Coach Sze Wing Podcast

I am super thrilled to release this podcast episode as marks the number 100 episodes of my #ConversationsThatMatter podcast. My guest in this episode is Rebecca Barrett, my yoga teacher who has completely changed my attitude towards yin yoga. I started her classes just 6 weeks after I gave birth to my second child (baby Noah) and I absolutely love her style of teaching, which always involves an aspect of yogic philosophy in the mix. If you are interested to know more about yoga, how it helps us to connect our body and mind, and perhaps most importantly, how to be a life long preparer for whatever comes in life, you'd love this episode! Highlights Sometimes when you meditate or when you practise mindfulness, it's like you're preparing yourself for the worst day of your life. You're preparing yourself for these hard times when they happen, be it COVID or personal circumstances. It is about being a "life-long preparer". The word yoga means union or to yoke. It is connecting the mental and the physical.

If you are a multi-passionate person like me, someone who has several deep curiosities or interests in life, then staying in your lane will be challenging. To feel fulfilled, we must tend to our inner desire, but where is the time? Or further to that, how can we do it all? How can we channel our creativity fully? Perhaps you don't consider yourself as a multi-passionate person but somehow you feel your life is stagnated or "stuck". Then, you may also want to look at where are you expressing your creativity, if at all. What I've found is that when we get stressed in any area of our life, be it about work or family responsibilities, more often than not, we turn to things that can temporarily distract us from the overwhelming situation. The common thing most of us do is to scroll through our social media feeds or check out the news. Both can easily suck up all our spare time and fill up the tiny gaps in our life. As a result, there is no time or space for us to really dig deep or sit with the uncom

I had all the plans to end 2020 with a couple of new posts, giveaways and special videos, but all went into the ditch when my husband and the little ones went under the weather. Then, we had to change our holiday plans and rebooked everything. We didn't get to see our parents this year, but we are just really grateful that they are all healthy and well. This is what I have learned from this year. We need to keep our heads above the chaos and see from different perspectives. To understand what really matters, and so become more flexible and think outside of the box. This certainly helps us to forward faster and become more adaptive. Baby number two and the pandemic effectively have changed the way I work and think. Another aspect I've learned is to stop pushing at all fronts, get better at prioritizing and allow myself to let go more. It reminds me of Tao's philosophy. Less forcing, more allowing. To feel the lightness of being, one must learn how to surrender in order to move freely. We practice how to

If you have a family to look after or a job to attend to or a body to take care of, you may feel stress at any given day for many different reasons. Yes, in fact, I imply everybody on this planet is susceptible to get stressed! That's why this episode on stress management and good self-care practices is useful for everyone. My guest for this week's podcast is Rita Garnto. Rita is an author and educator. She had a 20-year career in western healthcare as a Registered Respiratory Therapist and worked in Canada (where she was born), Saudi Arabia and in the United States. In 2004 she began her massage therapy private practice and after 16 years running, she is now educating and speaking on the dangers of stress and providing simple self-care solutions to combat the negative effects of stress. Learn more from her book "Simple Self-Care Saved Me" here. In her career, she had cared for patients ranging in age from premature babies to the elderly and everyone in between. In her lengthy career, she had been part

If your desire is larger than your belief, it means you don’t actually expect what you want is going to happen. In fact, if it does, it will kind of catch you by surprise.  I heard about this saying in a video related to the Law of Attraction. It instantly sticks on my mind.  So how does it play out in terms of manifesting what we want? Is it counterproductive then? We attract things through what we believe in, or in other words, through vibration proximity. I remember what the late Dr Wayne Dyer used to say from his lectures, "Believe it, and you will see it". Not the other way round. If you need to see it in order to believe it, you may never get there!  I know how important and power our belief systems is. Needless to say, it caught me by surprise to realize in some case, my desire is far greater than my belief in achieving it. It leads me to question, how often do we believe in what we want or what we dream of is actually possible to fulfil? So here is my personal example: I have alwa

