F*ck Saving Face

Marie Bigham, founder and Executive Director of ACCEPT, talks about her early childhood — she shares what it was like to grow up biracial in predominantly white environments, as well as how shocking it was when she realized at one point that her mother raised her and her brother differently, because one of them looks more white. We’ll talk about gender and racial equity when it comes to the colleg...

In this episode, I cover how my Asian parents don’t understand why I’d send my young daughter to a hippie school where grades don’t matter. They’re concerned that the Waldorf education won’t get her into a good college, and when I challenge them, I share how essential I believe it is to have social-emotional skills. Find out what else in life is important... other than straight A+s. Hopefully, thi...

If you've been following this week, we've been really focusing on joy and how to create more of it — especially if you were raised in rigid traditional environments that maybe didn't align with how you are as a person and who you want it to be. This is a sweet & fun little practice! For more show notes and links to the things we mention, visit the blog : https://www.fcksavingfac...

In this first three-person interview on the show, Judy Tsuei gets into a fun discussion with illustrator-writer sister duo, Sabrina and Eunice Moyle, of Hello! Lucky — a woman-owned and operated design studio based in San Francisco, CA.  The sister duo grew up in Asia and Africa, along with the United States, and all three women gather together to talk about self-care, self-compassion, compassion...

In this episode of F*ck Saving Face, I share my own intimate story about my relationship with my mother and the childhood environment I grew up in with the hopes that we understand that we can indeed stop intergenerational trauma and perpetuating toxic family cultures. You have the power to create a joyful life filled with continuous snippets of happy, even if that's not what you were raised...

Today's practice is a reminder that everything is always working out for you. Everything through forces, both seen and unseen. You may not know what that is. It may appear on the surface that things are not quite aligned to how you would like them to look. But your perspective is one perspective and there's a greater broader perspective.  This episode is especially for you if you're...

In this episode with Re Perez, CEO and Founder of Branding for the People, we talk about finding your own way, what it's like to not only pursue an entrepreneurial path – which can be very lonely at times – but also how to live authentically as a gay Asian American man in both personal and professional settings. We also uncover how to have the confidence, resilience, tenacity and skills to go...

We’re talking about entrepreneurialism this week — especially because it can fly in the face of what traditional Asian parents want for us, which is usually to become a doctor and a lawyer. What do you do if you realize you’re not made for normal, if you’re yearning for “out of bounds,” if you’re looking to live true to your wild nature when you weren’t raised to believe that being different is ok...

Everything is an act of love or a call for love. Today’s mindfulness practice is designed to help you heal your relationships: the relationship you have with your parents, the ones who set the model of what a relationship you thought had to look like; the relationship with a partner, someone that you either are currently with or you are no longer with; or, even a friendship or a professional conne...

Hear from Vietnamese American Christopher Vo, Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, who's essentially a unicorn — he's an Asian American male in the field of mental and emotional health. He's the Chief of Operations of the Asian Mental Health Collective and listen to the end to see what resources there are available to you for whatever your budget. We're all imperfect people...

As a culture, we need to redefine what a “successful relationship” is — sometimes, that includes leaving. In this episode, you’ll hear about how deeply the belief “staying together, especially for your child” is the right thing to do in my Chinese upbringing was. You’ll also hear a snippet of my internal conflict, and how I had to battle what I thought was “wrong” to do what is truly right for mys...

How do you get clear about what it is that you're feeling? How do you embrace who you are to clearly express that to the world? Today's mindfulness practice is focused on allowing all of who you are to shine through. It’s Pride Month and I've always held so much respect for people who come out. I believe that to do so, you have to commit to living authentically. It takes bravery and...

It's Pride Month, so I'm excited to share an interview with Ayoto Ataraxia, an artist who has worked as a director, writer, performing artist, producer, poet and musician — in this episode, we speak about: Sex positivity/sex negativity Exploring sexual identity, homophobia and being queer Figuring out “Asian-ness" and being scared to go into the hard topics Shamanic practices &...

