What Are You Capable Of?

I don’t know why we sometimes believe that other people can do things, but we can’t. The bigger the goal, the more we tend to doubt ourselves. We see successful people everywhere — people who have built businesses from scratch, have amazing fit bodies, have invented interesting products, live in beautiful and organized homes, write books, are helping people, are multi-millionaires, are making a difference and are changing the world.

These are people you look up to and admire. It could be your mom, your friend, a TV personality, someone you found on the internet, an author, an entrepreneur, a celebrity, or Steve Jobs, the Dalai Lama, or Oprah. You look up to these people because they have or are doing something you strive for. And you admire different people for different reasons.

So, the question is, why can’t we do it?

The truth is, we can! We are doing it and we have done it in the past. We’ve already done so many amazing things in many different areas of our lives. We just may not realize how much we’ve accomplished because we spend most of our time looking towards our future goals instead of reflecting on our past successes. If you take a moment to look back at the things you’ve done, you’ll realize just how much you have accomplished in your life so far!

Whether we know it or not, there are people looking up to us for different things and have looked up to us in the past, even when we were not aware of it. It could have been or is your son or daughter, a friend, a parent, or someone you met briefly in your life. You really never know how many lives you’ve touched and what kind of impact you may have had on them — just by being who you are and doing what you do! Read more →

Move Fast To Get Into the Flow

You’ve heard the phrase, “living in the flow.” You’ve probably experienced it yourself. You know what it feels like when you’re just in the groove, things are going smoothly, and everything is just falling into place effortlessly. It doesn’t mean you’re just sitting around waiting for things to happen. It’s actually quite the contrary… you are working your little butt off to MAKE things happen. And that’s when you get in the flow.

You’re in the flow when you take focused action. You fixate on a goal and will bulldoze through brick walls if you have to to make them happen. You see no obstacles, only possibilities. You are focused, determined, and confident that things will work out. You take a leap of faith and you just go for it.

It’s scary at first, and new things take a bit of time to adjust, but pretty soon, as you take step by step, things just start happening that help you along.

The more things that happen that help you along, the easier it gets, and you just keep going. The wheel is turning faster and faster now. The blocks in front of you have disintegrated and you have pulled through to a new threshold. You soar to a new level of confidence as you see that things are working and pieces are starting to come together. You feel excited, and thrilled for the possibilities that lie ahead.

Suddenly, things seem bright and everything seems possible.

Welcome… you have just entered the flow.

When you are living with purpose doing what you love, you enter a state of exhilaration that keeps you going. Your become alive and your passion starts to come through.

See, the key to getting in the flow is not to take things slow. It’s quite the contrary. It’s to move quickly. Read more →

How To Find the Perfect Solution To Your Problems

We are faced with so many situations in our lives that need a solution or an answer. Sometimes we’ll know exactly how to fix the problem, but other times we won’t have a clue what to do about the situation we’re in.

What I’ve learned is that rather that trying really, really hard to solve the problem, the more important thing to do is to ask the right question.

Why?

Because when you try to solve the problem from the same state of mind you were in that created the problem, you might end up banging your head in frustration because the solutions you find are just not good enough. You might come up with the obvious and easy answers that everyone will think of, but nothing that really meets your needs.

To come up with the creative solutions and the less obvious answers, learn to ask the right question. When you ask the right question, you put that thought into your subconscious, and somehow, magically the answer will appear in front of you one day when you are not even consciously thinking of the problem anymore.

If you are in need of a solution urgently, instead of waiting for the answer to show up one day, ask the universe to deliver the answer within 24 hours. That’s a tip I learned from Cheryl Richardson’s book, Take Time For Your Life. It works.

Here is an example in which I used this technique in my life:

My problem: Looking for an inexpensive house cleaner 

After having my baby, I desperately needed help cleaning my apartment. I didn’t have the time or energy to do it all anymore. But, the problem was that because a baby creates lots and lots of new expenses, I needed to find an affordable house cleaner. Read more →

Whose Advice Should You Listen To?

