At BrilliantRead Media, we always strive to bring some of the unique and powerful stories from India and around the world to empower and motivate our growing community. This week we invited Ritu Hirani for an interview with us to know more about her inspiring journey, her background and her advice for aspiring individuals. Ritu is an Entrepreneur, Leader, Coach, Mentor, Psychotherapist, Counsellor, NLP Practitioner, and Change Enabler. Let’s learn more about her background and journey so far to get inspired.
Excerpts from our exclusive interview with Ritu:
We are aware of your contribution to the ecosystem, talk us briefly through your background and your journey as a women entrepreneur, please;
When I was a child I went through a traumatic experience that affected my mental health so badly that it manifested physically.
I was having seizures every 3-4 years whenever my mental state deteriorated, I couldn’t even ask my parents for help because I had no way of explaining my problems to them.”
I was constantly looking for people outside my family to talk to and confide in. My craving for a stranger to confide in sparked something in me to help people the way I wanted to be helped but I had no knowledge of how to get what I was looking for or what it even was.
My consistent seizures meant that I was under heavy medication which caused my health to worsen, I developed osteoporosis as a side effect of my treatment. The osteoporosis made everyday activities extremely painful, but somehow through the pain, it became clear that I need to pursue my passion for helping people. The pain motivated me not to take my life for granted and not let anything stand in my way.
My breakthrough came when I fractured my leg and couldn’t move for a month and a half, that’s when I decided that I wouldn’t listen to the screams of my body or the worries of my family and set out to make my dreams a reality. I took course after course, ranging from student counselling to cognitive behavioural therapy and a variety of coaching certifications.
Following my dreams in spite of the pain made me feel alive, it gave me a reason to keep going, it allowed me to overcome my depression and anxiety because I finally felt like I wasn’t a slave to my pain. In fact, the worse the pain got, the more committed I became to accomplish what I had set out to do. Alright, let me share the timeline of key events and how they shaped my life journey.
So it started in 1999 when I had a major traumatic experience. It led to depression and subsequently epilepsy, forcing me to start taking anti-epileptic drugs.
In 2007, I started dating Chetan Hirani and started to feel better as he comforted me, made me feel good and helped me live life fully. and in 2012 I got married to Chetan after dating for 5 years, but we had relationship issues as I wasn’t healed completely from my past trauma.
Somewhere around 2013, I fell into depression again as my physical issues started creeping up, making me feel helpless which led to relationship and family issues, and feeling suicidal.
2014 is when I sought the professional help of a counsellor who helped me immensely, changed my life and transformed me completely into an emotionally and mentally stronger and more resilient me. I transformed as a person and started working toward my dreams, in spite of my health issues showing up one after another, and completed my first counselling course.
In 2016 I stumbled upon another health problem and had to undergo open shoulder surgery and was later diagnosed with osteoporosis. The doctor called me a walking eggshell.
I took this as another opportunity and in 2017 decided to do a diploma course in Psychotherapy. I started my training at Sathy Sai Super Speciality hospital while recovering from a spinal cord fracture.”
It was in 2019, I founded Shine Space and started taking on clients one on one. I began my training in Positive Psychology Life coaching which was an international certification and ICF approved. To add to my skills and expertise, I took up the NLP master practitioner and emotional resilience coach course in 2020 so I could help my clients better with better skills, tools and techniques.
Branded me as a life coach and started working with aligned 1:1 clients and levelled up as I believe in a growth mindset and dreaming big. Now, excited to get to know you & thank you for following my journey. A book of my journey so far is in progress.
What made you passionate about ‘Coaching’?
I started my training firstly with Student Counselling and positive psychology and trained further to become a Cognitive Behavioural Therapy Practitioner.
As a Psychotherapist, I started practising spiritual therapy because I’m a very spiritual person and I am aware of how our beliefs can hold us back.
I also dedicated time to learning and practicing Relationship Therapy and Coaching as the relationships we have are our support system and they can sometimes be the cause of stress and anxiety.”
