Balance with Becca – Vision Foundation
x

Balance with Becca

Becca a young woman with blonde hair in her mid-twenties is sitting at a desk with a laptop and a cup of coffee in front of her. She's smiling at the camera and wearing a blue shirt. I’m Becca Sandler, the Founder of a Holistic Wellness & Life Coaching business, Balance with Becca. I’m also a 25 year old woman living with sight loss due to a condition called Ocular Cutaneous Albinism. I have had this condition since birth and have been blessed to live a largely ‘normal’ life… whatever normal is. The best way I’m able to contextualise my sight loss to people is not ever being able to pass a driving test or recognise someone from more than two metres away.

Balance with Becca was founded in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic after I was made redundant from a Research Associate post at a boutique Executive Search firm.

I’ve never allowed myself to be defined by my visual impairment

Quite the opposite. With teachers, friends and university lecturers often forgetting that I suffer from sight loss. However, when entering the corporate world, this was very much a double edged sword. Colleagues and superiors would often forget that I had a visual impairment and therefore assume if I were to make mistakes or miss typos when proof reading documents that it was because I was being lazy, or careless, but it was actually because my eyes would not catch them. If I was taking longer to complete a task, they’d assume it was due to lack of effort or a ‘bad attitude’, but this could not have been further from the truth. Due to my awareness of my visual impairment and the impact I knew it had on my work, I would work twice as hard as my peers in order to ensure that I was not making ‘silly mistakes’, but sometimes even with this extra effort, my disability would let me down.

I’d become disheartened and self conscious because I felt embarrassed by my visual impairment. Because I’m not registered blind or even partially sighted, I didn’t seek government assistance and my employers certainly were not aware of the resources available to them whilst I was on their staff. Nevertheless, I would always ensure that my employers were made aware of my condition, often bringing it up in the interview stage, to make sure that it was clear from the outset. However this was often forgotten when deadlines were tight and stakes were high. In my last role before founding Balance with Becca, I was suddenly faced with my redundancy. Although I was assured that this was due to organisational cuts I couldn’t help but feel that I was an ‘easy target’ due to previously being called up on the aforementioned mistakes in my work. I was distraught at the time, with my self confidence and belief trampled and the job market looking bleak. I’d no real pull or direction apart from being an ambitious young professional who hadn’t found their ‘thing’ yet. I had tried various different corporate roles, none of which I had a real passion for although each teaching me different transferable skills, building out my professional toolkit, but none fulfilling me.

However, I did know that I wanted to move into the Wellness industry. It had always been a personal passion of mine whether I was attending boutique fitness classes, attending seminars to learn more about why we sleep or investing in working 1:1 with a coach. I wanted to become more connected to the industry from a professional perspective due to this passion, my interest in personal development and a desire to help others who were curious.

Finding my path

I’m now on a mission to change the world, one coaching session, yoga class and guided meditation at a time. In a world with so much up for grabs for all of us, it can be hard to figure out what it is we want and need, in order to live happy and fulfilling lives. Especially without the support from others.

As a Holistic Wellness & Life Coach I now provide Transformational Life Coaching as well as Yoga and Meditation instruction to organisations and individuals in order to promote the practise of holistic wellness. Balance with Becca is based out of my South West London home but I proudly operate globally with clients spanning continents.

I trained in two disciplines that have aided me throughout my adult life, when searching for clarity and direction. I’ve had the honour of experiencing wonderful coaching and yoga instruction over the years, which has helped me connect to my purpose, figure out what motivates and drives me as well as what fulfils and engages me. Additionally, these two disciplines do not rely too heavily on close visual and detailed orientated work which supports me from a holistic standpoint, by not letting my disability limit me.

Helping others find their path

As mentioned above I’m on a mission to change the world, by helping people unlock their innate, inspiring potential, through offering my skills and expertise as both a coach and yoga instructor. I know that connecting with people in a meaningful way is paramount to my sense of purpose and that I’m fulfilled when I see my clients and students make progress.

Making meaningful and lasting relationships in order to catalyse change is a huge driver for me. This is why I started Balance with Becca. I knew that if I took control of destiny, retraining and launching a new business, I could equip myself with what I needed to work on my mission of helping people find more balance physically and mentally.

Join the conversation: #SeeMySkills

I’m proud to have been invited to contribute to the #SeeMySkills campaign as a young, female, entrepreneur living with sight loss. It is campaigns like this that I believe will begin to shift the needle towards more inclusive and knowledgeable workforces when it comes to employing and utilising the potential of people with sight loss. So that blind or partially sighted people will not have to have the same experience as me, being made to feel inferior and lazy in the workplace. The resources and guidance detailed in the campaign will inform businesses of what initiatives and support is available to them whilst the inspiring personal stories will give others living with sight loss tangible examples of how we can thrive when provided with the right recourses and support.

The current statistics are staggering. Let’s create change, together.

If you have connected with any part of my story, are curious to learn more about how I can support you or would just like to have a chat more generally about the services I can provide to you or your organisation please get in touch on balanceiwthbecca20@gmail.com. I’m here to help and would be honoured to do so. 

You can also find me on Instagram: @_balance_with_becca and LinkedIn: Balance with Becca