Movie Night: Zootopia!

I haven’t posted in a while because I’ve been working on my Coaching Website Launch! (If you want to see our website, it’s here!) But since the last time I posted, the most positive, fantastic thing in my opinion that has happened was our trip to the movies to watch Zootopia.

I LOVED Zootopia! This movie has everything I love in it – personal transformation, being your true self, creating your dreams, living your fullest expression, challenges, dark nights of the soul – everything I love! I personally relate so much with the character Judy Hopps and her desire to become someone that would make the world a better place. Like her, I don’t know when to give up, and like her, I experience my doubts with that as well. And even when the whole world wants to knock you down, if you know what is true inside, it will ultimately prevail. I know it’s just a movie, but it speaks to the truth of something very powerful inside all of us, and whether or not we come out of the other end victorious, I find we can always stand for what is true in our hearts, no matter what!

Another aspect I love about Zootopia is that even though the characters are extremely different in personality, both have an inner knowing that they are meant to be more, even if they didn’t always express it. And that’s what makes Nick and Judy such an amazing partnership. I love that their relationship is not at all romantic, but you can tell how much they love each other from the way they stand up for each other when they are in need.

Aside from the awesome characters and relationships, this movie is hilarious, with a bunch of satirical social commentary, and it isn’t inundated with a bunch of cheesy songs. Instead, it just has one song I’ve been listening to a lot – Try Everything, with Shakira. It really gets my mood up in a positive vibe!

I honestly can’t wait to find my own personal transformation through what has been going on in the past few years with my own version of what Judy and Nick have gone through, and I can’t wait for the day I can share that here on this blog.

If you haven’t watched Zootopia yet, go watch it! It is such a fantastic movie. I’ll chat with everyone again soon! xx

Photos by Pietro and Google Images!

Committing to Clearing the Space

I don’t know if it’s just because of Springtime or something like this, but I’ve been feeling like new year’s has arrived. I’ve been setting new goals, reflecting on them, updating my space, changing the line of work I do, working on my business and being more committed than ever. With the commitment there have also been challenges I’ve had to face, but I think overall the amount of new energy coming in has been asking me to update and really choose to be happy and ask me to really look at what I’ve been focusing on.

One thing I’ve been focused on in these days is clearing the space. I’ve set up a plan in a all areas of my life – home, security, finances, setup, technology, personal, professional, emotional, wellness, beauty, health, etc – to clear the space and any lingering pieces from before so I can start anew. So far, I’ve got my new workout plan in place and also my office space updated.

With the rainy spring days I find it very comforting to be taking the time to clear out the space, light some candles, and being silent with myself. I find that something magical happens when we open up our space – we get more room to invite the new. And the other part is that this time I have placed it all out in a plan, and have committed to complete these items on the plan! I’m a great planner, but this time, I’m being a great committed planner. I’m excited to see what shows up as I commit to clearing my space (and I’m excited to be working out!) and sharing that here!

Is there anything more lovely and more inviting than a Clear Space?  ❤

Home Improvements – IKEA shopping days!

I am obsessed with IKEA. It’s like the first time I really got to think about furniture and home improvements and feel like hey, I get to do this myself for myself! I find it almost a rite of passage into adulthood and making your own space on your own terms.

IKEA has also been a place of comfort for me. Living in Milan and LA and now coming home to Taipei, the one thing I can truly count on being there for me is IKEA and it’s lovely showrooms (and canteen! hehe) that inspire me to think of a place I can call home someday. No matter where I go in the world, there is IKEA for me and whenever I go there I feel at home. Moving back to Taipei has certainly helped with feeling more at home. I’ve been able to make some home improvements at home since this space is mine, and really giving my creativity in home improvements that outlet.

I went to IKEA today to update my home office space and really got some incredible work done (see it on my instagram!) in terms of home improvements. I am so grateful for this beautiful day outside in Taipei and being able to go to IKEA to build my own office space. My own office space is going to soon be used for a lot of amazing things – mainly my coaching practice!

These photos were taken last week on a mini-trip to IKEA with my sister and Pietro. We had so much fun – I feel like pigs in mud whenever I’m at IKEA. I consider it a playground for adults because of how much uplifting joy it brings me whenever I get to visit IKEA. I can’t wait to see how my space improves as I make it more high-vibrational and aligned with who I truly am!

Photos by Pietro

Making Goals Happen – Lifestyle Tip!

Hi everyone! It’s late over here, but I’ve been getting some great things done that I had been planning to do for a long time, so I’m pleased with the day – going to bed feeling satisfied and waking up in positive anticipation is always a great way to do things!

