 I'm really excited to be here with Jen Yang. We are kindred spirits, and we wanted to talk about authenticity, among other topics, like what does it mean to be aligned with our souls, in our life, our work, et cetera. But first of all, Jen, welcome to this conversation. I'm really happy to have you here. And I'll just let you introduce yourself, however you want to say that today is great. My favorite part. Yeah, so I'm a, well, I'm a transformational mentor, a soul alignment practitioner. So I work with highly sensitive beings, mostly women, to help them tap into their intuitive soul's gifts. So they get to trust their decision-making power in different transitions in life. Yeah, I think that will just make it short. I like it, yeah, that's good. Okay, so we're going to talk about authenticity today, because while a lot of people who are watching this know that I talk about authentic business, authentic marketing all the time, I don't define authenticity. I don't remember the last time I defined authenticity or talked about that specifically on any of my videos. I think this would be quite interesting to people. But I, I'll say ladies first. Is there something that's particularly alive for you? Maybe you could share with us a little bit about your journey into this idea of authenticity. Why is it important to you? Yeah, how does it relate to your background? Okay, so then I need to kind of have this little flashback back to my feeling journey because I used to work in the corporate environment for many, many years. That was what, yeah, like before 2012, let's just say that. So a good decade or so trying to do the overachieving patterns and learn so many like people pleasing and learned it, you know, and then again, so many of us, especially highly sensitive beings, I mean, we've learned how to survive through the environment that's not really sensitive to the sensitive beings out there. So we need to operate from the place that feels inauthentic yet it helps us to survive, right? And so much compassion to that part of the past, whoever that shared the same past with me, so I lost my hearing one day back in 2012, end of 2012, I think around November or something. So it was a good, I would say a 10 year anniversary, a little bit over 10 years now for me to just kind of like settle in and really reflect back like, wow, the reason why this is just kind of a spiritual conclusion I've drawn upon is I lost my hearing due to the fact that I did not listen to my inner being. It's been calling me for so long, but I did not. I chose to numb it, I chose to escape from the inner calling. And then I, so ultimately I got spiritual spanking from the universe for good, lost my hearing for it. Well, glally is temporary. It's like three to four months. So I needed to recuperate my whole entire wellbeing and facing this like, wow, you know, who am I? I thought I knew myself, all that type of awakening syndrome. So that was the initial spiritual awakening for me. That's pretty scary though. I mean, because obviously you don't know if it's temporary or not. Right. And when did you get a sense that it was something deeper than just physical? I mean, that you focus on something that was a greater message? Of course, it did not happen till like a year or two later because I was so much into shock, like absorbing the shock as a highly sensitive person. I was like, WTF, what's going on with me? I mean, I tried my best, you know, and then, you know, I was trying to strive and try to do the things that I know, but how come it's not working out? And just a lot of venting, I guess, you know? And that time, I didn't even think about the worst soul. It was so far away from me, so far away from me. And so till the point when I really had to sit with the whole entire healing process, I really realized that, wow, you know, when I couldn't communicate with people, the only person, I used person that was able to communicate with the moon, I look at as a personified energy at the time. And I realized how much waning and waxing was going on, you know? And started to understand little by little, but then of course, till the point when I really allow myself to step into this feel of mentoring, it took me another couple of years. So I just have to say, healing journey is not like, oh yeah, you know, I got spiritual awakening and the next day I'm like, I know where my purpose is. It doesn't work that way. Too bad, it doesn't work that way. I think our soul understands, you know, the lifetime of our evolution or the journey of our evolution is, you know, we probably both believe this, like beyond this lifetime, right? And so it's a very, so you might even, I mean, a lot of people, you know, people kind of have this view of the eternity of the soul, say this lifetime is very short, right? And so if you think of it that way, a few years is just a moment, a blink of an eye in the soul's existence, right? Like, you could say you evolved quite quickly, right? I mean, imagine we're sitting here again and connecting where we're in the 60s or 70s. