30 Things to Stop Doing to Yourself

English writer Aldous Huxley once said, "There is only one corner of the universe you can be certain of improving, and that's yourself". What power does it to develop ourselves and cut whatever negativity that holds us back from realizing it? 

When you stop chasing the wrong things you give the right things a chance to catch you.

It is easier to believe when we are at our best position. But we are all meant to live a happy and successful life, except for the fact that the very things that keep us from experiencing it is neither our lack to start doing the right things nor our failure to stop doing those that are wrong.

Marc and Angel of Marc and Angel Hack Life has a brilliant take on the 30 things we can stop doing to ourselves. They have explained in details the benefits of dismissing all these things that, we might have subconsciously been missing to notice, are ruining the happy and successful life we deserve. They have covered far and wide between facing problems, to making decisions and handling relationships. I suggest you NOT  to skip a single sentence. It will be all worth it.

Here are my favorite tidbits:

1. Stop spending time with the wrong people.

Life is too short to spend time with people who suck the happiness out of you. If someone wants you in their life, they'll make room for you. You shouldn't have to fight for a spot. Never, ever insist yourself to someone who continuously overlooks your worth.

4. Stop putting your own needs on the back burner.

The painful thing is losing yourself in the process of loving someone too much, and forgetting that you are special too. Yes, help others; but help yourself too. If there was ever a moment to follow your passion and do something that matters to you, that moment is now.

5. Stop trying to be someone you're not.

One of the greatest challenges in life is being yourself in a world that's trying to make you like everyone else. Someone will always be prettier, someone will always be smarter, someone will always be younger, but they will never be you. Don't change so people will like you. Be yourself and the right people will love the real you.

7. Stop being scared to make a mistake.

Doing something and getting it wrong is at least ten times more productive than doing nothing. Every success has a trail of failure behind it, and every failure is leading towards success. You end up regretting the things you did NOT do far more than the things you did.

8. Stop berating yourself for old mistakes.

We may love the wrong person and cry about the wrong things, but no matter how things go wrong, on thing is for sure, mistakes help us find the person and things that are right for us. We all make mistakes, have struggles, and even regret things in our past. But you are NOT your mistakes, you are not your struggles, and you are here NOW with the power to shape your day and your future. Every single thing that has ever happened to your life is preparing you for a moment that is yet to come.

9. Stop trying to buy happiness.

Many of the things we desire are expensive. But the truth is, the things that really satisfy us are totally free-- love, laughter, and working on our passions.

10. Stop exclusively looking to others for happiness.

If you'e not happy with who you are on the inside, you won't be happy in a long- term relationship with anyone else either. You have to create stability in your own life first before you can share it with someone else. Read Stumbling on Happiness. 

11. Stop being idle.

Don't think too much or you'll create a problem that wasn't even there in the first place. Evaluate situations and take decisive action. You cannot change what you refuse to confront. Making progress involves risk. Period! You can't make it to second base with your foot on first.

12. Stop thinking you're not ready.

Nobody ever feels 100 % ready when an opportunity arises. Because most great opportunities in life force us to grow beyond our comfort zones, which means we won't feel totally comfortable at first.

13. Stop getting involved in relationships for the wrong reasons. 

Relationships must be chosen wisely. It's better to be alone than to be in bad company. There's no need to rush. If something is meant to be, it will happen-- in the right time, with the right person, and for the best reason. Fall in love when you're ready, not when you're lonely.

15. Stop trying to compete against everyone else.

Don't about what others are doing better than you. Concentrate on beating your own records everyday. Success is a battle between YOU and YOURSELF only.

17. Stop complaining and feeling sorry for yourself.

Life's curveballs are thrown for a reason-- to shift your path in a direction that is meant for you. You may not see or understand everything the moment it happens to you, and it may be tough. But reflect back on those negative curveballs thrown at you in the past. You'll often see that eventually they led you to a better place, person, state of mind, or situation. 

18. Stop holding grudges.

Don't live your life with hate in your heart. Forgiveness is not saying, "What you did to me is okay." It is saying, "I'm not going to let what you did to me ruin my happiness forever". Forgiveness is the answer...let go, find peace, liberate yourself!

19. Stop letting others bring you down to their level.

Refuse to lower your standards to accommodate those who refuse to raise theirs.

