About Leela Ha

I have never felt connected to my birth name. I had a speech impediment which made pronouncing my first name, Jennifer, difficult and I was bullied because of it. When I was eleven, my sixth grade English teacher gave me the nickname “Mickey” and I have kept it since. When I married in 2012, I changed my legal name to incorporate Mickey as my legal name and took my husband’s last name and I became Mickey Malloy. The name Mickey Malloy had its ironies. A playful alliterative name which elicits surprise and amusement when attached to a small asian woman. Often people burst in to song “Hey Mickey you're so fine…” and when asked how it’s spelled, well, there’s also a song. People mishear “Nikki” or “Vicky” or they assume a more Japanese spelling of “Miki” and I have to say, “Mickey, like the mouse, Rouke, Rooney or Mantel.” I was indeed nicknamed after the mouse. And while Mickey Malloy felt better to me than Jennifer Fong, it still did not feel like me. It was a name I was borrowing for a time. Malloy has been a nice name to borrow. The husband and I separated only after a short marriage. Amicable separation but his name is not mine. and when the divorce finalizes will be changing my name again. This time to my true name. My sat nam (true name), Leela Ha.

Līla (lee-la), is Sanskrit for play. I have incorporated play into much of my healing journey and have even built Buena Sweaty, my personal training business, which centers around play as an engine for learning athleticism and as a route to reduce an eliminate chronic pain.

Ha, is Sanskrit for sun. The sun is source energy, radiant, warm, nourishing and illuminating. “Ha” is also the universal sound of laughter. And laughter has been a major tool in my healing journey. “Ha,” is also the universal sound of relief. And now that I have found myself, I can relax and laugh in the sun. Ha is also a Cantonese last name meaning “summer.”

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Deeply In Love

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Becoming Leela Ha