 Hi, everyone. Welcome. Welcome, welcome, special. Welcome to all the students and teachers who are joining us today. My name is Christy and I'm a librarian for the San Francisco Public Library. Before we begin, I would like to acknowledge that I am in San Francisco, California on the unceded land of the Roman Tush Aloni peoples, and I would like to offer this land acknowledgement. We acknowledge that the land where we are gathered today is the traditional land of the Roman Tush Aloni people. We must give thanks and respect to the Aloni people by taking care of the earth, the animals, and to one another. We acknowledge that non-Aloni residents are guest on this occupied land and we are grateful for the opportunity to live, learn, and play here today. We promise to uplift and respect the Aloni people, their history, and their work. We invite you to look in the chat and tell us where you're tuning in from. If you'd like to learn more about native land, check our chat feed as well. Moving on, I want to let you know about a special event happening this Saturday at the virtual event with a K-pop dance studio with Ray Studios here in San Francisco. Get moving to choreography from some of your favorite K-pop idols such as Twice, BTS, Blackpink, and more. You don't want to miss this, so RSVP so you can join us on Zoom. And we're gearing up for Summer Stride. This is the largest literacy campaign that we present in our community, and we are so thrilled to be working in partnership with Chronicle Books and Mini Fan. She's our artist of all things Summer Stride this year, and she's going to be doing a special art talk. She's an Oakland-based Vietnamese-American illustrator, and we are so delighted to be in partnership with her. So check it out. You can always check out what's happening at your library on our public website for upcoming events in person and virtual and hybrid. And you can also find amazing books by inspiring women, artists, and more. Thank you again for being with us today. We are hosting this program that touches on both weaving stories, our libraries, celebration of Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, and also Mental Health Awareness Month. And we are delighted to be in partnership with Linda Calhoun. Let me do a proper introduction with Linda. She's been our partner for over a year bringing virtual professional development and bringing members of her phenomenal collection of resources of women who are doing inspiring things all around the world. And she, with her leadership and work with career girls, she has brought together the largest online collection of career guidance videos focusing on diverse and accomplished women. They are equally phenomenal and we're so delighted to have her curate today's panel. So without further ado, I present Linda Calhoun with Career Girls. Thank you, Christy. I know we were having a little bit of an issue with Echo and Playback, but it is wonderful to partner with you and your colleagues at San Francisco Public Library. And I'm delighted to be in conversation with the successful entrepreneurs from the modern community. Thank you, Christy. I know we were having a little bit of an issue with Echo and Playback, but it is wonderful. Linda, do you happen to have your YouTube open? You might want to close it because it's repeating. One second in conversation with the successful entrepreneurs from the modern community. Sorry about that, everyone. Just a little snafu with our Playback here. So once again, thank you, Christy. It's wonderful to partner with you and your colleagues at San Francisco Public Library. And I'm delighted to be in conversation with the successful entrepreneurs from the modern community. I'm excited for today's conversation on mindfulness and self care. And I'd like to briefly introduce our panel members. You can also see their full bios in the program description. Next, let me introduce Kazua Zhang, who is an entrepreneur who seeks to inspire, heal, and move for clients in the direction of their piece. And as a yoga coach, Kazua's goal is to teach yoga, meditation, and mindfulness practices in an intuitive and playful way, leaving participants curious to learn more about their body. For 350 hours of learning that includes yoga movements, breathwork, meditation, and yogic philosophy, Kazua seeks to integrate this ancient wisdom to help modern day professionals slow down and to live more. Leah Yang, who is a dip nails expert and CEO of the Leah living life collection of dip products. Leah believes all women should have some glassy shine confidence in their lives. She is also the founder of the glassy shine fast track program where she coaches professional women on how to do their own dip nails from home with salon quality results. She also teaches a monthly nail art masterclass to give her clients options on nail art, and she's been in the nail industry for over 10 years, doing a variety of nail services. So welcome to you both. So I'd like to begin our conversation with both of you sharing with our audiences, a bit more about what it is that you do, and why it's important to you, and how your work aligns with your values. Whoever would like to start. Thank you so much Linda, and to the San Francisco public library for giving us this opportunity to be here with all of you today. My name is casual. And more of all the work that I do, I teach yoga meditation breathwork, specifically to mothers, and so mothers are very overwhelmed with a lot of