20. Stop wasting time explaining yourself to others.

Your friends don't need it and your enemies won't believe it anyway. Just do what you know in your heart is right.

22. Stop overlooking the beauty of small moments. 

Enjoy the little things, because one day you may look back and discover they were the big things. The best portion of your life will be the small, nameless moments you spend smiling with someone who matters to you.

23. Stop trying to make things perfect.

The real world doesn't reward perfectionists, it rewards people who get things done. Read Getting Things Done. 

24. Stop following the path of least resistance.

Life is not easy, especially when you plan on achieving something worthwhile. Don't take the easy way out. Do something extraordinary.

26. Stop blaming others for your troubles.

The extent to which you can achieve your dreams depends on the extent to which you take responsibility for your life. When you blame others for what you're going through, you deny responsibility-- you give others power over that part of your life.

29. Stop focusing on what you don't want to happen.

Focus on what you do want to happen. Positive thinking is at the forefront of every great success story. If you awake every morning with the thought that something wonderful will happen in your life today, and you pay close attention, you'll often find that you're right.

30. Stop being ungrateful.

No matter how good or bad you have it, wake up each day thankful for your life. Someone somewhere else is desperately fighting for theirs. Instead of thinking about what you're missing, try thinking about what you have that everyone else is missing.

You can also read Marc and Angel's sequence to this post, the 30 Things to Start Doing for Yourself.

I hope it inspired you too. Share it to your friends and loved ones. Doing so might unexpectedly turn a negative situation into something positive. 

God bless you!

Photo Credits:

Rob Brucker

How to be Attractive in 9 Easy Steps

The word attractive will, first of all, depend on how you define things as attractive. If being fit and well- dressed is your example of attractive, then it is probably what it is. Hence, it is relative. 

Err, attractive doesn't always mean erotic. But it's something that we do to appeal not only to the other people but to ourselves as well. 

Below are simple and easy steps, which I sourced out from an infographic, on how to be attractive:

1. Smile

2. Smell nice or don't smell at all

3. Dress for style and respect, not attention

4. Know what's going on in the world and have an opinion about it

5. Speak kindly of yourself and those around you

6. Have three hobbies that do not involve a screen

7. Get an education or save up for one

8. Make time for children, elderly, and those who need a friend

9. Always say thank you and return favors

Photo Credit:

pinterest (dot) com

weheartit (dot) com

5 Reasons Why Smiling is Not Senseless

I will be publishing my articles from my recent trip to Hong Kong and Macau in the next days, and I'm excited to share them to you.

While everything worked fast and swamped lately, here are five reasons why smiling is not a senseless thing to practice in our everyday life. And why it doesn't make a total baloney for a topic:

It makes you look more attractive and younger

It's contagious, and it relieves stress

It takes less muscle to smile than it does to frown

It boosts your immune system and lowers blood pressure

Forcing yourself to smile can put you in a better mood

I hope this helped start your day right. Have a great week ahead!

Reference:

exhilirating (hyphen) adventures (dot) tumblr (dot) com

Photo Credits:

weheartit (dot) com

pinterest (dot) com

7 Senses-lifting What?

Stress is like an illegal recruitment agency. It keeps dropping in everyday, in any form, like it pesters our lives to make a living. 

We, too always have a choice to either close our doors or give it a space to rent in our minds. I am no life expert but my ability to slay unwanted stress made me understand that it is an inevitable part of nature. 

Nature is nature. And the key to having a harmonious relationship with nature is to not fight against it but to work for it. When we deny its existence that's when we slip, say, our own carnality showing off.

Now here's my personal remedy. The 7  senses- lifting things I do or choose to have to work out stress, being an unfortunately ever existing part of nature. Senses-lifting, huh? Well, it isn't found in Mr. Webster's, just in case you are curious for a little searching. :D But they are proven, so you can make use of them too or you can draw out some ideas which you can modify to suit your preference.

1. The look of a nicely shot photo

Anything pleasant to the eyes has an uplifting effect, right? 

2. A skyline photography

Aaah, breather! A skyline view has a reflective effect on me that allows me to meditate about everything, far from the busy earth surface. 

For a while I can be lost in thought and feel like it's possible to fly. Illusive, I know, but invigorating.

