Finding “Yoyu” [Excerpt 20]

The year my in-laws came to live with us, I felt like I was juggling three identities. Part of me was trying to maintain my reputation and build my business. A huge part of me was understandably occupied with how to care for Okasan and Otosan. The third part of me found refuge exploring my spiritual practices.

All three parts felt very separate – my work, my responsibility to family, and my commitment to spiritual growth. I couldn’t figure out how to bridge them so I continued to compartmentalize.

What buoyed me most during those early months wasn’t my relationship with my husband, which surprised me. Instead, I turned to a business mastermind full of spiritual women to help me start integrating my parts.

Though we were gathered to talk business, the women embraced my situation. They also shared tools for connecting with and leaning on core spiritual beliefs.

Listen to the latest excerpt above to find out what tool I learned to use and depend on to keep me grounded.

If you missed any of the previous excerpts, you can find the playlist here.

About the book:

A few years ago, we moved my husband’s parents from a rural part of Japan to live with us in Tokyo in our tiny 800 square foot (73 square-meter) condo. My book, Finding “Yoyu,” is about what it took to decide to move them. It’s also about navigating the Japanese health care system and finding an appropriate nursing home for my mother-in-law while helping my father-in-law transition from a lifetime of farming to retirement in the big city. It’s about how we discovered he had Alzheimer’s and my husband had stage 3 colon cancer. It’s about how I managed to support these two men and keep (or find!) my yoyu all while going through a career change.