Our gratitude to Sis. Paru for her guidance.

On Tuesday 25 March, ‘Happy Young Adults’ continued their learning with Sis. Paruadi Ramasamy about ‘Building Confidence and Assertiveness’ at Nalanda Education & Outreach Centre in Happy Garden. The group started the session with defining confidence and the common challenges faced in establishing confidence at work and in life.

Sis. Paru first clarified that confidence comes from within and is influenced by our thoughts and feelings, whereas assertiveness is how our confidence manifests in bodily action and speech. In areas where we lack confidence, we need to put in effort to understand and overcome our fears and anxiety, followed by gaining more experience so that we can boost our confidence.

Joyful learning with good friends.

The session commences with Taking the Three Refuges and Five Precepts.

Sis. Amanda Chen hosted and welcomed the youths.

The four key practices to develop inner confidence is firstly to establish mindfulness by setting a routine for quiet reflection and develop attentiveness in the present. Secondly, to cultivate right speech and conduct to create an atmosphere of respect, positivity and strong confidence with our colleagues. We should also foster compassion, kindness and patience in our interactions to develop inner peace and confidence in our conduct.  Lastly, accepting and embracing change helps us to be flexible, and builds our resilience to adapt to new situations.

We would like to thank Sis. Paru for guiding us to be an upright, trustworthy and confident person to work with and  giving us new perspectives on developing confidence and assertiveness through practical steps. We look forward to the next session on April 8 with Sis. See Hui Shien. See you then!

The youths were able to relate Sis. Paru’s advice to their challenges at work.

Taking a moment to write down what confidence means to them.

Sharing the group’s thoughts on confidence.

Discussions reveal that many face similar issues.

Sis. Amanda also shared the upcoming programmes for youths to partake in.

Completing the session with sharing of merits.