Tag Archives: get inspired

Empowering Your Self With Vision

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“How you see determines what you see, and what you feel.” – Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche

I’ve had a love-hate relationship with vision boards since the very beginning. My very first one was an assignment for the very first personal development workshop I attended. End of Day One, before we were to break for dinner, we had a few hours to make a board of what makes our heart come alive.

First vision board - Real Speaking

The second one I made was later that year with an ex-boyfriend on a retreat in Santa Cruz. It was my first beach weekend retreat since moving to California five years before. What had taken me so long?

Second vision board - Santa Cruz

Then I made another one that made me feel like crap, but I didn’t quite know why.

I kept up with vision boards for some reason. Maybe it was my determination to see if they would really work for me in my life. I was a total skeptic in the beginning, going through the motions like a good student, but not truly expecting anything to happen.

After several years of practice, now I know that when I approach them from a certain place within me, vision boards can invite in some real magic into my life.

I haven’t yet written about the latest example of how a vision board changed my life, and since I’m leading a vision board workshop next week, this seems like a good time to really tell the story in completeness. Continue reading →

You are not alone…the power of women gathering at TEDxSandHillRdWomen

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Last Saturday I attended a program called TEDxSandHillRdWomen in Menlo Park, California. You may already be familiar with the TED talks series. This was one of 130 events of its kind around the world on the same day, gathering women together to hear “ideas worth sharing.” I had an intuition about attending, and synchronicity brought me the opportunity to take the place of a friend’s friend who could not attend at the last minute.

All kinds of insecurities ran through my mind in the hours and days approaching the event. I was not a speaker, “only” an attendee. Yet all of the connotations in my mind about “Sand Hill Road” – the home of venture capitalists and attorneys for all of Silicon Valley, the allure of which had once drawn me into the role of venture capitalist, and eventually drew me to live in this zip code when I first chose to move to California – now haunted me. I wondered what I would wear. I no longer even own any high heeled shoes or suits, and I didn’t feel like dressing up to “be like” what my mind believed a “Sand Hill Rd woman” should look like. I watched my mind mull over this question, knowing from my higher awareness that it didn’t matter at all what I wore, but also curiously observing as my thoughts popped up anyway.

A few days before, a friend heard me describe this and said, “The question you should be asking is, what do YOU want out of this?”

I immediately replied, “I want to be comfortable as myself. I want to show up as myself.”

She smiled and her eyes sparkled as she nodded. “And I’m looking at you right now. I see you, right in front of me now. Are you comfortable?”

We were sitting cross-legged on the hardwood floor of my home, getting ready to sing and make music together. I had met with this woman every two weeks for the last two years. I was totally comfortable.

And now, nearly a week after attending the amazing TEDx event, I can say that I felt totally comfortable there as well. I was surprised in the most delightful of ways at everything – the diversity of women there, the inspiring speakers offering so many different perspectives, the serendipitous interactions I experienced throughout every moment of the day – and most of all, I was delighted to experience myself as me, fully inhabiting my body and my mind and my spirit exactly where I am today. Continue reading →

Touching The Place of Enough

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My friend Lydia Puhak, coach and creator of The Sensitive Idealist, recently interviewed me as part of her series on Self-Care. You can listen to our sweet conversation here.

Funny how sometimes the most important lessons we learn are the quiet, gradual processes that unfold out of necessity.

That would be the case with me and my learning about self-care.

Back in late 2010, I burst on to the scene with my “5 Principles of Self-Care for Caring Professionals”. I wrote a blog post, hosted a series of calls, then turned the material into an online course.

And then I left it at that.

I got “busy” with the work of living these principles in my own life. I came face-to-face with my own version of workaholism, and started on the path of recovery. I unplugged from the computer and went outside. A lot.

I got back in touch with a slower way of doing things – growing a garden, cooking meals instead of heating up trays of food, forming more real relationships in the real world.

The biggest (and smallest) change I’ve remained committed to during this entire almost-three-year period is how I start my day. Continue reading →

SoulBodyMind Salon Series

Have you ever wanted to move from overwhelm to ease?

To move out of confusion and into clarity?

Or to move from idea to action?

Each of these transformations is a form of healing of the soul, the body, and the mind.

I combine these three realms into one word – SoulBodyMind – because I believe when we impact one, we impact all.

Becoming fluent in the languages of your own SoulBodyMind will connect you with an internal guidance system that is always working for you.

I’m pleased to announce that I’ll be hosting this first series of SoulBodyMind Salons in my home in Half Moon Bay.

