Women In Wellness: Olivia Wu On The Five Lifestyle Tweaks That Will Help Support People’s Journey Towards Better Wellbeing
An Interview With Candice Georgiadis
Be around people who wants to see you succeed — I wish I had learned the importance of this in my earlier years and cherished those who offered honest and constructive feedback. The people who cheer for your wins but at the same time calls you out are special. Keep them around! As entrepreneurs, we all at times feel overwhelmed, that we are alone trying to figure it all out. Your supporters are going to be your pillars keeping you motivated and lifted in moments when you doubt yourself.
As a part of my series about the women in wellness, I had the pleasure of interviewing Olivia Wu.
Olivia Wu is a writer, certified meditation teacher, and creator of Soulove — a wellness community focused on personal development, authenticity, emotional mastery, spirituality, social issues, and featuring experts who share their personal transformation stories. Olivia left her full-time job in advertising after 20+ years to pursue a career more aligned with her desire to inspire a heart-based society through her work. She believes who we are at our core defines our capacity for joy and purpose, and who we are collectively sets the fate of our planet and the future of humanity.
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Our readers would love to “get to know you” better. Can you share your “backstory” with us?
Well, I have always been drawn to ancient literature and spirituality since accidentally picking up one of my grandfather’s books when I was 8 years old. I remember it vividly. It was a rainy afternoon in Shanghai, where I was born and raised, and I was bored out of my mind not being able to play outside and looking for anything to do. When I went through my grandfather’s bookshelf and started reading classic Chinese literature, I couldn’t put it down. I was particularly drawn to the Buddhism and Daoism aspects of it. Before you know it, I went through all of his books and began to expand my interest for more knowledge and connection.
Then my whole family moved to Los Angeles when I was 11 years old, with $60 and 3 suitcases of our belongings, and my world was turned upside down. We had a rough time adjusting to the vastly different culture here in the U.S. We have gone through confusion, frustrations, turmoil, individuality and as a family. Life suddenly was about survival and it felt as we threw everything we used to know out the window. I struggled with my identity, as well as loneliness and depression for a long time.
Fast forward 20 years, I graduated college and pursued a career in graphic design and art direction, working for corporations and advertising agencies. At last, I thought, a successful and stable career would resolve all my problems and past traumas, but I was deeply unhappy. It was around that same time I was going through divorce and realized how much my mental health was neglected and how important it is for my overall well-being. That’s when I first began practicing meditation. It would take me another decade to work through some of the deeper wounds that was never processed.
After much personal growth over the years, I feel I have not only comfortably integrated my Eastern and Western thinking and ways of life, I also feel resilient to life’s ups and downs and far less prone to emotions spirals. All I want to do now is inspire others to do the same by teaching the techniques I’ve acquired from my long search for happiness.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you started your career? What were the main lessons or takeaways from that story?
To me, the most interesting (and surprising) thing was that I started writing. I had never written anything before other than advertising copy. Being that English is my second language, I had never planned or desired to write, nor did I feel I would ever be good enough to write anything worth reading. At the same time, I felt there was a tremendous amount of information as well as personal stories I needed to share, so I started a blog.
Through the help and encouragement of a writer friend, I began my writing journey. My blog community Soulove is almost a year and half old now, filled with articles about healing, self-growth, and have attracted many successful entrepreneurs in sharing their personal transformation stories!
In all honesty, it took me a while to get comfortable with writing — it did not come naturally and easily to me like my other gifts. I had wanted to give up a few times and still doubt myself from time to time if my writing is of any value, but whenever I receive a message from a reader saying, “You will never know how much I needed to hear this… thank you!” is when I feel the purpose to keep going, keep writing.
What I’ve learned through this experience is that there is no wrong way to discover your purpose. Most of us, because of various circumstances, don’t just have our life purpose fall into our laps. In many cases, we become it, starting with an impulse, then feelings of being magnetically pull towards it, and then through consistently doing.
Can you share a story about the biggest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
Well off the top of my head, and I don’t really consider it a big mistake rather than a “D’OH!” kind of moment, LOL. I remember teaching one of my very first group meditation classes online by myself, logging on with 25 others who signed up for the class. I felt excited at the turn out, and without much thought, I said hello, asked how everyone’s doing, then jumped right into the meditations. After the class, which went well, except people were not as engaging as I thought they would be, I suddenly realized that I had forgotten to introduce myself! On top of that, I had given no background of what we were going to do and how the class will progress. There were several other disadvantages I hadn’t considered that comes with hosting a virtual class — people not being able to see my space and the tools I’m using and that they relied on my verbal cues to guide them along. It is no wonder there was not a whole lot of engagement.