responsibilities we all know that. So I give them an opportunity and to help them to give permission to themselves to relax to rest so that they can show up and be more present with their family with their jobs. So it can be better, better mothers for you and, and a better friend, and a better boss. And so right now that is the line of work that I'm in. And all of this aligns with my value because I wish that when I was a middle school or high school or that somebody would have taught me how to come back to my breath when I have anxiety or when I'm stressed out and there's that I have to do and there's, I did not know how to calm down my nerves and so sometimes, you know, which is in my head I bomb, I bomb it right like it was just a horrible presentation but I really wish I would have learned a lot of these techniques earlier on to really respect my body to really give my body. The respect that it deserves for all that it does for me. And so my value is that my goal in life is to live in peace, ease, and love. So, and that's what I embody and that's what I share with, with who I come in contact with in my life. Oh, you have to repeat that again. What was it peace, beauty and love. Peace, ease, and love. Perfect. Thank you. Leah, for you, the same question tell us a little bit more about what you do. And how it aligns with your values. Hi, yes. My name is Leah Yang and I do dip nails. If you don't know what that is, is a nail enhancement product like gels and acrylics. And so I provide the service in my studio, the products I carry in my online store. And now I have a program where I coach everyday busy women how to do dip nails for themselves. And so my work is important to me because getting your nails done is just like putting on makeup or doing your hair. It gives you that boost of confidence right. And so you feel good when you take care of yourself. And that feeling increases your self esteem, whether you are just going to a job interview, meeting someone new or going out with your girlfriends, you know, that good feeling on the inside it shows up in your experience and your attitude. And so that's what I call glassy shine confidence. And so I do your dip nail once and then you have that glassy shine confidence for two to three weeks. And so doing nails and finding a way to express myself through no R is a creative outlet for me. And so getting your nails done is a form of self care because you are grooming your nails. And I love helping women keep that routine. The reason why I focus my work on dip products is they're not as harsh on your nails and can keep your natural nails strong and healthy. And so, you know, I believe that you shouldn't have to sacrifice your healthy nails for nail enhancement. And so, you know, as part of my program, the glassy shine fast track, I educate my client on no care to you know and not just the application process because I really want to empower these women to be able to take care of their nails at their convenience. And this way they can do their nails as a creative outlet for themselves for their self expression and maybe, you know, make this part of their self care routine. Thank you for that. And, because of what, you know, it's my understanding that mindfulness, you know, recognizes and cultivates the best of who we are as human beings. And you spoke to it in your previous answer in terms of defining mindfulness, mindfulness, but can you also talk to us about the role it plays in your yoga practice and how our audience can, you know, cultivate that in their yoga practice. Thank you. Mindfulness is a practice that helps us to come back to our center. So I think for a lot of us, we have no idea what that even means or what that even feels like. And so on the yoga mat, you get the chance to, to feel that you get the chance to experience. What is the language of your body. What is your body telling you today. And too often we're so busy we're stressed out that we don't have the chance to pause and to tune in and listen. Is it my shoulders. Is it my, my low back. What's hurting. Is it my headache what's really bothering me. And so mindfulness, I would explain it this way that it is catching ourselves in that moment. And finding coming back to the center. So if you think about a seesaw, right. A lot of the times, sometimes not a lot of the times but sometimes we spend too much time, we're off balance, right, and too much time we're in that negative self talk. And so the mindfulness is catching yourself and and say, wow, I am spiraling down on this negative self talk that I'm not pretty enough. I'm not smart enough. I'm not good enough. And, and, and if you don't catch yourself, then you spiral down. And so on that seesaw what we want to do is balance it out. And then we come back to the center. So when I talk about the center, I can give you that visualization. But on the yoga mat, when you're, we're not just stretching. We're not just doing like crow pose and handstands right. It's really coming back to your center, and everyone experiences their center differently, but you have to sit still enough to understand what the center is, and then applying all of that off the mat. When you are going to do that presentation and then you start, you, you, you feel you're feeling off balance that negative self talk is really loud. So what do you do, right, you, you counter that with something positive like I've done this before. I'm smart. I'm a great speaker. And then that seesaw becomes