Five Vulnerable Things Vol. 32
On teenagers, Keke Palmer, plan vs. strategy, watching Survivor 50, and finding a giant in the mirror.
Monsoon Season is a newsletter and podcast by meditation teacher and writer, Asa Yee. It lives at the intersection of culture, consciousness, and creativity. It is about the messy, beautiful, non-linear work of becoming. The courage to be seen. The belief that the most spiritual thing any of us can do is be vulnerable.
Hey soul friends!
Eid Mubarak to everyone celebrating.
This week was a big holiday for Muslims, and I found myself grieving the version of Eid I grew up with. Waking up at the crack of dawn. Taking an everything shower. Putting on a special sari or lehenga. Running around touching my parents’ and aunties’ feet to collect blessings and crisp dollar bills. I made five dollars one Eid as a kid and genuinely felt rich.
Now, Eid, far from home, has somehow been reduced to a few text messages and emojis on a screen.
And honestly, it hurts in ways I cannot fully explain.
Maybe it’s my cycle. Maybe it’s my Lupus flaring. Or maybe it’s this deep ache I’ve been carrying lately for a world that felt slower, softer, and more human. A world where dial-up internet existed, and the most exciting part of the night was seeing your crush log onto AOL Instant Messenger.
Damn, I miss the good ole days.
Which is funny, because as a meditation teacher, I spend so much time encouraging people to be present. To stop living in the past. To stop romanticizing what was.
And yet lately, I keep finding myself looking backward.
Not because the past was perfect, but because something about modern life feels increasingly disconnected from what makes us feel alive in the first place.
1. We need to look each other in the eyes again.
I’m writing this week’s newsletter from my neighborhood Starbucks, watching three teenage girls sit together for over an hour without once looking up at each other.
Not once.
They kept swiping between TikTok and Instagram, barely speaking, barely present. The only time they looked up was to film their drinks and food. At one point, one girl’s venti strawberry acai refresher exploded all over the floor. Instead of helping her clean it up, her friends immediately opened TikTok and started recording her while she walked to the counter for help.
It felt dystopian.
All three of them were wearing the exact same outfit too: black nylon gym shorts and baby pink tank tops. It was giving Mean Girls The Plastics energy.
And before I sound self-righteous, let me be clear: I’m not judging them from some enlightened mountain top. I was doomscrolling on my couch earlier that same morning. But seeing people doom scroll while with friends genuinely shook me.
It made me realize how much we are losing the ability to simply be with each other. To make eye contact. To notice people. To sit in silence without reaching for stimulation every four seconds.
We are becoming spectators of our own lives instead of participants in them.
And honestly? It scares me.
One of the greatest acts of rebellion right now is presence. Putting your phone down. Looking someone in the eyes. Letting a moment exist without documenting it. Remembering that life is happening in front of you, not inside the screen.
People are hungry for connection, yet numbing themselves from the very thing they need. Maybe the cure is simpler than we think. Maybe we just need to start looking at each other in the eye again.
Tiny Experiment:
Find your Vecna song this week. The song that pulls you out of the scroll and phone trance, and back into your life. Play it once you catch yourself slipping.
Mine is Return of the Mack.
2. Keke, come get your man!
I recently watched Keke Palmer’s TED Talk, and one line hit me right in the chest:
“Survival can be so effective, you don’t realize when it’s no longer needed.”
That sentence has had me in a chokehold all week. Because the same skills that helped you survive your disadvantages can become the exact things preventing you from feeling free.
Part one of life is surviving.
Part two is unlearning survival so you can finally live.
As a first-generation daughter of Bangladeshi immigrants, so much of my ambition was never just about me. It carried the weight of my family’s sacrifices, their survival, their dreams, their limitations, and all the things they never had access to.
I wasn’t just trying to succeed. I was trying to rescue everyone.
That pressure crushed me more times than I can count.
So much of my thirties has been about learning how to leave survival mode emotionally, mentally, spiritually, and physically. Even when your external circumstances improve, your body can still believe it’s in danger. Your nervous system can still think it has to earn love through exhaustion and through relentless effort.
I’m slowly learning that freedom is not just changing your circumstances.
It’s changing your relationship to yourself.
Also, while we’re here: Sean Evans and Keke Palmer are currently my internet mom and dad. The chemistry is chemistrying, and it’s making this brown girl blush hard. Sean Evans, host of Hot Ones famously said he had only one crush on a guest he interviewed (Keke!) and they have been playing with our damn hearts flirting on the internet each chance they get, and all I have to say is…Keke, give this bald man a chance! Lock him in, baby!!!
Am I a sucker for a bald man?
Yes.
Am I a sucker for an interacial love match?
You best believe it.
I think part of why I love Keke so much is because she refuses to put herself in a box. There’s something deeply liberating about watching someone trust their own range. A reminder that maybe you do not need to shrink yourself into one identity to be worthy.
