Life Happens Outside Your Phone
I hope you had —and are still having— an amazing summer. What I've gathered from the many beautiful women around me (entrepreneurs or otherwise) is that this year truly called for a real summer break. So many of us wanted to truly practice and cultivate more presence for our REAL life- not just the one post about.
We wanted more travel and adventure. We craved more quality time with our families and friends. We wanted to get to know ourselves more intimately - meaning, we wanted to truly heal and/or understand our hurts, traumas, desires, and even our fantasies.
To do that, it was absolutely necessary to tone down the schedule - as much as we could. Some of us even took a step back from social media this summer. If you follow me on social media, you know I did. I went as far as to remove it from my phone and turned off the automatic password sign-in on my laptop. (I still haven’t turned back.)
“Real life happens outside of your phone.”
I found this little experiment of letting go of social media really interesting & immensely freeing. Some people took it personally & responded negatively to me. Some told me they took it as a beautiful example and inspiration to put the phone down, too.
I’d be lying if I said the negative comments and actions didn’t hurt- because they did. And to be 100% honest, the supportive comments brought me to tears, because they were so unexpected. If you sent me a supportive comment or message, I thank you from the bottom of my heart. I apologize for not responding to any comments, this was a summer of reconnecting to myself and truly processing my emotions. Just know I felt and appreciate your support.
For me, it was important to take this last summer of home-schooling as my very top priority. I wanted to show my son that life happens outside of your phone. I wanted to show him it is absolutely possible to create a beautiful life & business you love, on your terms.
When he asked this summer what I do for work, (he was used to seeing me on my computer, taking coaching calls, going on trips for more education, etc), I told him my first job is raising our family. I explained to him because I am my own boss I can structure my business so the bulk of my work is during his school hours & that not all work and education come from a desk.
True learning comes from living your life and following your innate interests and cultivating your abilities.
And so,
We went on so many adventures! (I REALLY should have made a scrapbook this summer- maybe it’s not too late?) We learned to organize together Yes, 6 & 7-year-olds are more than capable of organizing their belongings in a way that makes sense. If it makes sense to them, and they help create the system, they take pride and ownership in their system. Trust me when I say there are PLENTY of times where I want to take over and do it my way, but I have to take a step back and remember this is HIS, not mine. It is ok and necessary for me to adapt to his way sometimes. Just like when he is helping me with my things, he needs to adapt to my way of things. We built bookshelves together, robots, and SO many HotWheels experiments!
This summer has definitely been one of my favorites in my 41 years. And I couldn’t have done it glued to my phone.
I hope that the lesson in this is when we do take some breaks, the wheels do not fall off. These moments are necessary to adjust our energy levels, assess our desires, heal, grow, and get re-inspired.
As the eldest child in an Asian-American family and a double Leo rest is an ongoing lesson. As a recovering perfectionist who tends to hold myself to ridiculously high expectations, I can't say I got an A+ this summer. What I can say is I've been having a lot of fun learning, experimenting with new ways of being, and letting go of the details!
And that I am beyond thankful for this life I get to live!
Thank you for being here on this journey with me 💞