balanced and you're in the center again. So that is mindfulness is catching yourself in these moments, so you can come back. And in yoga we use the breath to come back. And the breath really nourishes the entire nervous system. And it brings us back to our, to ourself and to remembering that we are enough. Thank you, Kazawa. That was absolutely beautiful and such great advice for all of us. Leah, can you talk to our audience about the importance of self care. I love that Kazawa had us, you know, you're focusing on the self and you through the work that you do your business. I believe you have a way to have us honor ourselves. Yes. So, you know, when you take time to do your, your nails. You're really just focusing on that one aspect. And so kind of like what Kazawa was saying about mindfulness is at that moment, you're not thinking about other other things that are going on in your life. You know, you're really just taking the time out for yourself and doing that one thing for you. So in a society, you know, where most of us we work five days a week and, and typically we only get two days of rest. It seems like we're always on the go. You know, even on our rest day, we are busy. We're always doing something for someone or have somewhere to be. And just hearing me say this. It already sounds exhausting, doesn't it? So, you know, when you don't stop to rest and take care of yourself, then it can affect your mental and physical and even spiritual health in a negative way. And so it has been clinically proven that making time to practice a self care routine can reduce stress, depression, anxiety and frustration. So it can lower the risk of cancer, heart diseases and stroke. And so, you know, that's talking about your, your mental health and your physical health by not taking time to do self care. And so with regular self care practice, you know, some benefits that you can notice in your life is better concentration, maybe more energy. It can help you improve your mood and even make you feel happier. Right. So, you know, you know, most importantly, you know, taking that time to do a little self care. And actually doing something just for you will help relieve the pressure of everyday life of that on the go, you know, busy, busy, busy all the time. And it kind of just bring you back to a healthy mental state of mind where you can continue to do the things that you, you know, that you have to do at maximum productivity. Oh, thank you for that, Leah. And, you know, understanding the importance of mindfulness and the role that it plays in self care. Can you share some tips because to your point Leah, and this is a question for both of you, you know, how can you develop how can our audience start to develop some of the habits that would support mindfulness and self care. So, you know, self care is anything that you can do to take care of your mental, physical or spiritual well being. It could just be, you know, 10 minute walk, or, you know, 30 minute meditation, an hour long bath, you know, it's just whatever that you enjoy doing for you. Just make sure that you know I know that we're so busy and a lot of time we don't make time to really do the self care right. A lot of time we're just on in front of the TV watching something or on our, you know, electronics and playing games and that's not really self care self care should be intentional. And so I feel like it benefits you the most if you practice it every day. Even if you're really busy and you don't have time to schedule in like an hour or 30 minutes to do your self care routine. Maybe you can find five minutes here and five minutes there, you know, just doing, being mindful of that and doing it intentionally, even for just five minutes here and there, you know, it's still better than not doing anything at all. I would just like to add to that. You know, I think a lot of the times when people think about meditation, they tend to think that it's very difficult, and they tend to think that they have to sit there and like, quiet their entire mind, right. And so even if you've never done meditation before I invite you to just practice. And what that looks like is just preparing a location in your room. It doesn't need to be a big space at all. You don't even need a yoga mat. Just grab a pillow, a cushion and place it there. Or look at the corner or look at a wall or something, right, look at something beautiful. You can look or you can close your eyes. And for you to just visually see that cushion on the floor. Your mind is going to make the connection like oh yeah that is my mindfulness spot. Oh yeah I should just go sit down and just take a time out right take a break for a little bit. And so that would be my advice that it can be very simple, very, very simple and if you have that place, and it's ready to go, you will remember. As you see it you'll remember to go sit down and just close your eyes and just come back and pay attention to your brass. You can start there. And I want to pick up on this practice, this meditation that you're just speaking to, and can you share with our audience some of the benefits. They'll feel it, but if you can identify in the work that you do, what you've seen, how this benefits the practitioner. The biggest benefits that I've seen is calming down the nervous system. I think a lot of the times our mind is really loud. It's really loud. It tells us a lot of things, things that we can't control things. Just a lot of sometimes negative sometimes