Abu Dhabi: As a successful wife, mother, doctoral student and government employee, UAE national Dana Al Rahbi has a lot to say on how women can achieve their goals while juggling with all of their other day-to-day responsibilities, which is why she decided to write her first ever book ‘Serenity for the Storm of Life’.
First published in English earlier this year, Al Rahbi has now launched her book in Arabic, with its official launch coming during the Abu Dhabi International Book Fair, as the first time author looks to broaden her readership.
“The story of my book is the last 10 years of my life, in that time I have been a wife, a mother, a student and an employee all at the same time. During this very important period of my life and with all the changes I had to go through I still managed to achieve and go for what I wanted, and so I felt that as a woman, it was necessary for me to share my experiences and challenges for other women out there,” said Al Rahbi, explaining her motivation behind the book, describing it both as a personal story and a self help guide.
“The book is separated into different chapters with each containing personal stories of mine that I have gone through, followed by the tools that will help women overcome the same situations,” she added.
“All of the stories fall into three main categories — time management, self love and choosing the right people to surround yourself with. So I will have many stories on how I managed to balance my commitments to my four children, my husband and my personal goals, which I think are some of the main challenges a lot of women often have to deal with,” she said.
Commenting on the process of penning her first book, Al Rahbi called it a very enjoyable as well as challenging experience.
“There are two aspects, the first one is writing the book itself, and the second is the publishing part. When I started writing the book it was very exciting, for a month straight I would wake up at 5am in the morning and just write, and within a month I had my first draft ready,” she said. “I started writing the book in early 2018 and by the middle of the year I had it completed and ready,” she added.
Al Rahbi says that she’s happy with the feedback she’s received from readers so far, which to her surprise, included men as well.
“I’ve had some amazing reviews from women who came away from the book with their own different perspectives on how it helped them.
“I even had some feedback from male readers, they found it really interesting because it allowed them to gain a perspective from a female’s point of view of how difficult it is to be a wife and mother while holding down a job all at the same time,” she added.
“They got a deeper sense of appreciation about what we go through to keep everything all together in the house, and that it’s not as simple as they may have assumed,” she said.
Al Rahbi said she also hopes her book will shed new light on Emirati women for wider audiences.
“When I published the book I viewed my audiences in two ways — the external and the internal, with the external meaning my non-Emirati readers, both inside and outside of the UAE.
“I think what this book does is to really show how hard working we Emirati ladies are, especially when it comes to our family, our work, our ambitions and our country. This book shows that we can do anything we set our minds to,” she added.
Al Rahbi’s book can be purchased in English on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Serenity-Storm-Life-Secrets-Success/dp/0578433923/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=serenity+for+the+storm+of+life&qid=1556195836&s=gateway&sr=8-1