As a part of Antarlakshya team, we have been privileged to touch and transform various lives in whatever small way possible. We bring to you a series of inspirational stories of our students which inspire us to look forward to each day at Antarlakshya, keep us motivated and energized. Hope you all like reading the below story and it inspires you to look deeper within.
(Please note names of students and certain details have been changed for confidentiality purpose)
Arundhati had always been a quiet, sincere and obedient girl since childhood. She had immense love and respect for her parents and would always listen to them. Her parents had a dream that their daughter should be a successful doctor when she grows up. Arundhati being the obedient girl accepted their decision without questioning them. She did not really have the necessary clarity on what she wanted; a very common phenomenon with students in the 15-18 age group.
The entire family moved to USA post completion of her schooling. Studying medicine in USA requires a lot of investment of time and money. Arundhati’s family had to take a lot of educational loans for her studies. Arundhati had always been a bright student and could manage the studies. In fact she liked studying what the medical curriculum was offering her academically. Her GPA’s were great and reflected the hard work she was putting in.
As time passed by, her medical program started to become more and more intense. Her practical training began. That’s when she started realizing that something had changed. She was not comfortable dealing with blood. The erratic schedules were taking a toll on her mental and physical health. On one hand she did like what she was studying. On the other hand, however, the practical aspects of being and working as a full time doctor gave her nightmares. Months passed by and her training grew more intense. With each passing day, the feeling of being a misfit on this career path grew deeper and stronger leading to a lot of confusion and frustration.
Almost 3/4th of her program was over. She was in her late twenty’s and had already invested plenty of money & time for this career path. In addition, the expectations of parents & relatives had made it even more complicated. The very thought of backing out seemed impossible. Though she was realizing now that becoming a full time doctor was not what she wanted, she did not know what to pursue instead. Her future seemed bleak and uncertain. The negativity was also affecting her ability to think clearly in this situation. She was thoroughly confused & was hating what she did every single day.
When Arundhati came to know about Antarlakshya and the Career Clarity and Self re-discovery program that we offered, she hesitantly approached us. All Arundhati needed was someone to guide her through the unending maze of complicated thoughts & emotions she was experiencing. This negativity was blocking her from finding out what really matters to her. After a few initial sessions, she started opening up and gaining confidence that there would be a positive way out of this current situation she was in.
We helped her introspect, understand the patterns in her thoughts and emotions. Arundhati slowly started listening to and understanding her deeper self, something she had always avoided fearing the consequences. The guided meditative practices helped her slowly clear up the mental and emotional clutter and pay attention to the finer aspects of what she really wanted in her life. She slowly started getting a glimpse of what lied beyond the clouds, what really mattered to her more than anything else in this stage of her life.
We worked with Arundhati over a period of 3 months. Arundhati eventually figured out that she had always been passionate about diet, nutrition & cooking however never could find a mental space to think about pursuing this as an option. That was our fist major victory. We also helped her introspect and realize the skills she had unconsciously accumulated over so many years. Skills that were very unique to her and could help her excel and become unique in her new career. Her academic knowledge about the human anatomy and finer workings of the human body was like an asset to her in her newly chosen domain. This change in perspective helped her become more confident about herself. Once she was sure that she would want to make a career in the nutrition domain, we helped her conduct a proper research on the schools, programs, job/internship opportunities in her new path. The money she would be spending on completing on her medicinal program would be equivalent to the amount she would be spending on enrolling and completing her degree in diet and nutrition. Things looked brighter for her.
Now, the only big question remaining was how would Arundhati talk to her parents especially her dad about the major step in her career she was about to take. We chalked out a detailed working with her, which had the pros and cons of both the options of continuing and switching her current career path. Arundhati finally mustered the courage to speak to her parents and tell them about her inner conflict, how unhappy she was on her current career path and how the nutrition/diet career path was something she felt absolutely passionate about . She had wanted to have this conversation for almost a year now. Finding out what singularly matters to her the most gave her the courage to take this bold decision. She felt liberated! After a lot of persuasion, her parents did somewhat understand their daughter’s true passion.
Fast forward to now; Arundhati has completed all the prerequisites to start her new program. She is currently studying for her new program and is also interning in the nutrition domain to gain some practical experience. She is much happier about her choice now. She is thoroughly enjoying her new journey as now she is pursuing something that mattered to her deep within.
This was Arundhati’s story of self re-discovery and transformation which required immense efforts, patience and courage on her part. Hope you all liked the story and it has inspired you to look deeper within:)
To know more about our program, please visit https://www.antarlakshya.com/ccsd-landing