Top 3 Ways to Conquer Your Fears & Worries

Image Credit: wehearit.com

90 percent of us in the world are diagnosed with what I call "fearonitis" and "hyperworrydosis". And although we have spent much of our lives knowing that we are not the only ones vying with this everyday, we still fall most vulnerable-- on wee hours-- when we're unaccompanied. 

It's a recurring kind of woe. It finds a way to catch us unguarded, when our positive self- image is in short supply. But there are antidotes.  

To begin with the battle, you have to first identify and avoid the factors that contribute to it. Otherwise it will always have a hatchway to jeopardize your life.

1. Take a break from social networks

Seriously, muster the willpower to leave your life on stream for some time. Your Facebook feed is jam-packed with press releases of friends who just got featured in a magazine, or had a two- week long vacation in Tuscany, or landed a job in a nation with a first world status. You may hit the thumbs up button for them but you know that there is still a trace of compare-and-despair trapped inside you. It makes you feel left behind and less appreciative of your own and other people's success. 

If you cannot let a day pass without logging in to your accounts, at least make a time for the non- virtual once or twice a month. Meet your high school friends. Human interaction remains the most important key to generate the right perspectives and evaluate the real situation. It allows you to size up and express things a social network could limit.

A day you spend in front of Facebook may be a day you miss the chance to try a new skill or plan out how to make your life better. 

2. Narrow your focus

You cannot control the way others want to live their lives.Whether you discredit them for their limitations or drown yourself in envy for their strengths, it'll never make you greater of a person. Doing this would rarely earn you millions but would mostly count up the nasty behavior in you. 

Focus on yourself. It's okay to feel a little uptight about the good things you see in other people. Just don't develop hate towards them. Instead, grow up where you are lacking. If you intend to improve on the way you dress up, search on how to properly pull an outfit together. If you want to improve your conversation skills, read some grammar and try out new vocabularies, or watch how great speakers do it. If you're forgetting a skill in your profession, spare a few minutes a day reviewing it.

A little something is still better than nothing.

Image Credit: wehearit.com

Know what your ultimate goal is and take some time to look for opportunities to develop yourself personally and professionally in the areas that can largely help you reach that goal. Never mind if you feel stagnant at work. Don't wait for others to give you the privilege to improve when you can do it for yourself. Attend training or seminars to update your skills. You may not be able to apply it directly and immediately to your job but it adds or refreshes your knowledge. Take baby steps to face your fears and worries. That's the only way to get rid of them.


3. Condition your mind

Our life can be driven by different factors depending on our current situation and beliefs. Often these factors are the ones that create the biggest fears and worries in our life. But these differences also tell us that we cannot view life according to other people's footsteps. For instance, we know that there's an impact when someone does or achieves great things at an early age. But that's his own pace-- according to his capacity and resources.  It's unfair if we also identify the criteria by which to measure our own success in life in conformity with his. Because as we say, we are different. Our capacity and resources will lead us to that success at our own bearing and time. But it doesn't mean we cannot become successful ourselves.

Condition your mind away from the tick tock. It's a huge robber of happiness and determination. Peter Mark Roget finished the famous thesaurus book at age 73. Andrea Bocelli didn't start singing the opera until the age of 34. Albert Einstein was mentally slow. He didn't speak till he was four and didn't read till seven. But he's one of the most famous scientists who won a Nobel prize. Walter Disney was fired for lack of imagination and was rejected 302 times (or so I read). But now he's the legend behind the most successful animation company in the world.

Get the whole picture. Someone else might be dreaming of the way that you are right now. Always find yourself moving forward.

You may hit the rock bottom at many points in your life, but the secret is to never fail to condition your mind to drift back up again and again. 

Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter for daily inspirations. 

Image Credit:
wehearit.com

  

What I Learned About Success from Albert Einstein

If only ambition is as easy to come by as poets quote it. The chances of people becoming successful would count thousands. I'm at 0001.