3. The smell of freshly opened books and magazines

The supple feeling is there. The fresh scent of paper and ink that your kindle cannot give you. Plus when your fingers first touch the glossy texture that makes you feel excited for the new things you're going to learn after reading. 

4. The feel of a starlit night

Stars are like tranquil Christmas lights scattered in heaven. It is still and deep like how your thoughts can be. Doesn't it give you peace? When you finally retire to your bedroom after a jam-packed day? 

5. The sound of a Jazz music

Beegie Adair? Or Michael Buble? They're just sooo soothing. 

6. The feel of a morning breeze

Humid. Calm. You know, the marks of new beginnings. A perfect sanctuary for prayer.

7. The taste of a melting ice cream

Guilty pleasures! But what's de-stressing with your comfort food without thinking about the calories. The relaxing effect of a melted ice cream as it meets your throat. 

There you have it. Working out stress using "senses-lifting" things. It's a new word now. Teehee!

What else can you add?

Photo/ Video Credits:

weheartit (dot) com

youtube (dot) com

Today I Turn 22 (And I Ain’t Getting Married)

Time flies. Today I celebrate my twenty-second year of life-- almost perturb but completely wonderful. I already have plans set on how I’d like things to go about this day. It's turning out however that throwing up a get-together is a bit impossible.

So I decide to be my laid-back self and make merry of this day with few of the most important persons in my life. Homemade brownies here, diavolos pizza and coffee smoothies there will all serve our craving tummies. Everybody knows birthday calories don't count. Snorts! I’d also like to put up some jazz music in the background. So it’s a little café sort of feel.

Mommy-ing and wifey-ing reads stockpiled in my desk in the past few weeks. It’s somehow funny when the mom gets to ask me perhaps for curiosity’s sake about why I have been reading those things in a while.

From kindles

To printed parenting finds

I don’t want to freak her out but there are times when I’d like to tell her I want to get married already with puns intended. Haha!

To online references

Well I’m 22, and of course I’m still far from marrying. I just realize how I could start gearing myself to live a more productive life in the future and make career decisions without interrupting the joy of being youth in the process.

Balancing my work as a nurse and a part-time blogger/writer is somehow difficult. However, I’m thinking of ways to keep the homeostasis.

Here are 3 “life at 20’s” realizations I’d like to share in my life blog catalog:

• 20’s are the best years for travel

Experts would even say traveling should take precedence over other things young adults spend their money for. Imagine how much there is to learn about the world when you begin this early.

• 20’s is never too late for a healthier lifestyle

Choosing the right food at equally right amount and toning up your body as early as possible will do you a big favor in the future. Wear and tear issues are inevitable but you can help prevent speeding them up.

• 20’s is the stage you have to learn that life is different outside school

Maximize everything you can learn from studying. Life will offer you way more serious challenges once you get out of the school premises. But keep your faith and understand your brain works. It will help you more than a dictionary would.

I’d like to thank God, my significant others, and all the people who’ve been part and will be part of another wonderful year in my life.

I’m thinking what’s blowing a candle next year when I’m 23 feels like? Teehee! Much love to you all J

3 (Short) Ways to Help Master Your Thoughts

There's one line in the novel turned movie, Eat, Pray, Love that clobbered me when I've heard it speak into my mind, "If you can't master your thoughts you will always be in trouble". It's as if I had no idea that line existed for years in books and in the persuasive mouth of famous speakers and Psychologists.

I believe most if not all of us are radically aware of this principle in life. But by the time we move out of our comfort zone and expand our relationships, stress beleaguers like compulsory.

However, it's not solely material thing or work strain that's responsible for our mental burn out but largely because of people. We relate to others even more than we do over our bed sheets. Thus, there are far more chances that our power over our thoughts gets shaken by the impact of these people in us. 

1. Personal Commercial

Have you ever heard of that before? Listening to motivational speech is by far one of the best ways to build and rebuild our self-assurance. It's seldom however that we get the chance or sometimes even the interest to spare a time for these speeches until we find them badly necessary. 

If the situation really calls for it and you need something to help you rise up from mental and self-esteem troubles, you can listen as fast to such a motivational speech by creating a personal commercial. You may formulate in your mind or write 3-5 lines that tell your strengths and goals. Recite them in front of a mirror or plainly narrate them into your mind like an introvert junior high would Winston Churchill. Or as the monk would Madonna, had it been the way to practice her vocation.

