Sruti Kanabar is a distinguished Life and Small Business Coach. During her journey with Depression and Anxiety, she has found her purpose in helping clients accept that they are good enough to live the life and build the business they want. She transforms clients by increasing their shame resilience, helping them heal from minor and major traumas from the past, and connecting to a great purpose in life. When setbacks, obstacles, and failures come, they are seen as a beautiful part of the journey than being internalized. She empowers clients through wisdom and knowledge nuggets from multiple faiths and disciplines to get the right solution to their challenges in life.
Sruti Kanabar, Life And Small Business Coach
Introduce yourself! Please tell us about you and your life, so we can get to know you better.
Hi My name is Sruti Kanabar. I am 37 years old and I found my purpose as a coach after I experienced the lowest phase of my life when I was 28 years old and decided to embark on a journey of healing, discovery and wanting to feel enough again.
At that time I felt so broken, hurt by the world and harshly judged by myself. I had spent a couple of years building up to this moment focusing on perfecting how I looked on the outside, getting my masters degree, pursuing well known happiness and success though my internal world was full of shame and self blame. I constantly believed I wasn’t good enough and grappled with the fear of the unknown.
The latter led me to want to control the uncontrollable and I did that by negative what ‘iffing’ a lot in my head. You know the spin that you create when you're overthinking and over analyzing every detail to prevent you from feeling any pain, disappointment or rejection ever again. You become so busy chasing your own tail that you stop being productive and living in the present moment.
The moment where life is and you can do everything to create the life that you want to live.
I was unaware that this was my brain’s way of dealing with past, unhealed trauma which I had band aided rather than taking care of the pain and transforming it into a beautiful scar. We easily relate a gash to our head as a traumatic experience yet refrain from using the same terminology when we have had life experiences which have left our inner world battered and bruised.
I’m so grateful that I am contributing towards a trauma informed community within social media and the workplace.
Tell us about a pivotal moment in your life that brought you to where you are today.
A pivotal moment in my life was when I finally went to see the Doctor after delaying getting help for a good year for the struggles around my mental and emotional health.
The Doctor we normally go to as a family was not working that day so I had to see a new Doctor and I’m really grateful that I saw him as he had a more new age and holistic approach to wellbeing.
For someone who had internalised everything for a very long time, I circled around what was going on for a bit whilst I mustered the courage to talk about ‘my’ suffering.
I remember being given a survey where you look at a list of symptoms and their frequency to see if you have Depression and Anxiety. I took the survey back home and arranged another appointment later that week. When I went back to the second appointment and we started talking about the next steps, I remember having an ah ha moment which was I am not what I am experiencing at the moment and I need to start an integral journey of unlearning and learning to discover the true me.
This ah ha moment was translated into me telling the Doctor:
‘I’ve done the survey though I am not going to hand it in with defeat’.
I knew this wasn't the true me though I didn't know where to start and that’s what we talked about. We unpacked the options of counselling, making adjustments at work and what that would entail.
I remember I was suffering from very intense panic attacks at that time, my mind didn't have a moment of silence, I hadn’t slept well for 3 weeks and I looked the most frail and malnourished so these steps seemed very daunting indeed.
What did help me take action was the seed of belief that there would be light at the end of the tunnel. I now refer to this as walking by faith though at that time it felt like a fragile, invisible and intuitive promise which my mind couldn't fathom nor repel.
What is your business name and how do you help your clients?
My business name is Purposefully Coaching and I help my clients embrace vulnerability as their superpower so they can:
Heal from depression and anxiety and connect to a purpose in their life.
Overcome stress and overwhelm and take purposeful action towards creating their best life, business and leadership game.
Live a life from a place of Care mode, their core values and guiding principles so they show up each day and have the impact and success they truly deserve.
Tell us about your greatest career achievement so far.
So last year I offered some coaching sessions to my colleagues within my corporate role and the below is a testimonial from one of them which made me feel like woah I am having a great impact in my clients lives now:
“Having had my struggles with my mental health in the past, I have had many CBT sessions with multiple professional therapists and I can honestly say Sruti's methods are just as effective, if not even better than what I have experienced with other therapists previously.
Sruti is so patient and understanding and has such a soothing voice and gives off a really calming aura.
She always has a smile on her face and is always happy to allow others to add their input and share their thoughts and feelings during her sessions.
She is a great teacher, a great listener and most importantly a great person. I can always rely on her to brighten up my stressful days at work and put all my negative thoughts into perspective!
She has such a lovely personality and I am proud to know such an incredible person.“
What are your current goals for your business?
My vision for 2022 is to create a full-time coaching practice by the end of the year, become one of the top 10 coaches under 40, write my first book and have monthly speaking engagements to spread my insights about well being, coaching and leadership.
