🎙️ From Muse to Maker: A Creative Journey with Yvonne Ng

Dance powerhouse Yvonne Ng joins Lisa Hopkins to explore the art of living in the moment through movement, creativity and mindfulness. Their conversation weaves through decades of friendship and dance collaboration to reveal insights about authenticity, presence and embracing uncertainty.

• From entrepreneurs in university dance programs to established artists, Lisa and Yvonne reflect on their 35+ year friendship
• Movement described as "the largest and most important language we have" for understanding ourselves and our relationship to the world
• Embracing imposter syndrome as evidence you're challenging yourself in meaningful ways
• Living in the moment isn't always serene meditation – it includes accepting "monkey mind," doubts, and all emotional states
• The importance of private downtime and setting boundaries around rest and rejuvenation
• Learning from mistakes without letting them define you
• The wisdom of awareness without judgment – creating space between stimulus and response
• Finding gratitude in everyday experiences like "eating breakfast" and "flushing toilets"

✨ Tune in to rediscover what it means to hold space for others, stay present with yourself, and find flow in unexpected places.

If you are enjoying the show please subscribe, share and review! Word of mouth is incredibly impactful and your support is much appreciated!

Chapters

• 0:47 Welcome to Stop Time Podcast
• 1:18 Introducing Powerhouse Yvonne Ng
• 4:06 Early Entrepreneurship in Dance
• 11:31 The Journey of Saying Yes
• 19:53 Creating Safe Spaces in Dance
• 27:55 Imposter Syndrome and Learning From Mistakes
• 35:38 Living in the Moment
• 43:57 Recharging and Private Downtime
• 51:03 Rapid Fire Questions

Transcript

Lisa Hopkins: 0:24

This is the Stop Time Podcast. I'm your host, Lisa Hopkins, and I'm here to engage you in thought-provoking, motivational conversations around practicing the art of living in the moment. I'm a certified life coach and I'm excited to dig deep and offer insights into embracing who we are and where we are at, where we are at my next guest well, this one's really special. My next guest is someone I've known since our days in the dance program at York University in 1987. A true powerhouse, then and now, in the performing arts.

Lisa Hopkins: 1:05

Born and raised in Singapore, she is the founder and artistic director of Princess Productions, home to Tiger Princess Dance Projects and the acclaimed Dance Made in Canada, Feto Canada Festival. Her work has toured globally to places like Ireland, Italy, Australia and China, featuring collaborations with renowned choreographers. Her dedication extends beyond the stage. She's a certified open source forms and Ashtanga yoga teacher and, through her arts education program Swallowing Clouds and Moving Stories, she's empowering youth and intergenerational participants alike. Her incredible contributions have earned her prestigious awards, including the 2022 Walter Carson Prize and the Jacqueline Lemieux Award. With a career spanning choreography, education and global impact, she is a living testament to the power of creative possibility. Please join me in welcoming my friend and my original muse, Yvonne Ng. Welcome Yvonne.

Yvonne Ng: 2:05

Thank you. Is that what you're going to say? Oh, my God, you wrote that. Oh, wow, you make me sound more. That's so, not me. Oh, thank you so much.

Lisa Hopkins: 2:19

It came from you, no, and listen, it's, you know, to the listeners, it's I don't know. Life goes, goes by quickly on the one hand, on the other hand not at all, Like when I saw you pre-show and you were gesturing it. Suddenly it's flooding back to me all the things that I choreographed for you, that you danced so brilliantly, that you know, just again, for the listeners, we were the original entrepreneurs, like in Canada at the time, especially well, well, at least from my perspective, in a university program, a very conservative university dance program, you don't really do stuff out of the box, right, you do what you're told. But there were three of us Yvonne Carey and I, yes, who were like man, we just have so much we want to do, right. And, and as I remember it, you, you were like the kind of, I want to say, brains. You were the organized one.

Yvonne Ng: 3:16

I bought a book. I did I actually I saved it. It's, I think, I think one of the dance organizations published it and it's pretty much how to run a company. I bought a book, oh my God, and it's got it's like a not those big things that you know, those big binders you can get like, and it's got those hard rings.

Yvonne Ng: 3:43

And it went from how to start a bank account, which we did yes, which we did with three dollars I remember, I remember, yeah, how to like hire someone, definitions of roles, so that was also very helpful because we needed to know who was going to do what um, and then the things about boards and yeah, boards, and so on and so forth. That's why we decided no boards, remember, yep, because we had homework on top of all. That's like no, no, we got to graduate too. No board, and I think we just made it like a small, like private company yeah yeah like we were such neophytes.

Lisa Hopkins: 4:23

We just knew that we loved to dance, we really liked each other and and at the time it's interesting because, if I remember correctly, at the time you proclaimed that you didn't really like to choreograph. Is that true? Do I remember that correct?

