Hi everyone.
Welcome back to Lavendaire.
It's Aileen.
Today I'm going to share some favorites from the month of August.
But before I begin, I have to say: Thank you, guys.
I love you so much.
The response on my last video, my life update where I shared how I'm doing,
honestly all the comments were so supportive, so loving.
And I was just … I don't know.
It blew me away, just because I just see that there's so much good in the world,
so many beautiful souls like yourself.
I really appreciate how understanding everyone is.
And I can tell that so many of you come from a place of compassion,
and it was just amazing.
I honestly feel like this is the best community ever.
You guys are so amazing, so thank you, thank you, thank you.
Alright, time for August favorites.
If you saw my update, you know how my August was.
It was pretty eventful, actually.
I had a weekend in Palm Springs with my girlfriends.
It was my boyfriend's birthday week.
We did so many things.
I took him
to fly an airplane for the first time, with a copilot, which was pretty cool.
And obviously,
I got my hair done, which was a big symbol for change.
So that was my August.
My first favorite is actually a bundle of things.
It's all related to language learning.
I have some language learning apps that I discovered and that I really enjoy,
and especially a podcast for learning Mandarin.
I think this whole language learning thing
got jumpstarted because I started watching Terrace House: Aloha State which–
if you guys have seen my previous favorites–I was in love with Terrace House: Tokyo.
So I just had this urge to learn Japanese.
So I started downloading
all these learning Japanese apps, just because I want to learn at least the basics
so I could understand what they're saying in the show and learn as I go,
because I do want to go back and visit Japan and be able to say common, easy things.
That's how I got started and obviously, I'm Chinese and I do speak
basic Mandarin and Cantonese, but my Mandarin is really, really rusty.
I don't get to use it that often.
So it's always a goal for me to improve my Mandarin.
I found this podcast that I really, really like.
It's called Learn Mandarin Now Podcast,
and it has over 200 episodes.
Each one is really short, like five to ten minutes.
And I just started from the beginning and just relearned the basics.
I like to go through the basics really quickly because, even though
I know most of these words, there are sometimes words that pop up
or "formal ways" to say things that I don't necessarily know how to say.
So I felt like I wanted to go through everything in the podcast.
I went through 40 episodes so far.
So yeah, if you guys are interested in learning Mandarin,
I definitely recommend that podcast.
I'm sure that it might be tougher
if you're not familiar with Mandarin at all, because I feel like she goes through things
once,
so you might have to repeat episodes again and again to get it ingrained in your head.
But for me, so far, listening to an episode once or twice is good.
It's a good refresher.
Sometimes, when there are words that are completely new,
I do have to listen to it a few times to get it in my head, and then I have to …
I like listening to the podcast and repeating after what she says, again and again.
I like learning languages by listening VS.
learning languages just by apps and playing games,
because I just think it's so much, for me, I think it’s more valuable to be able to
speak and listen to a language VS reading and writing a language.
I'm not too focused on reading and writing.
I know how to spell things out with the alphabet.
I know how to text in Chinese.
I don't need to learn how to write it.
Another reason why I'm getting into Chinese and I want to continue
practicing it is because–I don't know if you guys know, but my dad lives in China.
He lives in Shanghai and I only see him every few years, so I want to see him.
I plan to visit sometime in the next year, and I want to be able to communicate with
him
because his English is not good and my Chinese is not good.
And there's always that disconnect where I'm trying to express myself
but I say it in English and he doesn't get the full meaning, and vice-versa.
So it's pretty tough, so I think I want to improve my Chinese to the point
where I can have deep conversations in the language, instead of
"I'm hungry.
I need to go to the bathroom."
Easy things.
My next favorite is an app I actually mentioned years ago.
I think, 2014,
I made a video sharing about the app, and then I just got on the app again.
It's called Blinkist, and I know a lot of you out there will love it.
It's basically an app that will give you key insights of the world's top
bestselling non-fiction books.
You can get through the main points of a book
by reading it or listening to it in like fifteen minutes.
It has all these little 'blinks'
as they call it, and as you listen to a book, each blink is like two minutes tops,
so it's really digestible and it's a great way to learn as you go
because I personally love listening to books now VS.
reading.
I still enjoy reading.
