Ep 15: On Navigating Life Transitions & The Benefits of Therapy ft. Sonia Mao

Life transitions are never easy and we wanted to check in with our amazing friend @sonia.mao, who moved to Okinawa 🇯🇵 in the midst of a global pandemic. Join us as we chat with Sonia on the ebbs and flows of life. She talks about how she took the leap of faith to leave her corporate job after 5 years, her experience moving to a completely new country where English isn’t the first language, realising and accepting that she has depression, and seeking help through online therapy. We absolutely love Sonia's outlook on life and we hope you’ll enjoy this episode as much as we did! 💛 Links: Just Bare It Instagram: @justbareit.co Sonia’s Instagram: @sonia.mao

Growing up in an Asian context, art is often seen as a “waste of time” and some would even say it’s “non-essential”. Is it really though? 🤔 Join us as we chat with Leila, author of “A Safe Space”, on the value of creative expression, expressing your unique voice and using art to process your emotions! 🎨🎭✍🏼🎵🎸 In this episode, Leila shares more about growing up as a mixed heritage child in Singapore, her work with youths, how her book came about and got published during circuit breaker, and why she’s a huge advocate of creative expression. ✨ We hope you’ll enjoy the conversation as much as we did and we'd love to hear from you! Do hop over to our IG (@justbareit.co) and FB (@justbareit) to connect with us and you can check out Leila’s poetry at @letterswithleila on IG! 💛 P/s: We apologise for the quality of the audio towards the end due to connection issues. We promise our reactions are not this lag irl! 😂

Does crying or admitting to inner vulnerabilities make a man less manly? Today, we explore mental health from a man’s perspective together with the amazing James Theos! 🥰 In this episode, James shares his thoughts around the alpha and masculine culture, his personal experience as a friend and partner of individuals going through depression, and how he has evolved from an egoistic boy to a self-aware man through constantly working on himself. 💯 It’s pretty rare to hear men being so open and honest about their emotions and flaws which was really refreshing for us and we hope you’ll enjoy this episode as much as we did! Feel free to connect with us on our IG (@justbareit.co) or FB (@justbareit) and you can check out Techniq Training at @techniqtrainingsg and find James at @jamestheos! ♥️

If you’ve been on social media over the last few years, chances are that you’d be familiar with the term “fitspo” – short for “fitspiration”. Strong became the new skinny and we’ve started to glorify “clean” eating and 6-pack abs. Is it all worth it though? Join us as we dive deep into the topic of health and fitness with Sarah Widjaja, founder of The Nourished Co. and owner of The Source Bulk Foods Singapore. Sarah is a functional nutritional therapy practitioner and health coach, and as a former competitive athlete, she understands the pressure that women face in the health space to do more and weigh less. In this episode, Sarah shares how she got into CrossFit and how she lost her period in the process. She opens up about her struggle to accept that the cause of her period loss was due to overtraining and under eating, the impact social media had, what her recovery journey was like, and how she’s approaching health and fitness today. Losing your period isn’t something easy to talk about and Sarah bared it all on her journey. We hope you’ll appreciate the conversation as much as we did and we’d love to hear from you! Feel free to connect with us on our IG (@justbareit.co) or FB (@justbareit) and you can check out The Source at @thesourcesg and find Sarah at @thenourished_co!

Took us awhile before we actually sat down together to pause and reflect on 2020 but hey… better late than never right? 😬 Here are some questions we chose to reflect on: Describe 2020 in 3 words It’s 2030 now, what do you think you’ll think of when you think back to 2020? What do you want to remember? What’s your favourite or most memorable meme/social media post/event/internet trend that happened in 2020? What were some of your 2020 plans at the start of 2020? Most memorable zoom call/wfh moment? What’s something unexpected that came out of 2020? What’s a song/movie that describes 2020?  What were some things you found challenging in 2020? What are 3 things/people/experiences that you are most grateful for? What are you able to do now that you weren’t able to do 1 year ago? What is the most importantly lesson of 2020 for you? What are your intentions for 2021? What are you most looking forward to in 2021? We had so much fun recording this episode and we hope you’ll take time to slow down and reflect on 2020 if you haven’t already! ✨ Living in a fast-paced city like Singapore, we’re constantly in a hurry and we can’t stress the importance of slowing down and reflecting whenever possible! 🙃 Thank you for sticking around and supporting us in our little project that came about from #circuitbreaker. Much love to all of you and wishing y’all a wonderful 2021! ♥️

