Lately, I’ve been reflecting on the uncomfortable in-between. The stage where the idea is clearly there, but the action hasn't taken place yet. The space between knowing what to do, and still not doing it. The frustration of having a clear vision, and feeling your body freeze each time you try to move toward it. I hear this often in my sessions: “I know I’m meant for more ease, more visibility, more abundance, but something in me keeps pulling back.” And the truth is: For many daughters of immigrants and women of color, this isn’t resistance, but protection.

Just because your loved ones are in survival mode…doesn’t mean you have to stay there too. Whether it’s your parents, your partner, or your friends, you don’t have to abandon the deep trust you hold in your vision, your creative business, and yourself.  As a first gen Korean American, eldest daughter of immigrants, and entrepreneur, I know how uncomfortable and guilt-inducing it can feel, just thinking about doing anything that goes against what our parents value. 😮‍💨 For me, I’ve always cared deeply about what my parents think. Maybe it's filial piety. Maybe it's just a very normal universal human desire to want our parents to love us and be proud of us.

Do you ever feel like if you could just be more consistent, more disciplined, more focused…then you'd finally see the progress you want in your business? Maybe you’re trying to expand your income or make your business financially viable, and you're quietly wondering if you just haven’t worked hard enough yet. But here's what's most likely happening: 👉🏼 Your nervous system is just doing its job. It’s protecting you from what it perceives as risk. Even when that “risk” is success. So, what if it’s not laziness, poor time management, or lack of willpower at all? What if it’s your body’s way of keeping you safe, just as it was trained to do? For daughters of immigrants, entrepreneurship often means stepping outside the “safe” and “respectable” path we were taught to follow. 

I used to overthink so many business decisions, especially earlier on in my entrepreneurial journey. There was a part of me that needed to make sure it was the “right” step. I needed to know that it would succeed and that I wouldn’t look like a fool. I needed to be legit, overqualified, and have it all together before taking any action. Because otherwise, that would be embarrassing. 🙈 It’s the Noona in me. 

If you’re a daughter of immigrants, creative, or entrepreneur and you know you want to grow your business or visibility, but find yourself hesitating…you’re not alone. 🫶🏼 Maybe a part of you is ready to expand, but a voice inside you is also going down a list of all the things that could go wrong…protecting you from potential failure, danger, or the possibility of being exposed, embarrassed, or judged. Maybe you’re full of amazing ideas, but you're avoiding taking action, feeling overwhelmed and unsure where to focus, and then questioning if this is even the right step. This is where Parts Work comes in.

If you're a high-achieving daughter of immigrants building your creative business, but battling waves of doubt along the way, worried about what people will think, feeling resistance to taking action, it's probably not a mindset issue. It's not a lack of discipline either. And no, it's not that you're lazy. Here's what's actually happening:👉🏼 Your nervous system is doing its job. Protecting you from risk, from visibility, from what feels unfamiliar—even when it's what you want. This is where somatics and nervous system work comes in.

I don’t believe in grinding my way to success. I’ve been there, and it’s not cute. 🙈 I’m all about building a life-first business—one that supports your well-being, priorities, and the life you actually want to live. Because if your business isn’t aligned with your life, it’s easy to slip into overworking, second-guessing, feeling constantly drained, or feeling stuck. And if we ignore the personal when talking about business, it inevitably shows up in our business decisions…through our fears, conditioning, worries, and the stories we tell ourselves.

If your body is in survival mode, your business will be too. You can have the best strategy in the world…but if deep down, you feel like you have to prove your worth, overdeliver, or work twice as hard to deserve your success, your business will feel exhausting. I know this because I’ve lived it. I see this with so many daughters of immigrants, new moms, and creatives who want to share their gifts with the world…with limited time, energy, and capital…wondering if it's actually viable, or worth it.

When I got pregnant, things really shifted inside me, not just in my life but in my business too. I wanted to allow my evolving self to express itself in a new way in my business, but I wasn't sure how it would all unfold and where it was leading me. I felt the urge to update my 1:1 coaching offer, write my newsletter again, maybe restart my podcast? Maybe a workshop? Maybe a retreat? I was creatively INSPIRED and brimming with ideas…but I didn’t know where to start. So I stalled. Each time I mustered up the energy and the discipline to put something out there, something held me back. I moved the calendar reminders from one day to the next, and before I knew it, five months had passed.