positive. And so what the breath work does and that's what's used in a lot of the meditation is to control the breath. So for example, inhaling for a count of five, holding the breath for five, exhaling for another count of five, something very simple like that. And if you can't go five, just go one, two, three, and then hold for three and then exhale for three. What you're doing there is you are calming your, and balancing out remember we talked about see so you're balancing out the nervous system. So the nervous system is your fight and your flight, versus your rest and digest. And so we live in a world where we're always like anxious and we have the anxiety and just nervousness. And then we continue to just do things that will feed on to that, that parasympathetic nervous system that fight or flight, that we never give the chance for our parasympathetic nervous system, the part of us that wants to rest and just digest and just be. We were so off balance internally and energetic wise. And so the breath really just nourishes the entire body. And you don't even need to know just notice that are you breathing from your chest, or are you breathing all the way from your belly all the way up to your lungs. And if you just pause, you will start to notice, you will start to pay attention. And, and once, once the nervous system is balanced, you have, you show up differently. I can promise you that you will show up differently to your friends to your teachers to your parents, right. You will be more calm, more patient. You will respond instead of reacting, because we live in that fight or flight we're always reacting like no one understands me. No one gets me right. And so when we when we pay attention to our breath and really take care of what's happening on the inside, then we can respond. And when we respond we have time. So we can be more kind. We can actually think through about what we want to say and what we're thinking. And so I promise that once you start being more mindful of your breath, and you take some time to practice, just silencing everything and just resting your body. You are going to show up differently. And then your friends will start to notice and your teachers will start to notice your parents will start to notice. There's a sense of calmness around you and people want to be around you you have, you'll be attractive in terms of energetic wise. So, give it a try. So true. I mean, as you were speaking, I think, you know, it also allows others to also find that place of calm. So it's, it's contagious, not only are you, you know, being mindful and benefiting yourself, but it's a benefit to others. So thank you so much for for sharing that response with us. I want to ask you about becoming an entrepreneur. Why did you decide to become an entrepreneur and what's the best part of it for you. So, I decided to become an entrepreneur because, honestly, I just wanted to have control of the work that I do. And I wanted to control my time. So I was making, you know, women's nails, beautiful in the salon. My own nails for being neglected. And so I wasn't, you know, too happy when I was working under another salon. But once I, you know, decided that I was going to start my own business and start working for myself. I really just focus on the nail service that I believed in. And I pursue my dream of making dip nails available for all women, and not just the ones who were able to who are able to go into the salons. And now that, you know, I can create my own self care routine and do my nails every two weeks. The best part of being an entrepreneur is the satisfaction of serving my clients well. And knowing that, you know, my client appreciate the the know how of nail care that is usually provided by a professional. But now they can do it for themselves. And that is rewarding to me. I love it this empowerment theme, all the way through, you know, in terms of empowering yourself and then also giving that gift to clients and your customers. Thank you. You know, we are in Asian American Pacific Islander celebration month. But, you know, we were all aware that there's significant discrimination against Asian American Pacific Islanders, and especially violence targeted towards women in your community. What I would like to know is do you have advice for allies people who who want to support and the community and understand that this this violence and discrimination is completely unacceptable. How can we be better allies. I think the first thing I would like to share is within ourself being that stepping into that leader of who we are and developing compassion and understanding what compassion really is and what it feels like in our own body and understanding rest understanding self love and what it feels like so taking ownership of that and doing the work and our self and our bodies. And then also reaching out to any of our API community friends and I think a lot of it starts at home, you know, and so for, for those of you who you know just just a really quick example here that maybe just invite your neighbor over for a barbecue and just getting to know each other as human beings and not, you know, that, you know, we are Asian or there's different race or cultures it's just a connect find that connection as humans and reach out extended invitation and just say hey neighbor you know go knock on their doors. And I know that sometimes it might take a few tries, because I can speak for my family and myself that we don't open the door