Do you feel like you’re on the edge of burnout, putting so much time and effort into your work that you’re wondering how much longer you can keep doing it?
If so, this episode, which is full of rich takeaways for handling burnout and stress, might be exactly what you need!
I talk with Meditation Coach & Trainer, Sura Kim, who candidly shares the pivotal moment that transformed the way she looked at her life and her work, and the time when she decided to leave Wall Street to become a meditation coach.
Sura shares some essential tips about what exactly it takes to discover your purpose and to change directions. Make sure to listen to this powerful episode!
“I began sharing with my corporate clients my journey. So they all knew what was going on with me. They knew when I was going on meditation retreat, they wanted to hear about it. I started sharing my books with them and buying them the books that I was reading. And in that sharing, I started to develop deeper relationships.”
“If you don’t take care of your energy, who will? It’s precious. This is what you have in your lifetime.”
“We live and breathe in this system, and it’s a system that’s more masculine driven. That’s in our masculine energy of go, go, go, do, do, perform, perform, perform, produce, produce, produce. That’s a system that’s burning us out.”
“And everybody’s feeling that burnout and exhaustion. Like people are just tired of working their energy in that same direction. So because we’re all in it, you’ve got to remember, like you said, on your own, through your own practice and your own practice of meditation, because when you kind of go in that direction where you’re always grasping and reaching for more, it throws you out of your center and it throws you off balance, because we’re not meant to be in that mode constantly when you’re in a constant mode.”
“From birth, I’ve been discovering and rediscovering my own sense of worth.”
NICOLE
Hello, friends. Welcome back to the School of Self-Worth. I’m your host, Nicole Tsong, and today we get to dive into a conversation with a truly remarkable woman, SURA KIM. So Sura and I met the old-fashioned way on LinkedIn, through social media, and from our very first connection, I knew I wanted to have her come on. She has such a genuine, calm and grounded energy, and she speaks so precisely about the challenges we can face in our personal lives and how we evolve over time. She has a really incredible journey that she shares with us in the conversation about how she used to be on Wall Street and what it was like for her to be in a job making tons of money, and then to be in a situation where she got that nudge. You know what I’m talking about, that little inkling that there is something else for her to be doing than what she was doing at the time. She was doing a lot of yoga, she was doing a lot of meditation, and she shares really profoundly about that journey and the decision that she made and what it was like to also talk to her mom about that decision, and to make the leap that eventually led to where she is now, which is a teacher and coach of meditation and of meditation teachers.
You really don’t want to miss this story. it is so, so good. I was so inspired listening to her. So make sure you stay tuned. And if you’re an Asian American corporate woman who wants to master your mind and your emotions so you can manifest a promotion and the life of your dreams, dm me dreams on Instagram @ NicoleTsong – I’ve got something just for you.
Okay, friends, let’s dig into this really incredible conversation. Welcome to the School of Self-Worth, a podcast for ambitious women who know they are worthy of an astoundingly great life. Join us weekly as we get on the right side of your intuition, redefine success, and reclaim your self-worth. I’m your host, Nicole Tsong, an award winning journalist who left it all behind to become a best-selling author of three books and work/life balance expert, helping ambitious women unlock their intuition and step into a life of fulfilment and radical joy. Every single week, I will bring you diverse and meaningful conversations with successful women from all walks of life who share insight about what it takes to be brave, joyful, and authentic every day. Every episode is thoughtfully designed to leave you feeling empowered with tangible tips and advice that will lead you to your next breakthrough.
Sura, I’m so excited to have you join us here on the School of Self-Worth. Welcome!
SURA KIM
Thank you. I am delighted to be here with you today.
NICOLE
Well, Sura and I connected over social media, and I love the random connections in the world, because it turns out she lives pretty close to me. We have a lot of common interests in terms of our own entrepreneurial journey. I’m just excited and thrilled to have a conversation with you, Sura, about your own background, your experience, your journey of self-worth, and then a little bit more about the meditation that you teach, and sharing more about that. This is an open question into your journey, but where would you say that your journey of self-worth began, and how did you kind of traverse it to get to where you are today?