Yvonne Ng: 4:36

yeah, yeah, yeah, I really didn't want to choreograph because I just I, I wanted to dance, I liked being amused and it's exactly that I. I liked being, um, sort of that conduit, I liked being in that person's world and understanding that world and becoming that world or interpreting that vision, and also was another way of for me, was another way of getting to know that person Right. And you know, years later on, it did take me that long, but years later after I realized why. Because I also didn't have homework. So if I did all the management stuff, which is essentially what I did and I went to the studio, my homework was staying fit, training, practicing what I couldn't get right in the rehearsal, like you know, doing my job as a dancer and a performer, understanding what that was as the artistry of it all, and then when, and then that could be on my own time, you know whatever that was and in the studio and all of that. And then when I had to stop doing that and I had to turn to like let's organize all of the rest of the other cogs of the wheel, right, it's like that. I didn't, it didn't split my brains, it actually was less tiring.

Yvonne Ng: 6:01

As a choreographer, your work also extends, you know, and you know this, this like it extends beyond just being in the studio yeah right, letting it mull, allowing it to simmer, allowing to prepare, being kind of ready for the next day and knowing what's going to happen next, or tuning into yourself in a different kind of way and um, so it's just, we're all tuning into ourselves in different ways, but I found it was just, we're all tuning into ourselves in different ways, but I found it was yeah, and I didn't feel like I had anything to say at that point, but I felt I could say things that I needed to say through the vision of yourself, right, yourself. And I think Carrie did a couple of things too.

Lisa Hopkins: 6:44

Right, yeah, yeah, that's so cool. Hey, what did you learn about me through working with me? Because you, you were in basically everything I did yes, I did.

Yvonne Ng: 6:54

Yes, uh, well, you learn. You learn a lot about choreography, um, decision making, letting go, um being inspired by the moment. Um, obviously, you can't. You can't always know what. You know what's what the choreographer, what what lisa hopkins is thinking like deep inside, but also also what inspires and what the aspirations and the way they like to paint with bodies. You know, you learn about that. But of course, you learn about personalities too. That you were always really warm, always really encouraging, very positive. You know and you also able to take us. You were also able to connect us to ourselves. So we never were, we never thought that we could never do other things. Does that make sense? If anything, you are smart enough to tap into who we are so that we rise above ourselves.

Lisa Hopkins: 7:54

It really means a lot to hear that. I remember feeling whenever I was in the studio is my connection with the dancer or the actor or the human right. So it's not so surprising that here I am doing this or working with humans, you know in other ways, as a coach, and so when you described it I was like, oh my gosh, it's holding space and the conduit, or not the conduit, but the vehicle was dance right, whereas now I work with people, the vehicle, or the tapestry, or the canvas the canvas is is life, if you want.

Yvonne Ng: 8:36

Yes, yes, yes, yeah. And of course, bottom line is that you're a wonderful choreographer, a really great choreographer, brilliant. You always had lots of interesting, innovative ideas. Like you were never. Like you know, we never went in this studio going. I don't know if she's going to like you know, never. We never doubted you. I don't think any of us did ever doubted you and it was always surprising ideas and, yeah, challenging Right surprising ideas and, yeah, challenging, right, you challenged us, but we never, we never.

Yvonne Ng: 9:12

We never doubted that we couldn't do it either. It was always a positive thing. There was never tension. You also created an environment. You create an environment that we all were really there for each other, you know.

Lisa Hopkins: 9:30

Yeah.

Yvonne Ng: 9:30

Right, and we were all different dancers, but you and it's brilliant that you are able to bring us to our best- selves.

Lisa Hopkins: 9:48

It's not not everybody can do that. I think it's as you say it again now through my lens as a coach. It's how I look at my clients, right? I see the brilliance in them that they cannot see. So I'm not trying to shape them into something that I think they can do, but rather they inspire me, just as you inspired me, right. So you know you talk about my choreography, but it's like that to me, it was a synthesis, meaning it was trust. I created a safe space for you so that I too could feel safe, right? Because if you, if we don't all feel safe, then you can't tap into whatever it is. I was never as you know, never someone who would come in with something on paper and say then it goes like this and then it goes like that.

Yvonne Ng: 10:30

But normally I was always surprised. It was so great.

Lisa Hopkins: 10:32

It's all in there, yes, it was weird, but it came out because of you guys, like it was definitely inside of me, but it was not so structured and planned out. Sometimes it might just be a phrase or a concept or something, and you know. On the other, on the other hand, I wasn't depending on you to figure it out either.

Yvonne Ng: 10:55

It was all. You're so musical, you're so musical. I was always in awe of that. You're so musical. It didn't seem like. You know I have a hard time counting, I mean not that I can't count, but I just never liked it. But you never made it seem like we always had to be so strapped to it and yet it was very musical. You know not that we always. It was never like it. Sorry, and I don't want to give a sense that it's not, it was not a transliteration of things, but there was a musicality to the way you choreograph, the way your choreography sat with the music or was accompanied by the music or was married to the music or you know all of those things, and that was always so fun.

Lisa Hopkins: 11:40

If you had to choose one highlight and one low light from your life journey so far, what would those be and why? Yeah?

