Category: Motivation

2018: Let’s GO!!!

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A wise old friend used to tell me “If you keep doing what you’ve been done, you’re gonna keep gettin’ what you been gettin’.” At some point in 2017, my expansion ceased. At once, I could no longer easily access my desired feeling. It is a truth that you cannot be abundant and expanding if you feel tense and closed.

I had a post-Epiphany epiphany yesterday. While deep in meditation and perched cross-legged atop the puffy white comforter on my bed, the sunlight intensified. The following exhalations were effortless, freeing. A light chuckle escaped my parted lips and a tear rolled down my cheek. That’s the lightness, that’s bliss. That’s the feeling that I hope and pray all of you can feel this year.

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Onsra (Cut Us Open) Published in LoReLi!

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Daniel and Kerryn from LoReLi, a Beijing zine showcasing new artists and creatives from China, visited DO ART Space on December 15. They set out to put together a new zine within 24 hours of their event. Needless to say, the event went swimmingly.

Artists, writers, and musicians from all over Shanghai went to work on pieces in the space. For hours on end, the art space exploded with sundry pens, coloured A4 paper, malty IPAs and subwoofer-rattling beats. It was an all-in-all spontaneous, punk-rock style art happening that I was glad to take part in. Keep tabs on my blog for more details on my forthcoming second book which includes “Onsra (Cut Us Open).”

For more on the LoReLi zine, look, read and listen at http://www.loreli-china.com/.

 

Gratitude

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A prayer of gratitude and grounding.

I heard some excellent advice recently. As a fan of Dr. John Gottman’s works, I was thrilled in hearing a speaker reference one of his great pieces of wisdom. For 1 thing that’s bringing you down, you should have 5 reasons to be thankful. An attitude of gratitude is excellent for your overall health, especially emotionally.

While away in Vietnam and Indonesia, there was a lot of downtime in my hotel room. I made the most of it by meditating, praying and listening to sessions by Eckhart Tolle and Mooji. Their offerings were sage and timeless reflections on mindfulness. Mindfulness is the best starting point for gratitude.

I don’t subscribe to any one religion. That’s a conversation with many layers for me which I don’t care to bore you with. However, I made a point to start my days out on my hotel balcony, looking up at the clear blue skies or out on the ocean and praying:

Thank you for waking me and allowing me to see another day.

Thank you for providence.

Thank you for putting me here and keeping me safe.

Thank you for these people, this beautiful land and sea.

I am here to do good things.

I am here for joy.

Eat, Pray Self-Love Part IV

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This new moon is ushering in a healing, restorative cycle. My best friend said she spent the previous two weekends planning for a successful 2018. “About to reap a good harvest,” I told her. I can say the same for myself. Since returning from Bali, my spirit needed some extra attention. The summer had been non-stop meetups and meet-and-greets, team meetings and pressing deadlines, finding new tribes and untried haunts. All the while, I was half-awake, continually moving, coming home at late hours only to rise early and start again. On the trip, my subconscious caught up with me in a really unsettling way. This was a clear sign to reset and reinforce my intentions.

The last three weeks have been emotionally and spiritually intense. I’ve had to relearn the importance of true surrender and fruitful stillness. Showing up to adult at work and on projects was becoming automatic. Showing up to work on myself was sliding out of view. The trip reminded me how vitally important working on myself needs to be.

This new moon calls me to manifest what I need and I sincerely wish the same for you. To manifest truth, forgiveness, clarity, strength, and perseverance. To manifest light, to educate, entertain and inspire. To always be clear about my intentions and purpose. To give selflessly where needed. To be a blessing to others. To see the grace in others and allow them to see the same within me. Most importantly to make way to receive love and light. May we all breathe beautifully to end this year and shine into 2018.

Eat, Pray, Self-Love Part III

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The blazing sun peeks just enough through the courtyard’s palm trees. The rays heat your typing fingers, sandal-bound toes and brown bosom in a green, red and yellow crochet bikini top. The typing comes from boredom, the last thing you wanted to encounter on this hard-earned, exotic Bali trip. Get out of your head, you think and say to yourself all bloody day. There’s a new world out there but you’re too “something” to escape. An island paradise awaits on the other side of the busy, high-trafficked roadway.

The locals are beautiful dipped in every shade of caramel and chocolate, their language rhythmic and lyrical. Where’s your curiosity? What happened to that sense of adventure you promised yourself? Instead of letting last night’s surreal dream keep you in the throes of subconscious paranoia, let go. Remember why you are here. Divinity. Peace. Reflection. Renewal. Not reviewing old ways, no more post-mortems of loves that were never built to last. Accept and overcome. What’s keeping you from you? Nothing. That changes here and now. Loving the sight of black people in non-traditionally black spaces is the move. Be in that. Don’t talk a good game and fail to live up to it. Now is the time and more than ever.

It doesn’t take a plethora of megahertz frequency YouTube meditation videos or enough vibration raising pressure point tap and chant combinations to escape the fact that you are you. It doesn’t matter where in this world you are at or who you are with. You are you. Embrace and own that shit in the full. Change your mindset. Failure comes in living yet not truly living and making the most of every step, every breath. Tomorrows are never promised so make the most of today.

Stay outside long enough to see that chocolate skin of yours turn to a deep mahogany. Go run your toes through the white sands you have been dreaming about. Go see the Indian Ocean from this side of the bay. Go. Seek. Do. 

Go be free.

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Eat, Pray, Self-Love Part II

…the wonder of the marvelous sunset, the brilliant natural balance of light and dark at Tanah Lot

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For months now, I’ve existed in between bustling concrete roadways and cobblestone sidewalks, between old Shanghainese lane houses and modern high-rises. Every now and again, I would slow myself down enough to ponder a scurrying ant or stray cat. There were many days of missing the kaleidoscope sunsets over cobalt blue Rocky Mountain peaks from my backyard in Colorado. There were days of missing the drive through the majestic red rock formations of Garden of the Gods. But I am here now. Today, “here” includes appreciating the wonder of the marvelous sunset, the brilliant natural balance of light and dark at Tanah Lot in Bali.

Instead of clinging to the thought of “uprooting” from the comforts of the country I call home, I have made a conscious choice to embrace my new surroundings. The focus now is to bloom where I have been planted. Renew, recharge, refocus.

Eat, Pray, Self-Love Part I

“Be here now.”

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For a week now, I have been day tripping in South and Central Bali, Indonesia. In the forest, I surrendered…

The previous night was spent wrestling with needless thoughts so there was an intense need to let go of the past and worries about the future. “Be here now.” Sleep came easier once the mind was quieted. Hours later, the stillness came.