Beyond the Binary: Why I Left IT to Decode the Human System

There is a quiet narrative in our culture that by the time you reach your fifties, the cement has dried. This is the age of “maintenance.”

You are expected to optimize what you’ve already built—not question its direction. At 52, I realized that this narrative no longer captured the full complexity of human life—or my own.

I am Ira. I founded Anara Rising not because I wanted to step away from the real world, but because I wanted to understand it more deeply. My journey into astro coaching was not an escape from logic or systems. It was a move towards a more complete framework for making sense of change.

When Logic Stops Being Enough

For much of my life, I worked in IT and Project Management—worlds that value clarity, structure, and execution. I understood the logic of delivery: define the scope, map the timeline, execute the steps.

And for a long time, this worked.

But eventually, both in my own life and in the lives of people around me, I began to notice the limits of purely linear thinking. Project plans assume that if you control the inputs, you control the outcome. But life doesn't run on code.

• Why does a successful professional suddenly feel an urge to walk away from a thriving career?

• Why do we repeat relationship patterns we consciously understand, yet struggle to change?

• Why do some years feel like relentless effort with little return, while others unfold with surprising ease?

These moments aren’t failures of execution. They are failures of context.

We often look at our lives through a narrow lens—focused on immediate choices—without understanding the larger cycles shaping our energy and capacity for change. I wanted a way to offer guidance not just for what made sense on a spreadsheet, but for the moments when life stopped being linear.

A Personal Reckoning

My search wasn’t abstract. It was personal.

At 45, I was diagnosed with breast cancer while living in Southeast Asia. When you are confronted with your own mortality, the idea of “maintenance” collapses. The questions shift. You stop asking “What’s next?” and start asking “What is this life I am living?”

Healing demanded more than medical compliance. It required meaning.

As I navigated my recovery, the world entered the collective disruption of COVID-19. The structures we rely on—routines, careers, certainty itself—dissolved almost overnight. It was during this period of personal and global uncertainty that I decided to return to study.

Why Coaching? (The Grounding)

If I was going to support others through change, I wanted a foundation rooted in evidence, not platitudes. This led me to Duke University, where I trained in Health and Well-Being Coaching.

Coaching wasn’t advice-giving; it was the science of how people actually change. I learned how to identify limiting beliefs and support sustainable habit formation.

Coaching gave me the vehicle for movement. But as I began working with clients, I noticed something else. We would design thoughtful plans—career transitions, health routines—and still encounter invisible resistance.

Why Vedic Astrology? (The Context)

To some, astrology and technical systems seem incompatible. I found the opposite.

Vedic astrology, is not about prediction or fate. It is a symbolic system for understanding cycles, patterns, and timing. I immersed myself deeply in this study because I recognised it as a diagnostic language.

A birth chart is not a verdict. It is a pattern map.

Through astrology, I began to see why particular life themes surfaced during specific periods. Astrology didn’t remove agency. It restored context.

The Integration: Anara Rising

Neither discipline felt complete on its own. Astrology without coaching can feel abstract. Coaching without astrology can miss the deeper "why."

Anara Rising exists at the intersection of both.

When I chose the name, I wanted something that spoke to both softness and strength. "Anara" references the pomegranate—whole, feminine, and full of potential. "Rising" is the steady return to self after setbacks.

This is the core of my work: Simple, grounded astrology coaching for real life change.

How This Work Actually Happens

1. No Jargon You don’t need to know astrology to work with me. I translate the chart into clear, grounded language—focused on insight, not mysticism.

2. Diagnosis + Action We begin with understanding the season of life you’re in. Is this a time for consolidation or expansion? Once there is clarity, we move into action. Insight with action is transformation.

3. Healing Without Judgment Many people come carrying guilt or quiet shame—around relationships, parenting, or career choices. Astrology helps us see these experiences as developmental chapters, not personal failures. When judgment dissolves, movement becomes possible.

Why I Do This Work

I didn’t arrive here to abandon reason. I arrived here to honour the full intelligence of human life.

We are biological beings with nervous systems and habits. And we are also patterned beings, moving through time and meaning. Anara Rising exists to hold both truths.

If you are currently navigating a crossroads—whether it's a specific question or a larger life transition—I invite you to explore my sessions. From a focused 15-Minute Clarity session to a 60-Minute Deep Dive, we will find the pattern, so you can choose the path. There is no rush. Only understanding.

We all rise in our own rhythm, at our own pace.