Starting a new endeavor can be a fearful, daunting period. It’s when you have hopes and dreams, but nothing is actualized yet. It’s a time when you are considering your options and figuring out which direction to go. You could be starting a business, changing jobs, moving to a new city, changing careers, trying to fix your relationships, or even losing weight. Whatever your goal, you are starting down a new path, one that you have not traveled yet.

During this time, it’s normal and natural to solicit feedback and advice from others. It’s a time period of gathering ideas, doing research, and weighing pros and cons before proceeding in one direction. You are looking for the path that will work for you and make you happy. You want to know what to do and how to do it in order to be successful.

Maybe you are not even asking for advice or feedback from others, but as you speak with friends, family, or other people you interact with during this time, people will give you their opinion anyway. I believe people are trying to give you advice and feedback based on what they believe is in your best interest. Most people are just trying to help.

If you didn’t specifically seek out advice you are receiving, is it advice you should listen to?

Two ways I look at the advice I receive

Situation 1 – People are Messengers

Some people, messages, ideas, and conversations come up in your life in order to provide you with new information or guide you or deliver new insight that is valuable for you. I consider these types of things as signs and messages from the universe that can help me along my path, solidify ideas I already have, or provide a new idea or perspective that I should consider. Read more →

Sourcing Sustainable Fabrics For a Fashion Line

One of the big challenges I’ve heard of when starting a sustainable fashion line is sourcing sustainable fabrics. I’ve heard stories of people who have tried to start sustainable clothing lines and traveled the world in search of sustainable fabrics, only to be shocked by how few resources existed. Some of them gave up.

The good news is that sustainable fabrics are becoming more available as more and more textile companies are trying to go green, even if it’s only by starting to offer a few organic fabric options. There is hope that there will be more choices in the future.

I have been casually searching for sustainable fabric sources for a few years and have come up with only a few online resources. These websites only offer limited fabric choices and colors, mostly organic cotton, bamboo and hemp. This is great for a t-shirt line or organic cotton dresses, but what if you want to design something that’s not so casual? What are the fabric choices then?

Some of these companies are also only for hobby sewers. I wasn’t sure if they could handle the volume if I suddenly received a huge order. I’m sure a quick phone call would straighten that out.

But, in the meantime, I’ve been on a mad hunt to find other options… online, offline, tradeshows, seminars, books, talking to people in the garment district, emailing people, etc.

These are the resources people knew and referred me to: Source4Style, Fessler, and Jasco.

Those three were the only resources that people were really aware of. I was hoping to broaden my fabric vendor options, but these were ones I already knew.

Sustainable Fabric Resources

  • Source4Style is a great online resource created to alleviate the sourcing problems that many sustainable designers face. You can order swatches, sample yardage, and even book orders for production on the site.

    • Read more →

Reality Check: Converting a Dream Into a Plan

Dreaming is the first step to creating an amazing life. You have to dream it before you can build it. But, how do you turn a dream into reality?

You need to take action to make it real, but before you can take action, you need to know where you are going. Just like you wouldn’t typically go into your car and drive without a destination in mind, you need to know where you are headed with your dream.

This doesn’t mean you need it all planned out in detail. Planning every detail in your head could take forever and can keep you in the dreaming and planning stage indefinitely. The more you postpone action, the more time fear has to creep up and you may never start on your venture. That’s not what you want.

Here are four steps to help you take on your dream.

1. Learn From Someone Who Has Gone Before You

Before you randomly try everything without direction, learn from someone who’s gone before you. Read a book about your dream, do some research, or find a mentor. Someone has already achieved it somewhere. Find people who have already achieved your dream and seek out their advice. Seek guidance so that you are not grappling in the dark. Getting good advice can also help speed up your process to achieving your goal.

2. Create a Plan

Once you have learned from others, you need a plan. A step-by-step plan will give you an idea what it will take to turn your dream into reality. Writing it down will force you to think about what it will really take so that you can set a realistic timeline for yourself.

One of the resources I use to do this is a website called MySomeday. I found it when I was first starting my journey into fashion design and tracked my progress there. Read more →

What Does It Take To Create a Garment?

