Miss Amanda Chen Show

Learning How To Play with Jeff Harry

Do you remember the last time you truly played, like as a kid at a playground?
If you feel guilty about having fun or doing literally anything that doesn’t bring you money or potential money, then this conversation is for you. 
In today’s episode of Learning How to Live, we learn how to play with Jeff Harry, professional play expert who goes into the offices of some of the greatest places to work to teach us how to play. Yeah, thats a real job!
The biggest takeaway from this conversation is that it’s not our fault that we don't know how to play. We have been looking for happiness in all the wrong places, when we ourselves are already the most fun.
 
Connect with Jeff:
Website: RediscoverYourPlay.com
Instagram: @jeffharryplays

Living in a Cabin in the Woods with Kelly Stefanski

Welcome back to another episode of the Miss Amanda Chen Show podcast. We are in Season 5 - Learning How To Live. And a lot of that learning is about making the choice to live. And maybe that involves taking the risk to move your life to a brand new city you have never been before.
In today’s episode, I sit down with my new friend Kelly Stefanski, who literally just packed up her life and moved to Oaxaca, without ever even visiting before coming here!
She shares her story about living in a cabin in the woods for a year after leaving a partnership that suffered through the pandemic, going through some deep self reflection, and now all of a sudden she is living in Oaxaca City and just adopted a dog. Tune in to celebrate the courage it takes to actually pack up and go.
Follow her journey here: https://www.instagram.com/imitatenature/

How Do You Give and Receive Love?

I feel like we can all understand some concept of love, but how do we put it in practice? This week I really focused on the act of receiving love, and in that receiving I was able to give even more. In this episode, I talk about my friends visiting me in Oaxaca City for the first time. This is a big moment for me because I spent so much time giving my love by going to other parts of Mexico to see friends rather than having them to come to me. I never gave myself the space to receive love until now. Tune in to hear what happened and hopefully this might shift your perspective on how you think of love, and how you might give or receive love to both yourself and others.

What does success look like to you?

Welcome back to another episode of the Miss Amanda Chen Show podcast. We are in Season 5 where I talk about Learning How to Live. And in learning how to live, the first thing is to reflect on how we’ve learned how to work, believing that working permits us to live. But we’re already alive, and yet we delay this blessing. 
In this episode, I talk about redefining what success looks like and why I’ve changed the direction of this podcast to the style that it is today.
I used to think that success would be attributed by the amount of listens, the 100 hours of sound bites, or getting wild stories that would shock and amaze people. These are all external things that take the true power of success away from you. 
Success for me now is just a realization of myself and who I am. That way no person or thing can take success away from me. I have the power to give it to myself and I have the power to withhold it from myself.
Make sure to subscribe and let me know if there is anything you would like me to talk about on the show. See you next Wednesday!

How Are You Showing Up Today?

Welcome to Season 5: Learning How To Live. In today’s episode I want to talk about authenticity and showing up for yourself. I was inspired by the quote, “We are constantly invited to be who we are.”  by poet Henry David Thoreau.
Listen to my experience this week going on a virtual meditation retreat and learning how to stand up and speak up for myself when I enter an aggressive situation with my neighbour.
At the end of the day, who is one person in your life? Why give them so much power to dictate how you are going to feel in your own skin? As painful and unusual and awkward as it might feel to show up, do it for you. There is no one saving me out here. I just have to show up or I go to bed as someone I know I’m not. And that I can’t live with anymore.
Let me know what you thought of this episode and send me your stories on showing up for yourself, as yourself. Make sure to follow and subscribe and I will see you next Wednesday with another episode on Learning How To Live.

A Real Day in the Life

Welcome to the first episode of Season 5: Learning How to Live. Today I talk about what a real day in the life looks like, and I ask the question - what makes a good day over a bad day?
If you’ve been following my journey you know that I bought a one-way ticket to Mexico, sold everything I own and have been literally just living for the last six months. And that means living, not working. Of course, I will find random ways to make money here and there, but there is no plan. Im not working remotely. There is no safety net. 
I’m writing about this because I felt like my day kind of sucked with moving all my things and feeling obviously really uneasy about my decision, which is a generally daily activity. Without focusing on whether something good or bad is happening to you, you can choose to make things happen for you instead. You are no longer the receiver of good or bad news, you are the active creator of good or bad things. How incredible is that?
The biggest learning is that I have the power to change my day, and with that in mind, no day is ever a good or a bad day. It's just another day and we keep on living.

Season 5: Learning How to Live

This is the Miss Amanda Chen Show Podcast with your host, Miss Amanda Chen! I'm an ex-journalist turned retired entrepreneur turned digital nomad turned nobody living nowhere just dropping truth bombs you may or may not resonate with.
 
Last year I started the 100 Masked Men Series and interviewed anonymous men from all walks of life about masculinity, self worth, and relationships. Over this time, I bought a one-way ticket to Mexico, sold everything I owned, walked away from hustle culture forever to live life in the wild. And in this journey I realized wow, I have spent so much time and energy learning how to work, how to be successful, how to survive, and how to thrive. And yes, I spent a lot of time speaking to men probably because I thought they were something for me to rise above, to overcome, again, speaking in work and success terms. But now I see men, people, and the world differently. And I m finally looking at myself differently. How will I show up in this world? How will I choose to live?
 
Join me on my adventure in Season 5: Learning How to Live, where I share my constant fears as a solo female traveler, hitchhiking in the middle of nowhere, not knowing the language, and not knowing anyone. As I am a full time straight-up traveler, I really try to stretch my dollar, negotiating on pretty much anything, sharing cars, beds, pots and pans with strangers and learning the local slang. The deeper I go in this adventure, the more I have to detach myself from the old life I had back home. Find out how I was able to make the official move, what my monthly budget looks like, how I can find temporary jobs and other remote ways to make money while I travel off-the-beaten path. Tune in as I share my incredible life lessons from the wildest experiences, learn how to solo travel Chen style and get tips on where to stay, what to do and how to get remote work, and enjoy some raw and honest interviews with beautiful strangers along the way. 
 
Make sure to follow my journey on Instagram @missamandachen and send me a DM so I can answer any questions directly from followers like you. You’re not going to want to miss the fifth season of the Miss Amanda Chen Show podcast, so don’t forget to subscribe now and get the scoop on upcoming episodes. Until then, Amanda out!

Season 4 Finale: Reflections on 100 Masked Men

Welcome back to the Miss Amanda Chen show podcast, I know it’s been a while, but here I am. Today’s episode I am reflecting on the 100 Masked Men Series, where I anonymously interviewed a hundred random men from all walks of life to understand and better my own relationship with men. And listening back to this last season, wow. Things have really changed not because I selected 25 better men, but because I became better. 
This last season was about making the active choice to change our relationships. Check out this summary on the definition of masculinity and gender roles, relationships with fathers, women and sex, and the undervaluing of platonic friendships. 
It was really tough to listen back to these conversations, but as I listened and heard the encouraging words from these men I realized I had at least two men in my life, every week, encouraging me and supporting me for going on this journey. Thanking me for giving them this time to talk and allowing them the space to share things that they never even thought about before. And that was enough to keep me going. Here are the reflections I have had after interviewing 100 Masked Men. I hope you enjoy the show.