It’s a special week for me this week, because I had been working for a juicery for the past few months and this week I’ve cut down my hours significantly, freeing up space for me to go towards what I desire and create the fantastic ideas that have been coming up lately. I’m also moving into a new season of coaching with my own personal coach, to help move me towards my goals effectively and certainly. Everything just seems so new, and I took the time today to work on my goals and my scheduling.

Goals are always that word people don’t know what to think when they hear it. I think one of the things goals was to me for a long time was to set something so wildly unimaginably fantastic and use the power of your mind and harmonizing with it to get it (hashtag, lawofattraction). Well, as you can imagine, the extent of that being a reliable strategy was perhaps a 50% success rate with getting the grades in school that I desired. In real life, I’ve come to see what goals that are dreams really require: they require miracles, or shifts/transformations in perceptions.

You become a new person pretty much by transforming into the person who would be in this situation. I used to think this only applied to soul mate relationships, as that is something that is not easily planned. But law is law, and law of attraction does deliver – you are the one who requires to shift and transform to become someone with that which you require to create. It is the only way to truly achieve a goal – by aligning spiritually, which means your whole perception changes about an aspect of yourself you previously believed in that was an illusion. Exchanging an illusion for the reality and truth creates the outcome you desire.

On that note however, I will share some tips on goal setting that may assist you in your search to create a more fulfilling life and being more aligned with yourself.

1. Set levels of goals 
   In my goals today, I did larger picture goals, 2016 goals, focused 90 day goals, and then specific next two months goals. This funneling down allows me to make the goals look more like to-do lists while aligning with each level of goals to achieve the larger picture outcome I desire.
2. Start with why
   This is to help you with the larger picture goals. It is imperative that goals start with the reason behind why you are doing what you are doing. For instance, my motivation and goals for working for a juicery were to spread juice in Taipei in a positive way. I found my experience at the juicery not in service to this goal, so I knew it was unaligned with who I desired to be and thus my impact would be minimum. Starting with why ensures that you are living out your purpose, however small of a piece it may be (such as my desire to positively bring juice to people’s lives). It doesn’t have to be a life purpose, but it eventually gets there when you ask yourself enough – what is the real reason why I desire to do anything?
3. Follow up goal setting with calendaring
   This is similar to the funneling down that makes your goals look more like a to-do list, but I had the aim of creating a calendar actually and realized I would not love my calendar unless I knew my goals. This grounds your goals in reality too, which is a very important part about making goals happen
4. Look at the person you require to be in order to achieve your goals
   Who is this person who has achieved this goal? What does this look like for me? Who do I require to be to achieve these goals? Answer these questions with considerable thought and look at where you must close the gap!

One of my passions lately is to bring back goal setting – both in my life and in the world. I trust this piece will help as much as it has helped me tonight – now I really have to go to bed! 🙂

There are some amazing projects going on lately, I can’t wait to be moving them forward! Thanks to everyone’s support here on my blog! ❤

 

Red Bean Cake at the Square

There are certain childhood memories that come up for me whenever I am in Taipei. Lately, the warmer, humid, semitropical weather has really been giving me that feeling of Taiwan when I was really young, and the nostalgia reminds me of someone I was a long time ago. Another one of these lovely memories is eating Red Bean Cake. It’s kind of like Japanese dorayaki with the filling and the pancake-like batter, but it’s crispier and made “on the streets” here, and the aroma always catches you just a few footsteps away (totally manipulative marketing techniques 😉 ). The guy who runs this particular red bean cake place remembers me from when I was seven years old! That’s a good 16 years! I shared this cake with Pietro and enjoyed every bite hanging around this space I grew up in with my loving partner 🙂

Photos by Pietro

Waking up in Positive Anticipation

I once read the quote: Set a goal that gets you leaping out of bed with excitement every day. I love this quote and the idea behind it. It promises so much, yet it seems so attainable, so simple (because it is!). I have been in a quite revealing period of my life, and I am loving the revelations that come with it.

For years now, I have been studying mindset and personal development, getting my mind clear and working on structured thinking. In the past 2-3 years, I would study a lot and not really create what I was truly desiring deep inside, and wondered if something was wrong with me, as the books clearly worked before in my life when I was looking to manifest my soul mate, and lately, they haven’t been.

