Blog posts
-
Waking up from a nightmare at 4:00am
When I was a young boy, from about 5 to 13 years old, I used to dream horrible nightmares that would wake me up in the middle of the night. For those 7-8 childhood years, the nightmares themselves centered around Chucky the Doll (do not recommend), a film that I had accidentally watched (a family…
-
On Psychological Safe Spaces
The importance of psychologically safe dance spaces. Note: Although this blog post centers on psychologically safe spaces for dance studios, I think that that this concept more generally applies to other environments including the corporate world as well. This post is more of a stream of consciousness so bare with me here. I started my…
-
Daily Review – Thursday – September 19, 2024
Like many others walking this earth, I am currently in a state of transition. The divorce (which started last November) is almost coming to an end (won’t be diving into it here since the topic itself deserves its own post) and I’m finding myself constantly asking the following two questions: As Kit Laughlin shared in…
-
A simple solution to “Damn, I forgot to buy XYZ at the grocery store”
Ever find yourself frustrated that you forgot to pick up something from the grocery store? I cannot tell you the number of times I’ve experienced frustration when I returned home, after forgetting to pick up some item (e.g. ketchup), despite writing down the item on a sheet of paper that I ultimately forget is neatly…
-
Daily Review Sept 12, 2024
As mentioned in previous posts, I used to write up daily reviews for myself and stopped posting on my blog all together after I tried to convert this website into a “professional” website with the intention of building a pipeline of “followers.” To be clear: nothing is wrong with professional websites that are designed to…
-
House Dance Private with Ani
I took a private house dance lesson with Ani and below is a 30 second clip condensed version of our 1 hour private. I had originally reached out to her and asked for a private lesson after struggling in her House Beginner/Intermediate class. In particular, I fumbled with the pas de bourree torso isolation as…
-
House Dance Reflection and Review: Jevan (August 15, 2024)
Took the class yesterday night and while still fresh in my mind, brain dumping. Best part of the class for me was witnessing my freestyle classmate light up with joy midway through her freestyle round when she went for a move, caught a groove, and her face beamed up. Note: As usual, I’m recalling the…
-
Ask yourself questions when coming up with a (digital, physical, mental) organization solution
Generally speaking, I struggle with keeping things organized: files on my computer (digital), items in my house (e.g. physical), and my thoughts (i.e. mental). To help combat my organization challenges, I signed up for an online course (i.e. Waves of Focus). In that course, I learned about a tool called the poet compass , which…
-
House Dance Class (August 13, 2024) – Review and Reflection
Below is a short review and recap of Ani’s house dance class (beginner/intermediate) that takes place in London every Tuesday night at 6:00pm over at Pineapple Studio. Though I enjoy taking this class every Tuesday, this instance of the class was special because my friend Will (from Seattle, who was visiting London) joined me and…
-
House Dance Class Recap – Review and Reflection
Class Details Location: Base Dance Studios (in London, by Vauxhall station)Date/Time: August 08, 2024 @ 5:30pm-6:55pm (85 minutes)Overall class difficulty: 5 out of 10Combo difficulty: 6 out of 10Freestyle exercise? Yes Overview This blog post serves multiple purposes. First, it helps me experience gratitude. Attending this class is one of the ways I squeeze in…
-
Waves of Focus – POET compass
POET compass is a mnemonic that I learned about from the Waves of Focus online course and its a tool that’s designed for qualitatively assessing how well something (e.g. physical, digital) is organized. Note: I’m currently enrolled in Kourosh’s Waves of Focus program. It’s an online course focused on individuals with the wandering mind, helping…
-
Mystique (family dog): 1 year remembrance
It’s been one year since you left us and moved on to doggy heaven. I miss you so much. I feel a bit guilty about forgetting the day of your passing and what sparked the memory was me scrolling through my YouTube video archive and noticed the title of the video: July 29, 2023 –…
-
On practicing repair with my daughter
I value the act of repairing relationships after experiencing conflict, especially with my daughter. Repair as a concept was something I learned after stumbling on Dr. Becky Kennedy’s TED Talk titled “The most important parenting strategy.” The premise is simple: as parents we are imperfect (on the daily I practice unlearning perfectionism). And as imperfect…
-
Stretch Therapy – Program 10 Recap (Day 76)
Date of stretch: July 31, 2024 Equipment used: slider for hamstring lunge, chair, wall, yoga block Total exercise duration: about 20 minutes Thoughts: Hands down my favorite program so far. Used to hate hamstring stretches. But now that I’m able to target the muscles without experiencing sciatic nerve pain behind my knees — thanks to…
-
-
Practicing short and simple post – Recap of today
In many areas of my life, I am mindfully resisting perfection. Same applies to this blog post. Instead of another post sitting in DRAFT status, I’m going to publish a post with a few bullet points:
-
Styling arms in house dance
This morning, I re-watched a video that I recorded the night before, while practicing dancing some house dance. And what stood out to me the most was not my footwork, but my arms. In particular, something seemed “off” about the positioning of my fingers as well as the angle in my arms. Given arms is…
-
Receiving end of racism: distress tolerance (STOP) skill
It’s been a while since I experienced overt racism but today, while working remotely in the Morden Costa coffee shop, a man sitting a few tables away from me, shouted “Hey, CHINA man”, trying to get my attention. After I ignored him, he followed with shouting out a few expletives, then proceeded to step outside…
-
Proud dad moment: Elliott blowing a bubble (gum)
Experiencing Joy and Pride Parenting philosophy Teaching emotions Spiritual Growth of Elliott
-
Complimenting someone on their outfit and experiencing minor embarrassment
While sitting in a local cafe where I work remotely, sipping on my Earl Grey Tea with a splash of Soy milk and honey, I shifted my gaze away from my laptop and saw a woman standing outside, a person I had walked past by earlier. When I had first saw her, I thought to…
-
90 days of blogging
Over the 90 days, I’m going and aim to blog little micro entries on this website. It’s okay if I break the chain. This will be a practice in discipline. I’ve been exchanging emails with Kit Laughlin, the pioneer behind Stretch Therapy. In addition to asking him (and his partner and co-owner of Stretch Therapy,…