I used to be terrified of failure. Like many other high-achieving first-gen eldest daughters, I grew up telling myself it simply was not an option. Not only would it feel horrible, it would be embarrassing. 😳 Not just for me, but for my whole family. I speak in hypotheticals here though, because I didn’t really fail much growing up. ➡️ Because I didn't let myself fail. I was great at school and picked extracurricular activities I knew I wouldn't struggle with. (Except when my high school made us do mandatory sports, and I picked cross country. I sucked, but I was worse at hand-eye coordination sports with balls. Even THEN somehow I ended up on Varsity, mostly because our team wasn't very fast and JV didn't really exist 🤣) I basically only put myself in situations where I wouldn’t fail. Because when I succeeded, I was praised and validated, and I felt loved and valuable.

I met my younger self for coffee today. She showed up stressed, her shoulders tight from carrying pressures and burdens she didn’t yet have words for. Chronic back pain made it hard for her to sit for more than ten minutes. I told her, your body is carrying so much. It won’t always be this way. She was in her 20s, feeling lost, chasing after security, success…a sense of worth and safety. But no matter what job, relationship, or city she ran to, she couldn’t sit still. She felt stuck, like her voice was buried somewhere deep inside. She longed to create, to express, but something blocked her. I told her, you’re carrying generations of silenced stories, but one day your voice will flow freely.

You know those rare, out-of-body moments where you just want to freeze time and soak it all in? Like, WOW, this is incredible…let me download this straight into my heart forever. That’s exactly how I felt a few weeks ago, sitting cross-legged on the floor of a fluorescent-lit room at the local library. Around me: a chaotic spread of tambourines, shakers, a giant communal drum, and a sea of giggling babies with their parents. It was Teo’s very first music class—Baby Band—and it was pure magic. 🤩

Being an eldest daughter and a 누나 (“noona,” or older sister) has been a huge part of my identity. I mean, how could it not? My earliest life memory is when I was 4 years old sitting in our Seoul apartment, wearing a ballet tutu and my Minnie Mouse headband, bottle-feeding my 6-month-old brother. It’s almost like my life began when my brother was born and I became a noona, according to my memory.

Hello! Can you believe we’re halfway through June already?! It’s been 2 months since I gave birth to my son, and it feels like I’m coming out of a hazy magical challenging fog of postpartum recovery, breastfeeding, bonding, and learning a whole lot of new skills all at once. I’m running on a few hours of sleep per night and feeling delirious and exhausted, but whenever I see my little boy smile and hear him coo, it makes my heart burst with bliss. 🥹🤩❤️‍🔥

A question I’ve been receiving from clients and collaborators recently is a variation of: What’s been helping you expand into motherhood with pleasure? I love this question because it touches on a topic I’ve been thinking a lot about these day. The idea of a village. The concept of a village is not new; it’s ancestral. And in this modern day, cultivating your village can look different for everyone. As for me and my journey of pregnancy and expansion into motherhood, being open to receiving support from people around me has been instrumental to helping me feel more resourced and less alone.

Happy lunar new year and 설날 (seollal, Korean new year)! It’s officially the year of the DRAGON. 🐉 How are we feeling? Personally, I’ve reached the point in my pregnancy where my body feels pretty uncomfortable. I won’t burden you with my full list of symptoms, but let’s just say the goal is no longer to find a comfortable position—realistically, it’s to find a position that is as comfortable as my body allows. My tiktok has inevitably turned into pregnant-tok, and one of the staples you might find in this corner of the internet is: a pregnant mama wakes up from her third nap of the day and is asked, “What’d you do today?” and she sassily responds with something like, “I grew a pair of kidneys and lungs, what’d you do today?”

Happy full moon~ 🐺🔥 I’m writing you with a smile on my face because just as I began typing, my baby started hiccuping in my belly. Entering my third trimester this week, I’ve noticed that these hiccups have gotten STRONG. Although it’s a bit of a strange sensation of rhythmic pulsing in my belly, it always makes me smile visualizing him hiccuping and floating in the amniotic fluid of my womb.

It's me, Eunice. It’s been a while…how have you been lately? I'm writing you from Claremont, CA where I've recently moved (back) to, and my body’s been feeling the slowwwwness of winter especially these past few weeks. Despite all the commotion around new year’s resolutions and post-holiday back-to-work “full steam ahead” shenanigans, my body’s mostly been in yin mode, recovering from 2023 and embracing the reflective, introspective, cozy, bundled up hibernation vibes of the season as much as possible. Probably also has something to do with the fact that as some of you know, I am pregnant!