Manoj Dias: A New Way To Be Well

For the New York-based founder of wellbeing platform Open, Manoj Dias, living well is all about building good foundations.

“Start as you mean to go on” is an expression that idles regularly in the pages of self-help books and Instagram captions. For Manoj Dias, a meditation teacher, author and the co-founder of wellness app Open, it’s more akin to an everyday pursuit. The first few hours of his day are a ritual that he protects resolutely: “If I reach for my phone as soon as I wake up, I’ve already lost control.”

Rather than doom scrolling his way into the morning, Manoj drinks a glass of hot water before 30 minutes of meditation. He elevates his heart rate – be it a gym workout, yoga or a walk outside – and only then the day begins. In the same way a musician tunes their instrument before a concert, the ritual is maintenance. Manoj’s method for staying whole.

It hasn’t always been this way. Born in Sri Lanka and raised in Australia, Manoj spent a decade working in Melbourne’s frenetic marketing and finance industry. He navigated bouts of anxiety, chronic insomnia and an eating disorder before finally taking an 18-month leave of absence from his job. It was a meditation class that shifted the axis and slowly, practice replaced panic. “I just fell into it because I was trying to make sense of my own suffering at that time,” Manoj shares. He co-founded A–SPACE, Australia’s first multidisciplinary meditation studio, before turning his attention to the digital world. Open, a wellbeing platform built for the 21st century that blends ancient wisdom with sensory technology, launched in 2020.

Headquartered in California with a growing global presence, Open isn’t your typical mindfulness app. It doesn’t send push
notifications that shame you for not meditating. It doesn’t privilege silence over music, or stillness over movement. It’s a multi-sensory experience: breath work, yoga and guided meditations set to original soundscapes, all designed to ground you in the present through the body. 


Manoj recently relocated to Brooklyn, leaving behind the sprawl and sun-glare of Los Angeles. It’s not the first time he’s made a
geographic pivot – he’s split time between the U.S. and Australia for years. This movement, like his practice, is about living with dualities: discipline and softness; technology and physicality; solo ritual and collective space. “There’s this space I tend to dance between, which is also reflective of my own life and my own practice. In many ways I’m agnostic, but I’m also a practicing
Buddhist, and I hold space for what I don't know.”

Manoj studied at the Nalanda Institute of Contemplative Science in New York and has trained under esteemed teachers, including
Channa Dassanayaka and psychotherapist Dr. Miles Neale. His approach combines Buddhist philosophy, modern psychology and trauma-informed practice. “We wanted Open to feel sacred,” he explains. “Like a church or a studio that evokes awe. Not just another app with a white background.”

Open offers three core class types: Meditate, Move and Breathe. Each integrates breath work, sound and intentional design to create a full-body experience of presence. It’s not about zoning out, it’s about tuning in.

Manoj is unsparing about the contradictions of building a wellness brand in a digital world that trades on the attention economy. “The ultimate goal would be people using Open less.” It sounds counterintuitive, but the aim isn’t dependency, it’s capacity. Manoj’s hope is that people learn how to access their own states of calm, connection and compassion (with or without guidance).


He speaks often of duality but also of intentionality – an approach that bleeds into his personal aesthetic. “I try to wear things [or] create spaces that just feel authentic to me.” Inside his Brooklyn apartment, that translates to a palette of chrome, browns and creams, minimal clutter and objects that feel tactile and true. “If I have too much clutter, then I get stressed out.”

Style-wise, he favours simple fabrics, avoids synthetics and finds balance between polish and grit. “I grew up on the streets of Melbourne, so there’s always an Air Jordan here or there ... something that feels a little bit gritty.” His wife, who is French, jokingly calls his look “Paris meets Berlin.”


When the subject of happiness is raised, Manoj recalls a conversation he had a number of years ago at a Business of Fashion conference. Varun Soni – the Dean of Religious Studies at the University of Southern California, and a speaker at the event – told Manoj about the Harvard Study of Adult Development, established in 1938. The long-running study’s current findings indicate that the biggest predictor of a good life is quality relationships. “That stuck with me. And it’s true. It’s not your job, your house or your car. It’s people.”


It’s why Open is both digital and physical – a studio and a stream. It also explains why his teachings focus not just on presence, but on presence with others. Manoj wants people to experience meditation not as a lonely pursuit, but a collective one.

Featuring DAN MCMAHON
Written by VICTORIA PEARSON
Photographed by HUGH DAVISON