Yvonne Ng: 11:49

Oh, I don't know, I've never sort of had one more than another in terms of highlights. I feel very I do say I mean I have to say I do feel quite fortunate, very blessed and privileged that I've had like really wonderful opportunities to be with, like yourself, you know, like if we had gone in a different year wouldn't have met, we wouldn't have had dance, allegro, all of the things that I think we've all become, the whole enterprising thing probably wouldn't have been nurtured. We were also very lucky and fortunate. Fortunate that when we wanted to do what we wanted to do the department they either were really going I don't know if this is going to work for them, but we're going to encourage them or we're just going to sit back and see how it all goes. But do you know what I mean?

Lisa Hopkins: 12:44

Like we were very fortunate that the department was didn't say no, I mean you've had an incredible career. I mean, yeah, we had a really cool start. But look what you've done. Like, are you able to sort of acknowledge, like tell, tell, you know, Yvonne and Lisa and Carrie, back when we're sitting on the floor in the studio, you know, in 1987 or whenever that was, you know holy shit. Like look, look what I did. I mean, I mean, what would you? What's going on there? Like, what are you really proud of?

Yvonne Ng: 13:17

oh.

Lisa Hopkins: 13:18

I'm proud of you. I mean where I'm sitting it's. I mean I'm not surprised at all. You know, I remember people always saying oh you know, your friend Yvonne is doing really well in the scene and in Canada. I go, yeah'm not surprised, you know, but what surprised you? Or what you know? Talk to me a little bit about that journey.

Yvonne Ng: 13:38

It's a journey that's hard to talk about because you're still kind of on that journey. I, I think it's. You know, sometimes I I think it's because I'm not quite the planner. I may be the like. I like organizing things and making sure once I, you know, once certain things are decided on, I can plan, but I'm not like a long term planner. I don't have huge expectations. You know people. So I've always, I am kind of curious about now, only now, am I curious about this whole idea, about you say it and you manifest it and then it becomes the, the dream and the reality. I've never done that. I've never sort of sat and went oh, I want this career for myself, I'm gonna manifest it no, you just did it yeah me too.

Lisa Hopkins: 14:30

I I get that.

Yvonne Ng: 14:31

I understand, I relate to that, I get that yeah, okay, good, because I always feel like an imposter, because it feels like you know, like the, the, what's it? Uh, then there's a phrase, like all the, the chant and the mantra is about you know, manifesting your life and your dream into reality. It's like I just didn't. I think I knew, I knew I loved to dance. I knew I still love to dance. I know that I'm the happiest when there's a sense of engagement. You know whether it's it's mostly within the studio, but if, if not within the studio, in and amongst the people that I have that are close to me, near and far.

Yvonne Ng: 15:26

And the one thing that you said is also it's also been a part of my life is that I never think that people it's also been a part of my life is that I never think that people, my friendships with people, kind of peter off. I think of it as waxing and waning. Yeah, you know so. So, um, on that side note, it's like I have friends that I I'm still friends with, with friends that I've known since I was four. Yeah, we're still in contact. We pick whenever we see each other, just like this, we pick up like it never, like the time, never you know, there was no time in between.

Yvonne Ng: 16:04

And yet I think I I think I'm also not unrealistic in the sense that I don't. I know that we've all lived different lives and we may not have a lot in common. Like you know, I don't have a lot in common with some of my school friends. I know I have more in common with you. You know, with most of my university friends I have way more in common with but that's no strike against my primary school, kindergarten, primary school and secondary school friends.

Yvonne Ng: 16:31

I've known people since primary school all the way through secondary school, kindergarten, primary school and secondary school. I've known people since primary school all the way through secondary school 16 years and we all went to the same. And now when we see each other, yeah, but we are all. It's not like we have hugely different values, but we probably have different values. But when I look back I think it's just sort of my attitude towards life. But I don't have like one big, like motto that says, oh, this is how you should live your life and this is how it will be. I think I always think I'm an optimistic, pessimist.

Yvonne Ng: 17:08

That's how I see my life and I've been. Yeah, work ethic, I guess you know I do treasure the people that have been a part of my life, like yourself. Yeah, I don't know, I don't know how to talk about my journey, except I do feel that I'm okay to dive into things. I think maybe that's it. I never look back to think how come I've led the life that I've led.

Yvonne Ng: 17:40

I think I'm good with saying yes to things. I'm pretty open to saying yes to things and I'll dive deep. I mean, after I say yes to things, I go, oh God, why did I say yes? But then I'm like too late, should have thought about it before. You did that. Um, yeah, and then yeah, I guess it's committing as well after you say yes. So I guess I'm not sure how you would explain that, but I don't have like a leading um philosophy that I kind of, or some philosophy that I live by. Yeah, no ups, sorry, no ups that stand out the most I guess living oh, you know what maybe is the is the fact that Canada said yes to me.

Lisa Hopkins: 18:28

That Canada said yes to you. Yeah, fair enough Fair enough.

Yvonne Ng: 18:30

Yeah, canada said yes to you. Yeah, fair enough Fair enough, yeah, but probably that's the biggest high, you know, and then my X is the low, but then the low can become a high, you know, and then everything else in between. I think it's us all just working at it.

