Getting My Priorities Straight

Dearest readers,

Good evening, and happy Sunday! I hope you all had a blessed day. It is 8:10pm as I write to you from inside the seating area of a local grocery store. I just finished teaching a 75-minute vinyasa krama yoga class, followed by a 50-minute breathing and meditation class. What’s great about teaching yoga is that I, too, reap the benefits of mental relaxation that I hope my students feel after they leave class. I find that my line of thinking is much clearer following spiritual practices, because the whole definition of yoga is UNION: mind, body, and spirit, aligned on the same team. My intuition, cognition, and emotions work as one living, breathing entity. From this transcendent state can I offer the best version of myself to those around me.

While soaking in the hot tub before my scheduled classes, I shared a beautiful conversation with a former gymnastics teammate. She read my previous blog post about dating, and we found that we could relate deeply to one another surrounding challenges that come part-and-parcel with relationships. She expressed her admiration of my hard-earned wisdom, and to that I said, “I dunno. This is all very new to me. I’m not perfect, and I really need to learn to take my own advice.” What’s the saying? Do as I say, not as I do. LOL. Well, the theme of this season of my life is: PRACTICE WHAT YOU PREACH. SAY WHAT YOU MEAN, AND DO AS YOU SAY. In other words, live a life of integrity, be impeccable with your word, and lead with honesty. Be honest with yourself and with others. That way, you can go to bed at night proud of the person you are, because you aren’t deluding anyone, including yourself. The human capacity for denial is remarkable– it’s important to open your third eye, the seat of intuition, and closely examine your blindspots and faults, and actively work to rectify them. I truly believe that if we adopt a growth mindset, we are all capable of change, if only you have the will to do so. That’s the whole meaning behind the tattoo on my left forearm, “fiat lux”. It’s the UCLA motto, and it’s Latin for, “let there be light”. Light: a motif of wisdom, truth, clarity, Enlightenment. Let me accept the parts of myself I cannot change (my 50-50 torso-to-leg ratio) and grow into the person I was meant to become (fearless, loving, wise, Warrior Queen).

It is almost October, month 10 of 2025. This year has been a trip. I started off flying high, sober and doing great in my jobs, then I flew too close to the sun, my wings burned off and I crashed and burned in a fiery pit of hell. I learned the lesson that nothing is worth jeopardizing my mental stability over. Not work, not relationships, not even ambition. So I committed myself to recovery, did deep inner work to heal my psychological wounds, and now, a lot of things are going right for me. Work is frenetic and vibrant, I’m starting a few different businesses, which is all very exciting and fun. I thought I would be terrified, building products and services from scratch with little-to-no resources, taking a big gamble on my life at large, reprioritizing and sacrificing things that used to be important to me, but that I now forsake in the name of entrepreneurship. I’ve taken a break from ballroom training, tabled the 3 books I’m writing, rarely go out social dancing, spend less time with friends, all to chase after my dream. I am a lifelong athlete, so I know how to sacrifice, and this is all very familiar to me. And I worry, too, that history will rhyme, and if I push too hard, I will come crashing down again. I tread a fine line between genius and madness. If I step over the line, the consequences are real and severe. I can’t afford to let that happen, not ever again.

And so, speaking from my intuition, I hereby proceed to take inventory of my priorities. The great investor Warren Buffet advised people to write down a comprehensive list of 25 things they want in life (personal and professional aspirations), circle the top 5 items, and cross everything else out. They call it, Warren Buffett’s 5/25 Rule. So what are my priorities right now? This is the first draft.

1. Day job: teaching fitness classes.
2. Business #1: Venture True Wellness.
3. Business #2: Co-founding a dance discovery and connection app with my business partner, Ethan.
4. Business #3: Wedding Dance and Fitness services.
5. Self-Care

Interesting. Notice how work comes before all else, and self-care came last on the list. Not to mention I didn’t leave time for relationships or a social life. Zero balance. Doesn’t sit well with me. Let me give this another go:

1. Self-Care
2. Day Job
3. Business #1
4. Business #2
5. Personal Relationships

This one sounds healthier and more realistic. I tabled Business #3. If it’s a great idea, it’ll still be there in a couple years. This list is still a stretch, but at least I have my priorities straight.

