Heal Your Living: A Q&A with Youheum Son

Estimated reading time: 6 minutes

Whatever your circumstances, struggles or traumas, Youheum Son provides a simple, 4-pillar roadmap for holistic healing and growth

—

At Best Self, we love all things healing…and when we heard of the work of Youheum Son and her fresh approach to healing our living, we had to learn more. We presented a few questions to her so that she can explain a bit about her work in hopes that you will find ways to take new steps toward healing in your own life. May you find her as inspiring as we do!

First, a little bit about Youheum:

Youheum, firstly, thank you for taking the time to share with Best Self Magazine. Can you give us a little background on you…where you come from, what influences in your life have led you to pursue the work that you do?

I’m an emotional decluttering coach helping fellow healers let go of inner clutter and manifest spaciousness within and around. I was set on this path after years of dealing with chronic anxiety, which led to destructive habits such as shopping addiction, binge-watching, and stress eating, as a way to cope with emotional instability. For years, I was stuck in the pattern of depending on artificial pleasure and overconsumption to escape unprocessed emotions and pent-up pressure of living a frantic lifestyle. My focus was on pursuing external success, striving for status, and obtaining a higher identity through accumulation. After hitting rock bottom, dealing with severe anxiety attacks, and falling deeper into addictive hoarding, I was set on the path to let go of surface-level clutter, inviting a more mindful lifestyle, and, most importantly, releasing emotional attachments through spiritual work.

What are the circumstances of modern-day life that have led you to create your popular YouTube channel (under your name, Youheum) and now your book, Heal Your Living?

After beginning the practice of Mindfulness, Sustainability, Minimalism, and Wellness that came in the early part of my healing journey, I felt the increasing need to share the message of mindful living with those navigating a consumption-driven lifestyle. I understood how it was much needed for many of those living a modern life as sentient beings, to seek inner nourishments more than the physical. Doing so made it possible for us to focus on higher convictions such as peace, love, and togetherness instead of fixating on individual ownership and positionalities, which eventually resulted in disconnection from our fellow brothers and sisters and our surrounding environment. 

You cite 4 primary areas of your approach: Mindfulness, Sustainability, Minimalism and Wellness. Can you please elaborate on each of these areas, how they play into the healing of our life—and some actionable strategies that we can put to work for us right now?

Mindfulness is the practice of returning to the present moment by letting go of the need to strive or seek joy elsewhere. By being present, we recognize the miracles already here without pursuit. The most important practices I incorporate are daily prayers and meditative rituals such as contemplation in communion with the Divine presence.

Sustainability is a practice that allows me to embrace the interconnectedness of all beings. It focuses on supporting the environment and being kind to all living beings. Nowadays, I focus not on being strict but on doing as much as possible to support fellow inhabitants in servitude. It is okay to start small such as holding loving thoughts about Earth, being mindful of our waste, and consumption habits within our capacity.

Minimalism is a way of living a simple life by decluttering possessions and being organized with one’s things. For me, minimalism opened the door to letting go of being materially driven to prioritizing inner wellbeing, and later led to deeper practices such as emotional decluttering. It is especially useful for those who feel overwhelmed by too many things because it provides an opportunity to reflect on emotional attachments that lead to possession seeking. For anyone dealing with excessive consumption and addictive habits, it is helpful to ask if we are trying to distract ourselves from what is actually causing stress through the instant gratification of shopping. Once we can do that, we can recognize the need to let go of the inner attachment to things and, eventually, the attachment to the emotion causing stress beyond lifestyle changes.

Wellness is the practice of inviting physical self-care and spiritual tools to support our sentient form and spiritual Self. My practice includes daily prayers, contemplation, reading, and generally maintaining a healthy and wholesome state through proper food, exercise, and relaxation. What is most important to remember is to focus on the inner work, what directly nourishes the spirit, such as meditation, and to bring other techniques such as breathing exercises and stretching as support tools to the primary practice. This way, we create harmony of mind, body, and soul but always prioritize the most important, which is the spiritual.

What advice would you give to someone who feels deeply stuck in their life, to whom these ideas seem abstract, or like a big stretch for them at the moment?

What is most important is to realize that temporary upheavals such as what I experienced, including shopping addiction and mindless habits from emotional struggles, are necessary for inner growth. All are leading to the path of healing, and much is always on the way to support our evolution. I, too, feel that Mindfulness, Sustainability, Minimalism, and Wellness were a much-needed chapter in my life but there is always more waiting on the path of spiritual work. In short, it is okay to start as a beginner to cultivate diverse experiences and experiment through the ups and downs. Embrace your infinite potential!

Lastly, what motivates you on a daily basis…and what are your ambitions as you look ahead in your life?

My greatest motivation is to continue spiritual studies and evolve my consciousness through communion with the Higher Self. Every day I pray and enter into contemplation to reach out to the Divine and be open to receive the directives on what I must do in my ordinary life and as a spiritual being. Nowadays, I feel compelled to fulfill the purpose of helping others through emotional struggles and to assist in their journey of letting go as I continue to do so as well. I am focusing more on inner work than the lifestyle changes discussed in the early stage of my sharing.

---

You may also enjoy reading Sustainability & Purpose: Living in Concert with Our Ecology and Humanity, by Bill Miles with Leif Skogberg.