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Three weeks before my Tedx talk, I could have sworn that the organizers made the wrong choice in accepting me to speak on their stage.
I know being called that by others constantly hurt your feelings, but here’s a cool secret they don’t know: the word “weird” derives from an old English word “WYRD”, which means something along the lines of “fate” or “destiny”. There are stories written about this, but just know that it is your courage to put yourself out there that will influence the trajectory of yours and others’ lives.
𝘞𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘪𝘧 𝘪𝘯𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘢𝘥 𝘺𝘰𝘶’𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘪𝘳 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘴𝘵 𝘯𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵𝘮𝘢𝘳𝘦? 😈
What if you broke the mold of what was anticipated of your gender, age, or racial identity hxstorically? What if they saw your choices in life as an act of betrayal? And what if YOU are essentially becoming the ancestor you prayed for?
𝐅𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐲𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐬 𝐚𝐠𝐨 𝐰𝐞 𝐠𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐫 who created a pathway for Asian Americans like me to take up space, use my voice unapologetically, and to move from being a revolutionary to a solutionary. 🙏🏾 😊 Grace Lee Boggs was one of the first examples of what a badass auntie was, who called people out on their 💩 and made them cry from a tender place of radical love.
How do you know when you're ready to begin? 🤔
Is it when you've fulfilled a certain number of hours of training?
Is it when you've been given permission by an authority figure to start?
Is it a guttural feeling where you just know that it's time?
Every time I go through some bullsh**, I’m reminded that this is going to be another story to put into the vault.
How do we discern what is intuition and what is fear? And how does it manifest in our gut?
Whenever we are not aligned with our intuition, it’s easy to take on other people’s emotions as our own, or block ourselves entirely from being able to receive messages and take action.
Happy May Day (aka international workers day)! Shoutout to those who have advocated for 8 hour work days, breaks, benefits, and more - and shout out to the union organizers that continue to do so today.
Happy New Year! If your resolutions fail, there’s always Chinese New Year in February and Thai/Khmer/Lao New Year in April and well... you can pick any day to be a new you. 💕 Here are my learning lessons from 2018.
Happy Loy Krathong!! 🇺🇸🙏🏾🇹🇭 “Loy” means to float. ”Krathong” is what we use to float our wishes on down the stream toward the mythical Nagas (sacred water serpents) by candlelight, traditionally made from banana leaves. We honor the spirit of water on this day, releasing any stagnation (grudges, anger, regrets, etc) we’re holding onto in our minds and bodies so that we can allow gratitude, joy, and peace to flow into our lives. But how do I celebrate this Southeast Asian Buddhist holiday while being in the United States?
With the holidays approaching, I know that this time can be incredibly difficult for people who are far from their loved ones. Many may also choose to protest Thanksgiving altogether to show their solidarity with people indigenous to this land. How will you be celebrating? And if you grew up with immigrant parents, what were you feasting on this time of the year?
“In a world that profits from your insecurities, loving yourself is a radical act. Your joy is a revolutionary and radical act; anger can be a beautiful thing until it manifests into sickness. Tears are a sign of strength. Stay woke, but not to the point where there’s no room for those who have yet to awaken. And while those who came before you have experienced struggle, remember you come from a long line of resiliency. You are a beautiful badass.”
"We are ALL seeds, trapped in our shells
Eagerly waiting to sprout
And soon, our mother will quake
To shake us into existence.
The clouds will rumble with anger upon truth
Rain will drop tears to cleanse this pain
To remind us this was always ours,
and now. is the time. to reclaim."
-Jumakae
Some of my succulents didn’t survive, and what felt like a reflection of my life were the resilient plantains growing in this pot gifted to me by Green Wisdom that gave up their fight and wilted away. I dreaded looking at them as I walked up to my doorstep, but still I watered them. Like watering a graveyard, hoping they would reincarnate from the dead to greet me again...
Illness is not seen as an individual problem. It is viewed as an imbalance in which one individual becomes the focus of the healing process that in the end will purify and balance all of the systems and community or family members involved..." -Elena Avila
A doula (/ˈduːlə/), also known as a birth companion or post-birth supporter, is a non-medical person who assists a person before, during, or after childbirth, as well as their spouse and family, by providing physical assistance and emotional support.
My heart pounds as I prepare the script in my mind of how to respond. I've rehearsed this many times before, but even still - the question presents itself as a box, seeing whether I can be stuffed in or not.
"But all we have left of this today is the little tatter called a 'baby shower,' where all the birthing jokes, mother gifts, and genitalia stories are squeezed into a two hours' time, no longer available to the woman throughout her entire lifetime as their mother..."
-Women Who Run With Wolves
"Enlightenment is a destructive process. It has nothing to do with becoming better or being happier. Enlightenment is the crumbling away of untruth. It’s seeing through the facade of pretense. It’s the complete eradication of everything we imagined to be true." – Adyashanti
"The mind spends most of the time lost in fantasies and illusions, reliving pleasant or unpleasant experiences and anticipating the future with eagerness or fear. While lost in such cravings or aversions, we are unaware of what is happening now, what we are doing now." - S. N. Goenka
"We are not doctors with (cutting) tools. In the old days, the only tools we had to use were our hands and our hearts. Don't think too hard; just feel it."
Yoni = Sanskrit word for "sacred place", a flower to bloom, the beginning of consciousness, portal into the cosmos, or more commonly known to westerners as...
Two year ago, when I decided to go all into my business as a speaker and storytelling coach, I got caught up in so many of the different strategies out there that I had forgotten my purpose…