MONSOON SEASON

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About this episode:

Feeling like a loser while chasing your dream? In this episode of Monsoon Season, I talk about what to do when failures stack up, growth feels slow, and you want to quit or pivot. I share what CODA's Oscar winner Troy Kotsur's 35-year journey taught me about resilience and mastering your craft, why the urge to change strategy is loudest when you're doubting yourself, and what Dancing with the Stars reveals about the cost of half sending your goals. If you're doing the work and not being seen for it yet, this is your reminder to stay the course, trust the process, and keep going. I see you. I love you.

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About the episode

What if the version of you that got you here can’t come with you where you’re going? In this episode, we’re talking about identity, conditioning, resistance, and the grief that comes with becoming someone new.

I’m exploring why we instinctively return to our old identities, how to gradually “turn up” your internal thermostat, and what it actually takes to stop identifying with the thoughts, behaviors, and beliefs that no longer belong to you.

I share what my meditation teacher training taught me about choosing how you show up, how I slowly learned to call myself a podcast host, and why I’m currently working through this identity shift around my health and fitness.

Because sometimes the resistance to becoming someone new isn’t a sign that you’re doing something wrong. Sometimes it’s grief for the version of you that got you here.

About the episode

What do you do when you’re showing up, putting in the work, and still feel like nothing is happening? If your business, creativity, relationships, or life feels painfully slow right now, this episode is for you. We’re talking about the excruciating phase of growth where there’s very little external evidence that your effort is working, and how to keep going without losing faith in yourself. Through the metaphor of bamboo and Doechii’s creative journey, I’m exploring invisible growth, staying open to evolution, and what it means to keep your light on when doubt starts creeping in.

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What happens when you stop pushing, take a break, and come face-to-face with the thing you’ve been avoiding? In this episode of Monsoon Season, I’m talking about perfectionism, burnout, procrastination, rest, and the fear of falling behind. I share what four weeks away from the podcast taught me about creative work, starting again, and why sometimes the most powerful thing you can do is simply get the rep in.

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About this Episode

This week on MONSOON SEASON, I sat down with Anushka Joshi, founder and CEO of Sovereign Studios, for a conversation about what happens when you stop performing your ambition and start living from your actual calling. We talk about the emptiness that can live inside recognition, even the kind you spent years chasing. We talk about her grandmother, and what it means to inherit someone's unshakeability. We talk about leaving New York without a plan, about what she calls the founder flu, and about building a meditationwear brand that asks a simple, disruptive question: what would it look like to build an institution around wisdom instead of around whatever we're currently worshipping. It's a conversation about fashion as portal, and the long practice of becoming someone you don't need proof to believe in yet.

*This episode was recorded on July 10, 2026.

Chapters

• 00:00 | Welcome & Anchoring Ritual
• 04:46 | Introducing Anushka Joshi & Sovereign Studios
• 07:52 | Her Grandmother's Unshakeability
• 13:07 | Skills Borrowed From a Girlboss Past
• 15:34 | Forbes 30 Under 30: The Emptiness of Arrival
• 20:15 | "You're Not Supposed to Feel Like You Have to Faint"
• 26:32 | Leaving New York Without a Plan
• 38:01 | Founder Flu: Fear, Doubt, and Expansion That Hurts
• 46:15 | Sovereign Studios as the Patagonia of Meditation
• 50:59 | Clothing as a Portal Into Practice
• 55:19 | Returning to Practice When You've Fallen Off
• 57:51 | Future Self Meditation & Closing Wisdom

Connect with Anushka & Sovereign Studios

• ✨ Website: https://sovereignstudios.co/
• ✨ Substack: https://sovereignstudioss.substack.co...
• ✨ Instagram:    / sovereign__studios  

Connect with Monsoon Season

• ✨ Subscribe on Substack: ⁠https://asayee.substack.com

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CEIUptDJaGM&t=18s

This episode is about how expansion hurts.

Let's get vulnerable.

Join our cozy Substack community!→ https://asayee.substack.comAbout this Episode

This week on MONSOON SEASON, I sat down with writer and Integrative Trauma Coach, Cara Matsukane for a conversation that moves through chaos, forgiveness, and the particular ache of staying steady in the in-between. We talk about what it means to sit with desperation instead of running from it, what it looks like to hold grief without losing yourself in it, and what it means to keep showing up at your own altar, however you define it, even when you don't know what will meet you there. It's a conversation about surrender, about letting yourself receive, and about the long, unglamorous work of becoming someone you don't yet have proof you can be.

*This episode was recorded live on Substack on July 22, 2026.

Chapters

00:00 | Welcome & Anchoring Ritual
05:44 | Introducing Cara Matsukane
07:26 | Chaos Muppets: Finding Comfort in Crisis
14:29 | Radical Forgiveness and Reclaiming Your Power
28:00 | The Gift of Desperation
35:14 | Miscarriage, Grief, and Rebuilding After Loss
42:06 | How Partners Can Show Up in Grief
48:37 | Depletion, Burnout, and Learning to Receive
1:02:20 | Devotional Business: Partnering with the Divine
1:12:03 | Closing Wisdom and Gratitude

Connect with Cara✨ Website: https://caramatsukane.com/ ✨ Substack: https://caramatsukane.substack.com/ ✨ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/caramatsukane Connect with Monsoon Season✨ Subscribe on Substack: https://asayee.substack.com✨ YouTube:    / @asa-yee  ✨ Instagram:   / asa.yee