Lisa Hopkins: 18:50

No, no, but it tracks based on what I know about you, because it's sort of coming back to light this sort of you're not. You're not analytical or you don't want to be analytical. I think you probably are analytical, um, but I don't think that's a space that you like per se to be in. You prefer just to be in it. You prefer to be trying the movement, if you want, or or you know, in the rehearsal. As opposed to talking about being in the rehearsal or reviewing how the rehearsal went. You just like being in the rehearsal. Is that right?

Yvonne Ng: 19:23

yes, yeah, yeah, and it's not like I'm opposed to debriefing or prepping. I love both ends of it. But I think the experience that's probably why I'm, you know like, I love movement and I feel like movement is the largest and the most important language that we have, you know like, no, yeah in our bodies helps me understand who I am and my relationship to the world and also, in a way, the world is and not like the way that the world has to be right. It's not that, but it allows me to respect what's happening around in and around the world and try to have generosity and generosity and sensitivity to what's happening but how does, how does judgment show up for you?

Lisa Hopkins: 20:11

I'm curious, both internally and externally, like what's the balance there for you?

Yvonne Ng: 20:18

uh, experience in life, yeah, and I think that's also depends on the situation. Depending on the situation, whether you know, uh, god, that's, that's kind of broad, so I have to find a situation. It's really a situational sort of scenario.

Lisa Hopkins: 20:35

But do you tend to default to judgment when you don't understand something Most of us do, right, most of us do. And I use judgment broadly, I'm not saying judgment like oh, that's horrible, or in that kind of thing, more like where we, where we file it right, where we suddenly go oh gosh, yeah.

Yvonne Ng: 20:53

Yeah, we probably you know what I probably do. I probably would not always proud of that, depending on where it lives and lies, and then I have to revisit it and also, I think it's also, and it's a hard one. It's a hard one because of egos, where sometimes you have to admit to yourself that you know that you've made that mistake and you should take it out and move it somewhere else or re-examine it.

Lisa Hopkins: 21:21

But, yeah, yes, but you probably, based on what you've told me, have a really good relationship with if things go wrong, because you have experience having learned a. With if things go wrong because you you have experience having learned a lot from things going wrong, like when you talked about your lowest right, your lowest moment, which is is, you know, not often something someone wouldn't want to think about, right, they're like thank god it's gone, but you're able to trans, you know, transmit or transform that into no. That was actually probably my biggest learning moment and that was a big opening for me. So it would make sense that when something potentially negative comes your way, that you don't immediately recoil, but that you kind of go okay, like you're strong in yourself, right, because you've learned a lot.

Yvonne Ng: 22:10

Yeah, yeah, I wish I could say I don't immediately recoil, but that's not true. I do all of that. I feel like sometimes, when those things happen, I'm like the injured animal that likes to hide in the bush and take care of itself. I do that, but I know that that can't be permanent and I know that few things. I know that I can be better than myself. Yep, whatever that is at that moment and that time in that year or whatever, so that it's not to always learn from. But it's the building blocks. Yeah, right, I can't pretend that it never happened, right, it happened so, but it's a building block. And what? What do I do with it? I can make that block stronger, you know, or I can, can crush it and dust it, but it's still. It needs to be an act, right? So even if I crush it, it still has to. I guess it's the intention of what I'm going to do with all that, of that situation, the experience and the choices that I made at that time, the choices that I made at that time.

Lisa Hopkins: 23:10

What lights you up? I know you from the other end, right, I know you from being my muse, but it sounds like now you've created a lot of things where you're working with other people who may or may not be your muses, or at least bringing some of your visions to light. So I'm curious to know if I were working with you, what would I expect? What kind of environment would you provide? What kind of environment would you provide? What kind of work do you get excited to do?

Yvonne Ng: 23:39

I have to lay those foundations on the folks that I danced for or danced with, including yourself. So, creating the environment has I've had good experiences. Creating the environment has I've had good experiences. I've had not so good ones, but then you learn from that of. You know, like, what do you not want to create for the? You know for yourself the conditions of the room, the conditions of the space.

Yvonne Ng: 24:03

Each time, I tend to do things that scare me. I don't know why, and I don't mean to do that consciously and I don't mean to do that consciously. I tend to become interested in how things are interpreted through language, not just physical, but spoken. I'm interested in how we are as humans, individually, from where we are, where we are now, where we came from. I've come to terms with which is part of my process as well that I'm always rehashing my original idea. So you know, we always go in and go. I've got a great idea. I've never done this before. And then, if you think for and if, if you know, if I give myself a moment to contemplate it, I go oh, wait a minute. Yeah, I think I did that kind of in a different form, but very similar. So I've also, uh. And then, you know, in the past I would just, like you know, slap myself and like, no, let's not do that, you know, and uh. But I've also started to learn to embrace that as well as a way of learning, because, you know, maybe the way out is to keep doing it until you get out. And then, lo and behold, you have a different way of thinking. I don't know, so I'm still discovering.

Yvonne Ng: 25:26

I think mostly I feel like an imposter, but I think, you know, I don't think I'm the only one. It's not an original thought. I think a lot of people feel that. But I, you know, like I do whenever I facilitate class or anything, I always feel like an imposter. But whenever I enter a studio and you know, I brought people into work for me as dancers or other collaborators I do feel like an imposter.

