Finding Courage to Nurture My Voice

I have started an Instagram account. I have started doing short videos of professionals, students, and myself. I have started a YouTube channel. And finally, I have started requesting my friends and followers to subscribe, re-post, and connect their friends and followers.

This is scary for me. I find it hard to put my voice out there, even though I know that what I have to say might help a student or friend get through the day a bit more productively. I am coming to terms with my innate shyness and the barriers it puts up on the path of putting my voice out there. I am learning to listen to its concerns, and then speak to it kindly, and with compassion. Every day, I am practicing a bit more discomfort tolerance, reminding myself why I want to do this work. I wish I had had a mentor like me by my side when I was 15, or 20, or 25. I wish I had had someone who was relentlessly reminding me of my worth, my value, and the validity of my dreams. I wish I had had a person telling me about HOW to do things, and then holding me accountable. I didn’t then, but I do now, both for myself, and my students and friends.

I wrote recently in my Instagram post that the amazing people I have met in the last decade of my life who have been mentors and accountability holders: I don’t know if they changed the world, but I know of one person who’s entire world they changed. Mine.

I don’t have to change the world. What I want to do is nurture the change that is happening inside of me, and nurture the growth that I see possible in each and every single one of my students. To pursue that want, I have to speak. So yes, Instagram, blog posts, YouTube channel. If I’m going to find the courage to speak, I might as well take that courage in the palm of my hands and go for it.

Yes, it’s hard. It’s scary. It’s daunting. And then again, if it weren’t any of those things, how much would I really value it in the first place? Things easily gotten are easily forgotten. Things hard earned keep their value, deep in our hearts if nowhere else.

I’m planning to do videos on my YouTube channel. If I get a 100 subscribers, I get to have a customized URL which will make it easier for me to share the links. If you have a moment, please go to my channel and subscribe. 🙂 AlkaDevika-Maya’s-Channel

Also, please follow me on Instagram: @maya.sanyal; @alka.devika.

Challenge yourself to do one small, scary task a day. Repetition builds our resilience muscles.

(Next daunting task: taxes 🤣)

Love, – Maya