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. So again, like back to the story, it's like learning to kind of bring myself out of the old self, the human old self of, wow, I'm operating for so much fear, the fear of not belonging to, say, you know, my family culture or group of dynamics is, it's very, very humbling, it's very, very humbling because then I realized the importance of authenticity, but yet don't know how to get there. That's a very big dilemma for me at the time because, okay, so I'm going to be myself more and more and be true to myself, but I'm going to start triggering people because they expected me or social expectation again, expected any of us who are trying to break out of the mold, I just say the mold from the past. It really challenges to really stretch our courage, yeah, the courage level. And then so I was so afraid to own that capitalistic part of me, but which is a part of my nature. So meaning that, you know, when I'm speaking my truth, even my voice is shaking, I have to allow myself to just express. And that itself is really healing at the same time, very scary, very scary. So I remember like, you know, there's a post, also one of our Soul Tribe member, Tamsen shared with me the other day, that incredible post written by Elizabeth Gilbert, talking about shame, tribal shame. And I was like, oh my God, I can feel that poor wound in me because the tribal shame would be like, okay, now you want to be authentic, now you're doing things differently and now you're operating in a way people don't understand you. And then you're exceeding that social expectation of how people are viewing you, perceiving you now. The way you're going to get is you either get shame or you feel shame inside of you and that sometimes will pull you away from that truest calling, even though the intuition, I mean, at least since intuition is so sharp, we know there's not something that I need to hear towards, but still that tribal shame kind of pull you back. And you feel like, oh my God, what do I do? Sometimes I found myself probably sabotage myself several times due to the fear of not belonging. It's really deep. Yes, oh my gosh, it is. Yeah, but the fact of your awareness allows you to be stronger because you can now understand the dynamic and say, okay, I am stepping, well, you are. You are stepping outside the tribe's rules and expectations. Thankfully, there are certain tribes like family that always has to, you're always going to be family, right? Yes, yes, yes. And then there are other tribes like your company, right? Or the corporate culture where you are stepping, literally stepping out and endangering your livelihood, you know? Right. At the same time, you can also, and now we are stepping into a new tribe of, like you said earlier, the soul tribe where you create the kindred spirits around you that are also on a greater journey, the journey that you share as souls, right? There's some profound realization is that, what exactly authenticity is then. Still, I don't have a conclusion, but still I feel like since we have this body, human body with us, we are allowed to take up space where we have the right to take up space to really express ourselves in our own unique ways. So that was the reason why I talked to you about the tribal sheen because, okay, take up space, how I'm kind of like feeling like I have to tiptoeing myself, you know, walk on eggshells just in case I'm not gonna be banished. So again, like authenticity is so much to do with how do I allow myself to feel safe and safer and safer and safer more and more in my body and know that in this moment, I'm not being, I'm safe, there's no ones coming after me, you know, why am I so scared? So it's like those four legs of the chair, right? When we sit on the chair, we just say, we don't question it, can I sit on it? If I sit on it, am I gonna fell? Right? Am I gonna fall? No, we're not gonna fall because we have that 100% trust with that chair is gonna support us. And can we cultivate that same trust for ourselves? So when we're being authentic with who we are, we don't need to explain, there's no need to explain but just to fully be here and connect on that place of the heart because or else it'll come from here. It knows so well how to project, so well. Really, really beautifully said. I'm gonna have to reflect on that too but I really love this, you know, analogy of a chair and it's like, can we trust our higher self? Sort of, can we trust the universe? Can we trust that relationship or that context to express authentically, truthfully, to express from the whole entire being and not just from here and kind of like protecting ourselves, right? It's such a good question. Yeah, I'm so glad we're having this discussion because it is, you know, for everyone listening to this watching this, like, be aware of the next conversation you're in or the next time you show up, whether you are just using the, I guess the ego's protection of, you