💘 a love letter to #BIGKIDENERGY
remembering the ultimate joy of play at the dusk of 26 orbits around the sun
Jun 17, 2021
⚡️
dearest elusive & illustrious #bigkidenergy,
Two summers ago I met my twin flame & gemini brother. ❤️🔥
He lived so effortlessly outside the rules of society (e.g. foregoing a career as a graphic designer to pursue alternative possibilities for living), the inner rebel in me on-looked with such veracious admiration that our friendship inspired a renaissance of my childhood spirit: living without anxiety for the future, entertaining every curiosity with reckless innocence, and pursuing passions with the purest gush of sincerity that can only be described as the ultimate joy of play. ✨
I think one of my greatest tragedy of growing up has been the repeated exposure to other people’s dreams & ideologies of success. I’ve wasted so much energy compensating for the trauma that I’ve inherited (due to a mix of America’s hustle culture shaken with an Asian upbringing) — brainwashed into a tiresome state of permanent dissatisfaction in the endless pursuit of perfection. And the worse part? I didn’t even personally care for the things I worried about! 😖 I’d just been told for so long that I needed to stress over these things (productivity, fame, material status, and excessive wealth), that I actually began to believe it.
Then there was my gemini twin brother — blatantly ignoring these pre-prescribed routes to success, digging into his own soul to seek a path more aligned with his standards of integrity and interests. He embraced what I’ve now come to call #bigkidenergy (#BKE)!
What exactly is #BKE?
- the force that drives you into a state of flow
- a sense of connectedness (either with oneself or someone else)
- living with ease (I once heard that success can be defined as “doing what you said you’d do with ease”)
- a healthy dose of boredom (the kind that inspires creativity)
- neophilia: an inquisitiveness for the unknown
- recognizing risks but taking them anyways
- a willingness to learn
I think the best thing about discovering #BKE as an adult is that you can combine all the wisdom of experience and self awareness with the bliss of youth! Some ways I’ve tried to practice #BKE in the past two years include:
- recently (May 2021) relocating to Chicago without any friends or mode of personal transportation to challenge the idea that I can adapt to any situation I’m thrown into
- practicing vulnerability with friends and strangers alike to naturally filter out the people who wouldn’t vibe with my real self anyways
- signing up for an online language school running a promotion where you can receive a full refund if you attend 90 consecutive days of live small-group format online classes (Lingoda for Spanish)
- investing in myself and starting to purchase the biohacking tools that I’ve coveted for years (as recommended from my favorite biohacker influencers)
- foregoing as many reminders of the passage of time as I can by removing watches and clocks from my context after reading an article on how the constant reminder of time induces anxiety
- walking barefoot (grounding) while carrying my journal so I can take multi-hour strolls whilst having discourse with myself on pen and paper
I turn 27 on June 18, 2021 and I’m so keen to see how I manifest my #BKE in my upcoming year of life!!! 🛹 🎈
love,
xinyi at the dusk of 26 orbits around the sun 🪐
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Welcome back to letter number 4 of Love Letters from a Creative Chimera: a newsletter & microblog capturing things, people, and ideas that have made me fall absolutely in love with life over and over again.
About two summers back, I met my gemini twin flame and it sparked the beginning of a most wholesome friendship. A friendship so pure it reminded of the friendships you make in childhood, and that’s what inspired the whole concept behind what I’m about to explain. So here we go!
I don’t have anything extra to add to this letter this time. I’d love to hear if this concept of #bigkidenergy resonates with you and how you’re practicing it in your everyday life!