    2.   Your part...

Instead of thinking what the world can do for you, think of what you can do for the world. Taking your part in doing what can benefit the world will add up to your self-belief tank. No matter what you do, no matter where you go, if you won't realize that everything else is merely a response or reflex of what you make your mind believe, everybody you meet will just always become a nightmare. 

    3.  Manual

When a gadget say a tab or a DSLR gets defective, there's no better way or person to approach for some fixing than the one who made it. Or we review the manual. If we get caught up in a bad situation in life and we start to get defective with how we handle it, there's also no better way to approach for some fixing than the one who made us, God. And the bible is our manual. 

Did I sound like a Friday night reveler that dances to almost the same mix of music by saying that line? Maybe. But I am just reminding you that our thoughts can become our worst assassin if we would always think we know better in life than the one who made us. 

If you accept God as your creator and savior then His words will you hit you hard than a knife but will lift you up higher than a crane. 

Don't wait until you hop from one job to another, or move from a place or two. There's no way these external factors can help you. 

Photo Credits:
weheartit (dot) com

The Road to Holiness: Blessed John Paul II

He is more than a person in the history. A playwright, an artist, a sportsman, a scholar, a writer, a traveler, a speaker, a professor, a leader, an advocate of the youth, a Pope, a man who lived his life in holiness-- John Paul II.

Born Karol Józef Wojtyła on May 18, 1920 in Wadowice, Republic of Poland and whose birthday is celebrated on this very day. 

I wobbled my head as I take a brief look into how he led his life. As I flip through the pages of George Weigel's book The End and the Beginning: Pope John Paul II-- The Victory of Freedom, the Last Years, the Legacy I get to come out with immense appreciation about how he maintained a holy life in celibacy despite catching the world in reprobate invasion. 

On Communism

It was mid 1920's when the Red Army invaded Europe. The young polish never had an idea that he would grow up in a rather unstable society. He was 18 when he moved to Kraków to begin undergraduate studies in Philology at the Jagiellonian University. A year after, Germany invaded Poland sending forth World War II, crippling a nation of mostly Christians into a helpless one. 

The shift in the lives of Karol's friends and relatives being murdered, and of few fighting Church leaders being imprisoned has immolated his aching heart. All human rights and hopes put in carnage, and the death of his father Karol Wojtyła, Sr. prompted him to take part in bringing back human dignity. 

Karol Wojtyła's vocational discernment was profoundly shaped by his experiences of the Second World War...his daily life amidst  brutality and random death; his resistance activities; his first experience of manual labor; and his first steps in Carmelite spirituality; the death if his father and the murder of his friends.

In late 1939, every man young and able in the family was forced to work for the Nazis (German invaders). Karol plied as manual laborer and began underground academic life and resistance activities. Eventually his name bobbed up in communist secret police records. He joined in student demonstration that attacked these communist secret police and internal security forces. 

On Priesthood

In between the years of guns and bloods Karol was accepted into clandestine seminary program. Archbishop Sapieha believed in his ability and heart to influence especially the young, in spreading the word of God and in fighting for the rights of human dignity. Sapieha ordained him as priest in 1946 and sent him for a higher theological study in Rome. 

He spent his first years in priesthood in Poland. He established to young men and women what he calls his Srodowisko where he took these young people into camping and kayaking as well as teaching and studying the words of God. He had unconfined appeal to the young people. Everyone who became part of his life gets enlivened. 

Young people were attracted to Father Karol Wojtyła for many reasons: his intelligence, his friendliness, his human sympathy--- "his permanent openness".

The late Pope kissing a baby

Father Karol who later on became Dr. hab. Wojtyla professor-ed in universities after being awarded the habilitation doctorate. He later became Bishop Wojtyla. The Second Vatican Council opened in 1962 and a year later, Karol was named Archbishop of Kraków by Pope Paul VI. In 1967 he became cardinal. He defended human rights of all Poles, believers and unbelievers. 