In this SoulBodyMind Salon series, I invite you to join me in the spirit of generosity as I share stories and teach practical tools that will deepen your fluency in SoulBodyMind language – a language you were born with, but perhaps were never encouraged to listen to. The information and tools are grounded in the intersection of ancient wisdom traditions and cutting-edge neuroscience research.

We will practice the tools together, and you will leave with the knowledge to bring this new literacy into your life.

Each session has a theme and will include access to further resources if you would like to learn more.

What We’ll Do:

We’ll open the salon with everyone in the room introducing themselves to the group.

I’ll introduce the theme with a brief presentation (I promise to tell lots of stories and use lots of metaphors!).

We’ll practice the tools together and discuss our experiences – you’ll make new connections within yourself and with others in the room.

A few lucky, brave volunteers may even get coached in front of the group.

Everyone will leave with something new to begin practicing in your own life!

I will also share resources and reading list for further learning.

Guaranteed learning, play, and connection!

Donation-based event. This means it is offered with generosity and is supported by the generosity of all participants. Please consider what your personal offer will be to support this event.

Four Tuesdays – 7:30pm to 9:30pm

In my home, Half Moon Bay, California. Address provided when you RSVP.

You can attend any salon individually OR the entire series.

Dec. 11 – Your Body’s Truth

Learn to make friends with your body and start trusting the messages it’s sending you. Discover a whole new way to make decisions, check your gut instinct, trim your “To Do” list, and access more energy.

Jan. 15 – The Garden in Your Mind

Move the dirt and plant the seeds for what you really want to grow in your life. It all starts with the thoughts you believe. Get ready to roll up your sleeves, start digging, and selecting the varietals of your dreams that you will cultivate and harvest after the growing season.

Feb. 12 – The Art of Soul-Care

Learn the art of nourishing and honoring your soul, in small daily doses or at lavish feasts. No matter what your circumstances, you can feed your soul and experience completeness right now.

Mar. 12 – Listening With Your Whole SoulBodyMind

Expand your experience of daily life by tuning in to the SoulBodyMind. Envision your SoulBodyMind’s most truthful expression, and take actions from that place of knowing.

How To RSVP

You may attend any of the salons on a drop-in basis. Attendance at all four salons will provide a powerful foundation in your own SoulBodyMind language.

Please call (650) 325-2194 or email me for more information or to register.

Address will be provided when you RSVP by phone or email.

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Be Careful What You Wish For…

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Last year I made a vision board for who I am and how I feel when I express my creativity. I had devoted 2010 to my Core of Peace, and I was setting a new intention for 2011.

I didn’t know exactly HOW my creativity would be expressed. But by making the vision board I connected with images and words that captured how I knew it would FEEL to be in that place of expression.

I let go of the HOW, because I didn’t – and couldn’t – know at the time what the exact steps would be.

I breathed deeply into the feelings of my own creativity, and allowed images to attract me without needing an explanation or a meaning or a concept. They were just images that I loved, for no “reason” at all.

Here is the vision board I made:

I have it as the wallpaper image on my laptop, so every time I open my computer, the images enter my consciousness. Most days, I don’t sit and deliberately stare at every image on my screen, but I know they are there.

I haven’t thought about that vision board in many months. I have gone about the business of living, of staying in my Core of Peace, of letting some things go, and picking up other things, of planting seeds and watching them grow, all the while noticing that I cannot force growth to happen any faster than it already is.

Last night I looked at it again.

It was with a sense of amazement that I noticed how many of the images had actually come into my reality during 2011. In other words, my visions had come true! Continue reading →

Announcing…Bad Asian Daughter!

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Last week I started a brand new blog called Bad Asian Daughter: http://badasiandaughter.com.

I came up with the idea and bought the url months ago, and even had a first attempt over at wordpress with http://badasiandaughter.wordpress.com.

This time, I knew what the message was going to be, and tumblr.com provides the best format for creating short, frequent posts in a variety of media – video, quotes, text, and my favorite, chats (sharing conversations in a screenplay-like format).

My intention is to create an inspiring, healing community for Asian American women who have tried their whole lives to be “good”, done everything they were supposed to do, achieved success in the forms they were told to, and still find something missing in their lives. Together we will discover all of who we are, and unlock the keys to our own unconditional joy, peace, and freedom….B.A.D.ness and all. Continue reading →

Advice Versus Coaching

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Have you ever sought someone’s advice, and then realized halfway into the conversation that you really didn’t want them to tell you what to do?

Or have you ever followed someone’s advice, which never quite felt right to you, but they were in a position of authority or had done it themselves before, and you didn’t know how to get out of it?

Have you ever wished you had more trust in yourself, and didn’t need to rely so much on advice from other people?

