Well, I sometimes ask that myself, and I took it as a privilege, honour – and a big step to overcome my own fears – by having been asked to be a first Member Profile for FEW (For Empowering Women) and to answer some questions about “How I got here”. “FEW in Japan is an exceptionally active and ever-growing Tokyo-based non-profit business and social networking organization whose mission is to “enable internationally-minded women in Japan to achieve their full professional and personal potential” and I attended their meetings frequently since we moved to Tokyo.
As you may have noticed about myself – moving around, creating a home in new places and reaching out to new people is what drives me. Whereas I always considered myself as a person on the more shy-side all the moving around definitely forced me to reach out at times, and not to always wait. It let me grow, made me stronger and experience a lot. And looking back; starting with Yoga, studies, trainings and especially meeting, talking and listening to like minded people, got me more and more onto the path of wanting to reach out, help and support others to feel better – and yes to be simply “at ease”.
Teaching Yoga in small groups and later creating this blog were my first steps. But since longer now I toyed with the idea to really reach out, not only via a blog, but to support people, especially expatriate and repatriates, who struggle. Having the experience of moving around and repatriate (for a while), moving alone, with a partner and as a family and to various countries, meeting people with all sorts of backgrounds lets me relate and understand quite a few of the issues they may face. So, by being asked to be the first member profile I decided to be brave to take the chance, to put myself out there.
So here I am – how I got here – reaching out and starting to help others, may it be via my blog or in person in Tokyo. Let the journey of at ease take a new step.
http://fewjapan.com/how-i-got-here-ann-katrin-van-schie/
I am ready, yet anxious, for my new endeavours!
Are you ready to start yours? Then let`s do it together, no excuses, no holding back anymore!
Love,
AK