for strangers even though they are our neighbors. We don't talk to each other. And I think that's the one thing that's really missing is, let's have more communication let's have more connection, and that could just be through that could be through food right like we all connect through food. Instead of having your Asian friend or your mom friend make those a girls for you. You know, we will love to share a recipe anytime, but instead of that just, you know, I feel like within the API community there's a lot of giving we give give give give. It's a great month for us to take. And so, if you want an ally, just be just remind just give that reminder like hey it's okay for you to rest. It's okay you don't have to cook this time you don't have to make your a girls this time. Come over and enjoy our barbecue. Come say come to swim in our family pool like whatever it is you know just extend the invitation and really help us feel seen. Help us feel seen that we're not just these invisible people hiding in our house or like making sure we're what you know we're looking over our shoulders when we're walking on the streets or into public spaces but just make eye contact smile. Hello. I think these are very simple things that we can all do as humans to have that connection. And I think one of the biggest thing is, is Asians and I know I can speak for myself specifically it's just feeling that sense of invisible like just being invisible. Kindness is a language that we can all understand. And so extending that to your neighbors extending that to your friends and just acknowledge and say ask how are you doing. And just reach out. You know, I'm just going to trail off of what cause was said because I do believe that changes start, you know, from the inside with a person. But I would also like to say that you know racial violence is, is nothing new. We've seen it happen to different groups throughout history. And I believe that you know if our allies, if they speak up against the violence and just remind our society that violence has never resolved any racial issues, or benefit the community as a whole. You know we need to remind our society that underneath the skin color and the cultural differences. We are all the same. You know, we're all going, you know, we all went through the pandemic together, and us Asians, we've suffered and sacrificed just like every other race. You know, nothing was special about us Asian during that time. And so, so yeah, I believe that you know, just speak up. It should be heard if you see someone, you know, create creating the violence or acting upon that you know, be brave enough to say hey you know that's not right. Don't don't do that. I love it. I mean this focus on really acknowledging and amplifying our common humanity and being seen. And if you see something, say something. Thank you for that. And, you know, how does resiliency in this very stressful time for all of us, but particularly in the face of the discrimination we just talked about, how does resiliency show up for you for each of you individually, and also you're both leaders in the Hmong community. You know how do you draw strength from the Hmong community. So, for me, I feel like you just have to keep going. You know it doesn't matter what your situation is or what happened. You have to keep trying. You have to survive. You just have to, you know, wake up every day and be your best and do your best. You just got to keep going. For me, I draw my strength from my Hmong community through seeing that, you know, as a new business, I'm trying to break out into mainstream America market. And, you know, it's not happening as fast as I would love it to be, but yet, you know, I do see that my own Hmong community, they notice me, that they see me and that they support me. And so I'm very grateful for them to support, to get their services, to order their products from me. You know, I'm thrilled. I'm so happy that at least I can start there with my own Hmong community and then grow from there. Thank you. Yeah, real resiliency is requires self awareness, so that we can catch ourselves and have that bounce back. And so having that bounce back is really important and I think that's why establishing some type of self care routine establishing some type of meditation routine is so helpful so we can go sit and meditate and bounce back to come back to our center. And resiliency from what I draw from my community is, is the fact that we have made it all these years of these, by not having a place to call home I think what it bounds us together is, is that everywhere we are we are home. So that sense of resiliency that we belong to each other, and I think that connects to beyond my Hmong community. I think for someone who was born and raised as a home person and to know that there's no home to return to. This is home to me. And all of you were all part of this together. The most beautiful thing that has been gifted to me as a home person is to understand that. It's beautiful. And I'm within your community and beyond. How do you see providing leadership, what's what's sort of your approach to being the leaders that you are. I hope that, you know, by, by, you know, pursuing my passion and turning that into a business. I hope to inspire, you know, young girls, especially those in the home communities and those girls who, who, you know, may not want to go to a four year university right that, you know, they can look into the beauty industry as a rewarding