Many women I know have this problem: We want to establish or grow a career or business we love, at the same time, we want to maintain a healthy and happy family life as well. But then at some point, we just feel exhausted, out of steam, overwhelmed or completely burnout. So how can we "have it all" without giving up our passion, purpose or worst, losing our minds? Where do we start? What are we missing? If you are someone who wants to feel fulfilled both from the inside and outside, then have a listen to my podcast interview with Rebecca Swanson. We discussed what do we need to ask ourselves or put in place in order to create a lifestyle that we desire and it can be sustainable in the long run too. Rebecca Swanson is a life coach, business strategist, natural health & wellness advocate. She is a psychology graduate, certified NLP trainer and lifelong experiential learner. She is also a mother of 3 children and a loving partner.  Interview Highlights: Rebecca's evolving story - from corporate

Personally, I find this quarter of 2020 a very sobering time.  The pandemic, social unrest and natural disasters all make this year tough for many of us. I’ve heard many heartfelt stories from my high school friends and work colleagues who live various part of the world. Nothing is “normal” and everyone I know is affected in all different kind of ways.  My son has just turned 6 months old and despite the fact that I have little control of my time, and the needs and desire of this tiny little human being is very often (if not always) prioritized over mine. This period of time also gives me permission to dive deeper into my ambition, question what really matters to me at this stage in my life, what is my purpose, role or responsibilities.  What I have conjured up is a list of reminders to help me and others to gain a different perspective.  Or perhaps a way to decide when to say “No" to certain thoughts or behavioural patterns. And equally important is what do I need to say “Yes” to or things I should

Many of us have suffered different effects of the pandemic in 2020. There are days where it is hard to make sense of it all or think about what to expect for 2021. That's why I found my interview with Karen Chaston is super timely, as it helps us to get a different perspective when it comes to tragedy, suffering and life lessons. In July 2011, Karen’s life changed forever when her son died unexpectedly. It is without a doubt a mother's worst nightmare. Within 15 months, Karen resigned from her CFO role of a publicly listed company and began a personal, professional and spiritual journey. From that point on, all the experiences have led hers into becoming a beyond loss expert and co-founding her business Live Love By Design.  Fast forward to today, Karen Chaston is known as a business owner, beyond loss mentor and international keynote speaker who has shared the stage with Marianne Williamson, Jamie-Lee Curtis, Valerie Harper and Dr Ellie Drake. She is the author of eight books and numerous e-books as w

It happens to everyone. More than we realized, the feeling of being stuck or jaded about a situation starts from a thought, but when we keep thinking about it, it gains momentum. Eventually that thought becomes so stubborn and unwilling to leave our mind. The negative feeling or even hopelessness grows. But the good news is, that thought may seem loud and true in our mind, it may not be true in reality. But the problem is when we are engaged in thinking, feeling and believing we are stuck in a situation, our minds are unable to come up with a solution. Our eyes can't see the opportunities and our hears aren't open to the lessons in store. So what do we do? Just pause and observe Instead of deliberately thinking our thoughts, sometimes our thoughts just randomly appear. There are millions of reasons why we think or feel a certain way and everyone has different triggers based on our past experiences. Perhaps it maybe just a bad day or a bad moment. When a negative or unpleasant thought appear

Recently I read an interview about how to maintain a strong and healthy marriage - one of the keys is to let them be who they are, and the other one is to be truly happy for their spouse’ success.  It is exactly how I felt when my husband’s business won an award last year or when my first book was released, I could see he was really excited for me.  I realized it is key to a good marriage and I also notice it is sometimes not so easily done - say if you have been struggling with your business or weight loss or trying to conceive or to find a romantic partner. When someone you know brought in the good news, you secretly feel sad for yourself. It can be hard not because we don’t want that for the other person, but it is the fear that we would never have it for ourselves. It is true if it a competition, like winning an Oscar, there is only 1 winner in that scenario, but chances are, most of us are not facing this type of direct competitions daily. More often than not, the way we fear falls into the z

