Text and photos by Prime Sarmiento
Living and working in Brunei for the past year has been a big change for me. The Year of the Wood Horse, with its tumultuous and vibrant energy, brought radical change which saw me not just working in a new company, but also moving to a new country, getting steeped into a different culture.
I celebrated my first Chinese New Year in a country which, despite its sizable ethnic Chinese population, has no Chinatown to speak of. Nevertheless, the first day of the CNY was declared a public holiday (not that I benefitted from it as I was on holiday duty). Most restaurants (Chinese and non-Chinese) have all those red lanterns and decors featuring either a sheep, goat or ram – to welcome the year of \the wood sheep/goat/ram/put your own ruminant of choice here – no doubt cashing on all the reunion dinners hosted by Chinese families here. I for one celebrated Chinese New Year on my own. No more trips to Chinatown, buying decors and eating steamed fish with my family. I instead bought round fruits, got some tikoy (more known here as nian gao) from my good friend Becks, got myself some decorative flowers and displayed them on my dining table to welcome abundance in the coming year.
Celebrating CNY in a different manner best described how I spent the past year. Living and working in Brunei for the past year has been a big change for me. The Year of the Wood Horse, with its tumultuous and vibrant energy, brought radical change which saw me not just working in a new company, but also moving to a new country, getting steeped into a different culture, living in a condo – which interestingly is a concrete manifestation of my dream home – and having a new set of friends and colleagues.
But more than that was during the year that past that I finally let go of what should be and learned to accept and go with the flow. To believe in and be blessed by the magnificent power of divine timing.
The Year of the Wood Horse was indeed a Year of Radical Change for this Gypsy Gal. I believe it stemmed from the intention that I set at the start of 2014 which is to follow my soul’s highest purpose. It’s this intention that guided my decisions, my goals and all my travel plans in the past year.
Pico Iyer once wrote that we travel first to lose ourselves, we travel next to find ourselves. I have gone beyond both the losing and finding myself phase. I found what I was looking for ad in the process created and currently treading my own path
My travels are no longer about sight-seeing but more on seeing from the heart. And while I still love to discover new and lovely cafes/shalas/bars/galleries/markets/any tourist site to visit, my travel itinerary is centered on learning from both old and new teachers and getting the benefits of energetic healing.
In the first quarter of 2014, to recover from all the frustrations and sadness that I encountered in 2013, I went to Baguio city – which I always considered my second hometown. Looking back that sounded cliché, especially now that the movie That Thing Called Tadhana has made Baguio (and Sagada) the place where – in response to Whitney Houston’s question – broken hearts go and find their way home. But how could I not to go to Baguio city when it was only in this mystical, bohemian place where I can start my own healing process? It was also in Baguio city where I got the e-mail confirming my flight to Brunei.
The succeeding months were filled with work – work that mattered and that brought me so much joy and fulfillment. I rediscovered my love for mentoring – which is how viewed myself as a newspaper editor. I always knew that I would teach one day, I just didn’t expect that this would happen in a newsroom and not in the academe. So in between attending editorial meetings and lay-outing pages, I also share what I learned as journo for the last 20 years to the younger business reporters, hoping that they will take such learning to heart and improve themselves.
My job as a mentor encouraged me to finally make a leap and go towards what I’ve been mulling on for years, but was reluctant to get into because I was thinking that this is a.) corny b)is not something that will work in the Philippines or any pace in Asia for that matter – becoming a life coach. That said, I didn’t know how to make that happen so I let my intuition/higher self/guardian Goddess/angels to guide me to make it happen. I read and reread a lot, meditated and started to take lessons from my spiritual teachers.
That was why I reconnected with my first spiritual teacher in Singapore – talking and getting healing and receiving crystals from her reaffirmed why I needed to take this path. I then returned to Kuala Lumpur, where I went to a powerful workshop with another teacher who taught me more about energy healing, karma, and Goddess spirituality. It was also during that time that I had a deep meditation and in the process learned more abouit my past life and how it’s affecting me now, especially my relationships and personal goals.
Reconnecting with my first spiritual teacher at her crystals and meditation centre in Singapore.
But it was during the AWE conference in Kota Kinabalu where it finally came together. I was there to discuss about my experience as a former freelance writer which will hopefully inspire other young Asian women to take the risk, quit their desk-bound jobs and use freelancing opportunities to work and travel at the same time. But while that speaking opportunity encouraged me (again) to go into mentoring, as I did enjoy public speaking, that wasn’t my biggest take away from this conference. The most important thing that I got from this conference was meeting fellow light workers Siva and Sharmini who are also into teaching, mentoring, life coaching and just about anything related to self-development. I was glad to meet like-minded individuals especially in this part of the world as I still want that personal touch, to actually talk and socialize instead of spending my time chatting through my smartphone.
Of course, this is just the start of my personal journey. Or perhaps I’m in the middle of it considering that I started working seriously on my spiritual path ten years ago? Whatever it is, I accepted the lessons I learned, the changes I’ve been through and welcome more lessons and changes in the Year of Wood Goat.
Rediscovering The Goddess. Little India, Singapore, 2014
