At just 32 years old, Doua Benhida faced a life-altering moment: a cancer diagnosis that challenged everything she knew about herself and her future. What followed was not just a fight for survival but a deep, emotional journey that transformed her life completely. Today, Doua Benhida is a survivor, an advocate, and a powerful voice for emotional intelligence and authentic connection, using her story and skills to inspire others.
From Corporate Professional to Cancer Survivor and Emotional Intelligence Advocate
Before her diagnosis, Doua Benhida had built a successful career in the corporate world, particularly in User Experience roles. But the cancer diagnosis in 2022 forced her to pause and reevaluate her path. The experience was terrifying, but it also opened a door to profound personal growth.
Cancer survivorship is often overlooked in public conversations, yet Doua Benhida describes it as a different kind of battle silent, lonely, and deeply emotional. She says it is a journey that requires sitting with discomfort, reflecting on your own conditioning, and truly understanding yourself. Through years of self-work, coaching, and emotional healing, Doua Benhida found herself transformed, integrating all the lessons learned into a new purpose.
Breaking the Silence Around Cancer Survivorship
One of Doua Benhida’s missions is to break the silence surrounding cancer survivorship, especially for younger patients like herself. Many, including Doua, miss early symptoms because cancer at a young age is not often top of mind. After treatment, survivors face unique emotional challenges that can feel isolating and misunderstood.
Doua shares her story openly in talks and interviews, aiming to raise awareness of the ongoing struggles survivors face—not just physically, but mentally and emotionally. She believes understanding this phase is crucial not only for patients but also for their families and support systems.
Rekindling a Passion for Public Speaking and Environmental Activism
Interestingly, Doua’s passion for public speaking and advocacy did not start with cancer. Before her diagnosis, she was actively involved in the Zero Waste movement, giving talks to companies and schools about sustainable living. This work brought her in contact with diverse audiences and strengthened her ability to communicate complex ideas in a simple, human way.
Now, she combines this gift of communication with her identity as a cancer survivor to inspire hope and awareness. Her multilingual skills and multicultural background enable her to connect with people from all walks of life, breaking barriers that traditional work environments often overlook.
Discovering Purpose Through IKIGAI and Emotional Intelligence
Doua’s transition from a corporate professional to her current path was deeply influenced by the Japanese concept of IKIGAI, which means finding your purpose where passion, mission, vocation, and profession intersect. While this journey was initially filled with fear and uncertainty, she found magic in surrendering to life’s flow and trusting her inner compass.
Her work today spans emotional intelligence workshops, user behavior research, coaching, and public speaking. Doua believes emotional intelligence is the missing piece in many organizations. She explains that emotional intelligence combined with IQ creates exceptional professionals, emphasizing that workplaces need to evolve by valuing empathy, self-awareness, and emotional growth just as much as technical skills.
Empowering Women and Exploring New Opportunities
Doua is currently involved in diverse projects that reflect her unique blend of experience and emotional insight. She is helping test a new app for markets in the UAE and Saudi Arabia, focusing on user experience with a human-centric approach. Additionally, she is collaborating with friends to curate workshops aimed at helping women embody their feminine energy a strength she discovered through her healing process.
Though these projects seem different, they all rely on emotional intelligence, human behavior understanding, and genuine connection the core of Doua’s mission. She is also actively seeking opportunities to speak about cancer survivorship to reach wider audiences and help reduce the stigma around it.
The Power of Slowing Down and Self-Awareness
At the heart of Doua’s work is a simple yet powerful idea: help people reconnect with themselves. In today’s fast-moving world, many avoid slowing down because they fear what might surface pain, old wounds, or uncomfortable truths. But Doua encourages courage in facing these moments because transformation begins there.
She highlights that most challenges in communication, relationships, and personal growth stem from a lack of self-awareness. “When you slow down and question your conditioning, you begin to understand your beliefs and behaviors,” she says. This awareness becomes the foundation for healthier interactions and stronger human connection.
Human Connection in a Digital Age
In a world increasingly dominated by technology and artificial intelligence, Doua believes the human need for real connection is more important than ever. She sees society undergoing major shifts in gender roles, workplace culture, and how people relate to one another.
Her work in user experience, emotional intelligence, and cancer survivorship talks are all expressions of one mission: bringing people back to themselves and to one another, reminding us of our shared humanity in a rapidly changing world.
Overcoming Fear and Embracing Authenticity
Doua encourages everyone to identify what blocks them fear, anxiety, or social judgment and to work through those barriers. Many people avoid pursuing their true passions because they worry about what others might say. But as she often reminds others: “People will always talk. You might as well live your truth.”
Her message is grounded in compassion for oneself and for others. True growth, she believes, comes from embracing discomfort, trusting the journey, and living authentically.
Inspiring Through Vulnerability and Strength
Doua’s story is one of resilience, courage, and transformation. From the shock of a cancer diagnosis to discovering her purpose, she inspires others to embrace their vulnerabilities as strengths. Her journey shows that healing is possible and that through self-awareness and emotional intelligence, we can all reconnect with what truly matters.
As she continues to share her story and lead workshops, Doua reminds us that the answers we seek are already within us. We just need the courage to pause, reflect, and listen.
Conclusion
Doua Benhida’s journey from corporate professional to cancer survivor and emotional intelligence advocate is a beacon of hope in a fast-paced, often disconnected world. Through her lived experience, public speaking, and coaching, she is helping individuals and organizations slow down, reconnect, and grow authentically.
Her work shows us the power of vulnerability, the importance of emotional intelligence, and the magic that unfolds when we live our truth. Doua is not just surviving she is thriving, and in doing so, she is lighting the way for others to do the same.
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