How a Producer in Los Angeles becomes a Yoga Instructor in Taipei

Welcome to my first blog post!

I guess to me it makes sense to introduce everyone to how I ended up here in Taiwan in the first place. If you met me 10 years ago and told me that in 10 years I'd be living and teaching yoga in Taipei, we would probably both be laughing hysterically! Actually, even if you had told me this 5 years ago I would still not believe you! But isn't that life? Full of surprises and really unpredictable. 

Before my life began in Taipei, I was working as a Producer at an advertising agency owned by Kobe Bryant in Los Angeles (Venice Beach to be exact). It was an exciting and really fun job. I worked on campaigns with big brands and celebrities! When you're a producer, many people want to be on your good side in hopes you'll ask them to work with you on the next big project. So I was always having different people treat me to delicious fancy meals, box seat tickets at Lakers games, even one time a lady set me up on a blind date!!). Living the dream! Sort of! Also, I had great colleagues, worked in the hippest beachiest area of LA, drove a cute car (mini cooper!) and really I couldn't complain too much. It was a great opportunity and I did truly love it. The only thing I felt that was lacking was .... some free time. If you're familiar with life at an ad agency you know that the hours can be pretty grueling especially when we work with clients and partners in different time zones (I had a client in CHINA!!). This caused my body to feel pretty weak and unhealthy (my forehead broke out with acne, I had irregular eating & sleeping hours). But that alone wasn't enough reason for me to quit my fun job & leave fabulous LA.

Towards the end of 2013, a series of events happened that left me completely devastated. First, my beloved 10 year old pit bull suddenly got very sick and passed away. A couple of weeks later, on Thanksgiving Day, I received heartbreaking news from Taiwan that my dear dear grandfather had passed away. That very day I packed my bags quickly and was of to the airport to hop on the first flight back to Taiwan to be with my family. You might be thinking this is how I ended up living here. But you are wrong. I spent a few weeks here participating with my family in Daoist/Buddhist funeral preparations and ceremonies (super intense). He was my last living grandparent and I held him very close to my heart so it was not easy to head back to LA with a heavy heart, returning to my lonely empty LA studio apartment. My partner at the time was spending the Christmas holidays out of town with his family (a traditional Korean family who never approved of our mixed-cultural relationship). One night I learned the severity of feelings his family had towards me and he decided our relationship was not worth damaging his family dynamics (fair enough) so that was the end of that chapter. 

So there I was, ending 2013 on a very low note, grieving over 3 losses, not knowing how I was going to enter 2014 or how I would even survive it. In order to make myself feel better, I decided to invest time & money into the things that I felt brought me joy. These things included lots of coconut water.... and YOGA! I was already practicing quite regularly for a few years at this point and one night in January, while in a class led by Jay Co, he mentioned something about Teacher Training. Although I was not interested in teaching yoga, I was very interested in learning more in depth about yoga from this particular teacher. His yoga classes were a place for me to grieve and to heal during that time and the thought of taking the next few months to study and fully dive into this course made me feel like I could use this as a way to take my mind off the pain and suffering I was going through. So I signed up! In February 2014 I began my 200 hour Yoga Teacher Training Course. The course took place over the weekends for the next several months and it was the thing I looked forward to the most each week!

That summer, I graduated from the course, feeling much better, but of course there was still some lingering pain. So I thought, how else can I help myself feel better? What else in this world brings me the most joy? Traveling! I stumbled upon a deal on a travel booking web site that had flights going from the U.S. to Milan, then from Prague to Bangkok but you had to book it THAT day or the deal would be gone. 2 flights, for $140 U.S.D. total. Wow! I took this as a sign from the universe that it was time to go. I booked the flights, sold/gave away most of my possessions, packed everything I needed into my little backpack and early September 2014 was off to travel! I landed in Milan, wandered around Europe for about 2 months (drinking the most amazing wine, catching up with old friends, making new friends, couch surfing, eating cheese, visiting Oktoberfest, etc), then caught my flight from Prague to Bangkok, wandered around South East Asia for another 4 months (more eating, swimming, doing yoga, traveling through 3 countries on a motorbike! etc), before I decided I was a little tired of traveling and wanted to take a rest. So end of February 2015 I ended up in Taiwan (my 2nd home), not intending to stay for too long, but as you can tell, I'm still here! 

So, that's the story of how I ended up in Taiwan :)