Human beings, he insisted, had a natural instinct for the truth of things, a built-in inclination to the true, the good, and the beautiful. Yet men and women were free to make real choices, choices that we can know by reason to be decisions between what is objectively good and what is objectively evil, between what is noble and what is base. To reduce those choices, as communism did, to expressions of class interest or other economic forces was to dehumanize the human person. And if communism misunderstood human dignity and human freedom, it also misunderstood human community and society.

Cardinal Wojtyla kneeling before Pope John Paul I 

After the short stint of John Paul I as Pope, Karol Wojtyla took over and became Pope John Paul II. He reigned as Pope of the Catholic Church from 1978 to 2005. He was the second longest-serving Pope in history and is undoubtedly the most-traveled one. 

His strong passion to spread the light and words of God led him to conduct Papal visits in many countries-- to the works of Mother Theresa of Calcutta in India, to promoting the essence of intact family in the US, and even to non-Catholics [Judaism religion for example], to Al Qaeda's Operation Bojinka's plan to assassinate him, supposedly in his visit in Manila in 1995 but was materialized in St.Peter's Square. He respected other religions including Islam. Most people in the world saw his spiritual profoundness through his undying passion for forgiveness and prayer. 

Pope John Paul II immediately after he was shot 

Weigel mentioned in his book that Pope now Blessed John Paul II gathered his largest crowd in human history on the world's least-Christian continent, when he celebrated the closing Mass of World Youth Day in Manila, Philippines on January 15, 1995. I feel honored as a Filipino on the vastness of warm welcome and support that my nation gave to the Pope that time.

Blessed John Paul II's message to the Filipino people:

God has given you two great gifts: the richness of your faith and the closeness of your family.

 On Love and Marriage 

He was not only a Pope concerned of life but of love, marriage, and sexuality. He wrote a book entitled Love and Responsibility in 1960 which speaks of work, philosophical in nature, on the human person, human sexuality, love and marriage which I will attempt to blog about in the next days.

Published in Polish in 1960 and in English in 1981

George Weigel's work for years paid off in fulfilling his promise to the late Pope to tell in complete detail the road to holiness that a man named Karol Józef Wojtyła did in the history of the 20th century. 

Pope John Paul II praying at the Western Wall 

In Weigel's parting words to the late Pope before his death:

The conversation over dinner was wide-ranging, and at one point, after the usual papal kidding about my having written "a very big book," John Paul asked about the international reception of Witness to Hope, his biography, which I had published five years earlier. He was particularly happy when I told him that a Chinese edition was in the works, as he knew he would never get to that vast land himself. As that part of the conversation was winding down, I looked across the table and, referring to the fact that Witness to Hope had only taken the John Paul II story up to early 1999, I made the Pope a promise: "Holy Father," I said, "if you don't bury me, I want you to know that I'll finish your story." 

It was the last time we saw each other, this side of the Kingdom of God.

Even up to now, I still find myself in tears of joy and admiration to this great holy man. 

Reference:

The End and the Beginning: Pope John Paul II-- The Victory of Freedom, the Last Years, the Legacy by George Weigel

wikipedia (dot) org

Photo/ Video Credits:

google (dot) com (slash) images

saieditor (dot) com- 3rd, 4th, 5th, 7th photo

youtube (dot) com

Blessed John Paul II: Seeking for His Intercession

The calendar flipped another page and began the first of May yesterday. I am due to take an off from hospital duty so I thought for activities to fill in the hours while I am away from pressure and stress. 

Some of my latest obsessions I looked forward to comforting me include buying the latest collection of clothes from a favorite online store and watching the brand-new episode from a favorite TV show. But none of them of course ensconced that something inside was bothering me.

To my mind co-oped the thought that being a nurse is never at all easy. Unsolicited challenges come that test a nurse's ability to handle every situation well without losing the strength to go ahead no matter how hard life gets.

I ran into a serious challenge on work. I would rather not tell the story except for the truth that it affected me so much. 

I swear have never been this negative since but when a situation hits me hard, it's never easy to stand back up and continue the walking. I know how my spiritual side went downhill since the time I forgot when. 

Enough for the cliffhangers. 

What happened to me recently proves again that no earthly things, tangible or intangible could ever make a peaceful heart. 

I just reached the point where I am so desperate to recollect myself and be whole again. But I am forgetting where exactly to start. 

I never expected to catch the first day of May so bad. My eyes were so fluffy. My heart-felt so heavy. 