Something beautiful that has been clicking for me is being in the energy of trust. Trust in the Universe, trust in God, trust in your story, trust in every event an occurrence, even if it’s not clear today. I love the energy of trust and I realized how absent it had been in my life, and these days I’ve been really waking up in the morning writing out my beliefs and what I desire to really hone in on. It’s really about trust. Not only when things are going well, but when things aren’t going well – that’s when you have to reach into that space where you trust something greater is coming along.

These planning days are always my favorite, getting into the energy of what I’m looking to create and being inspired. This is part of what I’ve been working on lately, and let me tell you a truth – for the first time in a long time, I woke up with positive anticipation today. Sure I find good things in my days and go on adventures, but waking up with positive anticipation is such a delicious treat that is kind of a thumbs up from the Universe, which I’m very grateful for.

It’s a long process to get to the core of what would truly make you leap out of bed with excitement, but in general, I offer some of my personal tips:

• Be patient and ask, and listen! What truly lights you up? It will show up for you as you begin to set the intention and listen
• Be curious about yourself. About your fears, about what makes you happy, about everything in your life!
• Start doing things today that lead you on your path of bliss. Start today, not tomorrow. Do something right now, or in a few minutes, that would make you really feel you’re on the path of your bliss. Even if it’s just stroking a pet for a while in a very present way, do something for you!
• Once you have a taste, keep up what you’ve been doing and keep going with it!
• Give what you desire to experience – age old adage, but it works beautifully!

 

 

 

Photo by Haute Chocolate

Long Weekend at Taipei 101 (Part II)

So this is the continuation of the post from before on my trip to Taipei 101 with Pietro! I wanted to talk about something quite personal that has always been a part of my life. I’ve always had a fascination with luxury, and I was raised to deny that part of me as something superfluous and unnecessary. I think there’s a time and place for not taking the superfluous and “being materialistic,” but at the same time, there’s a time and place for luxury.

I find in Asian countries, people use luxury products as a status shower-offer. I’ve noticed in Europe (at least in Italy where I’ve lived), they tend to buy things they don’t really have the money for (at least, it’s money you could use to invest in upleveling yourself instead), not to show off but to “enjoy life.” Neither is right nor wrong, but I find some level of materialism and affording superfluousidity inherent in all of it, which never matched up to how I felt about myself.

It wasn’t until recently that I understood that these don’t have to be the case for luxury. I personally told myself “I don’t have the resources for that” and stuck with inauthentic choices in shopping for many years, and what I realized is that it isn’t even about the money or the luxury or the brand. It’s about how you feel about yourself, how you feel in your skin, and who you deem yourself to be. I don’t believe in making a lot of money in order to buy the things you want, nor to I believe in spending money you don’t have to claim you wear Chanel. What I do believe in, is in matching vibrations, and constantly moving yourself to the next level.

I bought a Burberry raincoat years ago that I still absolutely love and it’s still brand new, super high quality and gorgeous, but to me this purchase is not meaningful, because I had used my parent’s money to buy it. I desire to come to the place where this purchase is me, because of who I’ve become, because of the amount of “me” and my gifts I’ve offered to the world that I’m genuinely, authentically proud of, and that I can say without a shadow of a doubt, that this is me. I’ve done this with incorporating juicing into my life, and it means so much to me today.

I think it doesn’t matter what shows up in your life, what matters is your intention behind doing everything. I have a super deep, sweet desire for seeing myself with a gorgeous Chanel purse, and finally getting the classic Burberry trench in my wardrobe. That will come in time, because it is my desire and I have faith in my desire. It is not a desire for the item, it is a desire for who I wish to become. That’s the way I’m focusing on playing the game, and one way or the other, I know that these things are already mine, joyously, and abundantly.

This is one of the reasons why I love coming to Taipei 101 and enjoying the energy of the mall. Like the Tiffany experience, I feel so much more me when I’m in this space, and the negative little voices of the little saboteur feel so small in the presence of this beautiful place. I love my life no matter what, and I love my desires fully and thoroughly.

