about mango a day
NANCY, MPH, RN, MSN, FNP-C
Nancy is the creator behind Mango A Day*.
By day a family nurse practitioner treating mental health ailments and running businesses, by night, a creative soul seeking to find alignment with herself and bring justice to systems that have failed us.
As a Western-trained researcher and healthcare provider, she kept the mind, heart, and body separate. Schooling didn't give her the tools she needed to be the healer she wanted to be, but after quitting her job, she went inward to explore the depths of her emotions, behaviors, and beliefs. She recognized the systems we live and operate in are based in control and fear, which traumatizes and fragments the individual. However, we don't have to be victims to society or ourselves. By learning resiliency and radically honest approaches to life, she learned to the tools to free herself and practice medicine in a truly integrative way.
*she didn't particularly like the old adage an apple a day, she prefers mangos
one breath at a time
Amidst the chaos working front-line during covid, anti-asian violence escalating in my community, and another failed relationship, I fell into a cycle of despair and fear as none of my previous coping mechanisms could pull me back to center.
Alas, with nowhere to go, gripped with exhaustion, I simply laid in bed and started practicing guided meditation every morning. Life suddenly started shifting...
I started to see myself.
it's not an easy journey
...but a necessary one back to myself. My teachers are friends, poets, writers, monks, yogis, medicine women, and therapists. They continued to guide me to search inward.
It was hard, yet I kept asking myself, "Who am I?" Bits and pieces arose, usually with a lot of tears, frustration, and shame as I realized I wasn't living in my truth, and often, tension dissipated and I felt moments of peace and love within myself. Complex trauma from a life of neglect kept me preoccupied; I continued to make many mistakes as I struggled to deal with my fears and anxieties. Finally, I had enough compassion to stop hiding from shame and take accountability.
No longer did I see myself as an image of my past, I woke up day after day with a clearer understanding: I'm not my past. I'm not my thoughts. I'm not my emotions. The only version of me is right now... so I can change. I can create a new home in myself every moment I exist.
Official Bio
Nancy is a family nurse practitioner graduate from Yale university with a specialty in primary care psychiatry and a background in public health from UC Berkeley. With her dedication to the underserved and never fearing stigma or taboo, she committed to targeting social inequities of systemic racism, gender and reproductive health inequality, and mental health barriers. Her training has brought her to recognize that the medical system can cure many illnesses, but it can not heal the heart and soul. This, she found searching inward. While she continued to nurture her patients, she sought to use her creativity to cultivate wellness beyond a pill... thus mangoaday was born!