How Human Momentum’s Human Beings Club empowered Ukrainian Student, Dana, increase her self-confidence and self-belief by more than 60%.
Dana’s story
My name is Dana, and I am a university student at Sussex University. I left Ukraine in 2022 and came to the UK. As you can imagine, leaving my home and arriving in a new country where I knew no one was pretty unsettling. When I arrived in the UK I was in low spirits. I had deep doubts about my ability to succeed academically and I didn’t believe I would be able to make friends in a strange country. I didn’t realise at the time that I was probably quite depressed.
Becoming a member of the Human Beings Club
I was recommended to talk to Ashley by a friend and as we talked, he showed me that I might not have a mental health problem. Instead, the cause of my unhappiness might lie in my lifestyle and how I was thinking about things. He suggested that I join him and some other young people on a Human Beings Club ski trip to Sol in Austria. I can’t describe how much somebody caring about me and a change of environment lifted my spirits. I recollect saying “I can’t remember being as happy as this since I was 12 years old”.
It felt amazing to suddenly have a new friendship group all of whom were interested in supporting me in my ambitions as I was keen to support them in achieving their goals in life. I now understand more about how satisfying it is to be ‘a good human being’ and I’m really enjoying my development in this direction.
Optimising my own performance
Ashley offered me a sponsored place on the ‘Optimising Your Own Performance’ programme. I felt lucky. I’m now most of the way through the programme and have already found that my confidence and self-esteem has gone up by 60%. I have learnt that I am capable making good contact with new people and have a far deeper understanding about the kind of people with whom I want to build friendships.
I joined in with other HBC activities like kayaking and tennis. I preferred the kayaking to the tennis. The kayaking showed me that even though I sometimes am fearful of the unknown it’s likely that there are really there’s not really any need for most of my fears. This is helping my confidence more than I can say.
Perhaps what I value most is the consistent care that I get from Ashley with whom I often have one-to-one coaching sessions whenever I have doubts about what’s going on. The conversations we have are so honest and that honesty really helps me be clear about the actions that I can take to improve my own quality of life.
My newfound confidence and a new sense of freedom.
It’s also been so helpful to realise that I have underestimated my ability at university. Although I had so much reassurance that I am an intelligent and capable person, I wouldn’t believe it, and then I got some amazing results. This helped me realise that I have underestimated myself. My newfound confidence is very much helping me take on new projects such as putting together an exhibition and travelling to China on Summer programme.
Overall being involved with Human Momentum has helped me learn how to stand my ground and I have a greater sense of personal freedom.
You can probably imagine how much this experience has improved my day-to-day experience, as well as my self-belief to achieve my potential in the future.
If you or someone you know would benefit from increased happiness and self-belief please get in touch: info@achieving-momentum.com www.achieving-momentum.com/for-individuals/