Yvonne Ng: 25:49

There's so much to discover. Every time I think I know something, or not even know something, but barely know something. I learned something else. Yeah, and it always surprises me, and I'm sure you've had that too but even as a dancer, dancing for other people, aside from even making work, is that every time you perform, or it's being performed or the piece is being performed by others, you learn something else, yep, your interaction with it, your behavior in it, your performance in it. It's just kind of it's so expansive and so multi-dimensional, right, and it sounds so zany, but it is. It is like I always think it's possible, you know, and I, and I believe that it is possible, and people I know I'm not the only one you know so I kind of am thankful for that the imposter syndrome piece.

Lisa Hopkins: 26:55

you know, I don't think imposter syndrome is a bad thing. I think that's a. I think it's a sign that you're you're playing in a place where you're challenging yourself so that you can learn and that you can honor your values. So, of course, you're an imposter because you're probably doing something you haven't done before I mean not when you're teaching a class, but it's that same energy, right? Which is that you've never taught that class before. So I really get this sense that you were very much. And it circles beautifully into our segues, beautifully into our, you know, sounds like that's living in the moment. You know, living in the moment is like the tagline of the podcast, right? I mean, is that? Is there anything else you'd like to add about what living in the moment means to you?

Yvonne Ng: 27:36

I've been kind of thinking about this lately. It's so funny you brought this up living in the moment. Living in the moment is also forgiving myself when I have like, as they would say, monkey mind you know and and embracing that. Or living in the moment is when I don't know what the heck I'm doing and and I have these self doubts. It's allowing myself to be in those places too, because I think we I think we are also in a place where we're selling this idea of living in the moment as if it's some magical thing.

Yvonne Ng: 28:16

But I really think that living in the moment is what that might be. It could be very busy or it could be very quiet, it could be really nothing, it could be a lot of fear and and and I know that, yeah, because maybe I'm misinterpreting like you know all the stuff that I see out there. But you know, the whole living in the moment always seems like it has to be like the zen, this what we call zen. So I do this because you know the zen quiet like this hum, but sometimes we have a brain. The brain doesn't stop thinking. It's such a task to keep it quiet and it's possible. And those moments come when all the yeah. I find that those moments come, particularly in the studio, when things are coming together and it feels like this you know sort of yeah, alignment, yeah, I don't even think it's a quiet, it's like an alignment, it's just yeah, yeah.

Lisa Hopkins: 29:26

I love that. I love that. I mean, I agree with you. I don't think living in the moment needs to connotate being quiet or stopping or meditating or any of those things.

Lisa Hopkins: 29:38

However, I do think that, because the moments are always there and we're always in, we're to be living in, we are we are living in in many moments, and and for me I think it's the awareness piece, I think it's it's the gold is when, no matter what it is, whether it's good, bad, ugly or otherwise, or quiet or loud or whatever that you, that you're aware that that's where you are and that's only where you are, and that's okay.

Lisa Hopkins: 30:10

There's no judgment, but it's just, it's just living in the moment. It just makes everything richer. I mean, it might make a fight louder or it might make the negative stronger, but the awareness piece allows you, I think, to sort of I don't know if you want be the observer of yourself too, right. So that's where the quote unquote stop happens, right, which is when you realize that you know we're just going like this and you know there's no judgment about what this is, but you can actually look at it too and go, this is just, this is a moment, let's, you know, let's kind of bring it all together, right, instead of being all over the place. And it's and again, not that being all over the place isn't also a moment Like we feel like that, like you said, all the time. You know what I'm saying, yeah, yeah. So I think it's awareness, I think, literally I think yeah.

Yvonne Ng: 31:05

Yeah, I do agree, you're right. Yeah, yeah, yes, it is that awareness and it's allowing for that to be okay. Yeah, because I think that allows us to really embrace, you know, and but actually to God and now I'm going to repeat, to actually be living at that time whatever it needs and requires, we can give it all our attention right as well. Yeah, and yeah, yeah.

Lisa Hopkins: 31:37

Or we can take no action on it. I mean, I think it's right, I mean I think I think that's what we do is that we were always making these quick, quick actions, judgments, decisions, thoughts, and then we act, react. You know, the thought causes an emotion, the emotion causes an action and I think the awareness piece is just to have the awareness period awareness without judgment, awareness without analyzing, awareness, just that. I have awareness right now exactly yeah yeah, and I also.

Yvonne Ng: 32:10

It's also kind of leads to this idea of because I think this is becoming popular too is that this idea of letting go right, the this piece of letting go and and you know it's funny the living in the moment, that moment, and the awareness, noticing what you like, you know, you notice and just and and just being aware of what's around is so much, um, principal concept of that of open source forms and letting go as well, that's.

Yvonne Ng: 32:38

But, you can also take it to the extreme. Well it is. And yet, at the same time, sometimes we take all these sound bites and make it like a thing oh yeah, the only way to live is to let.

Lisa Hopkins: 32:49

Oh, yeah, oh yes, so.