After receiving my Counsellor certification from Sathya Sai Super Speciality Hospital, I went on to become an Emotional resilience and Anxiety Rebalance coach. I also completed my training to become an ICF certified and approved Positive Psychology life coach.
How do you manage to keep going despite the challenges? What drives you?
I am really desperate to see more and more transformations, to add value to more and more lives thats something which drives me and keeps me going. I believe until whatever time I am alive and I am in a good state I need to work towards my purpose.”
It’s my passion and purpose to build better lives and help people HEAL, GROW AND EVOLVE! Because I know at some point even I had been through that state of depression and all of those low times and how I dealt with it.
I don’t want to see any other person going through it, at least to whom I ever I can reach out to, so my goal is to reach out to more and more people and help them.
Who do you believe has been the biggest source of motivation in your daily life?
Pursuing my passion made me grateful for each day and greatly improved my health, even doctors were surprised when they saw my drastic improvement. My husband was amazingly supportive of my dreams especially after he saw the way my health was improving.
The progress I made mentally and physically helped me support him better and it encouraged him to follow his dreams too. The people I love benefitting from me pursuing my dreams proved to me that I was on the right path and filled me with immense joy.”
The experiences of my life have enabled me to connect and relate to my clients in a way that is truly helpful. They have given me the confidence to be myself and the drive to help people that are going through experiences like the ones I’ve been through.
What are some of the strategies that you believe has helped you grow as a person?
So my number one strategy is which came from my dad. He always advised me to never fear and to always dream big!
Also, it has to be realistic and doesn’t stop with dreaming only, you need to have an action plan. You also have to constantly work on your limiting beliefs and overcome them as soon as possible. This is where you need some mentors and coaches to support and guide you because it’s not possible to do all of this alone. Coaches help you work on these limiting beliefs.
I believe without overcoming limiting beliefs you cannot grow, and for that, you need a Guru, you need a coach, someone you can trust, someone who is working on you, fortunately, I had the right personal coaches for me who worked on me and that’s how I could do what I am doing today. That’s only because I gave myself and my coach that chance to work on myself.
Yes! everybody needs to understand this and this is the basic strategy which helped me grow as a person so yes coaches and mentors helped me a lot.”
You are always positive and motivated, what keeps you going?
There was a time when I had no motivation in my life, my life seemed empty and unsatisfying. I had no idea how to get what I wanted from my life and the troubles in my life made it seem impossible.
But life has a funny way of giving you the burdens you need, the pain I was feeling pushed me to better myself and pursue my passion of helping you.
Every lesson and revelation that my pain gave me I wanted to share with you, to help you become the best possible version of yourself.
In your opinion what are the keys to success?
Well according to me I believe in one key to success. There are many though, you can say dedication, determination and so many but there is one thing I want people to know, and that is, you need to have the right intent.
You got to have that right intent towards your work about what you’re giving through your work, may it be any sector you working in. It is the intent of serving people, helping people through whatever you are doing that really matters.”
Whatever you are inventing, through whatever you’re selling, through what you are serving, your intent got to be pure in genuine which will help you go a long way can achieve great things in life and good positions in life.
That’s something I believe in very deeply and that’s my number one key to success. Unless you have that and you are only into it for monetary gains then it will not help you in the long run.
Right intent will help you do more and will help you deliver quality products and quality service! All in all, you can lead a meaningful and purposeful life when you have good intentions.
What advice would you give students and young professionals who want to have a successful career?
My advice to all the young professionals and students would be – to hire a personal coach and try to give yourself a chance to be helped and trust me you’ll do great in life.
So at any point in life, you are feeling stuck then yes you need help so seek help! It’s okay to seek help, we are all humans and as humans, we are all interdependent beings and we all need each other’s support so, yes! you need to give yourself that chance to be helped.
That’s because, to help other’s, you need to overcome your fears and limiting beliefs first.
BrilliantRead is committed to bringing stories from the startup ecosystem, stories that reshape our perspective, add value to our community and be a constant source of motivation not just for our community but also for the whole ecosystem of entrepreneurs and aspiring individuals.
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