Monica Kalra
Monica Kalra, a Divorce & Relationship Confidence Coach is passionate about empowering women for successful relationships. She is a speaker, an author, and an experienced and qualified Divorce and Relationship Confidence Coach with her own inspirational story of taking back her personal power and rebuilding her confidence and life. She coaches women to rise out of victimhood as relationship warriors, owning their power and healing from generational relationship patterns. She expertly guides them as they navigate stigmas, learn to set positive boundaries, rebuild their confidence, reclaim their inner power, and nurture thriving, healthy relationships.
Get in touch with her:
Website: www.monicakalracoaching.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/monicakalracoaching/
Facebook Group: https://bit.ly/3FMaN8Y
What were your initial years of growing up like? Tell us about your life before starting your corporate journey/venture/initiative.
Like many Indian women, I had an arranged marriage.
However, I found myself immensely lonely, helpless, and frustrated in my marriage for the next 21 years.
During this time, we also migrated to Australia. I tried really hard to balance my marriage and the pressures of being in a new country. After struggling for years in my marriage, I eventually applied for a divorce. This decision meant challenging my cultural values, bringing disgrace to the family honour, breathing, and living with the stigma attached to being a divorced woman.
The journey was tumultuous and yet so rewarding.
I am heavily invested in understanding myself and grateful to everyone in my life for helping me find my life purpose. Having healed, I became an accredited and experienced Divorce and Relationship Coach. Through my coaching and speaking business, Monica Kalra Coaching, I am, now, on a mission to empower women for successful relationships.
Every industry that is now a large-scale, top-notch business once started as a small idea in the minds of entrepreneurs. What was that idea or motivation that made you start your business /initiative? What motivated you within to say YES, go for it!”
My divorce led me to look deep and hard at myself, at why my marriage became dysfunctional despite my claims to be an ideal wife. This led me to study relationship skills and qualify as a relationship coach.
I realised that my desire to be submissive and sacrificing myself for others led me to ignore my own needs. I also realised how I put myself last on the ladder to make sure that I had pleased everyone around me. This is ingrained in Indian culture right from birth. Over a decade I worked on healing, on being compassionate with myself to develop a greater love for myself. I learned that it was okay to put my needs first and also to set boundaries with others.
I now know how important it is for women like myself to tap into their inner strength and regain control over their lives. That includes our emotions and relationships. It is possible to rebuild our confidence, take back our power and thrive in loving relationships after toxic or abusive ones.
Every time one of my clients tells me they have started a new healthy relationship after completing my coaching program and growing to a place of healing, I am even more motivated to keep serving women in this way. Of course, not every client wants a new relationship. But, what’s important for all the women I work with is growing confident about being the author of their own life and happiness, and making their own choices about this.
Tell us something about your initiative or current role. What is it about, and what impact are you trying to make?
I feel very passionately about empowering women for successful relationships, especially so in our cultures where emotional abuse is so normalised. I feel women are the souls of a family and have a ripple effect on so many families around them. I believe it’s so crucial for us women to learn relationship skills and strategies not only for ourselves but also for our future generations. These skills will also ensure that they are safe, healthy, and thriving! Since we aren’t taught relationship skills at home or at school, it became imperative for me to take initiative through my coaching, one conversation at a time.
Your journey and your vision are very inspiring, but are there any achievements or accomplishments you would like to mention?
I have spoken on topics such as lesser-known signs of abuse, and on events like 16 Days of activism against Domestic Violence.
I have also been provided with the opportunity to conduct workshops for women on the steps they could take to empower themselves after abuse.
I am an author and recently published 2 of my books. Both these books: How Do You Know He’s The One? and How To Heal From A Toxic Relationship – Rebuild Your Confidence, Reclaim Your Power and Thrive in Future Relationships are available on Amazon as Kindle and Paperback versions.
“How Do You Know He’s The One” explores respectful love and communication in a healthy marriage or partnership. It outlines 10 behaviour traits that are red flags in a relationship, alongside healthy behaviour and communication techniques to promote in a relationship instead.
Link for the book:
https://www.amazon.com.au/How-You-Know-Hes-One/dp/B0BW2BT1WZ/
“How To Heal From A Toxic Relationship – Rebuild Your Confidence, Reclaim Your Power and Thrive in Future Relationships” is your guide to taking the first steps toward loving and forgiving the Self. It outlines 10 key skills and strategies to improve our relationship with ourselves and therefore with others.
Link for the book:
https://www.amazon.com.au/How-Heal-Toxic-Relationship-Relationships-ebook/dp/B0BXB2912B/
Would you like to share with our young budding women entrepreneurs the change you would like to see in the world if given an opportunity?
I would like to see women paying attention to and investing in understanding their relationship patterns and what it means to own your personal power. When women do this, it impacts not just their personal relationships but also how they show up in their business life. Imagine how different the world would be if we all developed a healthy relationship with ourselves first.
Women are a growing force in the workplaces worldwide, standing shoulder to shoulder with their male counterparts. There are cracks in glass ceilings everywhere, with many women breaking through to carve out a space right at the top of the pyramid. What are your thoughts about women leadership today?
One of the big pieces of work I do with women is building their self-awareness and self-compassion. These building blocks not only empower women as individuals, they also grow us as leaders because we become more aware and compassionate in our mission and work relationships. It’s not about men and women being on top of the pyramid, it is about when women in leadership have a healthy relationship with themselves they are more confident to show up in their own power and more authentically as a highly effective leader.
What would you want to say to our young women leaders/audience reading this?
It’s normal to face challenges in our personal lives no matter how successful you are in your business life. I believe in having unbiased people you can confide in or learn from such as coaches or mentors, it’s crucial for our overall health and success, both in our personal and business life.