It’s been ten years now since I’ve set foot in a traditional academic institution. Yesterday I stood inside the walls of a venerable one right here in my own backyard.

And it struck me that there is A LOT of “advising” going on at the formative stages of a lot of smart people’s lives. A lot of people who are very curious, very bright, very capable, and very imaginative. But who just don’t know. So they ask. They seek advice.

And what do they get? Continue reading →

Are you fighting with reality or appreciating it?

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I recently noticed that I’ve been fighting against a lot lately. Fighting against complaining, fighting against frustration, fighting against fear.

How’s that been workin’ for me? Not so great.

Today I went on a hike and happened upon a field of daffodils…in February! Now isn’t that amazing?

I stopped to appreciate the surprise of unexpected beauty. And I realized that by sending out the energy of “fighting against”, I am actually becoming the very thing I wish to avoid or resist. Continue reading →

News news news

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“One day you finally knew

what you had to do, and began”

- Mary Oliver, “The Journey”

Today is that day for me.

Maybe it was the flyer announcing my talk at Stanford Medical School in a few weeks (finally making it feel real…and making me feel proud of the creative thinking I’ve been doing on this subject).

Maybe it was seeing the pile of STUFF in my house, moved out of the Cradle of Manifestation, prompting me to revisit what’s really taking up the space in my drawers and closets.

Maybe it was the invitation to have dinner this Friday with a couple of doctors who have transitioned out of medicine themselves (making me feel one step closer to finding My People).

Maybe it was finally telling the truth out loud to myself and to a compassionate witness about what I feel in my heart (and experiencing the expansion that came with it).

Maybe it was all of the above.

Whatever it was, I finally know what I need to do, even though I have no idea how it’s going to play out or if anyone will even care. But I know enough to trust this particular feeling of knowing. It’s not a rational linear mind kind of knowing. It’s a whole body energy clearing kind of knowing.

And I can’t wait to share the news with you!

So what IS new? Continue reading →

A Story of Two Hikes

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Lately I have found that the best “medicine” I can give myself during the course of a day is to get out of my chair and go on a hike. I am fortunate to live within a few minutes’ drive of several open space preserves, so there are no excuses! Except the voices in my head saying that I “should” be “working”…a very narrowly defined version of working indeed.

I’ve found that every time I actually take the action of going on the hike – against the more prudent advice of the thoughts in my heads saying things like, “Breaks are for the weak“, and, “Working hard is the only way to survive in life” – I experience a burst of creative ideas and energetic opening, which makes me grateful for every breath and every step I can take. It’s not like “working out” at the gym, which I did for many years and with much gusto.

Recently I took a hike and recorded two videos – one before and one afterwards. I set an intention (or actually a “goal”) of practicing self-acknowledgment during the hike, since I had spent the better part of the day flogging myself to work harder, falling into the old thought pattern of, “It’s never enough.”

About halfway through the hike, I realized that in the effort and concentration of pursuing my goal of self-acknowledgment, I had not acknowledged anything that was going on in my immediate surroundings! I had not taken in the particular sights, sounds, and other physical sensations of being on a walk outdoors surrounded by open space and natural vistas. My head was down for most of the first half of the hike. But once I realized this halfway through, and opened myself to experience the present moment, I softened my gaze. I was not working so hard to be on this hike and accomplish rejuvenation as if it were another homework assignment by a teacher. I was shifting into receptivity and noticing everything gently, in real time. I started to look UP at the sky, notice the sounds of the birds, appreciate how the outline of the mountains against the sky, on this particular day, were barely visible because of the misty haze. I started to listen to the sound of my own footsteps on the trail, and how they provided a steady, soft rhythm over which the birds occasionally improvised their solos.

During the second half of my hike, there was a shift into musicality from what had started out mechanically.

This was my experience of coming into the present moment. You hear Eckhart Tolle and Oprah and other teachers talking about “being in the present moment”, but what is your own experience of it, in your own body?

I post this as a reminder that we may spend lots of time trying to learn something, or pay someone to teach us “how to” do something, or read blog after blog in search of the answer to the questions in our heart. I believe that learning and growth are the ultimate purpose of our lives here on earth. However, keep in mind that the most important thing to do while learning is to notice yourself as you learn. By developing the ability to notice what is going on inside you, how you are applying the lessons specifically in your life, and honoring your experience as you respond to being taught, you are giving yourself the true gift of learning…and healing.

I encourage you to find the energy of openness and receptivity in your daily life through your own practice….maybe it’s a hike, or maybe it’s something else. Discover what restores YOU!

Video before the hike (where I set my intention):