1. Self Care. If I don’t take care of my mental and physical health, I will not be able to thrive in any facet of my life. I will fall back into addiction, have mood episodes, and God forbid, end up hospitalized. So that means: getting adequate sleep (9-10 hours a night), eating well (Google, you spoil me with delicious desserts and free energy drinks, so this will be a challenge), exercising regularly, hydrotherapy, spiritual practices (yoga, church) and time alone to unwind (Netflix, reading, journaling).
2. Day Job. I can’t afford to drop everything I’m doing right now to build these businesses. Maybe that will happen later, but for now, I’d prefer to keep my safety net. I’ll continue to teach yoga, dance, pilates, and personal training, but I won’t take on any more in-person clients right now, even if opportunities arise.
3. Business #1: Venture True Wellness. My baby. This is a labor of love, y’all. Shoutout to Anna Thorner who built this website, and Robert Karns my marketing director. I hope this platform can be of value to you guys. There’s the fitness courses that need to be filmed, the podcast that I’m excited to launch, the blog that I’m presently writing on, and all the back-end marketing that goes behind getting this business launched (social media, newsletters, content creation, etc.). One word: delegate.
4. Business #2: Dance App. I’m glad I have Ethan as my co-founder. He’s all-in with this project, and he’s taking the lead on this since he’s fresh out of college, without a job, and has ample time and energy to commit to building this empire. He’s the OCD to my ADHD, the left brain to my right brain, the logic to my emotion, the guy who brings high-flying concepts to Earth and transforms them from amorphous visions into tangible realities, the person who gives me “action items” and “to-do lists” and keeps me focused for the long haul. I am an artist, a creature of feeling. Some have called me “brilliant”, but others have called me “uncommitted”. It’s not that I’m not committed, it’s just that I am chronically overstretched across 10 million things, and that is a pattern that needs to be rectified. “You can do anything, but you can’t do everything,” is how a friend of mine put it. Ethan is the ice to my fire. He is a young man of practicality, not quite as recklessly ambitious as I, but equally as hard-working and driven, and he has his head screwed on straight. Most of all, he’s a joy to work with, he has such a fun personality. I can’t say much else about this business for now, but dance world, stay tuned. We’re cooking up something cool for you.
5. Personal Relationships. I could be the richest, most successful person in the world, but what meaning does material wealth and professional clout hold if I have no one to share it with? I have a big heart that sometimes gets overshadowed by my unquiet mind (biology influences behavior, and the price of my creativity is a neurodivergent brain). I care about people, I really do. That’s why I decided to pursue a career in wellness. I want to help people, I want to be of service. Money is great, but it’s not everything. It’s the people we love who bring color and joy into our lives. I once wrote in a poem, “Love is what I yearn for, ambition is what I chase. / The question of the night / Can both be mine? / The answer, of course, a resounding YES.” I have never been in love, which is why I call myself “Half a Human“, but it will happen on the Universe’s time. For now, I will keep taking care of myself to become the best possible version of myself for my future life partner.

And that, my friends, is a great way to end tonight’s musing. I wish you all a great week ahead. And I highly recommend Warren Buffett’s 5/25 Rule if you haven’t tried it. Do it once, and do it again a few months later. Priorities are fluid and ever-evolving, and you need to have the mental flexibility and self-awareness to pivot when needed. Most of all, enjoy the richness of the present moment– a billion present moments make up a lifetime, so why dwell on a painful past or stress over an unknowable future?

Live in the here and now, and be grateful for all the people and blessings in your life that make it one worth celebrating.