Kickin' it with Mao
Mercury Retrograde be retrograding.
According to the astrologers and innanets, the Full Moon in Scorpio is the most intense and passionate placements. You may feel some real intense and powerful and possibly unpredictable energy during this full moon. ENJOYYYYYY!
Check out Chani’s post on your specific horoscope during the Full Moon here.
Mercury Retrograde in Taurus
April 21st – May 14th, 2023
As my three year old would say, “What the HELL?” He did say that once. Whoops…
Anywho, Mercury is the planet of communication and travel so you may have noticed more typos or travel and tech snafus leaving you feeling FRANTIC and a hot mess.
Give yourself some compassion, friend. There’s mercury in the gatorade (I saw that on IG today. Shit made me giggle.) AND perfection is a social construct and product of colonization and capitalism. You’re dismantling an oppressive system one typo or unintentionally unsent message at a time. You go, Glen Coco!
This retrograde is keeping me REAL humble by making me SLOW DOWN and learning to take a pause and not be so hard on myself when I’m creating. I’m also able to blame Mercury and move on quicker. Mercury, you a real one for taking the heat also it’s kindaaa youurrr faulttt.
What does it mean to be in Taurus? Iono but I recommend reading more on Chani Nichols’s website. There’s a survival guide for this retrograde!
Radical Self-Care Reflection
My family of four is preparing for a move to Wisconsin from Guam this Summer and there are A LOT of moving pieces. I have a “high achiever aka trauma response” habit of needing to overplan, prepare, and multitask to feel some sense of control. Sometimes it creeps in when I get TOO caught up in the details and I can start to spiral. When I notice that I remind myself, “notice your breath, you messy bitch.” (My inner voice needs to be this direct and spicy, it’s my love language. Don’t judge!) This mindful and conscious breathing practice helps me return to the present moment and minute serving as an anchor that I know will always be there when I need it.
“Feelings come and go like clouds in a windy sky. Conscious breathing is my anchor.”
― Thich Nhat Hanh, Stepping into Freedom: Rules of Monastic Practice for Novices
Mindfulness is a practice that is simple but difficult to embody because it is SO much more than sitting and looking “zen.” I think this false representation is related to the commodification and appropriation of mindfulness in the New Age spirituality and psychology space that started during the New Age spirituality movement where they were out there appropriating and stealing indigenous and sacred practices from everywhere. As a therapist, I see many “evidence-based” therapy modalities HEAVILY derived from the Buddhist dharma but with little to NO mention or credit to its origins and charging thousands of dollars for certifications (yes, I’m salty).
I found a beautiful way to reclaim this sacred practice is to be intentional with who I learn from and practice with. If you’re interested in starting your mindfulness practice, I highly recommend Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh’s work, a Vietnamese Buddhist Monk and Peace Activist.
Thich Nhat Hanh provides exercises to increase our awareness of our own body and mind through conscious breathing, which can bring immediate joy and peace. He shows how to be aware of relationships with others and of the world around us, its beauty and also its pollution and injustices. The deceptively simple practices of Peace Is Every Step encourage the reader to work for peace in the world as he or she continues to work on sustaining inner peace by turning the “mindless” into the mindFUL (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/14572.Peace_Is_Every_Step).
Mindful and conscious breathing is what I introduce to the clients I serve when teaching mindfulness because it requires ONLY noticing and acknowledging your breath exactly how it is. There is no box, 4 counts or three part breathing with this simple yet effective mindful breathing because what we practice is attunement and self-compassion when we simply breath.
Music is Medicine
A song that reconnects me to my childhood while simultaneously HYPES me up is Time to Rise, by Khmer rapper, VannDa វណ្ណដា. This was the first song I heard from him and I was OBSESSED. It was his music that reconnected me to Khmer music, past and present. He does such a PHENOMENAL job mixing traditional Khmer instruments with the dope rap melodies. He features Master Kong Nai លោក គង់ ណៃ, a Khmer musician from Kampot Province in southwestern Cambodia, one of the last remaining masters of the Cambodian guitar, known as the chapei dong veng. He is one of the only guitar players and artists to have survived the Khmer Rouge. I am truly so inspired and hyped to see us creating and making art unapologetically because only 40 years ago, 90% of artists and creatives were murdered during the Khmer Rouge Regime and overthrow of the Cambodian government in April 17, 1975 marking Year Zero. Our spirit and magic transcends through music and lifetimes.
The music video was filmed in the National Museum of Cambodia in Phnom Penh which I visited for the first time ever with my family this past February! It was a DOPE ass life changing experience.
List of partially read books but still totally recommend
Summaries from goodreads.com
Non-fiction
My Grandmother's Hands is a call to action for all of us to recognize that racism is not about the head, but about the body, and introduces an alternative view of what we can do to grow beyond our entrenched racialized divide.
This book paves the way for a new, body-centered understanding of white supremacy—how it is literally in our blood and our nervous system. It offers a step-by-step solution—a healing process—in addition to incisive social commentary.
Fiction
The moment Doro meets Anyanwu, he covets her; and from the villages of 17th-century Nigeria to 19th-century United States, their courtship becomes a power struggle that echoes through generations, irrevocably changing what it means to be human.
Books I finished and DEFINITELY recommend.
A collection of humorous essays on what it’s like to be unabashedly awkward in a world that regards introverts as hapless misfits, and black as cool. Issa Rae covers everything from cybersexing in the early days of the Internet to deflecting unsolicited comments on weight gain, from navigating the perils of eating out alone and public displays of affection to learning to accept yourself—natural hair and all.
A heartbreaking and hilarious memoir by iCarly and Sam & Cat star Jennette McCurdy about her struggles as a former child actor—including eating disorders, addiction, and a complicated relationship with her overbearing mother—and how she retook control of her life.
Hold Up, Wait A Minute Podcast
Did you catch the first episode of the series “Hold up, self-help is harming me?
No? Why not, friend?
Make sure to catch the next episode on May 19 EST where I chat about why words of affirmation can feel like shit rather than well… affirming.
Subscribe and follow here!
If you made it down here, THANK YOU FOR READING!!!! Leave me a love note!