Shia Surani

Empowering Yourself

We all have moments in our lives where we feel uncertain about ourselves, Self-doubt and are simply unable to recognize our abilities and our Self-worth. It is natural to experience this at some point in our lives. It is a part of our lives. Just like we have our best days where we feel as if we are on cloud-9, we equally have our bad days which is completely okay but the disclaimer is that those feelings are not everything, they do not define you. I am 21 now and over the past 10 years of my life, I have had lots of circumstances and situations where sometimes I felt like giving up on life. I come from a society where Mental Health is not prioritised. We have a notion to not talk about it with our families. People assume you are simply sick and will be okay in two days. There were no resources or support around me. Sometimes, not even have people or mentors to who I could even talk. I moved to Canada five years ago leaving my family, and friends behind in my home country. One of the biggest reasons, I moved was to explore myself, and allow myself to truly experience life and for personal growth. It wasn’t a decision that I took at the dinner table but after giving it immense thought, and lots of brainstorming & planning. It was not easy to simply switch your lifestyle to a country you have never been to before. Finding and living in an apartment alone at this young age was not easy but it was a worthly experience. If I hadn’t taken that decision then I might be not writing this article. The following piece of writing is tips and strategies that I discovered along the way and had an impact on my life. It’s more of like lessons I wish I knew when I was younger. By the end of this article you will be able to cultivate a positive self-image that will empower you to take on the world with confidence.