A year ago, while reading Glennon Doyle’s ‘Untamed’, I remembered pausing at a quote that says ’it’s a heavy burden for children to know that they are the reason their mother stops living her life’. It sounded cruel and yet true. As an expecting mother at that time, I took the warning to heart. Fast…
Tag: life lessons
What does living a good life means during a pandemic movement control?
It is an interesting time to be a witness of history, to observe how a virus outbreak that happened thousands of miles away erupted into a global pandemic, and to feel the weight of shock when it burned my neighbourhood. From reading news on the sideline, suddenly, I became an active participant in the arena…
My wellbeing matters more than having a purpose
I recently encountered a distressed fresh graduate who wanted to pursue something entirely different from her college degree but she wasn’t sure if that’s her purpose. At that time of our encounter, while I was navigating my post-wedding ‘lostness’, I saw my younger self in her anxiety. Purpose…?!?! I wanted to tell her to do…
The beauty of an identity crisis (and how to handle it)
(Chaos) This is so frustrating. Coming back from honeymoon, my life dissolved into a puzzle that I had to piece together. Getting married is not just ticking off a yearlong (or half-year, in my case) to-do list and ended with a massive glamorous endeavour. What nobody talked about, and what I didn’t foresee, are the…
The journey into authenticity
The older I get, the more I understand that I am a creator, the more I am at peace with who I am. This understanding is of utmost importance because it liberated me to create whatever I want to, without feeling the need to fulfil a certain image. Whenever I look back, I was always…
Pause and stillness in Vipassana meditation
In Septemeber 2018, I left my first Vipassana meditation course with a glorious feeling of accomplishing 100 hours of cross-legged meditation, reaching a state where I felt my body dissolved into a mass of energy. In the span of a year, from the ‘gungho-ness’ to wake up and meditate at 5 am daily, my dedication…
Reflection from 1 year of community building @ Own Your Story
In the weeks leading to the mark of Own Your Story’s (OYS) first anniversary in August, I found myself lost… again. Instead of mesmerising the wonderment in our journey, I was troubled by the urge of monetizing it and turning it into a business, showered in many well-intentioned advices and couldn’t hear my own voice. During the…
The things the mountains taught me about life
I felt stuck… in a perfectly fine life. People would tell me that I was doing a good job building community, touching lives, and getting hitched; but deep down I was lost in the narratives the felt more and more like a cage — what I am supposed to do, who I am supposed to…
Don’t die with your music still in you
When I was able to breath smoothly, it dawned on me how close I was to death. It started with a post-run walk where I suddenly felt uneasy and rested on a bench. Thing got worse when I had difficulty breathing, literally fighting for air. It gradually slowed down to light, long breath, that was…
Parents — roadblock or allies?
When we organized a community dialogue about personal transformation and career transition, I didn’t expect ‘parents’ to be a major challenge that many participants resonate with. One of our panellists has an extreme case of hiding her career change from her parents for 6 months; when her parents found out about it, it led to…
Own your story — life lesson from ‘Molly’s Game’ and ‘Daring Greatly’
From a movie based on the life of a 20 something female who built the most exclusive high-stakes, an underground poker game in the world and a book written by a shame researcher on her life work, I learned a common life lesson in these 2 vastly different sources — the power of owning our story. In…
What about living a ‘whole’ life instead of a ‘more’ life?
When I saw Sadhguru on Impact Theory podcast, I was so excited to explore the intersection between the world of spirituality and entrepreneurship. While Tom Bilyeu, a Type-A entrepreneur, was passionate about inspiring people to be more and do more, Sadhguru’s teaching is about seeing the world as a whole and we are part of the…