Succeeding In Turbulent Times by Joey Yap

I was invited by Alina to attend an annual fengshui talk (yesterday) conducted by Joey Yap, 'Succeeding In Turbulent Times'. I was a pretty vivid fan of fengshui prior to my inward journey, thanks to Mom and also Master Ooi. :) I actually make it a point to attend Master Ooi's annual free fengshui talk prior CNY every year (except for the year where I could not let go of baby Thea then), but this year had to be exception because I agreed to Alina's invitation before Master Ooi's date was made known to me. Mom agreed that I went to Joey's and she went to Master Ooi's so that we could compare notes. Brilliant idea!! lols. Secretly, I just didn't want to ffk my appointment with Alina! *winks*

Joey is actually an old friend, but we were not close as I recalled. We were swimmers during our younger days and he quit the swimming circle while the rest of us were still 'struggling' in the circle. He had always been one of the most talented, so he was already very well-known then. I figured that since it was so long time ago, he and his family may not remember me anyway, so even when I saw his parents few years ago during a similar talk conducted by Joey, I never approached them to say hi. My bad, my bad! And this year I was blessed with a pleasant surprise!! Kenny, Joey's younger brother who is also assisting his brother in his work, recognised me! I mean, seriously.. I think I just undermine myself too much! Lols! Come on, he is on my FB list, of course he would remember me right? Lols! Anyway, we had a brief chat and I made a mental note to catch up with Kenny soon. Kenny is in the same age group as my younger brother, Jon. In fact, during the swimming times, Kenny and Jon were the closest 'rivals' with each other. Not in a bad way.. I mean, in an event, there had to only be one winner right? So the gold medal was always between Kenny or Jon. And I believe that they were pretty good friends then too. :)

The basic information of the flying stars and blah blah blah would be the same as what was shared by Lilian Too, or Master Ooi. But the differentiation amongst them, IS their approach in application. Lilian Too (in my perception) believed in renovations and figurine symbols; Master Ooi (in my perception) believed in appreciation and symbolics; and Joey (in my perception) believed in activating the chi in auspicious directions. Joey's charms were in his wittiness, honesty and ok, a little sacarsism, and that is also relevant to my own perception; not others. I found his seminar funny, resourceful and informative - something which I believe I would have experienced in Master Ooi's talk as well. So in that context, I had not missed anything. :)

An additional bonus that I got for the day was a compassionate reading from Alina's mom during breaktime. Alina's mom had been practising feng shui herself and given countless loving advice to people around her with regards to feng shui - which I would say, is her forte. She read my Ba-Zi chart which Alina had helped me print and gave me some advice based on my chart. After she was done, Alina was grumbling on how her mom was always doing it for free for other people... lols. From what I've learnt from my mom, apparently, it is important for one to practice an exchange of energy or an appreciation token to a feng shui practitioner or even anyone who had shared their expertise in feng shui as a circle of give & receive. I guess that is one of the reason why mom doesn't do it full time. She is fully capable! But I guess she has her own reasons. And bless Alina's mom for walking this journey!

When I shared with hubby in the night about what I've learnt during the day, we also discussed how relevant fengshui is in our spiritual journey. I remember one of my great teacher once shared with me, "Fengshui is only necessary when you did not know any better; now that you know, why do you still need fengshui?". Hubby and I agreed on this statement. While I agree to some limiting beliefs in feng shui itself, I also find it fun to be switching things around, doing this and that to welcome the Tiger year. Seriously, at this juncture - CNY is just an occasion for us to officially be noisy (with the fire-crackers, lion dance & etc) and eat (yee sang, auspicious-named dishes, pineapple tarts)!! Sounds fun already, right?!? Lols!!

I am so blessed and grateful to be remembered by Alina for the invitation to such an astonishing talk! Thanks girl!! I enjoyed myself lots.. not to mention our talks about CARS!!! LOLS!!