SURA KIM
My journey of self-worth, I think that’s from birth. I’ve been discovering and rediscovering my own sense of worth, and especially when I hit the spiritual journey after I left corporate. I think learning how to share our gifts as teachers and healers and knowing what those gifts are worth, has been such a big part of the journey that if you’re charging $500 as a lawyer or an accountant, that it’s okay to charge the same amount if you’re really impacting people in a significant way. So I think just knowing what we’re worth on every level has been a huge learning curve, at every step.
NICOLE
Right! I always like to tell my clients, when we talk about it, that you don’t arrive ever with that journey. It’s an ongoing process, because every time you evolve, there’s a new layer of self-worth there to uncover and to discover for yourself. So I’m curious, because there’s a lot of women who are listening, who are corporate. Was there a pivotal moment for you in corporate where you recognize you had a spiritual journey to go on? Because spirituality and corporate don’t necessarily go hand in hand for people. And so where would you say something happened or occurred that really ignited you to do something different?
SURA KIM
I had achieved the pinnacle of my success on Wall Street. At that time, I was vice president of a small boutique firm, and I had, at the same time, hit rock bottom in my personal life. I felt deeply depressed and in so much pain that I really didn’t want to be here anymore. That’s when I really began to search and pray for a way just to be okay in life, and that’s when I discovered meditation. Meditation took everything to a new level for me. Things started to really change. I started to feel, and I cried, I think, for three months straight, sitting on the cushion, just for months on end, there was just a very deep sadness inside of me. And through that, I started to feel joy again. It was in this journey of transformation and seeing everything in my life evolve, from my relationships to my workflow to even my yoga practice. And I could start doing yoga postures I could never do before, and at that point, I thought maybe there’s something more for me.
But it wasn’t until the tsunami had hit. What year was that? Was it 2004, the big tsunami in Asia. I missed it by a few days. The resort I was supposed to be on in Ko Phi Phi island had been completely wiped out, and there were no survivors. And that was right when I was wanting to go to Southeast Asia to learn more about meditation and Buddhism. That event really struck me. And it was the first time in my life that I thought, do I have a purpose? And now that I’ve been given this second chance in life, you know, why did I survive? Maybe there’s a reason. And that’s when I started to look at leaving Wall Street and making a big departure and studying meditation. I ended up getting a one-way ticket to Asia to study meditation. So that was a pivotal point for me.
NICOLE
Thank you for sharing that. I have a lot of questions related to this story you just shared. And I’m curious, going back even to that moment where you started to meditate while you were still holding down your corporate job, and you were saying, crying on the cushion every week, how did you balance this awakening that was starting to happen while you were still holding down what was an intense job, that required your energy, your focus when you were there, while you were also having these new openings for yourself?
SURA KIM
It was interesting. I began sharing my journey with my corporate clients, so they all knew what was going on with me. They knew when I was going on meditation retreat, and they wanted to hear about it. I started sharing my books with them and buying them the books that I was reading. And in that sharing, I started to develop deeper relationships. But I also began to pull back from work, and I would leave work early or I wouldn’t work as hard.
It was interesting, because the less I worked, actually, it seemed, the more money I made. I worked in sales, which was commission-based, and I started developing deeper relationships with my clients and also pulling away from work. So there was this interesting kind of dynamic. And then management was watching me leave in my yoga pants and my yoga mat. I was leaving work early because I set my own hours for the most part. They were like, ‘We got to do something about Sura’. And that’s when they asked to promote me to become partner at the company. So it was an interesting thing that happened. I was just kind of very passionate about yoga and meditation. So I started to dedicate more of my time and my energy in that direction, and simultaneously, it actually boosted my workflow and my opportunity at work.