Image Credit: Gilt

 

Creating garments is an extremely labor intensive process. I didn’t realize this until I took my first sewing class where I set out to make a dress from an existing pattern. I chose a Vogue pattern that was not too basic, but was still labeled as “Beginner.” I should be able to complete this pattern in one 10 week course, I thought. You can see my post from a few years ago that shows the pattern I was working on.

During the sewing class, I first made the entire pattern out of muslin, a cheap practice fabric, so that we could properly size the garment to our body before sewing it with the real fabric. I had selected a really nice expensive fabric on a trip to New York and was looking forward to wearing my first custom tailored dress. Making the dress out of muslin required twice the work, but that’s what it would take to make it fit properly.

For hours every Saturday, I worked diligently on the dress, eager to complete it. 10 weeks later, I was shocked to find out how long it actually took to sew one dress. The dress also had lining, which required additional work. I had one dress made out of muslin completed and a partially finished dress in the actual fabric. Unfortunately, that unfinished garment is still sitting somewhere in a bag next to my sewing machine calling my name. One of these days I will finish it. (Pregnancy and postpartum postponed the project since I knew I wouldn’t be able to wear it anyways.)

Through that experience and through the many garments I attempted to complete during fashion design school, I’ve learned that making a garment is a LOT more labor intensive than I ever imagined. There is so much manual work that goes into making a garment. Read more →

Fashion With A Mission

There’s a dirty little secret in the fashion industry that most people are not aware of. You’ve probably heard about child labor problems in sweatshops with some of the big fashion companies. That issue has gained awareness by public, but what most people don’t know is that the fashion industry also creates an enormous amount of environmental pollution as well.

With so much fast fashion and disposable clothing, clothing and textile waste from factories are contributing to huge landfills more than ever. Not only are there tons of landfill waste, but there’s also pollution from toxic dye runoff, waste water from the laundering process, pollution from the acid used in the chemical conversion process of turning plants into fabric, and of course the pesticides used to grow cotton.

What does this mean? This means our water is getting polluted and our landfills are overflowing with textiles. Here are a few stats to just give you sense of what’s going on:

  • According to the World Bank,17-20% of industrial water pollution comes from textile dyeing and treatment. 72 toxic chemicals in our water come solely from textile dyeing, of which 30 cannot be removed.
  • North America generates 2 million tons of textile waste each year, which is approximately 68 lbs of waste/household per year. 5% of all landfill production is textile waste.

Read this article with vivid photos of the startling price we pay for fashion in China.

Images courtesy of China Whisperer

Here’s an image of a textile landfill in Syria.

Image courtesy of Waste Biorefining Blog

The problem is big. So, what is the fashion industry doing about it? The big businesses, I’m not so sure. Perhaps they donate money to environmental causes. There are companies creating eco-friendly lines, but I haven’t seen any big fashion names really devote their entire company to the cause.

Read more →

Use Fashion To Express Your Personal Style and Communicate Who You Are To the World

When most of us think of the fashion industry, we think of glitzy actresses, runway models, glamourous fashion magazines, and an industry that seems to promote materialism and consumption. But as I’ve learned more about the fashion industry by studying fashion design and working in the industry, fashion is not just about materialism. There’s a big upside to what the fashion industry promotes, and that is encouraging great self-care by helping people look great and express their own personal style. Helping people look great and feel great is why fashion is so popular in our culture.

When we find clothing that fits us, flatters us, and looks great on us, it changes the way we feel. The right clothing can boost our self-confidence, change our mood, and give us the extra bounce in our step to feel like we can do anything. There is a transformative effect that fashion can have on our lives. When we look good, we feel good, and when we feel good, we do great work.

If you really think about fashion, there really is no need for it from a utilitarian standpoint other than to protect our bodies from the elements. But, from an emotional standpoint, fashion plays an important role in changing the way we feel and by giving us a medium through which we communicate who we are to the world.

When you meet someone for the first time, fashion is part of what helps you express who you are. What you wear is part of what communicates your personal style and also what type of industry you work in.

