Author: Angeline Yang
Company: AJ Premium Motors Sdn Bhd
Position: AJ Automotive Group Co-Founder | DLazuli Wellness Founder
《Stop Waiting, Start Seeing Yourself》
In the early hours of the morning, my child finally fell asleep and the city returned to silence. A dim yellow lamp lit the room as I sat alone in the living room, settling everything that had happened and looking back on the years I had walked through. Three years ago, I was at the most chaotic and difficult point of my life. I was pregnant, yet I had no choice but to endure the pain and suspend the company that my husband and I had worked so hard to build for years. A career into which I had poured countless hours and tremendous effort suddenly came to an end, while unexpected pressures arrived one after another. Every morning, I woke up to unfinished work, complicated accounts, clients waiting to be handled, and an uncertain road ahead.
To everyone around me, I had always been capable, strong, and independent—someone who could withstand every storm. Yet no one knew that there were countless moments when I had already reached the edge of emotional collapse. I often sat in the car, unable to start the engine for a long time. Late at night, I cried silently by myself. I was physically and emotionally exhausted, yet I continued gritting my teeth and telling myself that I had to keep going. As a mother, a wife, and an entrepreneur, the weight of these different identities made me feel that I had no right to break down, and even less permission to give up.
It was also during that period that I gradually became aware of the silent distance growing within my marriage. There were no dramatic arguments or betrayals, only two people slowly moving further apart. I was used to handling everything sensibly, so I blamed every problem on myself. I kept reflecting, compromising, learning how to communicate, manage relationships, and improve myself. I believed that as long as I became good enough, life would eventually become complete again.
I treated compromise as growth, patience as love, and independence as a form of discipline. While constantly moving outward, giving and consuming myself, I quietly ignored my own needs. Eventually, my body began sending serious warning signs. Long-term insomnia, stiffness in my shoulders and neck, panic, and heart palpitations left me so exhausted that I sometimes felt numb. A doctor’s reminder finally forced the version of me who had always been so strong to stop moving forward.
That moment suddenly awakened me. For years, I had been busy taking care of everyone, accommodating everyone, and constantly trying to become stronger, yet I had never truly treated the person who was working the hardest—myself—with kindness. I began learning to let go of attachment, look inward, practise yoga and meditation, and breathe slowly. I started going to bed earlier and waking earlier, soothing my anxious mind and body. For the first time, I truly understood that the person who needed to be loved the most had always been myself—the person I had neglected and treated harshly for far too long.
Gradually, I stopped looking outward for approval and began listening to the voice that had been buried in my heart for years. I finally understood that many regrets and separations in life were never proof that I had not tried hard enough. Not everything needs to be forced, not every relationship needs to end perfectly, and regret does not always mean failure. Sometimes, it is simply part of life.
If I could sit once again in that dark living room and look back at the pregnant, desperate, and emotionally exhausted version of myself from three years ago, I would want to embrace her with all my heart. The woman who fought so hard and gave everything she had had already done her very best. She did not need to push herself any further.
After experiencing these storms, I finally stepped away from the attachment of constantly waiting for the outside world to change. One of life’s most precious forms of growth is not learning how to hold on to another person, but learning how to stop losing yourself in regret and uncertainty. In the past, I worked desperately to become the person everyone else needed. Today, I am finally learning, with gentleness, to become the person I need most.
— Angeline Yang