NICOLE
Well, I love that you came back to that, because it was the most interesting part to me. It’s like, actually, the less you worked and the more you were meditating and doing yoga and things that brought you joy, is how you advanced in the more traditional sense. The sense of you had probably been working for a partner previous to this, but then you gave it up as a goal and focused on other things. Then all of a sudden, that’s when they wanted you to advance. And what would you say for yourself felt like that opening? Was it a shift in your energy, like you said, your relationships? What happened for you mentally at that time when this new evolution was starting to occur for you?
SURA KIM
I started having trouble sleeping, because after the tsunami happened, and I started to think maybe there’s something else here for me, I realized I’ve been living most of my life based on what would look good on my resume. Everything was about looking good to a potential employer, and just living my life in a way that looked good to others, rather than what felt good inside of me. And I started to have more of that realization. Then I started to have trouble sleeping because I began to experience all these weird synchronicities. I mean, just events, and I won’t go into them, but events that would point me very clearly in a direction, very clearly in the direction of yoga teacher training, studying meditation full-time in very specific locations. I mean, just beyond coincidence.
So these synchronicities began to happen, and I started to have trouble sleeping. And I called my mom, and I told her that I had this feeling that I had to leave Wall Street and study full-time, that I needed to commit more of my life to this. At the same time, I was facing accepting partnership at my company and leaving millions of dollars on the table. We grew up really poor, below welfare, poor immigrant family, didn’t have any presents or anything during Christmas. We were really scraping by. So to have this abundance and wealth was really important, not just for me, but I also wanted to be able to provide for my family. So I told my mom this, and she said, “Just follow your heart and don’t look back”.
That was kind of the turning point for me, because I had been thinking about it, and I kept having this feeling that if I didn’t leave, it just felt like something bad could happen, and that really my next best step was leaving completely, leaving New York completely, where I ended up selling everything that I owned, renting my apartment, just basically getting a one-way ticket to Asia, and taking a backpack with me. So it was just this feeling, an intuitive feeling, that I needed to go. At that time, my company management responded by saying, “It Iooks like you’re having a midlife crisis, why don’t you come back in a year, and we’ll retain your partnership, and you can go do what you want to do.” And so that was the arrangement, and I ended up leaving, and I couldn’t come back.
NICOLE
So it was interesting when you were saying, going back to your conversation with your mom, because I’ve had similar conversations with my mom. And then just even going back to growing up with immigrant parents, we often have this idea of we have to provide. We have to execute our lives to a certain level, make a certain amount of money. And I’m curious, before you talked to your mom about it, if you were worried they were not going to be okay with it. You know, safety, security first, because I feel like that’s often pretty primary for immigrant families, and that can also be an Asian culture. I know that when I left journalism to be a yoga teacher, my parents were very supportive, but I was not positive that that was going to be the outcome, and I’m curious if you could walk us through that part a little bit.
SURA KIM
Of course, I put that pressure on myself. My parents never put pressure on me to make money, per se, but I think that they definitely wanted a career that was safe and secure. So when my father turned 60, and that’s a big year in Korean culture, I gave him money, and that was something I really wanted to do for my parents, provide financially. And I remember that day I gave over this check, literally, the moment that happened, I went, “Oh, like, what am I going to do now?” I literally felt like that’s what I’ve been striving for my whole life, and what I can’t buy any more, like nice dinners or Gucci purses. I mean, it was just one of those things where a lot of people are living these very luxurious lifestyles in New York City and the realm that I was working in. I just felt that I didn’t need more of that. That wasn’t where I was feeling that sense of fulfilment. I also didn’t think I could not come back to work, because never would I have dreamed I would have enough to sustain myself as a teacher. I just assumed I was coming back. I didn’t think that it was a real departure. I had the assumption that I’d come back because I needed a way to sustain myself.
NICOLE
Thank you for sharing that. Well, the other piece this leads to, is the question I had around self-worth, and actually leaving? Because it is a big thing. And I’ve had clients in this situation as well, where there’s a really big paycheck on the table or there’s stock options that are going to vest at some point, and they feel they can’t leave that behind. Were you able to really stay committed to the things that you cared about, which was for you going deeper into your purpose and really pursuing who Sura is? How did that occur for you? What did you think about it at that time?
