With the wisdom of a yoga master and the attitude of a New Yorker, “Sage Sapien” author Johnson Chong shares his frank and funny tale of kissing self-hate goodbye and the life-hacking benefits of meditation

In his book Sage Sapien, Johnson Chong shares his frank and entertaining journey of kissing self-hate goodbye and embracing self-awareness and self-love. I caught up with Chong for a behind-the-scenes look at the book. You start your book with a powerful quote by Jung – in a way, is your story an illustration of the American dream? You can reinvent yourself if you choose to? I think the ‘American dream’ means different things to different people. However, I do believe that the common themes the American dream carries are justice, equality and freedom. I believe that these big lofty ideals can only be realised if each person can dig deep within and re-write their programs of limiting beliefs. When Carl Jung says “I am not what happened to me, I am what I choose to become,” we can look at it as a collective intention to reinvent ourselves not just as Americans, but as a global society. Every single person who is born into this world will face countless obstacles. If we don’t know how to develop a healthy relationship with these obstacles, they will fester into traumatic scars that will create the impression that we are nothing more than a collection of our greatest pain stories.