Yvonne Ng: 32:52

So I kind of the same thing of you know. I may have forgiven, you know all those different aspects, you know from the lowest point in my life, but I am not going to forget. It doesn't mean I'm not letting go, I am, I've let it go. But not forgetting is not to use it as ammunition, but it's as a building block and it doesn't mean that it has to just be there. But it's something that I am not going to, I'm not I'm aware of, and it's something that I am not going to, I'm not I'm aware of and something I can tap into if I'm feeling really low. It's like look I, I had resilience, look, I can still. You know, maybe I'm a little tired today, whatever, but the letting go, I know, is something that's coming up over and over and over.

Yvonne Ng: 33:34

I hear it all the time now and it's also making me nervous, this idea of letting go, particularly since, particularly as I I think we're also in a place where, you know, um, my, our elders are passing, so we're kind of dealing with their physical and um, their physical, their physicalness and their belongings and also our attachments to it and how we're you, you know, but the yeah and and I know people are kind of throwing it around like oh let go, let go. It's like yeah but, there's wisdom is what I'm kind of trying to lead to is that you're?

Yvonne Ng: 34:12

having a sense of wisdom. It's making the yeah, having the wisdom to make choices, of knowing what choice to make when like the type of choices that you have to make. Sorry, that's what I'm trying to get at and that's that's a hard one, because not everybody is. It's hard to be wise wisdom is a result.

Lisa Hopkins: 34:32

It's not. It's not really, it's not really a verb yeah you know what I mean. I mean it's a result of experience and and of not being attached not a lot of experience and still not very wise, but yes, yes yeah, yeah, yeah, that's true.

Lisa Hopkins: 34:49

Yeah, that's true. It's so interesting. There's a, there's a little chapter in my book about that, about flow and about this whole kind of what you're saying about like there's a whole industry made around, like what flow is supposed to be. I'm with you on the way things get thrown around, but I will let that go, because that's going to happen when people try to capitalize on something which you know, which is actually ancient wisdom, but that has been turned into, you know, into commerce. So there's a you know, for me in my work that's definitely there's a real distinction there. That's really important.

Lisa Hopkins: 35:23

But I realized that if I just connect to my values, my true values, and continue on without any sort of caveats of oh, but that's not me, but rather just be me, that I will attract the clients. I will attract the, you know, the people that listen to what I say as something that resonates with them and therefore it becomes. It becomes their wisdom, if you want, not mine, but but it becomes. You know it's. It's like dance, it's like it's like when we, you know, I get this movement comes out of me, but then it becomes, it's synthesis, right, you? Then you dance it. It becomes something different. And then someone sees you dance it, then you dance it, it becomes something different. And then someone sees you dance it, it becomes something different again.

Lisa Hopkins: 36:03

And when I see someone seeing you, you know, dancing, my thing, like it just keeps going forever and that's beautiful, right, that's the infinite nature, I think, of, well, of everything. I mean dances. You know, we can talk about dance because we, that's our language. I mean there is something beautiful and primal, obviously, about what we do as dancers that nobody can take away from us.

Lisa Hopkins: 36:26

I mean, I don't dance every day. Well, I dance kind of for myself every day, but I don't, you know, like it's not part of my routine per se, but it's such a big part of me and it'll never go away. You know it's, uh, I know that like I, you know, even when I, where I stand somewhere or some people, just say, wow, you know, you have a physicality, right, but it's, it's, it's a groundedness, right, it's a. It's not a carriage, it's, but it's, it's a centeredness. At least, that's what I came away from, that's what I'm so grateful for with dance, because it's rooted in my, in my gut, in my body, in my heart, in my soul, in my mind in all of it, you know.

Yvonne Ng: 37:08

Yes, I do know, Of course, you do All that, all that. Say that for me. Yes, it is, but I do believe in all of that, yeah.

Lisa Hopkins: 37:17

All right. So how do you? How do you recharge Huh, how do you recharge Huh?

Yvonne Ng: 37:22

How do I recharge?

Lisa Hopkins: 37:24

Yeah.

Yvonne Ng: 37:27

I sleep, for sure. I recharge by sleeping. I recharge by giving myself time. I recharge by also not telling people that I give myself time. But I know I give myself time. You know there's this whole idea of like, oh, you should just learn to say no, I can't do this or this or that. And then you know you feel guilty. I do say no, but I also do just keep my time to myself so that I don't have to explain myself. So I do give back to myself. That's how I recharge. And then what happens in those moments or those times are just resting, resting and I sleep. I really try and sleep. I can sleep within seven minutes of laying down.

Lisa Hopkins: 38:24

You're lucky.

Yvonne Ng: 38:26

Yeah, I know Sorry.

Lisa Hopkins: 38:28

I wish I could do that.

Yvonne Ng: 38:29

Really, oh, I give a lot of time to myself to do the whatever, whether it's reading, meditation, being outside hikes, gardens yeah, but but don't tell anybody. Cut this, I'm kidding, I'm joking. So you can leave this part in so I do give billy.

Lisa Hopkins: 38:51

She's very, very busy. She doesn't do any of those things, she only works. She says yes to everything.

Yvonne Ng: 38:56

You're so funny but you know, I've also known that in order for me to rest is also to do it privately yep right, I think that's what it is, so I don't make a pronouncement of like I need to sit in the morning, I need to this. I you know I I will um, dance, workout and do all of those things, but it's my private time, that I don't feel any obligation to share with folks.

