On finding balance

Finding balance between capitalism and philanthropy, reclaiming our smartphone, Black perspectives, and biased data

Image by Jerzy Wierzy

Hi friend,

Long time no chat. (I think this is the longest hiatus I’ve done since I’ve started this newsletter almost two years ago. 🤯)

It’s been quite a whirlwind for the past few months.

Combined with AAPI heritage month and a slew of media requests to address Asian hate crimes, my nonprofit work had exploded beyond my capacity. In short, I over-extended myself and did not draw a line when pushed beyond my limits. Especially as it relates to philanthropic work, I’ve come to realize that even the most fulfilling work needs boundaries.

In my start to non-profit work, I was extremely altruistic. I thought, “Money and capitalism should never be an issue.”

Unfortunately, our countries don’t distribute resources such as free food, shelter, and healthcare. There must be trade-offs between work to help others and work to ensure that we survive. For myself, it’s been an eye-opening experience when I’ve been running a huge deficit in helping others the past few months. The lack of income, combined with a lack of sleep, put me in a very poor mental state.

How we hold space for ourselves is ultimately how we hold space for others. When my internal state was complete chaos, unable to find balance with necessities and rest, I cannot show up to give onto others.

Albeit work in progress, starting to get back on track with rest, movement, and conscious consumption.

Happy Friday.

Have a beautiful weekend ahead and hope you are able to find grace in balance, if you are seeking it as well.

PS - Realized that social media was absolutely destroying my schedule and mental health, and I’ve started to set up limits for myself each day. If anyone has any tips that have worked well - let me know! I’m curious to hear.

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What I’m up to

Clubhouse update: closed down the weekly clubhouse talks to be more conscious of my time and energy.

For queer POC: Tuesday, June 8 - Authenticity x Pride

For queer Asians: Sunday, June 20 - Yellow Glitter Sparkes, Gaysian support group

For Asians: Sunday, June 27 - Asian American Healing Space

Talks

Saturday, June 5 - Ganeshspace Pride x Purpose (I have a few free event tickets to give out. Reply to this email if interested.)

Tuesday, June 8 - UX Writer’s Conference

Friday, June 11 - Design Ops Conference

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Regaining control

Nir Eyal, author of Hooked and Indistractable, offers advice on how to reclaim your focus over your smartphone through methods of removing, replacing, rearranging, and reclaiming our apps.

A powerful looping movie

I’ve seen many movies about a protagonist stuck in a loop, with their mission being to escape the system and create a new future. Two Distant Strangers begins with the same context but delivers a powerful message about race dynamics in our world. Short movie, but packs a punch. Highly recommend.

Biased Data

An extremely fascinating documentary on our digital data, surveillance, and immature legislation. As our future moves closer toward digitizing everything, we must be cautious of how our information is used for our against us.

As always, thanks for reading!

P.S. If you enjoyed this, share or sign up here: mindfulmoments.substack.com

Anything else? You can always hit "reply" to email me directly. 💌

Have a beautiful day!

Metta (loving-kindness),
Steven

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