career choice to you know, every month inside my dip DIY dip group I host a dip and sip party. And, you know, I hold that virtual space for women to come together to do their nails, drink their favorite beverage and just have a conversation no judgment, you know, it's just a time for you to make for yourself and do that nails. You know, I'm doing other women. And so this is how I am making space for self care for other women. And being a leader. Thank you and a role model. The next question is, I came from education so I was previously an educator. And I think the best thing that I did for myself and also to kind of set that example for my students was, it's okay, you can change path. And just because you went to college for one thing doesn't mean that you have to do that for the rest of your life. And it's okay and and to do something completely different. It's okay if people say bad things about you it's okay people don't support you. If you're following your heart and your intuition, and your body is relaxed when you're doing this, then you are on the right path. And, you know, I think that that in itself is leadership that we don't have to stay in something that makes us unhappy in my bringing the money. We might have a lot of joy in it too but if it's not fulfilling a purpose at that time it's okay to change career. That's such amazing insight, because what I'm hearing and what I hope the audience is taking away is, you know, what you do the work that you promote, it's allowing you to be able to know who you are. And know what it is that you want to do and be able to stay the course from the work that you would get from mindfulness and a meditation practice. It really gives you power. So I appreciate the fact that you're you're helping all of our audience be able to discover their own personal power to live the life that they would like to live. Now I want to since I have you here, Leah. Can you share any of the tips on the latest trends and nail colors and manicure. I, you know, I was doing this program with you today so I definitely stepped up my nail game, but for our audience what's trendy what's on point. Right now, people are loving the almond and the cotton shaped nails. They're also into the jelly light colors. Some people like it and some people don't but that is one of the trend is the jelly color kind of like a glass, like a color see glass you kind of see through. And also, a lot of the Korean and Japanese nail styles are trending right now in the United States too. Great, thank you. And Kazawa, you spoke about it a little bit but can you share with our audience your go to breathing exercise when you are stressed or anxious. What's the thing that you do to take that right away. We call alternate nostril breathing. So, here we can all practice together just use your finger cover the layer covering the right nostril, exhale left. And then and sorry, inhale left, which finger, exhale, inhale right switch, exhale left, inhale left. Switch, exhale right. One more time and now right switch, exhale left. And then after you do that you just close your eyes and notice. And so I highly recommend alternate nostril breathing before any presentation before taking a test before asking someone else to prom. No one needs to know what you just did and then go in with that confidence. Great. And we have about another minute before our conversation has to come to a close unfortunately. But my last question for each of you is what advice would you give to anyone watching this conversation. You know, this, I would say love yourself. Because, you know, this is something that I have learned later on in my life and I wish that I had started loving myself a lot sooner. Because there's happiness and and health, well being wellness that come from loving yourself and doing practicing self care. So remember to do that. Okay. Thank you, Leah. I would say stay curious. And the reason why I say that is because the reason why I come to my, my cushion my, my mat every day is because I'm curious. What is my body going to reveal to me today what is, where's my mind at. How am I breathing. I'm curious about my own self, my own well being. So being curious will lead you to explore meditation yoga, explore self care like Leah has mentioned. And so stay curious. Awesome. Well, thank you both for this phenomenal conversation. There's so many so much good information that you've shared and the spirit of generosity of which you shared it comes through so thank you. I would add my thank you to Linda for guiding this program along and creating this extraordinary panel. I feel so cared for and so nurtured by listening to the wisdom of Kaizoa and Leah and just the self care and now I want to get my nails done. Now they are on trend but more, more importantly, I participated in the last breathing exercise and I just, I feel different in my body so thank you for that experience and something I'm going to bring forward. It was an incredible opportunity. We're so grateful to be with you in this global space and thank you everyone for tuning in. If you enjoyed this. Watch it again share it with your friends and families read the word about this opportunity to really connect with your body and be more in touch with with being your full self. So we have lots and lots of virtual events coming up and more in person so check our library's website and with that. Thank you, Linda, Kaizoa, Leah and our audience today. We'll see you again soon. Take care everyone.