Yvonne Ng: 39:25

But I think it's not because I'm selfish or anything, but I feel like it allows me to really rest because of that, or to rejuvenate, or to fill up, because it's a combination right. It's like to rest, to rejuvenate, to refresh, to rethink, to contemplate, to be bored. I also like to sit to rejuvenate, to refresh, to rethink, to contemplate, to be bored.

Lisa Hopkins: 39:41

I also like to sit and just stare let me ask you I've never asked anybody this. Usually I ask people. Most people think that yvonne is, but the truth is. But I'm not going to ask you that. I'm going to ask you to finish this phrase at the end of the day. I know.

Yvonne Ng: 40:04

Oh, at the end of the day, I know that I have a home to go to. At the end of the day, I know I have myself to come home to. At the end of the day, it all kind of goes back like this it's okay, don't analyze it, just keep saying it.

Yvonne Ng: 40:28

Keep doing it At the end of the day, I know I can sit in my backyard and be quiet. At the end of the day, I'm also really it's taken me a while, but it's but it's been the last I would say 10 years that I can be all right with the fact that, um, I can be. I'm all right with the fact that I need a lot of quiet time and I can come home. Oh boy, at the end of the day, I know I can go in my fridge and pull up a glass of wine too, and, yeah, I don't know Whenever I think of that, I think at the end of the day, I think I know I can always come back home to me in a way, whatever that is metaphorically, I know.

Yvonne Ng: 41:18

I can always come back home to me in a way, whatever that is metaphorically, because I think one of the things that I have recognized for myself and also embrace most people think that I'm always buzzing around, but it kind of ties back to what I do when I need to refresh is that I'm not hugely social. I'm not an extrovert as I think most people think I am. I need a lot of downtime and I think that's why I'm always okay to have my downtime as my own time and I never feel guilty to take that. So yeah, I don't know what would yours be At the end of the day, Lisa Hopkins.

Lisa Hopkins: 42:10

At the end of the day, I know that I will have done the best I can.

Yvonne Ng: 42:21

That's amazing.

Lisa Hopkins: 42:23

And it doesn't always look the same, and that's okay.

Yvonne Ng: 42:27

Yeah, I like your answer better Because it's so true.

Lisa Hopkins: 42:32

You can take my answer. You can take my answer, I can take your answer.

Yvonne Ng: 42:34

Okay, at the end of the day, well, I guess it is true, but you know, I don't know when my day ends because my day is always different. So I think that's partly it too.

Lisa Hopkins: 42:48

OK, but you're analyzing it good, because I mean, think of it metaphorically right At the end of the day.

Yvonne Ng: 42:51

Yeah, I know After all is said.

Lisa Hopkins: 42:53

Maybe it'd be easier, you know, after all is said and done.

Yvonne Ng: 42:57

Yeah, after all is said and done.

Lisa Hopkins: 42:59

Yeah, do you know?

Yvonne Ng: 42:59

what was really beautiful. I'm going to pause there, okay. Yes, you know what?

Lisa Hopkins: 43:02

was really beautiful is before you started analyzing it all, like when you really started saying it, before you started saying before there were caveats. Yes, your energy shifted completely. You were very centered, you actually physically went there. It was really beautiful, very centered you actually physically? Went there. It was really beautiful.

Yvonne Ng: 43:20

I just want to point that out. Oh, thank you, but then your brain came in. Yes, I know Like it's yeah, so sometimes take the time you need.

Lisa Hopkins: 43:25

Even you know what. If I, if you were my client, I would say take the time that you need. You know that time that you do give yourself, and I want to honor you for that, because that's amazing. You know what you need and you take it. That's great. You don't like that. Maybe you have to sneak around and do it or whatever. I get that, but at the end of the day, you do do it, and so I want to honor you for that. But what I, what I would encourage you to do, is to apply that, not in such a uh, only to just like at the end of the day or physically like that, but like in in a conversation or or like take the time you need Buzz if you want to buzz, but don't buzz if just because you do. You know what I mean.

Yvonne Ng: 44:09

Yeah, I do Like seriously.

Lisa Hopkins: 44:11

You deserve that, you know we all deserve that and things will shift if you do that. Things will shift for you and certainly for others, because they're so used to seeing you a certain way. But you know how to do that for yourself. But do that for yourself in context with others. For you, though not for them for you, and see what happens. That's what I would say to you.

Yvonne Ng: 44:35

Okay, I'm taking it in and I'm looking at you now. Thank you, yeah, you're welcome.

Lisa Hopkins: 44:40

Okay, I'm taking it in and I'm looking at you now. Thank you, yeah, you're welcome. Okay, I'm going to say what makes you, and then I'm going to say one word, and then you say whatever comes to mind. There's no right or wrong. There's no right or wrong.

Yvonne Ng: 44:51

There is until until. Okay, yes, go ahead. There's no right or wrong.

Lisa Hopkins: 44:57

It's a game. I know you don't like games. There's's no winning or losing, so it's not even a game, it's just. It just is what it is. So make it whatever you want it to be okay. So you can use space if you want. You can do rapid fire if you want, you can just say this is stupid. If you want, you can do whatever you want. So what makes you? What makes you hungry?

