By Deb Matsuura

Introducing our NEU Fall Semester PT Students!

Welcome Emily to the F&L 'Ohana!

Hi there! 🙂

I’m originally from Long Island, NY and graduated from Schreiber High School in Port Washington. I’m currently a 3rd year PT student at Northeastern University in Boston, MA.

I had always known I wanted to go into the healthcare field when I was growing up, but it wasn’t until a couple of years ago when I discovered that physical therapy was the career for me. In my junior year of high school, I became interested in yoga; I loved to analyze how body movement and mechanics could influence how a person feels. The parallels between physical therapy and yoga in the physical aspect of exercise combined with the mindfulness of alignment is what ultimately led me to the decision to become a PT.

When we were first beginning to look at co-ops, Fukuji & Lum was the first to catch my eye-as a native New Yorker I was excited at the prospect of traveling somewhere warm. Once I began to research more about the company, I realized that there was so much more to this opportunity than just the location. I learned that this clinic would provide me with so much more than just a job in Hawaii, I would have the change to create lifelong friendships. The staff here at Fukuji & Lum are really one big happy family, and I’m so grateful to be able to learn and grow surrounded by such supportive and compassionate people.

It’s these same fantastic people who are introducing me to all of the amazing food here on the island! Between (socially distanced) potluck staff meetings and going away lunches, I’ve tried everything from musubi to malasadas and can’t wait to keep trying more.

I only got to sneak in a few hikes and beach days before the shut down, but I can’t wait to keep exploring and learning about Hawaii’s land and culture. I hope to be able to continue my adventures once it’s safe, but if not, I guess I’ll just have to come back and visit!

As I’ve begun to gain experience in the field of physical therapy, I’ve found myself becoming increasingly interested in specializing in Geriatric PT. I think there’s something so special about being able to restore or maintain strength and flexibility so that someone can continue to be healthy and active as they age. The Aquatic Therapy clinic has been especially helpful in teaching me strategies for helping a patient to improve balance and stability.

My passion for learning and teaching techniques for improving balance, posture, and alignment wouldn’t have begun if not for my mom. As a yoga instructor herself, she is the one who introduced me to the practice as well as most of the techniques I use stay mindful of my own movements.

I hope to be able to share these values with my patients and am so excited to begin my journey in the world of physical therapy!

Learning with Aloha
By Deb Matsuura

A Life Practice

“Leading yoga is my gift to the Fukuji & Lum ohana… I feel like the least I can do is offer that to the people who I love, that I work with.”

Jocelyn Shiro has been with Fukuji & Lum as an aquatic physical therapist since her arrival on the island nearly 5 years ago. She has been the company’s resident yogi, ray of sunshine, and dancing queen ever since. Before spotlighting Jocelyn, not only did I want to interview her, but I found it important to interview those who know her best. When asked to describe Joce in one word, the staff immediately answered with adjectives that reflect how she has impacted them. Some of the answers I received were: joyful, loving, compassionate, wise, kind hearted, luminous. It is clear from these characterizations how much love and light Jocelyn brings to F&L. So how has she managed to continue sharing this love and light while clinics are closed and stay at home orders are in place?

“I’m not one to be idle.” Although the world may be on pause, Jocelyn doesn’t allow her life to be halted. She fills the quarantine weeks with full days that keep her carrying on. With the shift from normal work days to social distancing, came the emergence of new rituals. Since the closure of clinics on March 18, Jocelyn has not missed one sunrise. Every morning, she wakes up before the sun to start her day with vitality. “The metaphor to sunrise is a new day.. Start over. Rest. Let go of anything that was getting you down yesterday because today is a new day.” A new beginning at the start of each day makes it easier to move forward despite set-backs that may have been weighing heavy the day before. When beach activity was prohibited and her sunrise walks were compromised, Jocelyn did not give up her ritual, she simply adapted it. She substituted morning walks for sunrise swims. The ritual was not lost. The sunrise streak remains alive… just now with an extra sweatshirt to warm back up before yoga at 8.

This is just the beginning of a day in the life forJocelyn. After entering her day with new energy, she goes to the W.O.R.C. clinic each week day to lead the company in an hour long yoga session via the “Zoom” video chat platform. With yoga sculpt three days of week and yoga flow on the other two, Jocelyn provides a way for staff to continue a movement practice despite the closure and closure of fitness studios. She reflects on her previous F&L yoga sessions, once a quarter or for special events. Collaborating with the Culture Club Living Tribe, Jocelyn has transformed Zoom yoga into an everyday ritual where staff can come together for a practice of movement and spirituality.

More and more of us tune in each morning to join Jocelyn in her sculpt and flow, some of us returning to a familiar practice, and others giving yoga a chance for the first time. For Joce, yoga is a life practice that is part of her life everyday. She remembers that it was not always this way, however. Before arriving here on Oahu 5 years ago, Jocelyn was a professional dancer who was dedicated to her intense and demanding profession, committed to this movement practice of dance. Yoga did not resonate when she dabbled it in at different times earlier in life. “I wasn’t ready to go inward.” During her years here on Oahu, yoga has re-entered her life at the right time. She explains that initially yoga was a way to stay active and physically fit, until realizing that it was much more than that. “I started going for the physical benefits of strength and stability … but then I realized the more I went, the more I felt good inside my mind … more calm, less stressed. Those benefits came to me on the side, but now I do yoga for those benefits primarily and the physical benefits are the side.” As I listened to Jocelyn describe these ways in which yoga has impacted her life, I couldn’t help but think: this tranquility and reduced stress is exactly what we are all searching for in these times of uncertainty.