3. A plan is not a strategy.
I recently watched an interview with Roger Martin for the Harvard Business Review where he said something that completely rearranged my brain.
“A strategy is a theory. A plan is just a list.”
A plan is:
“I’m going to reach out to five leads.”
“I’m going to hire support.”
“I’m going to post every day.”
Those are tasks.
A strategy is deeper. It has coherence.
One of my biggest strategic decisions this year was deciding to stop obsessing over original short-form content and instead go all in on long-form depth. While everyone kept saying “you’d be great on TikTok or you just need to post more on Instagram,” I decided to bet on intimacy, storytelling, and depth instead.
Last month, my podcast had its biggest month ever. Not because I did more. Because I did what actually aligned.
Roger Martin also said:
“If you plan that’s a way to guarantee losing; if you do strategy it gives you the best possible chance of winning.”
— Roger Martin, University of Toronto
That line woke something up in me. Because I think for a long time I’ve been operating like a careful planner instead of a strategic player. Waiting for certainty.
But fearless people are usually just people who moved before certainty arrived.
And I’m done overplaying safe.
4. Survivor is secretly teaching me how to live, and not just let life happen.
My husband and I started watching Survivor Season 50 this week for the very first time. Twenty-five years late to the party. And somehow this reality show has become an accidental masterclass on leadership, strategy, collaboration, and human psychology.
At first glance, the show is about surviving physically. But the real game is psychological. Every episode is basically human chess. As Christian says, “narrative warfare.”
And what fascinates me most is that there are only two kinds of players:
The people who passively follow the plan.
And the people who shape the game itself.
The strongest players are never just reacting. They are observing patterns. Building alliances. Thinking ten moves ahead. Adapting in real time. They understand that surviving another day requires relationships, trust, timing, and boldness.
They are willing to make moves before they know if they’ll work.
That’s the part that hit me.
Because I think so many of us move through life just trying to keep up with what everyone else is doing instead of asking:
What game am I actually trying to play?
You do not need to manipulate people or vote your friends off an island to apply this lesson to your life. But I do think creativity requires strategy. Leadership requires courage. And building a meaningful life requires more than passive participation.
You cannot just drift with the tide forever.
At some point, you have to decide to move the tide itself.
And honestly, this realization is a big part of why I recently created two new ways to work together.
Because so many creatives, founders, and aspiring thought leaders don’t actually have a content or motivation problem.
They have a clarity problem.
They know they want to share something meaningful with the world, but they’re not sure what game they’re playing, what story they’re telling, or how to communicate it in a way that feels true to them.
That’s exactly what my new Brand Audit and Brand Intensive are designed to help with. With 15 years of creative direction and brand strategy experience in the game, I’m using that knowledge to help you build your vision crystal clear.
5. You are a giant.
I came across this quote from Donda West this week:
“The giant looks in the mirror and sees nothing.”
Truly gifted people often do not experience themselves as extraordinary. A giant does not feel giant-sized to itself. It just feels normal. Human. Ordinary.
And maybe that’s why so many of us struggle to recognize our own gifts.
We keep waiting to feel special before we move boldly through the world.
But the truth is, you might never feel extraordinary from the inside.
You might just feel like you.
And still be carrying something immense.
So if this week has been hard… if you’ve been doubting yourself… if you’ve been looking in the mirror and seeing nothing remarkable staring back at you, let this be your reminder:
Ordinary is not the same thing as insignificant.
You are allowed to take up space before you fully believe in your own magnitude.
The giant looks in the mirror and sees nothing.
But everyone else can see the giant clearly.
Minutes meditated so far this year: 2,665 minutes 🧘🏽♀️
About Me
I’m Asa. I am a Bangladeshi-American meditation teacher, writer, and podcast host.
I believe vulnerability is the most powerful thing we have. Not as a tactic, but as the actual portal to building a life and a business that feels like yours. The more honest we are about who we are and what we struggle with, the more we give other people permission to do the same. That is the whole philosophy behind everything I create.
Born and raised in New York. Living in Charleston. I am a cinephile, a mango connoisseur, and a chai addict. So glad you are here — make yourself at home. 🤎
When you’re ready, here are three ways I can help:
1:1 Monsoon Mentorship: a private coaching container for creatives and founders ready to build a life and body of work rooted in clarity and vulnerability.
NEW The Brand Audit: a 90-minute strategic review of your personal brand, content, positioning, and online presence designed to uncover what’s working, what’s not, and where your greatest opportunities for growth and leverage exist.
NEW The Brand Intensive: a high-touch two-session strategy experience designed to clarify your message, refine your brand story, sharpen your positioning, and create a cohesive vision for the next chapter of your work.
Stay soft,
🥭 Asa
This was exactly what I needed. Thank you, beautiful Asa🌷🪽
I love you