I established some important reminders for myself that day, to be mindful of my teaching environment; to put myself in the shoes of beginner meditators who are still learning and looking to me for step-by-step guidance; and to assume a mixture of levels is in attendance in a group classe and give as much details as possible.
Let’s jump to our main focus. When it comes to health and wellness, how is the work you are doing helping to make a bigger impact in the world?
Other than writing about my personal story and showing my readers that personal transformation for the better is indeed possible, I am passionate about spreading meditation. To say meditation saved my life is not an exaggeration. I had so much internalized anger and confusion, was struggling with chronic depression, and felt like anything I do was hopeless. Over the years, through different techniques I’ve acquired from different teachers, I was able to do the healing and growing I needed.
It was through engaging with my readers and other writers I realized I was never alone like I thought I was. So many of us are wounded whether from childhood or relationships or career, and we feel stuck with our incessant thoughts or emotions. It’s one of the reasons, I believe, why our world is in such turmoil right now. There are so much unregulated emotions and lack of clarity evident even in those who are world leaders. I believe if everyone meditated, we would all live in a more peaceful environment and make better decisions in life. So I hope to help more people develop a consistent mediation practice, or heal, grow and succeed with the practice of meditation.
Can you share your top five “lifestyle tweaks” that you believe will help support people’s journey towards better wellbeing? Please give an example or story for each.
Without getting too deep into developing habits and mindsets, here are 5 of my favorite simple lifestyle “tweaks” anyone can make to live healthier and happier.
- Find time to connect with nature — We are typically surrounded by positive ions in our modern daily lives. Exposure to excess can have poor health consequences. When our environment and body are out of balance we experience fatigue, allergies, infections, and in severe cases, diseases. Positive ions are mostly concentrated indoors and are associated with household electronics, fluorescent lighting, metal, plastics, carpet, air pollution, etc. whereas negative ions are found in natural elements. High concentrations of negative ions can be found in areas of mountains, ocean, waterfalls, lakes, streams, dirt/earth, etc.
Here are a few quick and easy ways to connect with nature every day:
- Gardening — handling soil
- Walking barefoot in a grassy park
- Walking barefoot on a sandy beach, or swimming in a lake
- Hiking in a nature trail
- Breathing deeply in fresh air
- Soaking in sunshine
2. Smile often — Smiling actually does wonders for our mental health, even if it’s a little forced. Neuroscience has said the pleasure we get from smiling is equivalent to eating 2,000 chocolate bars or receiving $25,000. Reason being our smile is directly linked to the brain signaling us to do so when we receive stimuli of pleasure, amusement, or excitement. The reaction is autonomic ― we can’t help ourselves. When we smile, even if it’s forced, we signal back to the brain that we’re enjoying ourselves and prompting the release of feel-good neurotransmitters such as dopamine, not to mention the feel-good responses we usually get from others from our smiles. Next time you walk by a mirror, give yourself a big smile and observe how that makes you feel ☺
3. Move your body — Don’t sit for too long, don’t stand for too long. Basically don’t lock yourself in one position for a long period of time. Every hour or so, look into the distance, move a different part of your body so that oxygen flows, your energy does not become stagnant, and your muscles will not develop atrophy.
4. Breathe deeply — Sounds almost silly, doesn’t it? The truth is, most of us take shallow and rapid breaths. We can even catch ourselves holding our breaths throughout the day. Most of us actually don’t really know how to breathe. If we take a moment and think about what keeps us alive, we’d take breathing more seriously. Breathing deeply will maximize our lung capacity and oxygen intake — our vital life force. Breathing deeply will also slow down our heart rate and reduce stress almost instantly. Breathing exercises such as Box Breathing or Diaphragmatic (yogic) Breathing are great ways to regulate breathing and develop mindfulness at the same time.
5. Meditate — You knew that was going to be one of my answers!
Many people have meditated or are curious about meditation but have not locked down a consistent daily practice. The number one reason I keep hearing is “I can’t meditate, I think too much.” or “I can’t even sit still for 2 minutes.” And then there are “crisis meditators” who only meditate when they are stressed or when life gets hard but drop their practice when they feel things are back to normal. I also don’t think most people are aware of the scientific studies on just what meditation does for our overall wellbeing. Stress relief and relaxation usually comes to mind first, but there are other astounding scientific proof on benefits such as lowering blood pressure, anti-aging, boosts immunity, and improving memory and concentration with consistent practice. These health benefits alone are enough for me to want to commit to meditation.
The common misconception is that meditation is hard, and people think they must sit still and not have any thoughts, otherwise they’re doing it wrong. But the most important part of meditation is just doing it, even if it’s just for 30 seconds.
