DO-RE-MI Newsletter: Your Work Is Not Your Life

Hey friends 👋🏻

Here are Doable ideas, Reflections and Mindfulness to try out this week.

Doable ideas 💭

If you need a sense of urgency to supercharge your productivity…

There are 2 weeks left in 2022. What are you going to do today to not let your new year resolution become a “someday” list?

As things start to slow down and as we start entering holiday mode, it’s a good time for some self-care – which can come in the form of sprinting towards unfinished projects, or taking some time off to tap into your own voice so that you can set the tone for next year.

What are you choosing today?

Reflections 🪞

Am I doing slightly better than yesterday? What do I need to change to beat my past self?

Mindfulness 🧘🏻‍♀️

I recently subscribed to a nutrition coaching app that uses AI to help reach my fitness goal.

It’s been 3 weeks in, and I have this huge realisation regarding eating mindfully:

Pay attention to how you feel AFTER eating certain food.

Here are my takeaways:

🍩 Donuts don’t make me feel good. I always thought I wanted one (my workplace is literally surrounded by fast food and donut chains), but after one bite I regretted it so much. There was 0 reward for me. No dopamine hit. I decided that from now on every time my colleagues put donuts in the pantry I’m going to skip them.
🍗 Protein is definitely more satiating than carbs. As an Asian, I was told my whole life that rice is king – rice would make you feel full. When I first came to Sydney 11 years ago I didn’t have rice for a few days until I found a food court full of Asian cuisines. I vividly recall those days I felt like something was missing, and I constantly craved for rice. My body needed adjusting. Now that I work out regularly in moderately intense mode, and I have (slightly) more knowledge around nutrition, I definitely feel fuller, and more satisfied after consuming protein (eggs, lean meat) rather than carbs.
🥜 🍯 Peanut butter and honey = HEAVEN. I will happily trade ice cream for this magic combo every single day.

Being mindful to how you feel after eating is a useful guideline, especially around the holiday season.

Create your own guideline so that you can truly enjoy food and the upcoming parties.

Bottom line: mindfulness is key. I believe that there is no “good” or “bad” food. As long as you understand how your body works and you know your health goal, you do whatever you want. I’m not a nutritionist/dietician, I can’t tell you what you can/should eat. I’m just sharing my insights in my own journey.

P.S. Speaking of fitness goal, I finally did my first pull up in proper form (no momentum) this week and here’s a photo to express my joy and mindfulness hanging on the bar 😌

Ideas Worth Pondering 🧠

Do you agree with this? 👇🏻

We shouldn’t base our identity (solely) on our career.

I always believed in this, and recently it resurfaced to the forefront of my mind.

I’m in the process of changing the direction of my content creation next year.

Everything is built on the foundation of my identities.

I’ve been playing and making music my whole life, but funnily enough, I never considered myself a musician.

This year, I tried very hard to establish myself as some kind of “personal development guide” – I managed to publish a video every single week without fail; the structure being 1 handpan cover and 3 talking videos (occasionally some vlogs).

As hard as it is to admit, it’s not worth the effort.

But you know what? It’s okay. It’s a giant experiment, and I can change course anytime.

I decided to lean into my different identities and strengths.

I’m not just a music therapist. I’m not just a musician.

As I monetised part of my passion in music, I know that I need other hobbies to balance my life and keep me sane.

In fact, developing different identities and hobbies was exactly how I was able to pivot my career in the first place: I started playing handpan and posting covers when I was an accountant. It’s all I did every weekend.

Part of figuring out your identities is to understand your core values.

My top core value is personal growth, and it is reflected in my daily schedule: I work out first thing in the morning, regardless of weekday or weekend.

^ This was mid November 2022. Also showing you why consistency matters: I didn’t just jump on the bar and pull myself up overnight.

I choose to invest in myself first.

I am someone who prioritises personal growth.

That is my identity.

Identities drive behaviours, which foster habits and routines.

If you asked my past self (3-5 years ago) to get up at 6am and work out before work, I would snort and tell you that’s impossible.

But anyone can change.

And it starts with having a version of your future self in mind.

Who do you want to be? What is his/her daily schedule look like?

Start acting like that.

Video This Week 🎥

To further illustrate the point that we all have more than one identity, I’m going to show you what really happened in my life this year – first year out as a music therapist, one year after I quit accounting.

There is a risk putting all your eggs in one basket.

P.S. I came across this article the other day which I resonated with strongly, go have a read: https://www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/archive/2022/09/career-ambition-advice-data/671374/

If you enjoyed that, please share with others.

Whenever you’re ready, there are 2 ways I can help you:

Claim your peace of mind with these handpan guided meditation soundtracks.
Work 1:1 with me to improve your health and wellbeing with music therapy. No waiting list!

Be awesome x

Venus