Here is the journey of our remarkable guest, Yan Huang, from Singapore. Yan peels back the layers of her life story, revealing her battle with stage three cancer, the turmoil of a toxic relationship, and her triumph over chronic illnesses. Her resilience and determination show hope and courage.
Yan, the Pivotal Healer, is a long-term young adult cancer survivor who has been living cancer-free for the last 15 years. She is a certified women's integrative health coach, Qi movement teacher and energy healing practitioner.
Yan opens up about her unexpected journey, from the initial shock of her diagnosis to finding the courage to make decisions about her treatment plan. Her insights into maintaining an active lifestyle amidst her treatment and navigating the healthcare system. But her journey doesn't end there; it takes an introspective turn when she reflects on finding purpose postcancer, negotiating the world of self-care, and setting future goals.
Let's enjoy her story!
Here are three ways to connect with Yan:
Thank you for listening - Hasta Pronto!
Here is the journey of our remarkable guest, Yan Huang, from Singapore. Yan peels back the layers of her life story, revealing her battle with stage three cancer, the turmoil of a toxic relationship, and her triumph over chronic illnesses. Her resilience and determination show hope and courage.
Yan, the Pivotal Healer, is a long-term young adult cancer survivor who has been living cancer-free for the last 15 years. She is a certified women's integrative health coach, Qi movement teacher and energy healing practitioner.
Yan opens up about her unexpected journey, from the initial shock of her diagnosis to finding the courage to make decisions about her treatment plan. Her insights into maintaining an active lifestyle amidst her treatment and navigating the healthcare system. But her journey doesn't end there; it takes an introspective turn when she reflects on finding purpose postcancer, negotiating the world of self-care, and setting future goals.
Let's enjoy her story!
Here are three ways to connect with Yan:
Thank you for listening - Hasta Pronto!
Hi, I'm Daniela. Welcome to my podcast, because everyone has a story, the place to give ordinary people, stories, the chance to be shared and preserved. Our stories become the language of connections. Let's enjoy it. Connect and relate, because everyone has a story. Welcome my guest, Yan Huang, from Singapore. Yan is a long-term young adult cancer survivor who has been living cancer-free for the last 15 years. She's also a certified women's integrative health coach, a QI movement teacher and energy healing practitioner. Here Yan shares her unexpected journey, from the initial shock of her diagnosis to finding the courage to make decisions about her treatment plan, her insights into maintaining an active lifestyle I mean her treatment and navigating the healthcare system. But the journey doesn't end there. Yan takes an introspective turn when she reflects on finding purpose post-cancer, negotiating the world of self-care and setting future goals. I was delighted to have her on the show. She's a lovely individual with so much care for others and we need more people like her. So let's enjoy her story. Welcome, Yan, to the podcast.
Yan Huang:Yes, I'm Yan from Singapore. Thank you for having me.
Daniela:Yes, you're in Singapore, and the last time we met oh my god, I made you stay all the way until midnight. Did you have a pre-chat? But this time it is only early in the morning, not too early, so it's perfect. So thank you the other day for staying so late. I had no idea that it was that late.
Yan Huang:No, worries, you're welcome. You're welcome for accommodating. It all looked out well.
Daniela:Yes, and we had a nice conversation. It was super interesting all the things that you've gone through, so tell me why you want to share your story.
Yan Huang:Well, you know how sometimes life is. You know you go through different twists and turns, whether it's expected or unexpected. Usually it's unexpected. It's always the unexpected twists and turns that makes life a bit more interesting. I'm a pretty introspective person, so I would say during the pandemic, it gave me some time and space to reflect deeper into what have I gone through in life over the last nearly, or the last 40 years or so. It's time to share my story through another format, in this case audio format. I thought about podcast and here, I am Great, excellent.
Daniela:And so when does your story start? Wow so.
Yan Huang:I would say that my story began one a year before I had cancer, perhaps around then. So that's like about six, seven, 16 or 17 years ago. How old were you? So I was about 22.
Daniela:Okay, wow, pretty young. And what happened? What happened to you? What was the feeling when you find out that you had cancer?
Yan Huang:Yeah, the events that lead to that was the most interesting one. So I was in a four year relationship and I was also in college as well, so there's a lot of things happening for a young adolescent. The relationship became quite emotionally exhausting and taxing on me in the last two years or so, became slightly abusive, both verbally as well as physically. It's not to the extent of, like, oh my God, I need to go to the hospital, right? Sometimes we say, you know really nasty things about each other or even about ourselves.