SURA KIM
I felt that it was like going to college. It’s a year of investment in myself, where I was going to go off and learn, explore and travel. At the same time, I enjoyed it so much, I was having so much fun that I thought, you know, I think I’m going to go all the way with this and just go through everything I have, because I have been poor before, and it’s not that I can’t survive it. I’ve been there where I’ve had absolutely nothing. I thought, I know how to do well and make money on Wall Street. I mean, it’s something that I acquired as a skill.
And so I figured if I had to go back, I would go back. But I wanted to take this learning as far as I could take it because I felt so, so deeply called. It was something that really filled my heart, and that was the reasoning I took at that point, and also that I was quite young, so I wasn’t thinking too far ahead.
NICOLE
Yeah, well, I love that because I think we do have so many skill sets. So you’re like, “Well, I could always just go back to Wall Street and make a bunch of money, if that’s what I needed to do.” But you were also like, “Okay, let me just go see how this will happen.” And so what happened for you after that year, and what did you decide to do with it? Did you stay longer? Did you move back to the United States?
SURA KIM
I came back. It was interesting. I remember sipping on a coconut on the beach in Thailand, and I was just having such a wonderful time, when I heard this small inner voice, and it was like, “Sura, Sura…” And I remember not wanting to hear this. And the voice said, “It’s time to go back!” It had been over a year, and it said, “It’s time to go back.” I’m like, “Go back? No way. I don’t want to go back. This is where it’s at for me.” And it was like, “It’s time to go back and teach what you’ve learned.” I’m like, “Teach what I’ve learned. What would I teach?”
I had gone to Thai massage. I just kind of learned everything that was fun, and I wasn’t thinking of it in terms of a career or anything, so I was thinking this is nonsense. What would I go back and teach? But it was a very strong calling to go back, and that I needed to go back and teach what I had learned. And at the same time, I had no idea what I would ever teach. So I did end up going back, and at the same time, I enrolled in coaching school. I went to Georgetown’s executive coaching program, and while I was there, one of my old former clients on Wall Street phoned me up and said, “Hey, you look great. You’re radiant, and you’re so peaceful, and I’m so stressed out. So why don’t you come and show me what you learned in India?” And I thought, “What I learned in India? What am I going to teach him? Like, breathing techniques?” I was thinking, “Well, okay, I can come to your office.”
I went to midtown to his office, and we’re there sitting on his carpeted office floor, stretching and practising some yoga, a little bit of energy healing together with some of the coaching that I learned at Georgetown. He just kind of came up from that, and he was like, “Oh, I feel so much better.” And he kind of stretched his arms out, and left the office. And I thought, “Oh, I wonder if that was weird for him, you know, because here I am teaching all of these alternative things to the CEO of a hedge fund,” and he comes back with a check. I was like, “What is this?” And he’s like, “It’s your payment for your work.” So I was like, “No, this is not work, are you kidding me?” But he literally was crying. He had tears come down his face. And he said, “You’re going to be like Tony Robbins.” I said, “Who’s Tony Robbins?”
And that’s how it started. He referred me to other people, and I started in executive coaching and combining this integration of yoga, healing and coaching together.
NICOLE
Well, that’s amazing, because he saw your worth and value in that moment, so quickly. Right? He really knew, and he saw it. And I feel like sometimes we just have those people along the pathway who are like a little nudge. He’s like, “Here you go. Here’s some money.”
SURA KIM
Yeah. I was bowled over. I was like, “What was that? What is he doing?” And that’s what planted the seed for me, here’s what I could do. By the same token, when I came back, I wanted to talk to some companies, but I found I just couldn’t. Every time I went to pick up the phone, I’d start crying, and I was like, “Where is this coming from?” So I just started to go with the teaching route, and it just happened naturally and organically, bit by bit, and that’s how it started.
