Shame is a hefty word. The complexities get greater as you unpack it. To unravel that shame is a lifetime process and that’s when the adventure begins.
Irene Cho poignantly opens up about her lived experiences of erasing shame, dealing with her imperfections, discovering her family history, and why immigrant Asian parents are the way they are.
What happens when we don’t process our emotions? Pent up emotional toxicity weighs us down in our body, mind and spirit. Emotions are meant to be fully processed and follow a full course of action within our physical body, and then be released outward from our body into productive spaces/activities. When the expression of those natural emotions become suppressed, our mind and bodies will process them in unhealthy ways. Here’s a first step to learning about healthy ways to releasing toxic energy and emotions for a healthier mind and body.
There’s so much more to shame than just feeling bad or unworthy. Chinese American blogger Fred Mok (a pastor at Garden City Church, San Jose, California) shares poignant insights from Asian and Asian American cultures that reveal other dimensions of shame that are objective, communal, and relational.
Brené, we love your work, we really do! Know that you have an open invite here at Erasing Shame. We know you are working very hard on many things, so please do stay healthy and have good self-care.
Be a part of the movement and share your stories of shame, overcoming and freedom! Your story matters & has the ability to unlock healing in so many others! The more people share, the more we can normalize the conversation and thereby help each other become a healthier version of ourselves and for a healthier world.
Shame can only be overcome by replacing it with compassion and love, so this is intended to be a safe community for you to continue your healing journey.
On this episode of “Seen: An Erasing Shame Podcast,” Senior Reporter at the Hollywood Reporter Rebecca Sun joins Eunice Lee to discuss the history of Asian-American representation in the media, the effects of whitewashing, and the triumph of seeing Asian-American representation on screen.
“Onscreen representation matters. It gives words or it gives visuals to experiences that we feel, and it validates them. It’s literally like a mirror. Why do we check ourselves out in a mirror? To make sure that what we are feeling is what’s indeed being presented, understood and conveyed accurately. And so when you don’t have representation, it’s like you’ve been walking through this world without a mirror. You are completely not in control of how you’re being perceived.”
– Rebecca Sun
*** CORRECTION: the podcast Eunice mentioned is called “They Call Us Bruce” by Phil Yu and Jeff Yang
On this season 2 finale, DJ Chuang shares highlights from the year of 2018, that is, the first 2 seasons of Erasing Shame, plus the special summer series on Erasing Shame about Mental Health in Asian American Communities. This episode wraps up with a Top 10 Countdown of the most popular episodes that you won’t want to miss.
Real feelings don’t always tell the truth. Dave Dicken is a Crisis Counselor at Crisis Text Line and he shares a bunch of very practical tips for how to help yourself or someone you know to have courage, find resilience, and get healing.
When the pain is overwhelming, it doesn’t have to be a crisis. There’s no shame in asking for help. It doesn’t require a doctor’s visit or talking on the phone.
Just text. Text HOME to 741741 (in the USA) and know you’re not alone. Tell someone you care about to do this any time they feel the pain is too much to bear and want help. In Canada, text HOME to 686868 for help at your fingertips.
Singles already know they’re single. They don’t need pressure or shame, especially around the holidays. DJ Chuang and Maylee Chang Tao talk about this personal and poignant topic that affects like 50% of the adult population.
Grace Sangalang Ng is our special guest. Grace is a Ed.D. student (Talbot School of Theology) researching how shame affects Asian Americans in the classroom, so she is more than well qualified to talk intelligibly about shame. She also shares from her own experiences of shame as a second-generation Filipino-American.
DJ Chuang hosts this episode. But, he forgot to ask her about Pinoy.
“Asian-Americans haven’t been included in the process of cancer research. Recent clinical trials helping develop new drugs or therapies show that Asian-Americans only represent about 3% of people in those studies. As a result, a lot of the drugs that are currently available for cancer treatments may not be effective within our own populations.”
Eunice Lee Therapy (facebook.com/euniceleetherapy) talks with Colleen Nguyen (facebook.com/cmcnguyen) of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard (facebook.com/broadinstitute) about the silence around the topic of cancer and the gap in creating cancer therapies for Asian-Americans. Colleen is leading community engagement efforts for Count Me In, a new model of cancer research that hopes to reach people where they are.
Erasing Shame hopes to promote emotional, physical and mental health. Please share this video and information with friends, family and anyone who has been touched with cancer, and feel free to contact Colleen or fill out this form to further cancer research in the Asian-American community.