Yan Huang:During a very toxic relationship, like around the last one year or so, I find myself actually saying these words. At the rate that we are quarreling, I won't be surprised that I will fall really, really sick. I kept saying that over and over again in the last one year of our relationship. Yeah, that I felt like a broken record. And then, about seven months later, I decided to break up, like this is the end of the relationship. I decided preparing myself in terms of exercising and eating better. You know, like how most women, when they break up from relationship, they want to focus on themselves, right? So I did just that. In fact, I was actually preparing for Asia's first women triathlon about 10 months after the break up, while I was preparing for the triathlon, that's when I found out I had cancer, stage three. Good news and bad news were doctor, you know.
Daniela:So you always been a sporty person. You always did exercise.
Yan Huang:No, no, no. So that's the thing I considered myself a late bloomer when it comes to exercise and physical stuff because growing up I was pretty sedentary. I couldn't, because I had a couple of what I call childhood maliasis, meaning to say that it's like certain illnesses that is pretty chronic, but yet they are not that severe that I need to go to the hospital all the time. So that brings me to the point that actually so-called diseases and illnesses is not a black and white thing, but there's always.
Yan Huang:You're always on the spectrum, you know, just like human weight and height. We're never like a perfect 50 kilo or a perfect hundred, like a round of 100 kg. We are always like a 50.1 and 50.2, 50.3. So it's always all a spectrum. So yeah, so growing up I mainly had rather poor respiratory symptoms, like I'm always coughing. I can have dry cough, the phlegm cough, or I can just have cough where that it's like your lungs get so constricted that even when I see the mainstream doctor they just find that I was not, my symptoms were not severe or doesn't qualify to be asthmatic. So I was.
Daniela:That's why I say I was at that in between you know, like I'm in the in between, do you think that it is more psychological than physical?
Yan Huang:It's a very good question, by the way, because no one really knew the reason behind it. I think in many ways my family or my culture we don't really think so much about the why and just focus on restoring the wellness, the balance, the inner well-being, the inner wellness. I mean that episode about the doctor not being able to diagnose me as asthmatic and therefore give me, like this, medical surgery to do whatever you want to do, meaning you know if I can't go to school, so bad or whatever it is. But I think that was a blessing in disguise. My mom and my late grandma just thought that something used to be done to fix a cough, a chronic cough, because sometimes it's so bad and sometimes it can be triggered by certain foods or certain activities and stuff like that. Because of that, they brought me to see my family Chinese physician and for the next eight, nine years there's a lot of weekly herbal medicine drinking. We have to brew them and then make them in one bowl and drink it every day. Every week we see the Chinese physician.
Yan Huang:There's obvious, of course, changes to some nutrition habits as well, but it paid off because after about like yeah, after about eight years, 13, 14, yeah, around that age, in the middle, between 13 to 15 years old, like my lungs got stronger and stronger and by the time I turned 18 years old I felt really great, like a new set of lungs and no drugs at all, no hospitalization, just the good old way, very patient, of taking herbal medicine. No acupuncture, even at that time was just pure all herbs and using food, adjustment of lifestyle. And by the time I turned 18 and then I started going for some dance and fitness classes and I felt a new list of lifelike. Oh my god, I didn't know that I could, I didn't know my body could do it. And then I felt healthier and healthier and that started my journey into fitness Wonderful.
Daniela:And so, when you were 24, 23, you were diagnosed with cancer stage three. And then, well, what went through your mind?
Yan Huang:Yeah, so I think it was very surreal for me when I first found out, because the first thing that came to my mind was like, oh, wow, I did. I just cursed myself to that, because I was going through in my head during the last year of relationship I kept saying those words, right? So that was the first thing that came to my mind, like, oh my god, did I just curse myself. Wow, there is power in our words that we use. You know, and this was way before I learned about love attraction. This was way before I learned about what energy, medicine or manifestation. You know like. This was days before social media was all over the rage and now people are all talking about spirituality, about manifestation and all that thing. And then after that, it became like, okay, all right, so what do I have to do next? It became like what I call a battle mode. You know, like okay, what should I do next? You know, no one in my family had cancer before I was young. So I did ask for opinions, as well as opinions of my two best friends, because they are in research field, and I was even negotiating with my doctor back then. I said can I finish my? Can I do my triathlon and then come back and then they could then start my treatment. My friends and my doctor just went like, oh my gosh, this girl is crazy. Why would she want to do a triathlon when she had cancer? And it's like stage three, it's spreading. I remember my friend saying this like hey, yan, do you know? You know, yan, I think it's not a good idea. Do you know how the lymphatic system work? Do you know what is cancer? I said M plus.