Half of those successes are driven by hard work; the other half driven by luck. But none without constant or occasional prayer. 

If the road to success is put into words, I can summarize it into two: "The most successful people are those who didn't give up on themselves" and "Success is not just about what you know but who you know".

Decent jobs alone are hard to get these days. We're in the era where CV is no longer the only thing to gamble, money is required of us before we can earn it, and "backer" is a stronger qualification than having Latin honors.

The world is more competitive. And investments barely return.

While some people have the ready option for easy success, most of us learn by trial and error. We tolerate daily hardships in the hope that our sacrifices can mean a good change one day. But the hardest part sometimes is in not knowing when that day will arrive, or whether our actions always lean towards that success. We don't know. But haven't you ever wished life came with a detailed instruction manual?

How I wish there's a crash course for it with no demands for an average score to pass. On a second thought, the point of success, I guess, is that it is never equal to mediocrity. We cannot really call ourselves successful by simply aiming for the "good enough". We should settle not to be the best but to be better.

I realize that only now do I truly understand what Albert Einstein meant: Imagination is more important than knowledge. It is essential that we do not only know, but that we apply what we know and we do not intend on stopping.

Einstein deserves the moniker, genius. With emphasis.

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

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

A Gift from a Stranger

Strange things happen for some unexpected reasons. 

An old man in his 50's went towards me at the National Bookstore two days ago. He smiled coyly and asked me if I have ever read this book before [True Life in God]. 

He was unassuming. He looked professional in striped beige polo shirt tucked under a prim dungarees that most senior men wear. His ashen hair was far from empty though wrinkles turn up as he tried to open his mouth and explained to me how the book had amazingly "converted" his faith. That was the exact word he used. 

Those folds in his face however hinted me a contented man whose wisdom matured in the last 10 years. He gives me a quick look through the pages, which had me reassured is an action of a man who really knows what he is talking about. 

"To which Church do you belong sir, if you don't mind me asking?"

"I am a Roman Catholic" he said.

"I first came across this book in 1997 from a friend. It only stockpiled in my desk until six months later when I read it for the first time. Lord, why have I not read this book before? I muttered. This is a very good book. It is the type that will get you teary eyed-- perhaps out of guilt, or joy, or thankfulness. It feels like Jesus speaking straight to you. A real account".

"I can give this to you as a gift" he continues.

"No it's okay sir, thank you. I'll have it myself".

"No don't worry, I'll pay for it".

I took a sly smile. He went to the counter and paid for the book. The next thing I know was that I felt surprised. I was not sure if I made a seemly response. Tears (honestly) almost gathered in my bottom lids. It felt unusual but I did not think it was ever doubtful. 

"Why do you have to do this sir?" I asked.

"I just feel happy" he only puts it. 

His assuring smile greeted me for the last time. "Well thank you sir. God bless you" I replied and then he left.

Photo Credits:
google (dot) com (slash) images

Parenting Stint: 5 Sibling Rivalry Fix

Tots who are supported and praised when starting to learn their early childhood skills grow with autonomy and positive self-esteem. But teaching them a little less of autonomy and confidence, and more of appreciation and coöperation may also be as important.

Living in a house with two little nieces of almost the same age got me into episodes of tiny feuds. The 6-year-old miss would not usually put up with her soon-to-be 4-year-old sister.   The “She started it.” and “Why can’t she just use her own crayons?!” lines sometimes distract me from my reading. My hopeful attempts to make my own short vacations at home mostly end up into a bundle of disaster.

These siblings quibbling are not necessarily trivial since they begin at large in the formative years or the first 7 years of life. How my nieces learn to handle brannigan will influence the way they will handle disagreements when they become adults. The role of parents and guardians goes without saying.

As their tita (Aunt) I feel like having to apply what I learned from college, books, and parenting dialogues with the experts. My degree in Nursing has always been a help to a not-yet-mom like me.

