Blog posts
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Gold nuggets on developing self confidence
Developing confidence is an area that I naturally find myself gravitating towards. I find the whole topic fascinating and ironic because I feel confident in some areas in my life while feeling insecure in others. What’s up with that? Confidence: A non transferable skill and domain specific I recently finished a book titled “Mastery: The…
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Vibing with Xinobi’s “Searching for” song
I’ve been listening — on repeat – to the song “Xinobi – Searching for”, one that was suggested by Spotify. It’s not only the melody and harmony but it’s the lyrics, the lyrics cause me to turn inwards, to introspect. Just so many beautiful lines including: Another reason I love this song is that this…
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On experiencing joy and love when watching my own recap videos
On the days I don’t see Elliott (my beautiful 5 year old daughter), I often find myself (re)watching recap videos of us on my iPhone, short little clips that I stitch together to capture a moment in time, a snapshot aimed to honor our relationship (as well as share with some friends and family). Right…
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Human limits and the 40% rule
I was on the phone yesterday with my sister and during our chat, she shared one of her beliefs: that we (as humans) can achieve whatever we set our mind to — that we were “limitless.” It’s a growth mind set, one that I myself subscribe to. Generally speaking, I agree with the spirit of…
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Photography patience
I was gifted a Canon DSLR when I was about 16. I remember being so eager to take “beautiful photos”. I remember purchasing a couple DVDs, my hope then was that after an hour or two I could begin taking photos that were similar to the ones that I admired. But quickly I found out…
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Daily Review – November 6th, 2024
I’m winding down for the night, in the bed with my Macbook Pro, and just before drafting up this blog post, I snapped a few photos with my DSLR to practice my photography skills. I was really looking forward to taking this 5 week photography course. I was looking forward to it and disappointed that…
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Stretch Log
Day 173 of stretching and flexibility journey Date: November 5th, 2024 Target muscles: hamstrings During the hamstring (lunge) exercise, I hold and prop myself with my arms, my tummy constantly making contact with my (target) thigh. I notice that when I try to deliberately relax my upper body and arms, the intensity of the hamstring…
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Conveying one’s dance musicality ability with gestures
Like many others, I watch and study lots of house dance videos. I’m still very much a beginner when it comes to the craft — at the time of this writing, about 14 months into the journey — however I’m noticing an increased ability within myself to tease out what highly skilled dancers are trying…
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A little bit of grief, a dose of sadness
Elliott is and continues to blossom into a beautiful little girl. Today, the two of us spent the afternoon playing with slime, drawing characters from the movie “Inside Out 2”, then I wrapped up the evening with reading her two children’s books that I had purchased for her, books that happen to revolve around a…
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Stretching and Flexibility Log
I’m still feeling a little under the weather, my throat feeling a bit when swallowing, the discomfort starting Sunday evening when I got home from an event. I programmed my current block 6 weeks ago and today I’m on the second day, which focuses on hamstrings and quadriceps. I’m definitely pushing myself a bit with…
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Created my first YouTube playlist for House Dance Class Recap videos
Creating YouTube Playlist on my channel serves multiple purposes. First, doing so in a way for me to practice my organization skills. Second, a playlist enables me to chronologically view my dance journey. Third, playlists help viewers (subscribers and non-subscribers) paint a better picture of what dance classes in studios look and feel like. Now,…
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I ran out of iPhone storage … or so I thought
In the middle of recording a video during yesterday evening’s dance class, my iPhone popped up an alert, a message notifying me that I ran out of disk space and that the current video recording was halted. After seeing the notification, I had mentally prepared myself to visit the Apple store to trade in my…
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On being liked: Being yourself vs betraying yourself. A four quadrant analysis
All the time, we all hear the following: “Just be yourself.” On the whole, I concede that these words form sage and sound advice. In fact, as someone who historically shaped shifted throughout his life in order to conform to social expectations, I mindfully practice being myself every day. The act of being oneself is…
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Daily Review (Tuesday) October 15, 2024
Best part of my day yesterday was when Elliott handed me over a little drawing (see featured image above) that she drew with a pen and 8×11 printer paper that was folded in half. I felt joy wash over me and had asked her to what drawings on the card were: “That’s you. That’s me.…
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The motivation to reflect and my 1:1 dance private reflection
Throughout my life, I’ve been described by others as a “go-getter”, someone who “gets things done”. While I appreciate both the positive feedback and while I am grateful in my ability to get shit done, one other area I’d like to devote more time and attention to is the act of reviewing — reflecting. Sometimes…
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Dance week in review: Reflections
I am returning to the practice of writing up reviews and reflections. Sometimes daily. Sometimes weekly. The review itself is not the goal. In fact, the act of reflecting (for me) provides the most value. It’s a practice. Overview Bounce technique modification Seems like such a simple move: the bounce. However, because I tend to…
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October 02, 2024 – Daily Review
Yesterday Highlights of the day Connected with some friends over phone calls Talking with friends over the phone almost always lifts my spirits. Over the years, through some tough life lessons (including divorce, burning out working at Amazon) that I no longer place all my eggs in one basket. I follow this mantra for multiple…
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LIYVZ’s “lesson learned” as a female, black plus sized K-Pop singer
Liyvz, a K-Pop singer posted the video below on her Instagram page and I love love love the message that she shared and the story she shares exemplifies bravery and willingness to “be you” despite public criticism. Her willingness to practice authenticity is an attribute that I am not only striving for, but actively working…
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U.S. friend visiting me in London: weekend reflection
My Seattle based dance friend named Mateus flew in Thursday evening and stayed at my flat (goodness I’m so British now) with me until Sunday morning, when he flew back and returned to the states. These past days, I felt a lot of joy and love and gratefulness. Now, I just rode the bus with…
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Harry Mack on mastery, art of practicing, and flow state
I recently listened to a podcast episode by Harry Mack — a very gifted freestyle rap artist — named “Flow State” and I want to share a few key insights I took away regarding the art of practice. Though the discussion around his beliefs and advice revolve around freestyle rapping, I believe the principles can…
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On restarting a meditation practice, reducing anxiousness, and overcoming sensitivity to other’s opinions
Today I meditated for an entire 20 minutes. For me, that’s a long time, as someone who struggles to still. Here’s what went down for today. The first 10 minutes was basically a paired muscle relaxation (PMR), tensing muscles (e.g. hamstring, glute, bicep) and releasing them, silently and mentally whispering the word “relax” to myself.…
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Book reading progress update on “The first rule of mastery: Stop worrying about what people think of you”
I often do not finish reading books that I started. And generally speaking, while I do value completing what I start, I also practice self-compassion and most recently in adult life, deliberately and mindfully moving away from the behavior of “forcing” (or tricking) myself to do things that I don’t feel compelled to do. Fortunately,…
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Daily Review: September 23, 2024 (Monday)
I’m struggling to type this out because right now, my intestines are inflamed due an irritable stomach caused by 5 trips to the toilet in the last couple hours yesterday evening. Though in severe pain, I am grateful right now that Elliott has returned to her mother’s care — Elliott alternates weekends between her mother…
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Daily Review – September 22, 2024 (Sunday)
Initially woke up at 4:00am and felt it was a bit too early so gently put myself back to sleep with a couple deep breathes. It’s now 5:18am and feel much more fresh. I have about an hour and 45 minutes (maybe less) before Elliott wakes up. As a single dad who has his daughter…