Yan Huang:I felt really completely normal. I didn't have any of those symptoms. I felt great. My weight didn't drop much, only a little only, just only because it was so active. But what made you go to the doctor then? Oh, because I had this painless lump on the left side of the neck area, which there's an inner lymph lymph nodes around the area as well. Yeah, there's a bit of a growth there. And then it went on for like almost like six months. Oh, wow and yeah, but it didn't, it wasn't painful. It wasn't painful. I didn't. I sort of ignore it like not, you know, I just sort of thought like you would just go away. It didn't occur anything to me and then until my mom said, why don't we just pay a visit to our Chinese physician, and I did that.
Daniela:And how long were you with treatments?
Yan Huang:So I was pretty fortunate with my treatment. So remember, remember, early on I said that the doctor gave me two things. He said I have good news, bad news. So I said what's the bad news? The bad news is all right, you have cancer, stage three acid. So what's the good news? The good news is, well, you have one of the most treatable form of cancer, which means there's a very high rate of survival. My treatment just lasted six months, exactly six months, with chemotherapy, four bags of drugs every two weeks, no radio, no surgery, no drugs.
Daniela:Yeah, and what happened afterwards? So you were doing the treatments, you were also in retrospectively what was happening, what came after that?
Yan Huang:Yeah, you know I call this like a crisis mode, right? You know, like when crisis or whatever we perceive as crisis happened to us, we just go into an automatic mode of like, all right, we need to handle this right now, we need to clear the crisis. And I never got a chance to really talk to someone, whether it's a trained therapist or counselor, to make sense of what the episode means, means for me. You know, I definitely had my moment of I call it existential crisis. You know, there are moments where I was thinking about who am I? You know, now that I survived cancer, and sometimes I don't really want to make a big deal out of my story, but occasionally, when I share my story, people always tell me like, wow, yeah, that's very inspiring.
Yan Huang:You know, I was like why you know you're young and you know you survive cancer at a young age and you know you've been living with it for the last 15, 16 years. I mean, do I want to find out about my cancer during that time? Yes, of course. Like, I will figure out like, oh, what's actually Hodgkin's lymphoma? You know why did my doctor say it's very treatable and curable? Why would the media portray something about cancer? Well, it didn't occur to me this way. So I think that was one of the truths or one of the myths that I wanted to debunk right now.
Yan Huang:You know, as I share my story is that not every cancer is, you know, daily Right, and. But I'm not trying to downplay what cancer is as well. And I think another thing is also, because what I noticed is that what cancer seems to be on the rice, but it doesn't mean it's normal, you know, wanted to shed some light to more people to make them realize that don't forget that medical diagnostic tools are a lot more Advanced and precise than, say, 15, or even 20 or even 25 years ago. So what that means is that it's able to detect more accurately as well as more astute. Lee, don't, you know, don't live in so much fear about what cancer is, but have an awareness, have a conscious ever more. Yeah, I have a more aware consciousness about what is, what is cancer all about.
Yan Huang:And you know, over the last few years I, the more I did my own research and studying and Observing, as well as working with clients, and that's when I realized that cancer it's really like I always tell myself at a young age, cancer is like a big flu bug that requires, you know, a different, a different approach towards eliminating it right. And then this year, the last two years, it really give. He really hit me even deeper, make me realize that cancer is the form of symptoms that the body is trying to tell you, trying to speak to you, that we need to clear Some or what the TCM called energetic blockages. They are a reflection of what's going on in your internal So-called world. Whether is it because of lifestyle, thought patterns, emotions, environmental factors yeah, food stuff like that you were going to college.
Daniela:You said what were you studying? I was studying food science and technology. Okay, and you continue that. Did you finish that before you got cancer, or you?
Yan Huang:so I, I finished that. I finished that when I cancer? Yes, because I graduated in 21?
Daniela:Okay, and would you call yourself a cancer survivor, or you have a different word for you? Such a great question.