Behavior Variations

Toddler and pre-school are the years when children first learn to have enough vocabularies to express their feelings. It is also the stage when they start to learn how responsibilities are shared in the home.

My 6-year-old niece’s familiar lines however prove that there are emotions and responsibilities she cannot fully understand. She is not absolved by the explanation, “Your sister is just a baby. She doesn’t really know what she’s doing”. She often thinks there are privileges and behaviors allowed to her sister that are not tolerated in her.

It is not at all easy since what you think as temperate solution to perils might result into behavior confusion.

See it in general

Approach both lightly and ask without provoking. Provoking promotes defensive reasons as do my nieces. Detecting what’s really going on might help both children; and help parents or guardians learn just how to deal with the kids individually.

Feelings, Oh, Oh, Oh feelings

Bottom-line is, feelings of jealousy occur in some way when there is more than one kid in the house. The key is to help them recognize their feelings by observing them and encouraging them when they do something favorable “I like the way you let your sister borrow your crayons” or “It’s good that you helped her fix her things”.

It’s always not advisable to use the word “bad” when pointing out that something wrong was done. It rather confuses them what they are actually feeling.

For very young children like my nieces, doing some prompting is a big help, “I can see that you feel sad that your sister doesn’t feel like sharing her toys with you now” or pointing specifically to the act, “I see that you took your sister’s drawing book without her permission” and asking follow-up questions like, “Why did you do it?”. Allowing so helps both parents and the kids see the bigger picture.

It’s true that when kids know their feelings are respected, they become more empathetic to others. The rule of the thumb is-- acknowledgement.

Help them communicate

Allowing the kids to express how they feel gives them the idea that their opinion matters. Using words like “she feels”, “she looks”, “you seem” “I think” and avoiding definitive phrase like “It’s bad” will let them distinguish bad behaviors of the person over the person herself.

Set up rules

Kids understand rules more than you think. Rules also help diminish conflicts and help them follow and stick to their responsibilities.

But one important thing to remember is to always be consistent with your rules. Sticking with TV schedules, taking turns, or providing them space will help instill in them discipline, patience, concern, and respect for privacy.

Play is key

Doing activities that foster coöperation like board games, or for Filipino families, bahay-bahayan will encourage coöperation and family bonding.

For more cooperative children games you may refer to Child Care Lounge and Family Pastimes. 

Unfit situations like sibling rivalry can be used as time to teach kids good lessons. How kids are taught will say a lot about who they will most likely become in the future. You might as well do them a favor. I am beginning to.






Photo Credits:
weheartit (dot) com

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

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.

Good-Mood Tips for Busy Bodies

            

With today’s cosmopolitan busyness and technological indulgence, it’s hard to keep up with the time and still be able to maintain positivism. There is no boundary between work and home. I learned a lot of that when I started working up to 12 hours a day in the hospital for the past two months. 

Stresses come in greater amount and out and back again. There is almost never enough time to breathe from the pressure weight and hassle. And I think you have been busy and enfeebled, too with your life because if not, you won’t be here in this post.

When everything around you begins to cut down your space into nothing but work. And if given a choice between courage and desolate, you choose the latter, you surely have gotten your wellness in complete disproportion.  

For a while, you need to pull yourself up a bit and set back a good mood. You cannot just continue life in desolation because we all know it’s unhealthy.

How do you raid off unhappiness then and take little steps back to wellness?

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.

Idly Busy

Image taken from weheartit.com

“Doing nothing can sometimes be very tiring”. Don’t you think this is one of the most familiar oxymoron you could ever hear?

Oftentimes we grumble about our jobs draining us and errands preoccupying most of our supposedly free time. Sometimes when paper works pile up and our to-do list sit out unaccomplished, we opt to one day finding a time to loosen up and really do nothing to compensate for the “cruel kindness” this busyness has caused us. And when we think we’ve had too much of work we could not do otherwise because it’s what makes our living or else we won’t get our lives moving forward. I’m not so sure if you can relate with me on this.

