My Biggest Insight of 2019

How I ended 2019 was not a part of my roadmap and a look back at my journey around the world

Hi friend,

Has it really been a year already?

We left everything to travel the world, sat in silence, cried on a retreat in Thailand, gardened in the South of France, had so many revelations and walk down memory lanes, launched a podcast, took a last-minute trip to Burning Man, moved back into New York, launched a monthly support group, and had an article on racism go viral.

If you are new to this newsletter, welcome. These are some of the highlights of my travels this year. (TLDR) 2019 in a nutshell: I left my job to study meditation throughout the world this year and ended up back in NYC to start my own mindfulness projects.

If you’ve already been following, especially from the beginning, thank you from the bottom of my heart. I am so humbled to have you on this journey with me.

Looking back when I first left on this trip, I would never have imagined where I would be today. To be honest, I was imagining a very different future. Mindfulness was going to just be one side project while I pursued other tech projects that I have incubated over the past few years.

Will I get to those one day? Maybe. But for now, I have a strong calling in the space of mindfulness, meditation, and spirituality that I want to spend more time exploring.

(2019 goals I wrote in December 2018. Highlighted were my tech startup goals.)

From being extremely burnt out at the end of 2018, unable to survive another week of work, to sitting in two months of silence, I flipped through extremes desperately seeking my purpose in this world.

In these quiet moments, I found answers that my busy “hustle” life could not provide.

My biggest insight from this year?

Being lost is cannot be simply fixed using external interventions like pharmaceuticals, seminars, and life coaches. In fact, the direction we need lies within us all. By cultivating a relationship with ourselves through self-love, acceptance, and compassion, we can begin to hear the familiar whispers of our intuition that can guide us to where we are meant to go. It’s never too late to start listening to ourselves.

I hope you all have an amazing wrap up to your 2019 and I can’t wait to continue sharing my adventures with you this upcoming year.

I host a podcast called Yellow Glitter, mindfulness through the eyes and soul of a gay Asian. You can find it on Apple Podcast, Google Podcast, Spotify, iHeartRadio, Stitcher, Overcast, and TuneIn.

Along with a bit of weekly mindfulness, I send out my favorite things I discover each week on my email newsletter at Mindful Moments.

Thanks for reading! Until next time.

IG | YT | FB | TW | StevenWakabayashi.com