I just take too long to read.
And for someone like me, I have a huge reading list,
a lot of books that I want to read.
But I read really slowly, so it's kind of frustrating.
I want to be able to get through all these books, but I can't really.
With Blinkist, I can actually listen to all these books that are on my reading list.
Then if there's one that I think is particularly interesting, I want to find out more about,
then I can pick up that book and read it.
It's a really good way
to preface all these topics and decide what book you want to read.
Here's my library of books that I've saved that I want to listen to.
And I haven't even finished adding all the books that are on my list.
Things that I've been listening to recently are health-related books.
There's a book called "How Not to Die" and another one called "Eat to Live".
And I've been learning a lot about health through those little blinks.
And it's been really helpful to get it through the Blinkist because I know that the actual
book,
"How Not to Die", my friend recommended it to me, it's like a bible.
It's really thick and really dense.
Books like that, I don't really want to spend a month
trying to get through it.
I'd rather just listen to the short version, the key insights on Blinkist.
If you're curious about Blinkist, I'll have a link down below where you can get a free
trial
and you can get 20% off your yearly plan.
Make sure you click that link on desktop
because I think it only works on desktop to start your free trial.
Don't download the app before you click that link.
My next favorite of August is the audiobook, "The Power of Vulnerability" by Brene Brown.
And if you guys haven't heard of Brene Brown, look her up.
She has an amazing TED talk about vulnerability.
The Power of Vulnerability is actually
not her reading a book.
It's actually listening to Brene Brown give a lecture
on vulnerability and shame and all the components that make up
a "whole-hearted life", is what she calls it.
Basically, her point of the book is:
You can't live a full, meaningful life without being vulnerable.
Vulnerability is such an important part of being human.
And so many times,
a lot of us have a wall up.
We have some sort of filter.
We're too scared
to show our true selves.
But once you're able to open yourself up and be vulnerable,
then you step into this space where you allow yourself to be 100% who you truly are.
And it's really powerful.
It's a pretty long audiobook.
I think it's over six hours,
but she goes through all these different aspects, and I think, as you're listening to it,
you can start to incorporate those different things into your life.
I guess you could say that listening to that book encouraged me to be more authentic
and vulnerable in my work, which is why I uploaded that life update video because,
normally, I wouldn't post something like that.
It's just, listening to that book
definitely influenced me, even without me realizing it until now.
And then I'm just going to drop in this other favorite that is just a new audiobook
I started listening to.
I know, guys.
I'm sharing a lot of books and audiotape related things
this month, but I've started listening to Kevin Hart's audiobook.
It's called
"I Can't Make This Up: Life Lessons".
And Kevin Hart just always makes me laugh.
I blurt out laughing listening to his stuff.
He's vulnerable, but he does it in a funny, real way.
I don't know, I look up to him so much.
And I definitely see the similarities
between Kevin Hart's upbringing and Trevor Noah's upbringing,
because you guys know I loved Trevor Noah's memoir, his audiobook.
If you like to laugh and if you like to hear real life lessons from people who are successful,
definitely listen to Kevin Hart's audiobook.
I only started it a couple days ago,
but I am loving it so much so far, so I had to just drop it in.
Alright, that's it for my favorites for August.
I know it was really centered around
books and learning, but that's just what I was into this month.
I hope you find something that will bring value to your life.
Now, I do want to ask you guys if you have any questions for me.
I plan on doing a Q&A type video, but more of a "If you were to have a coffee date with
me,
what would you ask me?"
What kind of things would you want to know?
Tweet me your questions at @lavendaire.
Actually, I think it would be even cooler if you could send me a voice memo of yourself
asking the question.
Just ask the question, send it in an audio file.
You can record it with your phone pretty easily.
And then I'll have a link down below
to a Google Drive folder where you could upload that audio.
We'll try that for now.
If it doesn't work uploading, then you could email us
at care@lavendaire.com, and then we'll try to work it out.
But hopefully you'll be able to upload the audio file into the folder.
So then it actually feels like I'm actually talking to you.
We'll see how that goes.
But if you have any questions, record them, send them to me, and yeah, we'll see how it
goes.
Alright, have a beautiful day.
Love you all so, so much.
And continue being lights in the world.
Alright, bye!