Hi everyone, welcome to week one of Wake Up Call - Discover the Superpower of Mindful Living!

I am really excited to be taking this journey with you over the next six weeks.

I am thrilled to have you here with me, as this means that you are ready to take in this information, and you are ready to make a big change in your life. You and I now have this contract, where I share my insights and what helped me overcome the many challenges I was faced with throughout the forty plus years of my life here on earth, but you also have your end of the bargain to hold up, which is to read the emails, listen to the audio and most importantly put into practice what was discussed and requested of you for the week. Don’t worry these will not be unrealistic requests. I have worked full-time as a single mom and know what it is like to have my plate full. Yet here you are, and here we are to work together as a team.

Of the many tools I have learned to help me grow and overcome the challenges in my life, I would say Mindfulness, is one of the earliest I have learned and really the most simple to practice. It is also one of the most effective. I think this is what prompted me to teach this course at my holistic wellness center in the first place, in January of 2018.

Great Expectations

Before we dive in, I would like to manage any expectations you have by emphasizing that this is journey.  You have either just started, by purchasing this course, or perhaps you have been on it for more than half of your life like me, or anywhere in between that, really. The point is that this journey is never ending, and that is a good thing! Like certain types of sharks, we have to keep moving, or we die! While we are it, might as well try to move forward, don’t you think?

This course is not a system for solving all your problems and making them instantly disappear. What it is, is a new approach to life. It is unrealistic to expect overnight change from yourself or anyone else. Though insights and shifts can happen instantaneously, we do live in a physical world which has its rules and constraints. Sometimes, it takes longer than we would like for transformation to manifest and anchor into our physical reality. Patience is a key part of mindful practice and will allow you to reach this Superpower on a deeper and more long-lasting level. We are not here for a quick-fix solution but rather long-term, profound change and transformation.

About me

A little about me before we start – my name is Windy, I am originally from the Philippines, but I grew up in Europe and in the United States. I left the Philippines when I was six and before returning there as an adult, at age eighteen, a dear friend gave me one of Thich Nhat Han’s books. I can’t remember if it was Being Peace or Peace is Every Step. Probably both!

As we will find out a bit later, Thich Nhat Han is considered the father of Mindfulness, but at the time I knew nothing about him, I just read the book and found it calming and sweet. What really happened to me at that time was that his words were seeds being planted in my young brain. They took years to actually bloom, which I hope will not be the case with you – the purpose of this course is to distill and deliver the tools and insights gleaned from this twenty-year process, and make it more accessible to you.

Fast forward to many years later, a marriage, a child, a divorce, working in international organizations in New York and Geneva, a second marriage, and a restaurant. Finally, one year ago, I opened a holistic center in the Philippines, where I ran Wake Up Call – Discover the Superpower of Mindful Living as a six-week course. We met once a week over six weeks, going over each of the six modules you will be discovering. I was planning to run it again at the center but quickly realized that committing six Wednesdays in a row was too big a commitment for a lot of people. At the same time, I would hear from many of my friends from around the world about the struggles they would be facing, mostly involving stress, anxiety, loneliness, despair, and depression. That is when it dawned on me that they and others like them could also benefit from the course. And that is how we got here, you and me. Know that whatever motivated you to join this course in the first place, you are at the right place and time.

Get a notebook!

One last logistical detail is that I requested you to get a notebook in addition to the worksheet and audio, and the reason behind this is that writing in longhand, old school with a pen and paper, accesses a different part of your brain and the information is processed on a deeper level. So yes, you can use your computer or even a journal app if you really want to, but my suggestion is to go for good old pen and paper for the next six weeks we are spending together, and my advice it so follow my suggestion!

Mindful Practice: Writing long hand

Close your gadgets. Get your pen and notebook and take a deep breath. Write without judgement.