travel. Take risks. Create something that matters to you. Rest when you are tired. Have the courage to change direction when the life you have built no longer feels like yours.
And, perhaps most importantly, be grateful for what life brings.
It is a gift. Treasure it.
We do not know how much time we have.
Singh does not simply want to live a long life.
He wants to live a life that is deeply and beautifully alive.
FACE WELLNESS — THE JOURNEY CONTINUES
The conversation with Anshu Singh, Founder of Solana Bali, captures precisely what FACE Wellness seeks to explore: wellbeing not as a trend or a destination, but as an evolving relationship with ourselves, our surroundings and the lives we choose to create. Through his story, Anshu offers a perspective on wellness shaped by experience, purpose, conscious living and the courage to reconsider what it means to live a truly fulfilling life.
For Priyangi Porwal, Global Wellness Editor at FACE Magazine, the conversation with Anshu Singh and her experience at Solana Bali offered an opportunity to look beyond the retreat itself and understand the philosophy that gives it meaning—the belief that wellness is ultimately about feeling alive, connected and present in the life we are living.
Through its Wellness Week and the editorial leadership of Priyangee Porwal, FACE Magazine continues to look beyond conventional definitions of wellness, exploring conscious living, healing, purpose, longevity, emotional awareness and the many ways people are redefining what it means to live meaningfully.
From Bali to the world, FACE Wellness continues its journey—one conversation, one experience and one deeper question at a time.
Because perhaps the greatest measure of wellness is not simply how long we live, but how fully we experience the life we have been given.
To know more visit: https://solanabali.com/