I was wearing:
Shirt by H&M
Sweater by ALFRED SUNG
Jeans by UNIQLO
Bag by NINEWEST
Trainers by UNITED COLORS OF BENNETON

Photos by Pietro

Long Weekend at Taipei 101 (Part I)

Hi everyone! So on the long holiday weekend (Tombsweeping weekend) I went to 101 with Pietro. We got Din Tai Fung and were going to go to the 89th floor but there was such a long line that this is perhaps the 5th time we’ve gone without going up even though we intended to. I guess it’s good for Taiwanese tourism! Anyways I think some people might not know about this but 101 is a gorgeous mall on the first 5 floors and basement floors. It’s like walking through Via Montenapoleone in Milan (where fashion week happens usually) but in a gorgeous building. I have so many pics that I’ll post the rest tomorrow but here are some photos from the tea exhibition on the top floor where the elevators that take you up to the 89th floor are. I love how beautiful everything looks in 101, definitely a high vibration environment where I immediately feel at home! We also went into Tiffany & Co for the first time for me (at least in a shop so serious – they had the hugest Tiffany blue colored curtains!! Should have taken some photos) to ask about my necklaces that are suffering from the hot springs near where I live in Taipei. I loved the experience and got to try on the original Tiffany ring as well – not that I don’t love my ring from Pietro, but it feels so cool to hold that huge, super super brilliant diamond on your finger!

Lately I’ve been eating a lot of veggies – it sounds weird, but I’ve been having loads of bok choy and really craving them. At this point, eating out and being on the go is still the order of the day for us, I’m looking to really create a schedule amongst a couple other things like workout plans to get a bit more organized now that I’ve been settled down for a while with Pietro. Pietro always has school in the afternoon and I usually work at a juicery nearby, and I miss him every moment I’m not with him! Can’t wait to see him tonight (after 10pm though..time for me to go to work now!)

Photos by Pietro

Journeying Through Life with Acceptance

I wanted to do something a little different today on my blog – a bit of a reflective piece before updating all my adventures of positivity lately. I wanted to reflect a bit on acceptance and being in acceptance of life no matter where you are. This whole blog project started as a way for me to express myself positively, which has been very fun so far. I think it also started for another reason though, and that is to show myself that I can be joyful and enjoy my life no matter where I am in my life.

I intended this blog to be a space of positivity, and I feel something we can all remember from either this blog project I have with Pietro or any other inspirational story about focusing on positivity – that you could be anyone, anywhere, and being to change the way you think by just one thing at a time. The greatest secret that we also work on in coaching is to either work to change a situation you don’t prefer, or practice surrender and acceptance of the situation. The latter doesn’t mean that you won’t change it if you accept it, but there’s a time and season for everything, and being mad at the heat of the summer or the cold of the winter won’t make it any more pleasant to live through. Everything has a time to come, and everything reveals itself eventually. There are no accidents, and you are on the right path no matter where you are and what you perceive to be problematic!

Anyways, to share about my day, today was a very lovely day spent with Pietro and my family. We went to lunch out together in the same restaurant featured previously, and it was a really delicious meal. I always take the time to be grateful of how well we’ve been getting along with each other. They’re about to go to Singapore for a game my sister has for badminton, so I probably won’t see them for the rest of the week! Later in the afternoon I got to watch my sister’s last badminton match for our school and it was great to see that happen along with seeing the coaches again. As for the evening I had a great night with Pietro having another fantastic dinner and working on another website that has been in the making for a while now – I’m truly so grateful and excited about it! I’m noticing that I’m using the word grateful quite a bit – probably to trigger myself to notice that there are many things to be grateful for!

Aside from the pleasant days going by with its challenges to process, looking at the simple things and taking count of what’s already before my eyes is what this all is really about, and letting go of distractions has truly been profound for me in my life emotionally. What will yours be?

A collection of snaps and adventures with Pietro from the past few weeks ❤

Photos by Alessandra Riva and Pietro

Early Morning Gym Time

Working out was never something that came naturally to me, even though I’ve been an athlete all my life. The first time I got on a treadmill, I genuinely thought I had ran for at least 10 minutes, and I looked at the timer and it said 2 minutes and 48 seconds. I was floored! I had played badminton all my life, so I thought running and gymming should be no big deal for me – big mistake! It took me almost 6 years to really understand working out.

I had a personal trainer for a while, but what helped me most was just being consistent with making exercise part of my life. Even if it was just 10 minutes of a light jog every day, it really changed everything for me. I recently realized after sometimes going to the gym in the afternoon before work and just yesterday going to the gym in the morning (in these pics) that I run a lot more if I do it in the morning before I have my juice or smoothie for breakfast. So that’s what my new program is – morning gym time!

I genuinely “believe” (well, I actually know) that exercise is necessary for the body and that everyone, regardless of who they are, can benefit from exercise, even if it’s just 10 minutes a day. I’ve been passionate about health and wellness for 6 years now, and my vision is to see everyone enjoying exercise as a regular part of their life, regardless of who they are and what things they believe about themselves.

Join me and we can be workout buddies – for now I’m off to the gym again with my pink nikes!

Photos by Pietro