Yan Huang:I Was just chatting about this with a fellow cancer survivor like how do we call ourselves? Yeah, I think I'll call myself cancer survivor, just only because the world can associate with that word as well.
Daniela:And you met other people similar to you, Mmm not not a lot.
Yan Huang:The way how this whole cancer treatment journey for me was truthfully yes, it was a very much like let's get this over and done with at a young age, because I always felt like time was running out for me. At that time I didn't really like pause or slow down to check in with my own emotions or even my own mental, and I suppose that's the way of life for me, because I don't know, when you're at that age you just you just want to go out and experience life and all that stuff. And then all of a sudden you have this news and you go like, okay, what am I supposed to do? Everyone else is climbing up a carpet ladder and I'm just trying to figure out my next, my next journey in life, and then I'm told I have cancer. I'm fortunate that I survived it, but then what? What is what right?
Daniela:So you did have those feelings or those emotions after the treatment.
Yan Huang:Yeah, I did. I did have those what I call the more invisible side effects.
Daniela:Okay, so six months after you start to Re-evaluate your values and your life, yeah, and so how did you go about it? What did you do?
Yan Huang:I still do. You know, by the way, I still do, it's just that I think right now I'm a little bit more grounded. Right, I still do. How do I evaluate? Well, first of all. So right after I finished my chemo, I decided to continue my retail slash e-commerce business that began with my ex-boyfriend. Yeah, after about four years, or about three years or so, at the age of 29, I decided that's like I have enough of it and find any meaning or purpose in the retail business. At that time, and Also probably because it I got burnt out from having to juggle the business of my own Perhaps there's always that emotional baggage and remind the that it, you know, it started because with my, with my ex-boyfriend. So I closed that.
Yan Huang:And it's funny because most people make their career choices, or rather contemplate on your career choices, usually around the mid 40s Right, they always say around the mid 40s after working in a corporate job For 15-20 years, and you start thinking deep. But I had my moment when I was 29. I was not a lot of money, just thinking about what I can do in my life and I didn't even pursue a job that is Related to my food science and technology degree at all. So it was really like a clean slate all over again for me. I'm a decision between Okay, do I want to go into the fitness field or do I want to go into teaching Childhood education, and I ask the opinions of my friends yeah, just do fitness, it's your thing.
Daniela:All right, then let's go down that path and this is the, the person who never did any exercise until you were 18.
Yan Huang:Yes, yes, exactly. My life is very unpredictable, in a way.
Daniela:Yeah, so what made you love exercise?
Yan Huang:I guess maybe two things. One it's like when people say I'm never active, I can't do this, I can't do that, but hey, I somehow managed to do it. So it's just a lot of you know that, that power of the thought if I can do it, if Yan can do it, so can you. It's a quote by this famous chef. By the way, hong Kong chef was now in US for many, many years. He has his own cooking show, martin Yan.
Daniela:So you had the same last name as your first name.
Yan Huang:My first name is is Yan is his last name, but and he always goes with his, always plays with the chicken and say if Yan can cook, so can you. Yeah, so what made me love exercise it's one thing it's is that you put your mind to it Slowly and surely you know, don't give up. Consistent practice, intentional consistent practice, will get you there. And I think, second of all, most most importantly I would say, is that I I developed I don't know how to explain, but it's more like it's a kind of like feeling of coherence and integration and alignment.
Yan Huang:When you are able to align, integrate your mind, your body, your spirit and soul if you believe in that into like one as you move, it becomes very healing. It comes it's a, it's a very assured I sense of wellness and well-being and strength. It's like watching ballet dancers doing their thing. It's like, oh my gosh, you're so graceful, you do it so effortlessly, but yet you're one of the strongest people in the world. You know, we can't see it. So I think that made me fell in love with it's like exercise.
Daniela:You know, I like what you're saying, that it's just everything in alignment. I never thought of that way. I mean, I do go to the gym regularly. I don't necessarily like it. The hard thing is to go to the gym. Sometimes, when it's difficult for me, I cut it in pieces, like step one I got out of bed at six o'clock in the morning. Step two I got dressed. Step three I'm here, you know, and then after I am at the gym, I come out and I'm like I did it, you know. So I'm happy that.
Daniela:I went.
Yan Huang:Yeah, I go through that as well. Like I go through seasons of ups and downs and that's the thing you know. Sometimes we control, you know, like we want to control too much and then the body doesn't. It's a very interesting discovery for me, especially for the last one year or so. This whole control issues, like I said, oh my God, sometimes I don't feel like going to the gym, but I have to do it. So I put on my shoes, I go to the gym and try to break it up into pieces and all that stuff. Those are great habit hacks.