NICOLE
And then, obviously, that’s what you’re still doing to this day. What would you say then, because I feel like when you’re talking, especially that contrast between Wall Street and yoga and meditation. And I know that these days, these things are probably more integrated than they used to be back when you left.
I was in New York a couple of months ago, and I think about the intensity of the city and how everybody’s working. You know, you and I are both on the west coast now. But it’s just like an intense culture. And then this contrast of yoga and meditation and these practices that you teach and coach, what is it? This is more of like a bigger picture question that sometimes we’re going to keep that intense pace and we’re just going to make sure we’re balanced by doing meditation and yoga, you know? And I’m curious what you think about that, because I don’t personally feel like that’s the solution, but I feel like sometimes that’s what people can present as the solution. Like, “Oh, if I just meditate every day, then I’ll be fine.” What is your perspective on that? What is the balance that we’re actually missing? Maybe that’s my bigger question about our culture, where we have this intensity, and that’s just a symbol of it, right? Wall Street’s a symbol of the intensity of American work culture, where we just have to go, go, go all the time, all hours of the day. And what do you see for that? What’s the gift that you’ve learned over the last couple of decades of doing this and what people actually need?
SURA KIM
I think what’s called for is a systematic change, because our culture is based on this model of extraction. Now we have to put out a ton of energy. You know, we have to work hard and make a lot of money and perform in order to consume a lot, and spend, right? And today, everything’s expensive. So you need to make a lot of money and work hard just to exist. The system of not having affordable healthcare and support, for example, for mothers; this whole system that’s set up on maximizing output and extracting as much as we can from every last unit in a person, is what’s not sustainable. We need a whole life change, starting from the system. Because if you’re not part of the system, it’s very hard for someone to just start up and be on their own and sustain on your own, even as an entrepreneur.
I would say that we have to reevaluate the systems in which we live and also think about how much we really need, and what’s enough. Because the paradigm we’re part of is not enough, right? And the whole idea of self-worth is, “I’m not enough.” And having to overcome this belief and the ‘not enough’ that hits your root chakra, which is your center of safety and security, and the fact that we’re one of the richest nations in the world, and yet we all feel like we’re having to scramble, and that something’s missing – and we need more, more, more, more. So it’s that paradigm shift of more, more, more, and the expenditure of energy and having to consume a lot, that keeps us trapped in that system. You’re speaking care and all these things, right?
NICOLE
Well, I mean, it’s such a system of lack, right? And it’s just present in so many places, and I feel like we, myself included, get so immune to it because it’s so present. It’s like it’s in the air that we breathe, of everything that we do, where we feel that all the time, and it’s such an effort to get ourselves back. Because I always feel like systemic change, like what you’re talking about, and I’d love to hear how you teach it, or how you think about it. For me, what I teach and coach, is really that it has to always come from within, like when we can really move ourselves out of that scarcity and out of that lack, and change within ourselves, and we no longer are contributing and cycling into that system. Where we at least have awareness when that moment comes, so we can choose to step out of that again.
That doesn’t mean we exit society, stop making money, or pay for things, but we can exit that mentality. And that exit makes a huge difference for how we start to contribute to the world in a different way. I’m curious for you, how do you teach that or see that, and how meditation comes in for that?
SURA KIM
I think it’s a constant practice, because like you said, we live and breathe in this system, and it’s a system that’s more masculine driven. Right? That’s in our masculine energy of go, go, go, do, do, perform, perform, perform, produce, produce, produce. That’s a system that’s burning us out, and everybody’s feeling that burnout and exhaustion. People are just tired of working their energy in that same direction. So because we’re all in it on our own, like you said, you’ve got to remember through your own practice and your own practice of meditation, because when you kind of go in that direction where you’re always grasping and reaching for more, it throws you out of your center and it throws you off balance, because we’re not meant to be in that constant mode. That’s what burns you out, and that’s what people are tired of. Even their mind, because their mind goes into burnout, goes into a lot of cycling and burnout, reaching, grasping and ping ponging. So it’s about bringing it back, and coming back to our center, and remembering that you’re okay, and what’s here is enough.
