Meet Trixi Anne Agyao

We were lucky to catch up with Trixi Anne Agyao recently and have shared our conversation below.

Trixi Anne, so great to have you with us and thanks for taking the time to share your thoughts with the community. So, let’s jump into something that stops so many people from going after their dreams – haters, nay-sayers, etc. We’d love to hear about how you dealt with that and persisted on your path.
As a Filipina woman living with mental illness, I have faced a lot of doubt and hate coming from many directions, including from within. I’ve had to persist despite my immigrant parents being scared for me and not understanding my want to be a dancer and artist. To this day, I experience racism and sexism where people mistreat me and at best underestimate me. I also have to fight daily with my depressive and anxious thoughts telling me that I am worthless and undeserving.

So how do I persist?

1. THERAPY! I’ve been in and out of therapy for over 10 years, and I work on my mental health consistently. I’m not always great at working on it by myself, so therapy really helps me with accountability. Emotional intelligence is not taught to us like math and history. Therapy is one way that has really worked for me to learn coping mechanisms and how to understand my emotions.

2. LOVING OTHERS! I am so much kinder to other people than myself, and through that, I have learned that I really do need to be kinder to myself. I am a person doing their best. If I believe that other people deserve love and support for just existing, I need to believe that for myself. I think because I give out this love, I receive it back. I don’t love others so that they’ll love me. I can hope for love back, but I cannot control that. No one owes me love. To me, loving other people does not have much to do with other people loving me. As you can see, it’s actually more related to me learning to love myself.

3. HAVING PURPOSE/STRONG BELIEFS: I cannot control whether or not people treat me well or even just with respect. I wish I could, but I cannot. As someone who is continually hurt and sees all the hate out there in the world, there are times I want to just give up. However, I realize that that if I want to see more love in the world, I can create that myself. I can be kind to people. I can believe in them and want the best for them. I can witness people and really see them. I can create love, and this is a power I choose to use every day to help shape the world.

Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?
Here are my 5 main things!

1. I am a dancer and choreographer. I am a company dancer for Mounarath Powell Dance and am a freelance choreographer. I create work that addresses mental health and mental illness.

2. I created affirmation cards for Asian women under my digital guise of The Thoughtful Beast. You can find them here: https://thethoughtfulbeast.com/product/ggaffirmations

3. I created a podcast where I interview Asian women who are willing to talk about their mental health journeys. Check them out here: https://open.spotify.com/show/0SOMd36YzFvtzpdA28EWAh?si=e6e2756e8f394fa3

4. I produce cultural events like the one I am putting on May 17-19, 2024: 19 Asian American artists will be presented by The Thoughtful Beast in “Motions & Emotions: Asian Women Speak Out”. The event is three performances addressing the mental health journeys of Asian fem identified people and women. Attendees of the event will experience an array of artistic mediums including dance, singing, clowning and piano.

Tickets can be found here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/motions-emotions-asian-women-speak-out-tickets-814613479847?utm-campaign=social&utm-content=attendeeshare&utm-medium=discovery&utm-term=listing&utm-source=cp&aff=ebdsshcopyurl

5. I am a student of the Meisner Chekhov Integrated Technique Studio in San Diego. I’ve recently become more serious about acting after doing some short films and dance films. It’s been amazing being a student again!

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
1. Therapy has been so important in my journey. Without it, I honestly don’t think I would be here today. 2. Being stubborn can be a good thing. Once I knew dance and art was my thing, all my decisions became easier.
3. Being fine with being wrong has helped me a lot. No one likes being wrong, but being able to make a decision, going after it full heartedly, and then finding out that I went in the wrong direction is actually better than never making a decision and standing still.

Advice: It’s okay to be wrong! Own your own life, including your mistakes. You have more control over your life than you think. Choosing to do nothing until the universe makes a decision for you is still you making a choice. No judgement. If that is fine with you, that’s fine. Just own it, and don’t be surprised by the consequences of your actions or inactions.

Awesome, really appreciate you opening up with us today and before we close maybe you can share a book recommendation with us. Has there been a book that’s been impactful in your growth and development?
“DBT Skills Training Handouts and Worksheets” by Marsha M. Linehan

This is where I learned a bunch of emotional intelligence skills I was never taught! Pillars of DBT are mindfullness, emotion regulation, distress tolerance and interpersonal relationships.

Contact Info:

Image Credits
Rich Soublet, Marissa Roxas, Ludivico Estrada

Suggest a Story: BoldJourney is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.
Resilience
Portraits of Resilience

Sometimes just seeing resilience can change out mindset and unlock our own resilience. That’s our

Productivity
Perspectives on Staying Creative

We’re beyond fortunate to have built a community of some of the most creative artists,

Confidence
Kicking Imposter Syndrome to the Curb

This is the year to kick the pesky imposter syndrome to the curb and move