Yan Huang:But sometimes you know if we are doing too much control, like we try to over control it, it will backfire on us. Like, for example, if you know that you just don't feel like doing it, there is a reason why. Okay, there is a reason why, energetically speaking, is it because your sleep wasn't deep enough? And if your sleep wasn't deep enough, what happened before you slept? And it's not a one time thing, sometimes it's an accumulation of things. So I give you an example of myself Three, four months ago, I felt like my body was coherent, was in liman, I could sleep deep.
Yan Huang:When I wake up, I was refreshed and I didn't even need the alarm clock, eating I didn't have crazy cravings, my appetite was great, I was on point, I was feeling wholesome, well being, really, you know, like I could feel, like it's a new being for me, and I felt that all the time, or rather before. So I knew what happened. And then about three, three, four months ago, and then something changed. I thought you know what, let's watch a bit of TV. I don't watch TV, so I decided to watch drama series. And you know how TV can go right, it just goes on and on and on and get addicted to it. Yes, and you start binge watching it, and especially if the plot gets so good and then that was so that happened and then it into my regular sleeping hours. You know how, before you go to bed, you have all this stimulation of light, Even though I don't really like, I don't really watch horror movie or like two gory stuff or like two negatives, all the killing stuff, cause it's just too.
Daniela:And you also have the special glasses because I yeah, like me.
Yan Huang:Yeah, sometimes I do, yeah, sometimes I do, I do wear them as well. So, like we should ourselves to death, I like, yeah, and you know you should not watch, you should go to bed already. No more of this thing, get back to your routine. But then the conscious bring. We're like no, no, no, you have to watch the show, it's too good. So, so, yeah, so now I'm actually seeing the effects of that.
Yan Huang:So many to say that it's not an overnight thing, like if I were to just do that for one night or two, that's okay, then you get your body back, then you just do your own practice to get back in on track. But because I was doing it consistently, you know, for several nights, and then on top of that, I'm now juggling, or rather I'm now transitioning into some several part time jobs. So a lot of adjustments to be made in my life, emotionally and mentally as well. So I think that all took a, you know, like my body just took a, like like, oh my gosh, there's so many changes happening. Plus, I'm not doing my regular rest, digest or sleep well, so I definitely came through the differences as well.
Yan Huang:So, so, yeah. So I'm learning right now, this moment, right now, as we are recording this episode, to learn about this whole concept about letting go, letting go and letting go. And it's okay, you know, like if you can't do all your to-do list, or if, let's say, I plan for I want to do this exercise today, today, today, right, you know, sometimes just throw away that plan and just go for a very simple, nice walk or just go for I call it like maybe 10 minutes of rebounding or just even five minutes of my tigong practice or whatever. It is anything that just bring my awareness back to, you know, the present moment with my body. Eventually you'll get back on track again. That's a beautiful feeling.
Daniela:Yes, exactly, I have learned to be more forgiven. You know I'm going to be here until I'm 100. So I have another nearly 50 years to do exercise.
Yan Huang:Yeah, I love that. It means that you're being kind and compassionate to yourself, and it's so important. If you can't be kind and compassionate to yourself, then how can we be kind and compassionate to everyone else?
Daniela:You really like sports, you like exercising, and then, so that's why you decided to become a trainer, right?
Yan Huang:Yeah, I decided to enter the fitness industry, doing fitness coaching, health coaching, now focusing on women's health as well, as you know, using I just like to use movement, meditation, any, what I call self. I wouldn't use self healing as a word, but that's the word that I learned. You know any self care, so-called techniques, because the best tool for own longevity and health is actually our own self care. I always tell some of my clients, of course I want to see you as often as I can, because it means that you know I get to make more money. But eventually, right, my aim is that you are able to do your own so-called form of exercise or self care regime without me around.
Yan Huang:Yeah, because that? Because I see you once a once a week, or sometimes once a month, depending on the schedule, but what happens the rest of the hours? That is on your own. So for me, as like I call myself a success benchmark is when I know that I could see that there are changes in your behavior and your thought pattern. Like, even without me reminding you or even without me being there, you are inspired to do something and you see the changes in your body as well. Any, any tips, and you keep the results going and it's. It's a true testament of what true wellness is about.
