Hi, I’m Rain Diah and I live in the suburbs near Toronto.
I’m currently working as a Financial Analyst. And I also volunteer in a variety of mental health organization typically during the weekends.
The hardest thing I had to do or overcome in 2014 was…
One of the hardest things I had to do was to leave my comfortable job of 7 years to switch career and do something I felt deep connection towards.
I left my job in early 2014 to pursue my passion in a field that I felt like I have lot to contribute towards and become an advocate for. Unfortunately, it wasn’t the right timing for me to have left my full time job in Financial Services. I volunteered and engaged in other related activities trying to do odd jobs on a part time basis. I greatly underestimated all the benefits I had working for large multinational company and the comfort it had offered for me and my family. I finally had to decide to go back to Financial Services and currently working as a contractor for a reputable organization.
There are times you go through life with nothing happening, same thing day in and day out. For me end of 2013 to 2014 was year of constant change at a personal and professional level. Everyday something was happening, almost too fast and didn’t give me enough time to catch my breath to reflect upon what was happening. I felt like I was caught up in tsunami of life (I can write a book on all the things that happened, to keep it short, I will focus on career challenge).
It definitely made me appreciate what I had going for me prior to, even though it wasn’t really my passion in terms of the line of work. I worked in fast food places to variety of small businesses on a part time basis prior to deciding to go back to full time employment to lessen the burden I had placed upon my family.
What this taught me about myself was…
It taught me that I can’t work everywhere and anywhere and that I do have preference in terms of the type of environment and work culture I want to be part of. I can be the jack of all trades and the master of none and learning to wear polar opposite hats: weekday’s corporate junkie and weekend’s social services worker is challenging but can be accomplished. I learn that I’m not a home body, I can’t stay home for long period, I need to be out there and contribute to society in one way or another.
In addition, being able to juggle priorities drives you and makes you far more productive than you would otherwise be. Now, I look at that 6 months period when I was in between jobs as a sabbatical leave, I got to really connect with my inner self, I learn to meditate and read a lot about spirituality which kept my faith strong and hopes high.
I’m a big self-help junkie; Robin Sharma is one of those people that you can read up on for daily inspiration. His philosophy is based up on spiritual gurus teaching form the East, essentially driven from the Geeta. He takes the teaching and makes it applicable to daily living, which is why he’s such an influential figure to many.
I was surprised to discover how resilient I’m to things that happen in my life. I strongly believe that the universe has a way of delivering things in your life as long as you keep your mind positive and focus clear, the opportunities will present itself to you. In other words, “Your thoughts have the power to transform and transcend your reality.”
All in all I have reached the conclusion that no matter what life throws at me, I will keep going and make the best of my situations.
Some accomplishments from 2014 that I’m happy about
The highlight for 2014 for me is a lot of person growth, more so than professional growth. Here is the breakdown.
1) Learn to practice meditation – Helped to ground me and keep balance when I feel like I’m leaning toward either the right or left channel. We get anxious when we fear the future “unknown” and we become depressed when we are filled with regrets and self-pity or simply stuck in the past. Meditation is a great tool to keep you in the present and help to accept the discomfort one can get from dealing with uncertainty. It helps to bring in state of joy or bliss by reducing negative feelings; one can truly feel like they are part and parcel of the whole universe.
2) Spirituality – For me it went hand in hand with meditation, help to deepen the connection with the universe, reading influential books like “Autobiography of the Soul”, which really reiterate and help me, understand my deep seeded beliefs and my perception of life on earth. Becoming more spiritual helped to reduce my consumption of meat from 7 days a week to 1 day a week, now that’s a bonus I didn’t expect!
3) Forgiveness – Practicing forgiveness comes from becoming more one with your soul and realizing that once you stop breathing, all of the things that are material and non-material you are attached to become meaningless. Now, I know that it’s not simple to keep this truth in our minds on a daily basis. Nevertheless, forgiveness is important in order to keep the mind filled with positive thoughts. When someone offends us or when we feel we are treated unfairly, our human instinct wants to retaliate, this becomes a vicious cycle and destroys relationships and creates suffering for all involved. However, if you start to practice forgiveness, even if you feel offended and those that offended you don’t apologize, it doesn’t matter because you forgive them anyway. You harbor no ill feelings in your heart and the next time you see them, you are genuinely interacting with that person, increasing the chance of changing that relationship to more positive one. Albeit, this is not walk in the park, but it is worth striving for. As an added bonus, you get peace of mind!
4) Gratitude – This is something new I picked up this year as well; I have lived the last few decades of my life from a perception of lack, the proverbial glass half empty concept. It was easy for me to discredit all the things that were just right for my life. I learn to develop a mentality of gratefulness for all the people in my life, my family, friends, acquaintance, colleagues etc. The world is a beautiful place filled with people who have kind hearts willing to offer you assistance anyway they can. Whenever I felt fragmented I always had my husband who loved me unconditionally and helped to make me whole again, my brother who was my logic, my little girl to provide source of inspiration and acquaintances who were seemingly there for just enough time to give guidance or shed new light and broaden the horizon.
All of this has helped me tremendously in working with people who are at risk and or are most vulnerable in our society. Through my volunteering at mental health organizations and my own personal experiences, I can put myself in their shoes and can empathize with people living with mental health issues. I can put myself in the shoes of those who are isolated from society in general, I can be a little less judgmental and a bit more accepting. This sounds simple enough and it is. Practice it and the comfort you will provide to those people you meet is immeasurable.
My work helped me to develop my skills in LISTENING and talk therapy and understand how to empower and assist in the healing process of those who feel stuck or are immobilized by circumstances in their life.
My intention for 2015 is…
I hope to continue to strive for further self-development and use the skills I have developed to help achieve a concrete professional goal this year. I want to be able to contribute to blogs, especially blogs related to mental health, spirituality, healing, etc. I’m keeping my fingers crossed to become a mental health advocate for a well-known organization.
I’m also hoping to become self-employed in financial services as an advisor by the end of this year. I know the common sense notion is to strive towards one career, due to number of reasons; I may have to juggle two different vocations simultaneously, (I’m positive I’m not the only one in these shoes,) which will be a challenging yet rewarding endeavor.
Lastly, like all of us, I will continue to strive for balance in my life, balance between family and career, work and play.
I hope to have the 3 ‘E’s (Energy, Enthusiasm, Empathy) and 3 F’s (Family, Friends and lots of Faith).
If you are feeling down at this time of year, my tip is…
If you are feeling a little bit defeated, a little bit blue, a little bit of ‘what’s the point,’ don’t despair. Re-charge, get in connection with your spirit, make a list of all the positive things and keep it in perspective, don’t look at it as a problem, but a challenge, and this will help foster mentality to muster up the courage you too can make the necessary changes to attain whatever goals you set for yourself.
Finally I would like to leave you with my favorite quote that continues to empower me when I feel uncertain about anything in life.
“What lies before you and what lies ahead of you are tiny matters compared to what lies within you.”
This year I’m hoping to be a Woman of ACTION!
Connect with Rain:
On her site: www.
By email: Click to email
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