NICOLE
Yeah. It’s amazing how quickly that comes back in. I typically never work on weekends, because to me, that’s the time to recharge, but this past weekend, I just happened to need to for a couple of days, and it was actually incredible to me. Just working 1 or 2 hours each day made me feel not rested at all. I was exhausted coming into the week and I was like, “Oh, I know why I teach this,” but it was really interesting to actually experience it, because I know tons and tons of people listening, often will just be like, “Oh, it’s just an hour or two, I just need to get a couple of things done. It’ll make me feel better.” But actually, I know for myself, it made me feel worse. It made me feel like I could never rest, could never pause. And it really cycled me into that ‘not enough’ place like you’re speaking to. So I’m curious for you, and also the people you work with, when we get into that place, what do you think about? Or how do you start to reset yourself back into that place of, “There is enough. There is plenty. I am worthy,” etcetera. What is that return practice?
SURA KIM
It’s really self-awareness. It’s being aware when we are in that mode and we’re just going on fumes. I think we’ve become desensitized. We’re desensitized to when we’re exhausted, and we’re always rewarded for pushing. Our society rewards people who push, push, push, push, push beyond their limits. I mean, we put these people up on a pedestal and then we see them die at young ages, right? We see it all the time. People who just push through, and they know no limits, they keep pushing their energy, then they have a heart attack at like 50 or 60.
I think that you being aware of it, “I only worked 1 or 2 hours, but it kept me in a state of hypervigilance. It didn’t allow my nervous system to go. I can just totally let go.” That kept you on the hook. And that kind of self-awareness is critical. That’s all you really need, because it’s only you. You’re the leader of your energy. You’re the authority of your energy. If you don’t take care of your energy, who will? It’s precious. This is what you have in your lifetime. I’m constantly learning this lesson because even with meditation and having a meditation business, I’ve burned myself out, because we do teacher trainings and it’s like there’s a huge push right before, and we have enrolment – and I have gone through that, even with my meditation business, where we’ve got payroll, admin, bookkeeping and everything that you have to manage, and take care of a team. It’s so easy to get pulled into that because you sort of lose yourself in it, and you feel like you have to do it. So I think having those conscious breaks and giving that break to yourself, that’s really about self-care and self-awareness.
NICOLE
I feel like one of my most burned out periods was actually when I was a yoga teacher, which is so funny because everyone thought I was going to be so zen and relaxed, but I was working like a fiend. I remember my day off when I first started full-time, was a Tuesday, and so I was teaching yoga, like every other day of the week. I was also freelance writing and doing all these other things to try and make it. So I really relate to what you’re saying, and I know you’re speaking from that entrepreneurial side, but sometimes, even when we’re in those practices or we’re teaching those practices, we have to really watch those old patterns that can just kind of sneak in. I always feel like it sneaks up on me, because even working this past weekend, it just sort of snuck up on me. I was like, “I don’t really want to, but there’s just a couple of things. I can’t wait, so I’m going to do it this weekend.” Then I did it and I was like, “Wow, I am not doing that again.” Because my brain never got the full reset. I know this week I’m going to need more sleep, just to make up for it, because my body was like, “What are you doing?” Usually I just hang out with my dog, read some books, make some food – like, it’s just really easy on my nervous system. But being aware of that pattern, I feel like it’s a constant practice.
SURA KIM
And also because everybody’s doing it.
NICOLE
Totally! Everyone’s doing it. My husband was also working.
SURA KIM
Yeah, everybody’s a doer. Right? Like, a lot of people are into this busyness, and busyness is the way to avoid ourselves, so it’s like we’re constantly running ourselves into that, and we’ve got to have the courage to stop. It takes courage to stop and to pause and to take a few breaths.
