About Me

I was born and raised in Tehran, experiencing the Iranian Revolution of 1979 firsthand. The darkness of dictatorship has been shadowing my life and millions of others for decades. In 2004, I immigrated to the United States. I got a job, went to graduate school, and learned about the English language and American culture. The "pursuit of happiness" was well advertised. I didn't understand what it was. I wasn't able to be happy. My life was too busy with the complex challenges of being a new immigrant, going to school, dealing with the long process of my daughter's immigration visa, getting a divorce, and working many hours at my corporate job. There was little room for happiness.

 It took a few years to get all my ducks in a row. My daughter's visa was issued, and we were reunited in the US. I had started a beautiful romantic relationship, finished graduate school, and changed my job to a different corporation with a 15% raise. Everything looked great, except I felt a void in my heart and the heaviness of a cloud of confusion above my head. Where did I belong? Was I broken? Or a defect? What was wrong with me?

Memories of the past three decades haunted me, distracting me from the present. I wanted to make sense of my history and its relationship with the present moment. I felt sad, scared, guilty, and dissatisfied most of the time. There were so many powerful triggers in any environment I walked in. Something needed to change.

A healthy child, a beautiful romantic relationship, a good salary, a beautiful house, and a nice car were great, yet not enough to connect me to a deep level of life that allowed me to be me.

I had achieved the American Dream, but I was still not happy. I craved a deeper connection with life. I didn’t want to be trapped by bad memories and current triggers. I began questioning the traditional version of the American Dream. Was it enough?

While still busy with my corporate job, I began writing about the story of my life. Slowly but surely. I needed to understand the past. I wanted to tap into the capacity that was stuck inside.

The writing journey brought beautiful connections to my life and created deep, lifelong friendships. One important one was with my writing coach. Her in-depth questions, encouragement, and support enabled me to see past and present reality with a less distorted lens.

Writing and publishing my book, My Persian Paradox, taught me how to connect with others by sharing my story. I learned how our universal human challenges and hopes create compassion and bring our hearts closer. This helps us have a more profound understanding of each other, allowing space for opening up and discussing our secrets, feeling safer, and exploring our true selves. It also helps us get unstuck and unlock the capacity that can bring so much more fulfillment into our lives and offerings to others. It helps us grow more maturely.

All those lessons inspired me to become a life coach. As a life coach, I learned that we never stop growing. Every event in our lives could be a transformational opportunity to become more mature. I learned to embody new practices that help me grow deeper and unfold my potential. My coaching teachers enabled me to experience state-of-the-art techniques to recognize and process traumas, boost my connection and appreciation to life, and regulate my emotions and behavior. I have grown a deep love for life and life coaching. By sharing my experience and creating meaningful relationships, I continue growing with each of my clients and members of our community. Together, we explore the path to connect to life more deeply.

I now understand that the best interpretation of the "pursuit of happiness" is that everyone deserves happiness. I also realized that being always happy is not the primary life goal and is impossible. We need to accept and appreciate our emotions, pleasant and unpleasant. With the challenges that life throws at us, creating meaningful connections through love and wisdom, becoming more resilient, actualizing our potential, and feeling fulfilled are the pillars of a well-lived life.