Thanks June, I Hate It 😩

Dear Friend,

Hey, how’s it going? So blame it on planet Mercury, the GOP, or whatever — but June has been a pretty crappy month to say the least. While I often pride myself in being able to find light and levity amidst the dense darkness, there are still moments where I feel hurt and overwhelmed with hopelessness. June has a lot of these moments for one reason or another.

I had a couple scares earlier this month in terms of my health and personal safety. I’m okay, but however minor they may be, I was still unsettled enough to start looking into various aspects of legacy planning. (i.e.: Advance Directive, Estate Planning, and Swedish Death Cleaning for those who are curious.)

More importantly, I’ve been noticing this growing delta between myself and this upside down world we now live in. Every day I scroll through the news, social media, or even just daily text threads and I’m reminded the increasing gap between my ideals and identity with way too many headlines and people’s hot takes. From the mega rich and the politicians, sure, but I was thrown down a mental spiral when these diverging worldviews are also coming from family, friends, and those I once trusted and admired.

There is growing distance even with those I do align with, with friends moving to other cities and caring for families, or with myself leaving a familiar job for a brand new one. The sea of change is constant and inevitable, but its turbulence is dizzying and can get rough at times. I find myself between relying on online spaces where triggering voices thrive or feeling isolated with the screens turn off. Neither choice is healthy.

The one thing I can reliably do is to keep investing and growing in my journey toward resilience — find peace and meaning through meditation, build strength and focus through workout exercises, and satiate my curiosity through continual learning.

With that, here are some of the things I did this month:

• 🏃🏻‍♂️ Ran 23.22 miles (average 3.31 miles per run) this month, up from 10.61 in May.
• 🏋🏻‍♂️ Spent 17.5 hours (~6700 calories burned) in all workout exercises, compared to 19 hours (~6000 calories burned) in May.
• 🧘🏻‍♂️ Meditated 26 days (average 24 minutes per session) in past 4 weeks, up from 21 days.
• 📷 Here are some of the photos I took in June (link should be viewable in any browser).
• 🏞 I also started curating old photos specifically to be used as Wallpaper. Feel free download or even contribute to this album!

🧋 Social Gatherings:

• Breakfast with Chris
• Ian and I started planning our Saturdays for screens-off day-dates, and in June we went to Ikea, Filoli, Foster City and more!

In lieu of making my typical recommendations across TV, Movies, and whole seasons of podcasts and TV shows, here is a quick list of specific things that carried me through this month:

• 🍿 Movie: Fire Island from Hulu, Jane Fonda & Lily Tomlin: Ladies Night Live from Netflix
• 🎤 Podcast: How to Talk About Asian American Mental Health, from NPR Life Kit
• ▶️ YouTube: Don’t Chase Happiness. Become Antifragile, from Big Think

🙏 Monthly Gratitude:

• Thank you Chris for always being so good with dragging me out of the house. And you know, Bernal Heights Park.
• Thank you Ryan for being so gentle and kind, and for your openness to pick our friendship back up after years of silence.

🤔 A Moment of Zen: What superhero would you most want to be? Not superpowers per se, but which specific superhero (e.g.: Storm, Batman, Wonder Woman) do you want to become along with their personality? What super powers of theirs are you most eager to inherit, and what shortcomings are you willing to embrace? How does that compare to the pride for your own strengths or the tolerance of your own weaknesses?

And that’s about it for the month of June! I hope it’s interesting for you as it was nice for me to recap for the month. What are you up to and how are you doing? I know I say this every month, but hearing from you seriously is the best part of writing these newsletters 😀

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Love wins