When our motivation for things go AWOL and our equal right to find some rest gets more bereaved, to for moment be idle becomes a credible way of escape. However, idleness often betrays us more than we think. It makes haste slowly of our longing to get a temporary break and be back right up again. 

“The busy man is troubled with but one devil; the idle man by a thousand”.

Doing nothing instead widely opens the door to the attacks of the tempter. Idleness invites an ample time for us to rather think of many varied things that either dirt our minds or make it become more negative. 

When we become busier being idle, it retards out desire for life and ambition. To physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually be productive is an aim a little impossible; paralyzing our way to success (i.e. to successfully attain what we’re supposed to achieve and make good at it).

        “The way to be nothing is to do nothing”. 

It said, let the devil always find you doing something and he’ll soon be convinced that it is of no use. But don’t let him find you idly busy, as what Socrates said, “Not only is he idle who is doing nothing, but he that might be better employed”.

The disadvantages of idleness affect no one in exemption. That’s why you have to give yourself the right cure once you reach a point of exhaustion and the lack of motivation.

Image taken from weheartit.com

Here’s a weird bit but sensible advice from Elizabeth Gilbert in one of her articles: 

If you've lost your life's true passion (or if you're struggling desperately to find passion in the first place), don't sweat it. Back off for a while. But don't go idle, either. Just try something different, something you don't care about so much. Why not try following mere curiosity, with its humble, roundabout magic? At the very least, it will keep you pleasantly distracted while life sorts itself out. At the very most, your curiosity may surprise you. Before you even realize what's happening, it may have led you safely all the way home.  

Image Credits:

weheartit.com

A Healthy Amount of...Lust?

Image taken from weheartit.com

Yeah, let’s talk about it open-mindedly. Do away with your prejudices for a moment. It’s a topic so unusual for me to write about, yet it’s one of the most interesting, right? 

Lust.  It isn’t just a guy problem. It’s a problem of both the macho and the unmanly-- a human problem.

Most people young and old have issues with this. Those who think they don’t may freely stop reading the next lines and click the “X” button on the upper right. This is for all people single, dating, married, or separated who is most probably facing the same habitual sin.

While writing about it is easier said than done, lust has become a confidential sin that lie in wait of people in distinctive yet common ways. I won’t make up for all the right solutions and judgment on this matter. None of us come to anything with conspicuous analysis. Everyone is but civilly passing on premises and speculations according to the decipherability of an idea and some personal influences.

Thrashing out this topic, though would demand more than a few thoughts and deliberation. But touching a fraction of it would, I think do you more justice than acquainting you with litany of estimations. So I promise to sum this up to a few descriptive.

          This post has been inspired by a book that speaks of sexual morality by Joshua Harris, a good Christian Author who “rightly beguiles” you into yielding and seeking for the best author and giver of love, life, and faith. I may not agree in everything that he’s written there but reading his books and understanding his points somehow makes me feel eligible to meditate on moral dedications and be responsible in sharing these ideas without being too anecdotal lest faulty opinions lead me self-righteous.

Here’s a familiar scenario: 

A sexy and attractive lass is walking down the hallway in spaghetti straps and miniskirts. There’s nothing wrong with appreciating the attractiveness of this head turner and that staring at her and trying to imagine a little bit more is very minimal in comparison to actually walking up to intentionally harass her. Or, purposely or accidentally clicking on porn tube instead of youtube to watch few videos is not as grave as engaging into fornication with several sexual compulsives. Do you agree? 

While some people may not have the same opinion, agreeing to this is like tantamount to saying that not giving up 100 % to lust is still acceptable; that there is a precise limit of percentage of it that won’t make that much of damage for so long as you know how to control yourself. 

But how do we know if we’re on the right measure of lust? What are the things that we could consider as justifiable whenever we try to lust? Or if a little amount of it is fair, then why is lust still ever found in the 7 capital sins?