Join us as we chat with Suen and Azi, 2 of 3 amazing founders of Sonder Social – a social enterprise that amplifies social impact by curating socially conscious gifts that benefit marginalised communities in APAC. ✨ In this episode, Suen and Azi share about how they jumped in to start their own social enterprise after just one (!) meeting between the 3 founders, their first corporate order 🎉 that changed the course of their business from B2C to B2B, and why being a for-profit social enterprise works for them and allows them to create positive impact. 💯 We hope you took away a thing or two about social enterprises and we'd love to hear from you! Do hop over to our IG (@justbareit.co) and FB (@justbareit) to connect with us and learn more about Sonder Social at www.sondersocial.com or @sondersocial on IG! 💛

While most of us were probably doing typical teenager things like studying (or at least attempting to) and hanging out with friends at 17, Peggy was confronted with cancer before her 18th birthday. Join us as we chat with Peggy, founder of The Fatpegasus – a sports apparel brand aimed at empowering women and giving back to the cancer society! ✨ In this episode, Peggy (and our co-host Malan) share more about their cancer journeys, the importance of having a support system, their thoughts on caretakers, and why Peggy started The Fatpegasus. 💫 Listen on for candid stories about Peggy’s G-Max bucket list, $500 wigs and bubble tea straws – we hope you enjoy the conversation as much as we did! Do hop over to our IG (@justbareit.co) and FB (@justbareit) to connect with us and learn more about The Fatpegasus at thefatpegasus.com or @the.fatpegasus on IG! 💛

Many of us are used to fast fashion but it’s also becoming clear that the fast fashion industry isn’t sustainable for our planet in the long-run, which begs the question: can Style and Sustainability co-exist? 🤔 Join us as we chat with Raye, founder of The Fashion Pulpit – a social enterprise that aims to promote environmental education and awareness in the field of fashion. ✨ In this episode, Raye shares more about how he went from being a fashion designer in fast fashion to starting his own business in clothes swapping. We dive deeper into common misconceptions of secondhand clothes, greenwashing and how we can be a part of the solution. ♻️ We hope you took away a thing or two and we'd love to hear from you! Do hop over to our IG (@justbareit.co) and FB (@justbareit) to connect with us and learn more about The Fashion Pulpit at www.thefashionpulpit.com or @thefashionpulpit on IG! 💛

Many of us invest in our own personal fitness but how does one translate fitness into social good? Join us as we chat with Lionel Choong, co-founder of Innervate – a social enterprise that advocates fitness for change, for everyone and anyone!    In this episode, Lionel talks about how fitness can be used to do social good, his opinion on what #supportlocal truly means, misconceptions around youths at risk and how companies can get involved in the social space.   We hope you’ll enjoy the conversation as much as we did and we'd love to hear from you! Do hop over to our IG (@justbareit.co) and FB (@justbareit) to connect with us and learn more about Innervate at www.innervatefit.com or @innervatefit on IG!

Body image is something many of us battle with but yet don’t really talk about. In this episode, our favourite Steph duo, Steph Gunn and Steph Ng, bare their personal struggles with body image and share ways they are working through them till today.   There’s lots of cute analogies in this episode like dancing in the rain, being a tree, inviting golum to tea... and we hope you’ll enjoy the conversation as much as we did! Do hop over to our IG (@justbareit.co) and FB (@justbareit) to connect with us and find Steph Gunn and Steph Ng at @_leadbydesignn_ and @bodybanter on IG!