I was raised in an atheist family in a post-Mao China where practicing spirituality has been unsafe for decades. For almost 20 years, I had walked a path I thought I needed: I had picked an external goal of becoming a physician because it was a way of helping people that my ego felt safe pursuing. I then threw my mind and body into weeks at a time without regular sleep and where everything else took a backseat. It worked for me -- I depended on the external validations; disappearing into work also meant I didn't need to face my trauma and difficult emotions. 

In 2024, I attended my first sound bath as part of healing from long COVID. When the sound bowls began to sing, I was suddenly surrounded by the most calming unseen presence I had ever experienced. Within seconds, my whole being understood, telepathically, that I didn’t need to worry about my career or how disruptive it might be to change, because my soul’s purpose was to help others feel the same expansive, unconditional love I was feeling in that moment. Then I fell into a deep sleep.

The sound bath ended. When I woke up, I no longer felt ambivalence and trepidation about changing my path. I had integrated a visceral knowing, more powerful than anything my logical brain has tried to convince me of.

I now understand that day to be part of my spiritual awakening and what gave me the courage and momentum to step back to part time work and start my landscape art business in 2025. I have since deepened my intuitive spirituality practice and became certified in “Soul Reading Method” taught by spiritual guide Nikki Novo.