Have you been thinking about writing your book? Perhaps it is your life story, your knowledge and wisdom or a fictional story. Regardless of what kind of book you have in mind, you may feel insecure, frustrated or overwhelmed in writing your book. That is where a writing coach can help you to move through it. For that reason, I am really excited to share with you my interview with Rhonda Salvestrini. Rhonda is a professional writing coach and a writer for over 25 years. We had such fun recording this interview as I love writing and learning from her experience as well. When I read through the transcript, I had another round of appreciation for her work, how to write good non-fiction and connect with our readers. I hope you will enjoy this episode as much as I do! You can listen to this podcast on this page, iTunes, Spotify or any major podcast platforms. Alternatively, you can watch our videos below. The transcript is right at the bottom as well. Rhoda Salvestrini is a writing coach. She is a prof

Do you sometimes hear yourself having a dialogue inside your head about what you just said or how you may have come across in a situation with others?  I’ve noticed lately about my increasing mind chatter. It happens because I have entered a couple of new social groups. One is at my gym and the other is with mums who just had a second baby.  Here is the thing, we are often out of our comfort zone when we move to a new area, start a new job or meet new people. We haven’t established whether or not we are accepted to the new tribe or if we feel a sense of belonging to the new setting.  All of a sudden we become more aware of who we are and what we represent. More often than we would think, we judge ourselves on big and small things.  In many ways, judgement is a learned experience.  I remember this incredible scene in a movie I saw years ago, a very mean step-dad asked his step-son to rate himself between 1-10. Just like that. Nothing specific. Totally random.  The son was a shy boy and with r

How often do you sit with your emotions and try to understand why you feel the way you do? Many of us are brought up with an attitude that being rational is better or we should stop being "so emotional". Certainly if we are acting against our better judgement because we are overly emotional over a matter is not a good thing. But so is denying or ignore our emotions and only rely on our thinking without our feeling. Don't get me wrong, both rationale and emotion have its place, they both can give us important information that to help us to make better decisions. Some said being confident is a learned skill. I say, being able to understand and stay in touch with our emotion is also a learned skill. So today I have an interview with Lisa Jayne precisely on this subject matter to share with you. Lisa Jayne is an author, speaker and visionary for the path of Emotional Evolution. With over 15 years experience as an Emotions Practitioner and Educator, she has accompanied thousands of individuals into

When was the last time you played or change your routine? We all have been affected by a prolonged period of uncertainty and isolation.  You may have aced your shopping or exercise routine or perfected the “work from home” arrangement, but after a while, the new normal feels stagnated because we don’t get as much stimulus through interactions with people in person or going to events or social activities.  You may totally enjoy this quieter time or have been super busy trying to start/finish many ambitious personal projects. But still, you may find yourself getting tired easily and feeling restless somehow. No matter what, one thing is clear, we all need to replenish our energy and renew our mind from time to time.  That’s where Play comes in.  Why play is important to raise our energy I wrote about the importance of play and the need to change our routine in my recent newsletter to my subscribers. I shared how I felt stuck and stagnated because of the lack of play in particular. For ever

Many creative entrepreneurs I know are actually introverts. Therefore, networking in person or presenting a sales pitch may totally push them out of their comfort zone. Marketing for them can be one of the most challenging aspects of their work. For this week's podcast, I'd share with you a very candid conversation I had with Bron Watson about authentic marketing, networking, and how to succeed over adversity. Bron Watson is the managing director of the eWomenNetwork International chapter. She is also the founder of Bron & Co where she leads a small and mighty team to work with small businesses on marketing in the areas such as strategy, sales, content creation and graphic designs. They offer both "done for you”  as well as show you how it’s done service. Bron has a background in nursing and education for 20+ years and she had launched several businesses in the last decade while raising 5 boys! So in another word, she is a superwoman!   If you frown whenever someone invites you to a networking event and