Yvonne Ng: 45:20

The meal that I'm eating.

Lisa Hopkins: 45:23

Fair. What makes you sad?

Yvonne Ng: 45:28

People's judgment, you know yeah.

Lisa Hopkins: 45:33

What inspires you?

Yvonne Ng: 45:36

People.

Lisa Hopkins: 45:38

What frustrates you?

Yvonne Ng: 45:40

It's all wrapped in one.

Lisa Hopkins: 45:41

It's all wrapped in one.

Yvonne Ng: 45:42

I include myself in it too, right.

Lisa Hopkins: 45:44

Like I frustrate myself.

Yvonne Ng: 45:46

I can't. Sometimes I slap myself for thinking the things that I've been trying to like. You know, shift, yeah, but it's human and it's you know, it's a learning game.

Lisa Hopkins: 45:57

What makes you laugh?

Yvonne Ng: 46:00

Oh people, what makes you laugh? Oh, oh people, uh, uh. What makes me laugh? Um, living things, really, like you know, people, usually little kids, uh, I don't know comedy, many things make me laugh. Actually, what makes you? Angry opening the news to that the aggravation of I you know, and sometimes even myself, haven't we learned? Haven't I learned long enough? Why do I keep um, reverting back to this, so you know, I can say that safely. I can say that about what I see around us sometimes too. Yeah, um, yeah, that's what.

Lisa Hopkins: 46:45

Yeah yeah, and finally, what are you grateful for?

Yvonne Ng: 46:50

oh, the life that I'm living. I don't know any other thing. So I am grateful that I am, for the thinking talking blob that I am and the potential and possibility that I get to meet and be with, and even myself. You know, know all of it. That's exciting. I always find that exciting possibilities. Uh, did I?

Lisa Hopkins: 47:29

did I? So what are the top three things that happened so far today?

Yvonne Ng: 47:33

eating my breakfast, like I'm always amazed at how, how fortunate I am to wake up and go. I got food. Yeah, you know, um. And uh, another thing. Okay, this is, uh, sorry, not that flushing a toilet, because yesterday happened to be world toilet day, so you never really think about it. But you know, um, talking to you that's not three, there's more. Talking to you is three. In talking to you, the flood of good memories of the time that we had. That was joyful, not to say that it wasn't hard and it didn't come with its ups and downs. We all had that in our life right together, had that in our life right together. But looking back, I would say that yeah, um, you know being we were, I don't know. I always think that I'm really fortunate that I got into the, into york the time that I did. It could have been any other year, but I didn't get into, you know, the year that was before us or the year after us.

Yvonne Ng: 48:37

We got into our year and we're all still friends yeah and I can't I don't know if it's just all of us wanting to, because it's effort, effort in what we have to make the effort. But you know, I'm still friends with different people. I think that yeah, so so that's also a top thing that's happened. So thank you for that, thank you for the invitation.

Lisa Hopkins: 49:04

And what's something that you're looking forward to today, and then also what's something you're looking forward to in the future.

Yvonne Ng: 49:11

Well, later today I am going to connect with someone who used to work with us. So it's nice to catch up. A yorkie, oh cool. Yeah, so also nice to see where they're at. They're younger than us, so it's I'm excited to see, to see her, just because, yeah, I know that she's she's kind of moved on and she's got big things in life and so it's kind of it's always great, yeah. Yeah, their lives have grown and changed and I'm like, yay, so I am looking forward to that. Yeah, I'm looking forward to in the future. Oh boy, that's a whole long-term thing. I guess short-term future is probably I love Christmas. I don't know if you know this, but I love Christmas.

Yvonne Ng: 50:06

And I know that I celebrate Christmas just because I happen to be born into Catholicism. Is that how you use Catholicism? Yes, so I'm not a good practicing religious person, but I like the pageantry, I like the coming together, I like the excuse of coming together Nice, and so I am looking forward to that, because it's also going to be a break as well.

Lisa Hopkins: 50:26

Yeah.

Yvonne Ng: 50:30

So people's brains tend to wind down, so it's a lovely time to connect with many people. They seem to have space. People seem to have space for each other.

Lisa Hopkins: 50:40

Yeah.

Yvonne Ng: 50:40

So, even if it's once a year, so I kind of look forward to that.

Lisa Hopkins: 50:45

I cannot thank you enough for taking the time to talk to me today. Really it's been really special, truly.

Yvonne Ng: 50:52

It's been very special for me too and I'm really so grateful that, like you know, invited me, because it's been a while. It's really been amazing just reconnecting with you. It feels the same and yet different I agree, it's a new chapter.

Lisa Hopkins: 51:07

I've been speaking today with yvonne ung. Thanks so much for listening. Stay safe and healthy, everyone, and remember to live in the moment. In music, stop time is that beautiful moment where the band is suspended in rhythmic unison, supporting the soloist to express their individuality In the moment. I encourage you to take that time and create your own rhythm. Until next time, I'm Lisa Hopkins. Thanks for listening.