I had no immediate person to talk to so I simply reached for the rosary without saying a single prayer and my mind remaining cluttered.

It was last year when the Roman Catholic faithful like me dedicated this same day to Mother Mary. It was also the feast of St.Joseph the Worker, the Divine Mercy Sunday, and the day of Beatification of now Blessed John Paul II. Having all these remembered made me I grasp that prayer is always the last and best weapon left. Regardless of why painful things have to happen and never knowing when and how they get solved, it is important to always hold to our faith to the Lord.

Without faith, it is impossible to please God. For he who comes to God must believe He exists, and rewards those who diligently seek Him. (Hebrews 11:6) 

The life of Blessed John Paul II portrayed a good example of faith to God. 

I would like to share this beautiful prayer I used, imploring favor through the divine intercession of Blessed John Paul II:

Junks God Makes

I came across this video while browsing on my Facebook news feed. It broke my heart. I realized how God molded everything exactly as he sees it suitable.

Watch it. Let it break and change you too.

Junks God makes are not actually junks!

Video Credits:

youtube (dot) com

Anger Management, NOT the Movie

Do you know that awkward feeling when your anger bursts into tears?

When CAPS LOCK is not enough to express your anger             

Going Viral: Why I Hate Religion, but Love Jesus

You have probably seen it go viral on twitter and facebook.

   
Jesus versus religion, or is it really?

29 Ways to Stay Creative...And be Positive

Strong is the new beautiful. And speaking of strong, here's a pet peeve: reading and discovering how to live  a more positive life but not actually knowing how to apply it when it's needed.

Great speakers and writers of creative and positive life share huge amount of tips on how to make just that. However has it that few of the real challenges in learning what they preach doesn't come with learning but in maintaining what was learned.

Most readers have the tendencies to get mastered by their thoughts and not mastering the way they think. Hence, forgetting the motivating lessons on how to live a creative and positive life.

On Losing Hopes and Giving Up

Life is mostly fair, at one point it is great. But that is of course when everything goes well and problems are easily resolved.

Image taken from weheartit.com

It’s hard to warrant life as being good when too much problems hits you in the eye. When you’re laid off at work and your mother gets cancer; or you failed in the board exam five times, and went through a very painful annulment; or when the society attached you stigma simply because you fall short physically for a human eye.

People you know and who knows you in the same way work up to tell you that life can still get better if only you hold on to it. But you know to yourself that no one thing that they said has come up to give you a hasty remedy because the pain is engraved deeply, an unfathomable form of spiritual emptiness and clutter. Nobody in good shape of life can just plainly understand how difficult it is to get imprisoned in that kind emotional whack.

When the only legal thing life’s trials has ever done to you is to make you feel so deserving of misery, don’t you think it’s easier to give up and lose hope?

When God's Answer Doesn't Make Sense

I have been knuckling down myself, volunteering in a hospital for almost eight weeks. That’s nearly two months. And until now I really wonder how I was able to hold down close to months of physical and emotional burnout of working 40 hours every week without pay, and a slight amount of ill-humor from few random people around.

Image taken from weheartit.com

Honestly, that is even far from other people’s experience. But one of the hardest parts of getting through bad situations is when you reach the point where you can no longer balance yourself well. It happened to me in the past few weeks.

I belong to an entire generation of Nurses who after graduating and getting the license hardly gets a paying job in the same profession. Or when we get a chance we have to start from scratch and become a “volunteer”. It’s one of the trending professional misplace these days. Even supposing, I still find it okay. Sometimes we really have to start from the bottom to get to where we want (the top).

There only came a point when I could no longer find my passion in what I was doing. At times I become so ambivalent of whether my motivations for entering into nursing were really right. Or if I ever had a wrong notion about it. 

Going on duty always seemed like a struggle each day. And often times I think of quitting and never coming back to the hospital again.

When my co-trainees ask me what my plans are after the training or if I’d still ever want to work in the hospital, I stutter and trip over my words hoping to find an answer I would not regret. But even I. Even I was racking to find my own answer to the question. 

I didn’t know what to do. I cried each night and found myself always praying that I would never do any harm to my patients despite the inner struggles I was having for weeks.

I’ve never been this negative in the several years past. But adequate enough to say that losing hopes amidst too much negative circumstance shots no one in exemption.