Every now and then, I find myself procrastinating over certain things.  Unlike what most people may think, it is not always the overwhelming or really big projects that get on my procrastination list.  For those big projects, I usually know why am I tripping over mentally and the solution is nearly always about taking smaller steps, just to get the momentum going.  But I am talking about small tasks that have been sitting on my mind or my to-do list for a while.  For instance, I needed to schedule an appointment for my baby boy’s 4 months immunization, but instead of booking a time with the GP we normally see, I didn’t want to call and I had no idea why. Second thing is that I meant to finish a chapter of my book with all the notes that I have prepared, but I just couldn't manage to sit down and write it.  The third example is that I kept delaying booking a ticket for an event for no good reasons.  But as it turns out, I found a really nice doctor closer to home that came with great recom

If you a coach, spiritual teacher, health & wellness practitioner, or transformational leader, then you would likely have attended or interested in hosting your own retreat at some point. Running a retreat can boost your business, it can also accelerate the outcomes for your clients/students when they immerse in deep experiences with you. For this week's podcast, I talked to Tamara Golden, who is the go-to person if you want to craft your custom retreat to grow your brand and business. We recorded this interview during the COVID 19 lockdown time, which added extra desire for me to think about attending or hosting retreats in the near future. Imagine yourself being in a beautiful surrounding, connecting with like-minded people and doing deep transformational work. It is one of the most wonderful things I can think of to do! I hope you will enjoy our interview. I surely loved our conversation as I learned so much from Tamara. If you don't feel you are ready to run a retreat, she also talked about how s

Have you ever caught yourself saying in your mind “I am not good enough” or "I am just not _____ enough"? You can fill in the blank with any word. It doesn't really matter what you put in. The effect is the same. This type of thoughts come into mind more often than we care to admit. The problem is, this thought does not move us forward but only to let us stay stuck, play small or swallow the feeling of failure. Recently I had a phone call with a friend who was feeling depleted. And as we dived into the conversation, I realized this: She has been taking on the role of a successful entrepreneur, super mum, amazing wife, loving daughter and an awesome friend. On top of all this, she also wants to find more time to exercise, do yoga, meditate, journal, look after her appearance, change wardrobe, declutter the house, tidy up her home office, etc. As you can imagine, the list goes on and on. Finally, we both started to laugh. She is not alone on this. I have a very similar "Wish-To-Do" list, and I am pretty s

I have always kept an open mind when it comes to healing, and I have no doubt our body and mind are connected on so many levels. When I first heard about Transpersonal Art Therapy, it sparks my interests. I remember Carl Jung said "Everything in the unconscious seeks outward manifestation", and I sense that when we express our creativity through art, we are allowing our unconscious to come through. It is like letting another language to speak through us. Therefore, when I came to know about Karen, I think her life story and healing work will be of great interest for those who are seeking complimentary modalities to help them on their healing journey, or for those who are interested in art therapy in gereal. Before I interviewed Karen, I didn't know the difference between art in therapy verses art as therapy. So, to say the least, my interview with Karen has opened my eyes (and heart) in many ways. I hope you will find this interview helpful and inspirational. You can listen to the podcast, watch the video

Recently I have been taking Yin Yoga classes and I'm surprised how much I love it. For those who are not familiar with yin yoga, it is a form of yoga that requires you to hold your posture for longer than usual and hence it gives your body a deeper stretch. It tends to run at a slower pace and it can feel like a moving meditation and highly restorative. The class may look very quiet and not much seems to be happening if you are just observing the class. But if you take part, you will realise there is a lot going on beneath the surface, both in our minds and body when we are TRYING to keep still and stay calm. This reminds me of what Marianne Williamson often said in her lectures, when we go to the gym to workout, we train our muscles to be strong and so we can move better and faster. Spiritual practices like meditation or yoga train our mind muscles to be still and present. It takes time to build up our muscles and it requires consistent practice to stay strong. And it applies for both our body and mind.