At the start of our flow today, Jocelyn offered the intention of perseverance and strength. More things we are searching for. So what is an intention? Well, there is not just a single intention, but an abundance. Intentions are personal and dynamic. Jocelyn explains that “intentions are a multitude of things. It’s different for different people. And for different days and different stages of life.” An intention may change day to day, as it depends where you are in your life and your human experience. Intentions match whatever you need. Joce describes that her personal struggle over the past 24 hours has been feeling of discouragement. Thinking we were headed toward the light at the end of the tunnel, hopefully with the re-opening of beaches and parks, instead we got news of limitations on beach activity altogether. “The tunnel was made longer, which was discouraging.” For Jocelyn, she set an intention of perseverance to serve her carrying on despite disappointment. We each have the power to set an intention to serve our needs, to serve our purpose.

Along with intentions, our growth is highly dependent on the support system we surround ourselves with. Jocelyn holds her Fukuji & Lum ohana close to her heart. From her first phone call with Mark, he told her “we are different here. We are a different kind of company.” Joce explains that she left the phone call confused, wondering what this could mean. Through the past years working as a vital member of the team, she has found exactly what makes this company so unique: the people. The community. The love. “I came to understand how close everyone is” and how the company is run, “caring for each individual staff member as if they were a member of their own family. They make sure people feel fulfilled, are happy, feel supported, and feel cared for and loved.” Jocelyn expressed how truly important this family is to her. This tribe that helps empower her to be the amazing light we know her as. From a quarantine filled with learning and serving others, to work days filled with smiles and empathy, we recognize Jocelyn. It is easy to understand why when asked to describe her, the words we hear are joyful, loving, compassionate, wise, kind hearted, luminous.

We love you Jocelyn! Thank you for all that you do!

Learning with Aloha
By Deb Matsuura

A New Normal

“We sense that a new normal isn’t coming back, that we are being born into a new normal: a new kind of society, a new relationship to the earth, a new experience of being human” (Charles Eisenstein).

Things are changing around us. True to the nature of change itself, it is rapid and unpredictable. As humans, we tend to fear change. It challenges us, makes us uncomfortable, and forces us to modify our “normal.” In these particular times, our “normal” has been challenged more than ever. Our everyday lives have suddenly been entirely uprooted: routines thrown out the window and plans for the future in shambles. Grocery shopping has transformed from a mundane Sunday morning task, to a weekly mission out into a threatening world to hopefully replenish supplies. Celebrations, hugs, and gatherings have reduced to emails, calls, and “Zoom” meetings. Is our community gone?

As we sit in our living rooms binge watching Netflix or puzzling until our hands hurt, it is easy to feel alone. Isolated. In a world of social distancing, a sense of community feels lost. For the health of us and those around us, we must respect rules to stay 6 feet away, to cancel large gatherings, and to avoid physical touch. We must postpone weddings, cancel graduations, and host virtual birthday parties. These gatherings are lost. These events are absent. But the community isn’t.

Community is not the gatherings we host. Community is not the events we attend. Community is the people: the people who love, who support, and who care. The Oxford dictionary has many definitions of community, most beginning with phrases such as “a group of people..” or “a feeling of fellowship...” Funny enough, not one starts with a place or a thing. So although there are places we cannot travel to, and things we cannot do, we are not isolated. Our people are still there. Our people still love, still support, and still care. Let’s celebrate it.

Our Fukuji & Lum ohana wants to celebrate our community with acknowledgement and appreciation. We will begin spotlighting members of our team in blog posts to highlight how each member is sharing their love and light.

I would like us to think back to our retreat at the start of the year. As I think back, I remember a room full of people who I was still just meeting, with lots of unfamiliar faces warmly introducing themselves and encouraging me to share what I loved most about my new home here in Hawaii.  The energy and love of this group of people cued me into that I was joining something special. This was the start of a new adventure. Ironically, we spent that afternoon learning and reflecting on change and its impact in our lives. We all had different experiences with recent change: from becoming new parents to losing people dear to our heart. There was one commonality, however. From our change, came growth.

So, as we circle back to change, we recognize that it is uncomfortable and it is challenging. However, we also honor that these feelings, if acted upon, reap evolution and transformation. So how will we adapt to our change? How will we grow from it? We will soon see how our ohana are adapting to continue loving and growing as family. The change that is happening around us does not discriminate. Everyone must adapt. Everyone must find a new normal. In this shared experience, our community grows stronger. So as Eisenstein urges, let’s tap into our new normal. Let’s embrace our new society, relationship with earth, and our new experience being human.

With love and gratitude,

Maddie

Learning with Aloha