Clothing as Uniforms

I’ve worked in many different industries, and every time I worked in a different industry, I’ve had to change my clothing to fit the “uniform” of the industry. What I wore identified me with a certain group. Read more →

Simple Steps to Achieving Goals

A Lesson I Learned From My Baby About Achieving Goals

I was reminded of some simple steps to achieving goals while I was interacting with my baby. Who knew my baby would teach me something already?

I am sitting here right now with a pile of toys on my desk as I write this because my baby decided to bring me her pile of toys, one by one. Even when my husband tried to distract her with another activity, she was determined to take every toy in front of her and hand them to me. She had previously handed every toy to her daddy and was done with that activity. It was now time to hand them all to me.

She walked around her dad when he sat in her way. Nothing was going to stop her from accomplishing her goal of giving me all her toys.

Instead of grabbing a pile of toys to bring over to me, she picked up one toy and brought it over. Then, she turned around, grabbed the next closest one, and brought that one over.

When I reached out and meet her halfway, she stopped walking to me and just leaned over, but when I stopped leaning in, she walked all the way to me. One by one she continued. She didn’t even seem bored with the repetition. She could have kept going with a hundred items. Pretty soon, I was left with a huge pile of toys on my desk. It was super cute.

As she was doing this, it dawned on me that this is very similar to how any goal is accomplished in life. We start with an idea of what we want to do and set about to do it. Step by step. The tasks may be repetitive, but just as a house is built brick by brick, so are our goals and dreams. Read more →

Book Review: Bringing Up Bébé

Bringing Up Bébé

I recently finished reading a book about a story of an American mom, Pamela Druckerman, living in Paris. In her book, Bringing Up Bébé, she talks about the differences between American and French parenting and how French babies don’t have eating or sleeping problems. French parents can take their babies and toddlers to restaurants and enjoy a nice meal together whereas most American parents work hard entertaining their children at restaurants and end up leaving a huge tip because they feel bad that their kids created a huge mess that the waitstaff would then have to clean up. Oh, and French babies sleep through the night at 2 months. Most American books tell us to not even attempt sleep training until the baby is old enough, at the very least 4-6 months of age.

How can French babies not have any sleep problems when there are sooooooo many American parents struggling with baby sleep problems? With so many books dedicated to the subject, sleep consultants, and websites where moms connect to discuss their baby’s sleep problems in the U.S., it seemed impossible that an entire country could have babies that slept through the night with no problems at all. I was curious and I had to learn more.

I was determined to uncover what I needed to do to train my baby to sleep through the night. I had been suffering for more than a year with sleep deprivation because my baby was still not sleeping through the night. I thought my case was extreme. My baby had extreme day/night confusion where she wouldn’t go to sleep until 8am. It took months to correct that problem, and then after that, she had frequent night wakings, often every hour for four consecutive hours. She was still waking up for night feedings after turning a year old and even after being sleep trained to fall asleep on her own. Read more →

Are You Postponing Your Dreams?

Is there a dream you have been postponing in your life? Maybe you’ve written your dream off as pure fantasy or too far fetched? Or maybe there is a dream you really want to achieve, but something is stopping you from really going after it. What dreams are you postponing? And why?

Using Motherhood as a Reason For Postponing Dreams

For me, motherhood was the biggest reason I was using to postpone my dreams. As a mom, there were so many dreams I put on hold when I made my decision to have a baby. Having a baby was a dream in itself. I knew so many moms that had trouble conceiving that I knew it would be a blessing just to even have a baby. But, I also knew my life would change completely. I felt I had to make a choice…either have a baby or pursue my dream career. It would be difficult to do both, especially since I was just starting a new career path.

I ultimately decided that I was prepared to sacrifice everything in order to become a mom, at least for the short term. I wasn’t getting any younger, and I was determined to have kids by age 35. Learning about the risks of pregnancy after 35 and finding out what an amniocentesis was bolted me into deciding to have kids sooner than later. My dream job didn’t have such a biological timeline looming over my head.

It wasn’t an easy decision though. Deciding to become pregnant meant that I would have to give up on a lot of things–wine, coffee, and of course my favorite food sushi. It also meant putting my career on hold because I was just embarking on a new career path that didn’t even get a chance to materialize yet. Read more →

What Do You Need To Let Go To Create More Space in Your Life?

