Member since September 2024
Yashi Srivastava is a leadership coach, wellbeing consultant, and writer passionate about helping people grow their confidence. peace, and productivity - without critical self-talk or forced discipline.
Yashi has helped numerous clients address imposter syndrome, self-doubt, and perfectionism so that they can show up in their lives with more courage, authenticity, and confidence. Yashi’s clients often report feeling less stressed, more joyful, and more confident at work and in life.
While Yashi began her career teaching computer programming, her life-long fascination with the human mind led her to pursue a career in people development. After spending several years in the corporate world as a human resource professional, Yashi currently runs a positive psychology-based coaching and consulting business. In a career spanning 15+ years, Yashi has worked in the corporate world, academia, as well as the non-profit sector.
After having spent most of her life in India and the US, Yashi currently lives in Canada with her husband and two daughters. One of Yashi’s ongoing commitments in life is to strike an authentic balance between cherishing the joys and challenges of motherhood while using her gifts to help people thrive from the inside out.
Positive Psychology
Authenticity
Leadership
Coaching
Motherhood
Self-care
Just before my 29th birthday, I hit rock bottom.
My job was burning me out. My love life was a disaster. My health was crumbling.
Ironically, my life looked great on the outside. I was doing well in my career and was about to get promoted. I was making more than enough money. I had good friends with whom I went on fun trips. But deep down, I was miserable.
My initial reaction to my unhappiness was confusion, anger, and frustration. Why was this happening to me? I had done everything I was told I should do to live a happy, fulfilling life. Why hadn't all my accomplishments led to eternal happiness? What had I missed?
At that low point of my life, I had two things that helped me move forward: curiosity, about how I could have been SO wrong about what it means to live well, and hope about finding answers I didn't yet know.
I didn't know it then, but over the course of the next couple of years, I would completely turn my life around. And after finding my own happiness through trial and error, I would go on to learn the science of happiness from some of the pioneers in the field.
Now, over a decade later, I use the science and practice of positive psychology to help dissatisfied high-achievers figure out what they truly need to be happy in life - and how to get there.
When I was 19 years old, I had my first aha-moment that eventually got me where I am today.
At the time, I was a recent high-school graduate in a small town in India. I had failed all my engineering entrance exams, leading to intense social embarrassment and personal shame. Trying to save myself from an eternity of mediocrity and professional failure, I signed-up to learn computer programming at a local training institute.
On the first day of class, the teacher asked us to write an algorithm.
I had learned some programming in high school and was the first to hand in my submission.
The teacher looked over my work and offered some public praise.
I was a bit embarrassed but also somewhat proud. It felt good to have gotten something right.
But then, the student sitting next to me turned to me with narrowed eyes: "How did you know how to do that?" She asked.
"I...I learned programming in school." I stammered.
"Ah! That's why you could do it so quickly." She seemed happy to learn I wasn't special; I just had more practice.
Which was exactly right. What was I thinking? I shrunk a bit into my chair.
But the next thing that happened changed everything for me.
The teacher, having noticed this interaction, said: "Well, she may have learned it in school, but she remembers it. That's still impressive."
I was stunned.
Impressive?
Me??!
Up until that point in my life, I had seen myself as "average" at best. The engineering entrance exams would indicate I was below average. But the teacher provided a perspective I had never even considered before.
Could it be that I was more than I gave myself credit for?
Could I really be impressive?
At that moment, it was as if a switch flipped in my head. Almost instantly, I went from being “average” to being “impressive.” And guess what? Not only did I excel at programming during the one year program, I was invited to teach the same course during the following year. Since then, I have excelled in all my academic pursuits.
What had changed in that moment? Did I suddenly become more intellectually capable? Of course not. What had shifted was my view of myself, my belief in what I was capable of. That one remark from my teacher opened up the possibility that I could be more than I had always thought I was. I started believing that I could be impressive, that I wasn’t inherently, permanently, average.
Over the course of my life, I have had the same aha! moment several other times: inaccurate beliefs about ourselves, other people, or the world, may be driving our lives. And it has become my mission to help people address their inner barriers and tap into their inner capacities so that they can explore their true potential as a leader, a parent, and a human.
That's my life's work.
Just before my 29th birthday, I hit rock bottom.
My job was burning me out. My love life was a disaster. My health was crumbling.
Ironically, my life looked great on the outside. I was doing well in my career and was about to get promoted. I was making more than enough money. I had good friends with whom I went on fun trips. But deep down, I was miserable.
My initial reaction to my unhappiness was confusion, anger, and frustration. Why was this happening to me? I had done everything I was told I should do to live a happy, fulfilling life. Why hadn't all my accomplishments led to eternal happiness? What had I missed?
At that low point of my life, I had two things that helped me move forward: curiosity, about how I could have been SO wrong about what it means to live well, and hope about finding answers I didn't yet know.
I didn't know it then, but over the course of the next couple of years, I would completely turn my life around. And after finding my own happiness through trial and error, I would go on to learn the science of happiness from some of the pioneers in the field.
Now, over a decade later, I use the science and practice of positive psychology to help dissatisfied high-achievers figure out what they truly need to be happy in life - and how to get there.
When I was 19 years old, I had my first aha-moment that eventually got me where I am today.
At the time, I was a recent high-school graduate in a small town in India. I had failed all my engineering entrance exams, leading to intense social embarrassment and personal shame. Trying to save myself from an eternity of mediocrity and professional failure, I signed-up to learn computer programming at a local training institute.
On the first day of class, the teacher asked us to write an algorithm.
I had learned some programming in high school and was the first to hand in my submission.
The teacher looked over my work and offered some public praise.
I was a bit embarrassed but also somewhat proud. It felt good to have gotten something right.
But then, the student sitting next to me turned to me with narrowed eyes: "How did you know how to do that?" She asked.
"I...I learned programming in school." I stammered.
"Ah! That's why you could do it so quickly." She seemed happy to learn I wasn't special; I just had more practice.
Which was exactly right. What was I thinking? I shrunk a bit into my chair.
But the next thing that happened changed everything for me.
The teacher, having noticed this interaction, said: "Well, she may have learned it in school, but she remembers it. That's still impressive."
I was stunned.
Impressive?
Me??!
Up until that point in my life, I had seen myself as "average" at best. The engineering entrance exams would indicate I was below average. But the teacher provided a perspective I had never even considered before.
Could it be that I was more than I gave myself credit for?
Could I really be impressive?
At that moment, it was as if a switch flipped in my head. Almost instantly, I went from being “average” to being “impressive.” And guess what? Not only did I excel at programming during the one year program, I was invited to teach the same course during the following year. Since then, I have excelled in all my academic pursuits.
What had changed in that moment? Did I suddenly become more intellectually capable? Of course not. What had shifted was my view of myself, my belief in what I was capable of. That one remark from my teacher opened up the possibility that I could be more than I had always thought I was. I started believing that I could be impressive, that I wasn’t inherently, permanently, average.
Over the course of my life, I have had the same aha! moment several other times: inaccurate beliefs about ourselves, other people, or the world, may be driving our lives. And it has become my mission to help people address their inner barriers and tap into their inner capacities so that they can explore their true potential as a leader, a parent, and a human.
That's my life's work.