Decluttering is one of my main ongoing goals that I’ve had these past couple of years. It’s something that takes time, especially if you’ve accumulated a lot of things and experiences. One thing I want to declutter is my mind and heart. To live a happy life, I strongly believe that we need to let …
Cyberstalkers and online trolls
Do you or someone you care about suffer from online trolling or cyberstalking? No one deserves it, and I don’t want anyone to feel fearful – it’s time to speak up! I got my feature image above from Kali Holloway’s article here. According to Kali, women (especially women of colour) are disproportionately affected. I guess …
The ugly side of becoming a surgeon
I never thought I would say this, but I broke. I give up. I am done. I surrender. I am handing back my dream of becoming a surgeon. I have nothing left to give. I don’t want it anymore. I’ve lost my ambition. I’ve lost my spark. I started 2018 with optimism and zest. This …
Love ya guts
I got a lump in my throat. Gut feeling. Trust your gut. I feel sick to my stomach. Hard/bitter pill to swallow. Gut instinct. Butterflies in your stomach. Emotional eating. Gut-wrenching. Misery guts. Gut reaction. You’ve got guts. Kick in the guts. Hate your guts. Love your guts. Hangry. Comfort food. I don’t have the …
Decluttering Part 2: Forgiveness
What is the purpose of decluttering? For me, decluttering is not just about removing excess from my physical space, but also about clearing my mental and emotional space in order to give myself peace. Forgiveness is one way you can lessen the emotional load on yourself. When you feel hard done by, you carry anger, …
Decluttering Part 1: “Friends”
I am not your typical Japanese person. When I think “Japanese” I think of someone who is elegant, softly spoken, polite and minimalist. I want to be more minimalist; one of my current life goals is to declutter my life. I have had a turbulent year, which has made me realise that decluttering your mind …
Body shaming in yoga: not cool
Good morning from Sydney. Today is a beautiful day and I want to write about yoga. Yoga is not only physically enjoyable for me, it uplifts me emotionally. One thing that does make me sad though, is when people don’t think they can “do” yoga. I’ve heard all the reasons.. “because I’m not flexible”, “because …
Ethical sleep products
Sleep. I cannot remember the last time I had a good night’s sleep unaided. At the start of the year, I was working an untenable (and illegal) amount of hours and (just) surviving on a few hours’ sleep each night. You can read more about that here. Chronic sleep deprivation has a number of detrimental …
How being too flexible can be bad for yoga
I’ve always been flexible. I started ballet when I was 3 and I did the splits for fun. Before you start hating on me, let me tell you that being flexible is not always a good thing. I’ll eventually write a post about how having flexible feet resulted in me having a broken foot during …
What is sleep hygiene?
Hi, I’m Miko and I’m an insomniac sometimes. You don’t appreciate sleep until you’ve gone through a period of severe sleep deprivation. As a society we don’t have the best habits that promote healthy sleep.. that’s where sleep hygiene comes in. Sleep hygiene is a set of guidelines that help you optimise sleep. Before I …
One shoe, nine outfits
Good morning from Sydney! I’m excited to share with you some styling ideas. As I mentioned in one of my recent blog posts here, one of the things that got me interested in blogging was fashion. Fashion became less of a priority these last few years as work took over my life, and I became …
Higher vibrations
There were a lot of negative vibes thrown my way last year, like getting overworked in an unsupportive workplace, being reminded of when a yoga teacher body-shamed me, being trolled by a cyberstalker, and realising that my “friends” weren’t good to/for me. However, I never lost my positive outlook on life. I’ve always thought of myself as an …
The reverse bucket list
Happy New Year! I hope 2019 has started off well for everyone. I recently came across the concept of a “reverse” bucket list. I’ve never even written a bucket list before, so it’s a little strange for me to be writing about the reverse. The reason I’ve never written a bucket list is because if …
My top 5 (re)reads for 2018
Leisure reading is a luxury. That’s something I have learned to appreciate this year. I never thought I would ever say this because as a child, I hated reading. I felt like I was forced to read, and I managed to do well in English without finishing any of the prescribed texts so I got …
Strategies for weight loss and maintenance
Diet. Exercise. Sleep. Stress. Psychology. These are five domains I consider important with respect to weight loss and maintenance, which I’ll go into more detail later. Once you’ve made that initial commitment to losing weight, the next step is setting a goal. You may have come across SMART goals. Depending on where you’ve read about …
How to start the exercise journey
My weight has seen a very wide range during my adulthood. When I’m fit and doing lots of long-distance running, my weight is about 51kg. The highest it’s ever been is in April this year, when I weighed 64.5kg due to an excessive workload, a toxic work environment, eating poorly, sleeping poorly, not having time …
Why 12-week body transformation challenges don’t work long term
It’s that time of year when people start thinking about what their New Year Resolutions are going to be for 2019. Most of these will include something related to losing weight. “New Year New Me” is a nice concept, but I’ve never believed in it. I set goals throughout the year and tick them off …
Merry everything and a happy always
It was 2012 when I last had a Christmas together with my family, except I wasn’t supposed to. I was working as a Neurosurgery resident at the Alfred Hospital in Melbourne, and I was rostered to work Christmas Day. I was fortunate to work with two colleagues who, unbeknownst to me, took all of my …