It's Pride Month and in this episode, you'll hear about how I had a huge crush on my gay director at Neutrogena, when my daughter realized that her  ayis were married to one another, and why I honor and celebrate anyone who's come out, because I believe the journey to embracing yourself and how you identify – regardless of what the world tells you is right or wrong – is a brave and...

While our episode began as a chat about guilt and shame around finances, because Anna Yen is a CFA with nearly 2 decades of experience spanning financial markets, cryptocurrencies, and digital marketing – and she's an investor and financial wellness expert at FamilyFI , working to empower families with financial literacy – we really dove into what it meant to battle guilt and shame from outsi...

This week's theme covers two main emotions that Asian Americans grapple with – shame & guilt – but, these feelings will be explored in unconventional ways. We'll explore how to move into a growth mindset around money, especially if you were raised with immigrant parents who had high amounts of debt, as well as what to do when your collectivist culture believes that having a child wit...

If you're used to be being accommodating, people-pleasing, or saving face rather than saying what you really want or feel, it's helpful to practice different ways of finding your voice. And, rather than approaching it from a headspace, but rather from a heart space with the techniques shared in this episode (journaling, breathing, mantras, and singing), you can start to find more confide...

According to my interview with therapist Sharon Kwon , the biggest emotions Asian Americans deal with is guilt and shame — can this play into your medical care, as well? Today, you’ll meet Mary Dee, who discovered she had stage 2 breast cancer and wanted to treat it holistically. She's now the Chair of the Board for TheBreasties.org . Mary needed to advocate for her care when she challenged d...

Growing up in an Asian household, we weren’t taught to have privacy — in fact, privacy was seen as shameful. My parents fought in front of us and never kept any sort of healthy boundaries. They also continually made us defer to authority, to elders, to anyone in a position of power. It makes sense then, that into adulthood, I would never know when to advocate for myself. I didn’t know that I was w...

It can be tough to learn how to listen to your intuition, when we live in a world that doesn't understand, nurture or foster a belief in forces unseen — or pursuing our individuality. Today's mindfulness practice is an opportunity for you to connect with what you already know within, to learn how to strengthen that muscle of listening to your higher knowing, and to simply experience intu...

Human Design is a fascinating system that combines modern physics with ancient wisdom (including the chakra system, astrology, kabbalah, and the I Ching) to provide a comprehensive view of human nature. Each person falls into a specific energy type (e.g. Manifestor, Generator, Projector) with a distinct inner authority. When you live in your authority, you can experience less hustle and more flow....

After becoming a yoga teacher and a Reiki practitioner, I became surrounded by people who could read auras, tell you about your chakras, connect with otherworldly forces, guide your life based on your astrology, and more. But, what happens when there are people who are truly powerful — yet also dark? Hear about how I met a "false guru" and how the experience of unhealthy boundaries actua...

Listen to my version of a series of affirmations inspired by Abraham Hicks and the Law of Attraction as today’s mindfulness practice, after a week of learning about failing, pursuing your childhood pursuits, and more. Discover how to move up the emotional guidance scale, how to live in alignment and flow, and how to be more compassionate toward yourself. For more show notes and links to the things...

Kat Zhang has been an avid reader for as long as she can remember. After a childhood spent living in books, she now builds stories for other people to visit. In addition to her Young Adult trilogy, "The Hybrid Chronicles," published with HarperCollins, she has also published two Middle Grade novels, The Emperor's Riddle and The Memory of Forgotten Things , as well as two picture boo...

What’s it like to fail according to a 6 year-old? Recently, my daughter was under the weather and we watched a movie together that taught how failure is good, why the idea “keep moving forward” is important, and how to create a growth mindset for yourself and your children. This upcoming week, we'll be interviewing children's author, Kat Zhang, who also has a trilogy coming out through H...