know, don't wanna take too much risk, don't wanna take too much space. Like you said, I think it's brilliant that you said, we have this body, we are taking up space just by being alive, we're taking up space, we're taking air, you know, we're taking up space in a room or whatever and any room we walk into and you're right, you're right. That is a nice symbol to say, well, and by the way, our soul is so much bigger, you know, in our opinion, right, than the body. It's like the soul, yeah, so this is really good. And so, okay, so maybe continue with the story or complete the story, like you, yeah. So anyway, so following my guiding post, the inner intuition, the compass, I had to continue to make mistakes without losing faith. Let's just put it this way, rather than say, oh, I'm gonna make the right choice every time since I follow my intuition. No, it doesn't work halfway either because mistakes are here for a reason. And so again, as you have been witnessing my path, learning to kind of allowing my next layers of, you know, what doesn't belong anymore to just drift it away, I'm more connected to the path of the soul alignment. And whenever you feel like, oh yeah, I'm soul aligned. So does that mean that I don't make any mistakes? You do, you still do. We will continue to make mistakes because that's the necessary ingredient, the ingredient for us to really evolve because we almost stays weak. It's kind of hard for human being to evolve, I think, yeah. Is everything just like easy-peasy? I mean, what is courage then? We don't need that. What is trust then? You don't need that. Wow, yeah. It's so interesting, yeah. Because, yeah, authenticity requires the trust and the courage. And like you're saying, why do we need the trust and the courage? Because mistakes or unexpected responses will be there and maybe a lot of the time. It's like you express, you try, you come outside the typical small comfort zone and you express authentically. And then it's not, you don't get the acceptance sometimes or the embrace that you expected, that you hoped for. And so what does that mean? Do you then crawl back into the shell of protection? And sometimes we need to for a little while, but it's like maybe there's a bigger foundation for us to rest into. And that's, I'm just gonna add a little bit. Yeah, please, please. So I feel like when you just brought up so beautifully, it's like, okay, so now you see the brutal reality that no one's gonna accept you, right? What now, right? And then that's the reason why I feel the bridge to our soul alignment. It's about self-love. How deep are you willing to go into that, I really have to say darkness, darkness of self-acceptance or self-compassion? Normally we don't like to go to that place. I know a lot of highly sensitive beings who are so spiritual, they're so kind and in nature, but they have a really hard time to embrace themselves with that acceptance and compassion. They can give a lot of compassion to other people, but not themselves. So that's also why I find it so vitally important that to be more in our soul alignment, in our element basically, soul alignment is pretty much in our element, our soul's makeup, our element. We really have to allow self-love to emerge. And self-love is a general term. There's a lot of aspect that we have to cover, right? It's like awareness, empowerment. Are you going to empower yourself when you're going down? How can we take care of ourselves? Or how can we have a playful heart even when we're in the midst of confusion, right? And all of those aspect are part of self-love. Yeah, this is so profound. I mean, you have, I think you've been reflecting and working on this much deeper and more than most people that I know. So it's really amazing to hear it. Okay, so let's, we've talked about authenticity, touched on this. We're now moving into this topic of soul alignment. And I want to hear you talk more about this because soul alignment can mean different things, different people. And I want to know, how do you define that and kind of maybe walk us through a little bit of the map of it? Like what's involved with what you call the soul aligned way? So what's involved with these different pieces of if the soul alignment is in the center, what's involved here? Okay, thank you for asking this because I feel like since my awakening stage all the way up to this point talking with you, I feel like I've been searching for this too myself and still learning, still learning. So I feel soul alignment is not just a term, it can be ground and a being practical. So number one, just looking at ourselves as we're human but we're also a soul in this body driving this vehicle, doing what we're here to do, experiencing, experimenting things. So we get to receive the wisdom that we're able to accumulate for our soul's growth and now we get to carry on to the next, the invisible, the mystical cycle to life, right? If you're believing reincarnation, that's another thing. But when I didn't cover that. So soul alignment