Daniela:And Yen. Is it as popular in Singapore to go to the gym as in North America?
Yan Huang:Oh, right now. Yes, yes, it has been actually for the last five, six years, because we are sort of like an aging population and like most very commercialized or capitalistic Western culture, great, interesting.
Daniela:Okay, so you are a trainer and you juggle a few jobs at the same time as well, yeah, right now I'm also working part-time at a grocery store.
Yan Huang:I am going to move into teaching Pilates at a studio as well.
Daniela:Nice, I love Pilates. What is next for Yen?
Yan Huang:Wow, okay, what's next for me? Right now, I just wanted to take One step at a time, one day at a time. Want to cultivate more presence, sing in all that I do wherever I am, whether it is teaching or at a grocery store, learning how to cultivate more, rest, digest, manifest practices. I call it Re-learning, how to surrender and go with the flow more, be open to opportunities that are aligned to me, continue on that journey, and I have lots of creative projects in my bucket list. Yeah, let's just see where life takes me and hopefully one of them takes off better this year. Definitely want to continue my whole podcasting thing.
Daniela:Yen. Reflecting on what you went through, would you say something different, give some different advice? They Yen that got cancer at 22? What?
Yan Huang:would I say to her? I would say to her that, honestly, I would say to her Yen, you are more than enough, you are more than worthy. Have faith in your path. Yeah, yeah, like, really just be more present in your own body, trust your own gut feeling and if anything that you feel is not aligned doesn't feel right, slow down, really slow down, even if you need to pause and really dig deep into your gut feeling and ask your gut is this right for me, right here, right now. If it's not, it's okay. You will live to 120 years. You have a lot of time ahead.
Daniela:Yes, interesting that you said that, because I keep remembering moments. You know our wedding, our times where I was living in London, england, and I feel like I wasn't present enough. I remember some things, but I don't remember other things. And you know, perhaps it's just that when you're young that's the way you are when you don't notice things, you notice other things. Your memories are selective on because of your youth. I keep saying to my kids, for example you know, be more present, because this is one thing that I actually feel I regret, but I don't know again if I could have been more present, or the reality is that when you're young, that's the way people are.
Yan Huang:Well, I don't have regrets, I just take it as well. The way how I look at it, the way how I view it is, I have no regrets right, all my pivots twists and turns, I call it, all the battle scars that I pick, that I collect along the way, Experiences, you know. Without them, I don't think I will have a deeper appreciation of what I have right now. I don't think I will be even here right now to share my story. I don't think I will have a deeper appreciation about the goodness in mankind, even though sometimes we are full of. We are. You know, we are just bombarded with so many bad stories, right? I don't think I will have a deeper appreciation of people who are working really hard, like the frontline workers, like me working at a grocery store.
Yan Huang:It's been six weeks for me and oh my gosh. You know I really want to give a shout out to people in the retail. You know industry, especially in the FCMG, fast moving consumer goods. You know, like in the retail grocery stores there's so much work like non-stop. You know it's one of those I call it unglam work. You don't get paid a lot, anywhere between eight to $10 an hour. It's really long hours and yeah, and you know you have to deal with what the management wants. You have to deal with the customers and then the customers in the day. I have learned how to actually. It's also a very interesting experience because it keeps me grounded. It also teaches me how to cultivate presencing meaning and boundaries.
Daniela:I know what you're talking about. I am listening to a new book called Whatever arises, love that. I'm using that as my new mantra Whatever arises.
Daniela:Love that oh okay, I like that. It has been really interesting. I started to use it on the weekend and we were with some friends and I don't know something happens between the couple. They started to get upset and I was like whatever arises, love, that it was meant to be, like whatever really happened, even if it wasn't like this happy moment that we were expecting there was gonna be, it put us in a different reality. It needed to be there.
Yan Huang:I love that. I love this, sharon, because I could tell that you're giving your liver. So in TCM liver, the organ liver, it's got to deliver in a gallbladder, but mostly the liver, the liver is very happy right now because I can see and sense that you have this newfound understanding and revelation about learning how to let go of control.
Daniela:Yeah, and is you know, I like to control.
Yan Huang:Oh, yeah, yeah remember, everything's on a spectrum. Everything's on a spectrum, I know.
Daniela:So the liver has to do with control the emotions.