If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of wellness to the most amount of people, what would that be?
I wanted to jump to my most expected answer, which is meditation, but it really is about mindfulness. Every aspect of our wellness comes down to how much attention we give to selfcare and care for the environment around us, which includes relationships, living space, our own energy, and so much more. This may all sound complicated and burdensome, but when we realize how interconnected we all are to each other and all living things around us, we start to understand how much our thoughts, words, and actions affect one another, and in turn, affect ourselves. That is fundamentally my definition of Karma, Law of Attraction, and Fengshui.
The reason why I keep going back to the practice of meditation is because all of the mindful habits and so-called responsibilities all starts within ourselves. We are only capable of caring for others as much as we care for ourselves.
What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started” and why?
Transitioning to an entrepreneur from a 20-year history of full time jobs, I would say:
- Be around people who wants to see you succeed — I wish I had learned the importance of this in my earlier years and cherished those who offered honest and constructive feedback. The people who cheer for your wins but at the same time calls you out are special. Keep them around! As entrepreneurs, we all at times feel overwhelmed, that we are alone trying to figure it all out. Your supporters are going to be your pillars keeping you motivated and lifted in moments when you doubt yourself.
- Let go of your past versions of self — When we set out on a new endeavor, it’s hard to let go of the familiar, especially the identity of who we are, who we have been. This is actually hard work, but necessary. If we want to go where we haven’t gone before, we have to become who we’ve never been before. That includes doing things differently, adopting a new thinking pattern, and let go of the old voices in your head telling you how things “should” be done.
- When things are not working, slow down and get clarity — I have always been a bit of an overachiever, wanting to move at 100mph, otherwise I feel unproductive. But as I learn and grow, I see more and more how sprinting in zigzags is in fact, a much slower way than taking small, decisive steps in a straight line toward my destination. I don’t feel guilty anymore for taking time off to get crystal clear on what it is my heart truly wants before leaping forward. So when you are just doing busy work and your efforts are going nowhere, instead of getting frustrated with yourself, tell yourself it’s okay to take a step back and think about what you’d rather be doing.
- Honor your own body’s rhythm — This came to me when I realized I am now an advocate of wellness, and in a position to lead by example. I believe many of us are passionate about wellness because we’ve seen or experienced what stress and burnout does to a human body, and we don’t want to live that way. It’s important that we listen and respect what our own body is trying to tell us, since no two bodies are the same. That includes both processing and releasing emotions and attending to discomforts in the body.
- At the end of the day, trust your own instinct — When I first started, I was quite unsure of myself. I was starting something completely new and different; I felt a bit like fish out of water, going from being an industry expert to not knowing how anything worked. As much as I believed in my own heart’s guidance, I wanted advice from everyone and anyone who would offer it. I did lots of research, read, listened to podcasts, talked to friends, and tried many of the suggestions from those resources, even when I didn’t feel like they necessarily aligned with my ideas or direction. In hindsight, this experience further affirmed how important it is to trust and stay true to my own visions.
Sustainability, veganism, mental health and environmental changes are big topics at the moment. Which one of these causes is dearest to you, and why?
While sustainability and environmental changes are topics I follow, mental health is by far the topic I am most actively involved in, on a daily basis. It is a topic very close to my heart, from painful personal experiences to witnessing others around me who have suffered as well. The majority of my work now including my writing and meditation teaching revolve around the topic of mental health and personal transformation. Seeing all that’s happened in the world the past 2 years have also opened my eyes to just how much suppressed hurt there is in the world.
Growing up in the Chinese culture, mental and emotional health were not topics of discussion in communities. They were considered unimportant. Most discussions were about money and education. Traumatic events in life are usually swept under the rug and never brought up again within each family. It is also unacceptable to talk about it with other people because it brought shame to the family. So I’ve always felt alone with my emotional struggles growing up and even as an adult. As I got older, many have revealed to me their struggles with mental health, or that of a family members’, sometimes resulting in tragedy. It made me realize that it’s not that I was weird and alone, it’s that no one felt it safe enough to talk about these struggles. That they were too, judged and dismissed whenever they tried. Having realized that further makes me want to hold spaces, create workshops, and share stories to help those who want to heal.
What is the best way our readers can follow you online?
They can follow me on Instagram or Facebook @soulovestudio for quotes, insights, stories, and upcoming events. They can also visit my website and subscribe to my newsletter, or get in touch with me at [email protected].
Thank you for these fantastic insights!
Women In Wellness: Olivia Wu On The Five Lifestyle Tweaks That Will Help Support People’s Journey… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.