basically is about, it's not about, oh yeah, we have this soulful connection and everything is just so rainbows and unicorns. It's not that, but it's more about I'm a human. I realize that I'm a human rather than so, okay, let's go to the soul and we forgot everything and we spiritual bypass everything, right? But then because we got deep knowing of you are a soul. So how do you connect with that truth in your everyday life? Because only what everyday can provide us is this truth of practicality without everyday the mundane. There's no way we're able to allow our human to experiment or to go through life, right? So everyday mundane life is very, very important even cleaning the toilet or washing the dishes, yelling at your kids. There all can be part of the soul alignment way. Because when we are feeling off, then we know, oh, guess what? There's another way back over there. It's 180 degree over there. It's using it as a pivot moment for us to reflect like, oh, yeah, okay, I'm away from my soul. So the reason why I've been so passionate into the soul alignment is because we cannot forget that we are a soul. We just have this, you know, neat flesh body, you know, flesh and blood, but we're here to connect with the essence of that childlike innocence when we are going through the day-to-day life. Even when we're making mistakes, can I allow myself to be more gentle because your soul wants to experience what gentle feels like? It's all in the invisible. It's not about the goals that care. Your soul doesn't care about the goal. Your soul doesn't care about the to-dos. Your soul cares about, how do I experience this thing called marketing, for example, then I know, oh, wow, authenticity is really important. I want to learn about authenticity. So it doesn't care about care about marketing, honestly. But our human self cares about marketing. Give me that formula so I can follow it. But the soul is like, let me just try to understand what authentic means so I can just allow this marketing thing just naturally being carried out rather than just, let me fix myself in a way people get my message. Yeah. So first of all, this conversation has blessed me with more and more light as you can see and the afternoons sound as well. The afternoon sound also helps. So this is amazing. And it's such a good point about how ultimately it comes down to the day-to-day moments and to using the moments as a way, like you said, is to pivot as tools to pivot and come back and goals. You write goals. Yeah, the soul says, we have eternity and don't worry so much about that. And there's a much deeper meaning here and a much higher purpose here. And yes, continue to wash your dishes, clean the toilets, do your marketing. And there's also the soul alignment is really why we're here. And this is so great. So amazingly, the time has already flown by but I wanna make sure people know what do you offer? What do you, how do you support your clients in the soul aligned way? Oh, okay. So a newly created program that I just announced is called the Soul Aligned Way. So way is wildly authentically new. So meaning that- W-A-Y, wildly authentically you. I love that. That's great. So, which is actually giving me permission as well that we get to do something that's just out of the box because our soul wants to know new things. So it gets to expand. Sometimes you'll shock yourself like, do I just do that? But it's okay because your soul wants to play. So this program is for any kinder spirits who are already on this path and then they feel the need to connect with the soul more and more on the daily basis. So they don't feel like, yeah, I understand that connecting, creating from that inner landscape can manifest outwards but somehow still feeling like it's kind of going backwards. I'm not manifesting, do you see? But I just want to allow people to experience the Soul Aligned Way. So they understand that they are powerful beings. All they have to do is to align to their soul's element. So here is something that I love to do is also allowing my own essence which is on the psychic medium. So I channeled from the Akashic record to receive their soul's essences. So based on those soul essences, how about taking small or large doesn't matter, your soul align actions every single day in different various aspects of your life, with your family, how are you going to use your soul essences to boost up that vitality, harmony with your family? What about your business? What about your relationship with people? Like we can play it all. So I'm just going to leave it as is. Yeah, really good, really good. And of course there is information below this video to learn more about Jen's, you know, how to work with Jen. And Jen is also active on social media and of course I'll put the links below as well. Thank you for this time, Jen, and for blessing us with these perspectives and this settling in more and more to our soul and our authenticity. So thank you so much. Thank you, thank you so much, George. Thank you, everyone.