On Starting Anew & Challenging Myself

Am writing this post to remind myself that I actually started doing something for the betterment of my life after going through a long dark period. 

Some of you might have been wondering where I have gone for the past year. I rarely appeared online. I stopped updating my previous blog (and eventually closed the blog down) and Instagram. Basically, I left my virtual life hanging. I received a few comments and DMs from other bloggers asking about my whereabouts which I unintentionally ignored. Sorry for that and thank you so much for showing that you care :)

Honestly, I did not go anywhere. I was exactly in my place but in the dark corner of it. I was struggling emotionally and mentally due to the changes that happened in my life. I am not ready to go into the details yet but the essence of the dark feelings revolved mainly around my failure to get a decent job in Malaysia and the struggle to readapt myself with Malaysia.

I knew how dangerous those feelings were, so I decided to come back to Canada despite getting resistance from my family, initially. It might not be the best decision as I might experience those feelings again in the future but at least, this decision that I made provided me with some temporary comfort while I am looking for another permanent solution.

When I decided to come back to Canada, I told myself that I would not allow myself to feel that way again. As such, I have decided to take on a few new challenges to give my life a new life and to celebrate the new start. Some of the challenges that I decided to embrace are; 

• to revisit my hafazan
• to lose weight
• to learn how to use chopsticks
• to do something that I am uncomfortable doing 
• to learn how to read Hangul
• to gain new sets of skills and knowledge
• to read more English books

just to name a few. These challenges might seem small to other people but they are really big for me. These are things that I put a hold on from doing for years just because I'm afraid of failure and to step out of my comfort zone or I don't feel like doing it or I'm just plain lazy. 

The progress in embracing these challenges has been somewhat encouraging. I know I can do better but I like to remind myself that it is okay not to rush things and it is okay if I have hiccups along the way. Some of the progress that I have made;

• My hafazan is slowly coming back to me
• I have lost nearly 6 kg - I think altitude played a big role here. haha!
• I can somewhat use chopsticks now. I can even use Korean chopsticks to eat banchan.
• I am currently working in a position where I need to do all sorts of stuff that I am not comfortable doing.
• I finally have memorized all the Hangul characters! :D

I guess, cheers to the new start and challenges? :)

p.s: Would appreciate a prayer from you. May Allah ease everything for us. Insya Allah :)