Yan Huang:So there are like six or seven emotions and each organ has an association with an emotion. Oh really, what does TCM stands for Traditional Chinese medicine? Tcm don't just treat the physical symptoms, but they will also notice your, what they call your emotions. Your emotions, your energetic symptoms as well, because they believe that the organs hold energetic stuff which in the Western modern medicine, they'll be like what rubbish is this? They really need it.
Daniela:Yeah, yes, and I believe that that's important. I believe that that goes hand in hand. And so now they're talking about functional doctors, right?
Yan Huang:Yeah, which is so expensive. Agree in the sense that I think it's positive for the Western trained modern medicine, for them to now be more open to look at the human body holistically. But if you still price them at that rate then it's just not accessible, right? I think last we spoke last month, right A month ago.
Yan Huang:No a few weeks ago oh, just a few weeks ago, yeah, just a few weeks ago. And then, to be honest with you, even before that, I was, oh my gosh. I was going through this phase in life where I felt like, why do I even want to have money, money, if I can practice my qigong to a point where I don't even need a lot of food? Why do we even need money? And it became very freeing. Freeing in the sense that, wow, I thought I in the past, I thought I need to have at least, let's say, $2,000 a month so that I can eat this and it is the basic stuff, right, and I'm not married, I have no kids, so it becomes like burden-free. Yeah, I really thought about that.
Yan Huang:And then I was like I don't know, I was, I was trying to find a refine, a position in life where I felt like, can I, how can I be in the world but not off the world? Like how can I get out of that system? I don't have a house. Do I really need a house? Because all my friend of mine was just like, yeah, do you want to start thinking about having a house of your own? Like, invest in a small little house. Well, only because I don't have a sum of money to buy a house straight away. But I didn't really want to get a house. I don't want to be tied down financially. I'm one person. I don't really go after luxuries, it's just basic stuff. You know, I'm very happy if you give me a small plot of land and I go figure out how to grow my own vegetables or herbs.
Daniela:And I wanted to comment about you saying that you don't need money. That's actually a very good, really good, because that is one of the things that I feel like I have difficulties emotionally and you know, again, I'm not, I don't need luxuries or anything like that, but I would like, and I'm sure I have enough, but I get stressed a lot about it and so, but only I think, is when I'm spending it on the things that are not my values. But you know, I have a partner and so he's spending values are different than my spending values and so I think that's okay. That's maybe the issue.
Yan Huang:Yeah, yeah, I mean okay, maybe I wouldn't say I don't need money, do I do? I do I, you know like I need to survive, right? So, yes, if I want to travel and all that stuff, yes, yes, the basic stuff. So that definitely I would say you know resources for you know basic living and then you know to teach people about cultivation, health cultivation practices as well. Yeah, like you know, if, unfortunate enough, blessed enough, I would love to really dive deeper into the world of you know traditional Chinese medicine, whether to learn acupuncture or nutrition and her stuff, to teach others, for not a lot of money, of course. You know, go around the world and teach people that they would be great. So you are going to become a.
Yan Huang:I don't know, I have not started anything yet. It costs a lot of money actually. I feel like it suits you. I feel like it suits you, I think so. Anyway, if I'm going to list you 120, I'm still young.
Daniela:Yes, you still have lots of time to study, Jen, shall we check with you in five years to see where you're at and how your your dreams have come through? Sure, yeah, yes. So I invite you to come back in five years and see how is Jen doing. Oh my gosh, that was so exciting. It's like time travel. I did an episode with five 20 year olds and I asked them for 60 different questions. Same question to all of them got the answers and I was thinking you know, we have to. We have to come back in five years or 10 years to see what they think about the answers and what have changed since then. So I am sure we can get back to you too. Oh, yes.
Yan Huang:Yes, it sounds exciting, I love it, I love it, I love it.
Daniela:So let's do it, Yang. Thank you so much for sharing your story and reaching out all the way from Singapore. It was a pleasure.
Yan Huang:Yeah, you're welcome. Thank you so much again for having me. I love sharing my story as well with you.
Daniela:Yes, thank you. I hope you enjoyed it. Today's episode I am Daniela and you were listening to, because everyone has a story. Please take five seconds right now and think of somebody in your life that may enjoy what you just heard, or someone that has a story to be shared and preserved. When you think of that person, shoot them a text with the link of this podcast. This will allow the ordinary magic to go further. Join me next time for another story conversation. Thank you for listening. Hasta pronto.