NICOLE
Yeah, it really does. And I will say for everyone listening also, that Sura had us do this before we began today, and I was so grateful. She’s like, “Let’s do a little meditation.” I said, “Wonderful. Let’s do everything,” because I knew that I needed it, too, you know, I’ve had a busy day leading to this, and I’m so grateful that we just have those reminders for ourselves, and how important those are. Well, what would you say for the women who are listening, who are often on this hyperdrive overdrive all the time, what would you say is one simple thing that they could do every day for themselves to start to access that place of calmness and grounding, and just getting themselves back to center more quickly?
SURA KIM
I’d say doing something that pleases you or gives you pleasure. We don’t follow what feels good. We follow our mind and what our mind says we should do. But following what feels good for your energy, that’s rejuvenating and uplifting for your energy. I teach meditation, but I tell people, find your own meditation. What’s something that refreshes you, that pleases you? Sometimes meditation is like an extra thing for people to do, right? It’s an extra performance pressure. “If I don’t do it well, I feel bad about myself,” and you can go into that cycle. So if meditation is too far of a reach right now, then just go into a room and just stretch your body, move your body. Give yourself the grace to listen to what feels good for you.
NICOLE
Yeah, that’s beautiful. There are so many ways we can feel good, and I love that you can just give yourself permission to say, “I’m going to just choose one today that feels really good in my body.” Beautiful.
Well, Sura, what a truly lovely conversation with you. So calming and grounding to even speak about these practices.
I’m going to shift us into our final rapid fire questions. See what comes up here. The first one is, the last thing you watched on television, I believe you said it was Bridgerton? Did you finish the new season?
SURA KIM
No, I am savoring it. But yes, Bridgerton. And then a favorite that I just watched was Sweet Tooth.
NICOLE
Sweet tooth. I haven’t watched sweet tooth. I just watched the first episode of Bridgerton. So no spoilers! I have to avoid the Internet because there are so many Bridgerton spoilers everywhere. People watch it so fast, and I only watch one episode a night. Okay. The next one is what’s on your nightstand?
SURA KIM
I have a clock right now. It’s just a clock. I actually cleared my nightstand because I was getting ready to paint my room, so just a clock that doesn’t emit any light.
NICOLE
I love it. Simple. That sounds really nice. And then when was the last time you tried something new? And what was it?
SURA KIM
When was the last time I tried something new? I would say it was a new old thing, but it was rock painting. Painting rocks.
NICOLE
Oh, did you just paint them colors, or little ….?
SURA KIM
I painted an owl and a penguin on a rock, and I’ve been getting back into my creativity. That’s been part of my restoring process, right now.
NICOLE
That’s so fun. What do you do with them?
SURA KIM
I just place them in different places. Like on my counters, where I can see them.
NICOLE
I love that. There’s a woman in my parent’s complex who paints rocks, and so she asked for photos of people’s dogs, and then she’ll paint the dogs, and put them all around the complex. It’s super.
SURA KIM
That’s amazing. That’s what my girlfriend does, and she painted my dog’s image onto a rock, and it’s so true to life.
NICOLE
That’s awesome. Okay, and then the last one is, what are your top three most used emojis on your phone?
SURA KIM
Heart, smiley face, and probably the hang loose emoji, because I live in Hawaii.
NICOLE
Awesome. Well, Sura, what a joy to have this conversation with you. Truly, it’s so beautiful, your journey, and what you teach and share with people in the world. What is the best way for people to reach you or find out more about you?
SURA KIM
They can come to my website at suraflow, and they can find me there.
NICOLE
Well, I’m so grateful to you for being open to this conversation, and thank you so much for being here with us on the School of Self-Worth.
SURA KIM
Thank you so much Nicole. Blessings.
NICOLE
Thank you so much for tuning into today’s episode.
Before you go, don’t forget, if you are a high-achieving woman who wants to uncover your biggest blind spots preventing fast intuitive decisions, I’ve got a 72-second assessment for you, so make sure to dm me quiz @NicoleTsong on Instagram and thank you for being here and for listening. We read every note that we get from you about how the podcast is making a difference in your life. Please know how much we appreciate each and every one of you.
Until next time, I’m Nicole Tsong, and this is the School of Self-Worth.
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