Most of us are living a life where we’re overwhelmed with to many thing to do, too many things demanding our attention, and not enough time to do the things that will bring us closer to our dreams. What is holding you back from creating a life you love?

Chances are, it could be all the “stuff” you are holding on to that is holding you back, physically, emotionally, and mentally. What do you need to let go of in order to create more space in your life?

In order for us to really feel free to pursue our dreams instead of putting it on the back burner, we need to clear our plate so that we can focus on the things that matter. Too often we are inundated with all the demands of life. If we don’t make space for our dreams, those things can often take over, leaving no room to do the things necessary for us to move forward towards our dreams!

What are you holding on to? Are you holding on to things that no longer serve you? Things you no longer use? Emotional baggage? Negative thoughts?

Your Environment is a Reflection of Your Internal State

Consider this for a moment. What does your physical environment say about where you are mentally?

As a student and former practitioner of feng shui, I have learned a great deal about our space and how it reflects what’s going on in our lives. When we have our lives together and in order, our physical space reflects that order in our environment. Our homes are clean, organized, and decorated to reflect the beautiful state we are living in.

When we are stressed, overwhelmed, and tired, our environment tends to reflect that too. The dishes pile up, little piles of clutter start forming, and we are usually too exhausted to clean up after ourselves. Read more →

How To Get Back on Track When You Reach a Roadblock

We all reach moments in our journey when we reach a roadblock. We feel really low because we feel stuck or an old problem resurfaces. Something might trigger you and upset you, as you are faced with an old problem from the past that has not yet been resolved. You might be chugging along fine and then all of a sudden… bam! Something happens that brings you into a downward spiral. It brings up lots of negative emotions, a lot of baggage, but also an opportunity to finally deal with the issue. Or maybe instead of hitting you like a ton of bricks, it’s a gradual process of you sinking deeper into an icky mood. You aren’t feeling like your usual self as doubt, worry, fear, depression, or another negative emotion creeps in and takes over. You’re upset as you realize you are not where you wanted to be.

It happens to all of us. These moments come up in our lives so that we can learn from them, address them and heal them. Until we face the situation and deal with it, the same problem will keep coming up in our lives. They sometimes appear in different forms, but it’s the same underlying issue that will repeat itself over and over until we address with the problem.

We’ve all had these experiences. Why do we have to revisit the same issue over and over again? It’s because life is giving us an opportunity to heal the wound or fix the problem once and for all. We need to learn the lesson, decide to make changes, and be brave enough and committed enough to face the issue head on, no matter how painful it may be. Only by sorting through the mess can we clean it up. The good news is that once you address it, heal it, and make changes for the future, the issue won’t come up again. Read more →

Receiving Healing from John of God – Part II

If you haven’t read Part 1 of my healing journey to visit John of God, I recommend you read that first before reading on.

My Results

I’m sure you’re curious about the results of the healing and if the herbs worked. For my husband and I, the herbs definitely did what we asked for. After my “invisible” surgery and revision, which took place a week after the surgery, I returned home and started eating my normal diet again. The bloating I had experienced was almost completely gone. I still had a mild case of lactose intolerance (common for those of Korean descent), but all of my bloating from fruits, breads, and other sugars were gone! That was good news! After three years of suffering from major digestive problems, it was such a relief to no longer have bloating problems anymore!

In addition to the physical healing of my digestive system, the day that I completed taking the herbs for my surgery was the last day of my old job. I don’t know if this was a coincidence, but it was just too closely tied to my herb taking schedule for me to consider it just a coincidence! The herbs were working.

If you remember, I was prescribed three sets of herbs. The first set of herbs were for my surgery in which I asked for physical healing for my digestive system. All was taken care of there.

The second set of herbs were prescribed after I asked for help finding my ideal career and my life purpose. The day that I finished my first set of herbs was the last day at my old job. You can read more about what I wrote the day before that last day here. The day that I started taking the second set of herbs was the day that I began my journey towards my new career path. Read more →