May 21

Laughter, the Best Medicine

Two friends were discussing their family histories when one of them lamented that he knew precious little about his roots. “I’ve always wanted to have my family history traced,” he said, “but I can’t afford to hire someone. Any suggestions?”

“Sure,” replied his friend. “Run for public office.”

– Earle Hitchner, Reader’s Digest, Laughter the Best Medicine

May 14

Now is the Best Time

You don’t get to choose how you’re going to die.
Or when.
You can decide how you’re going to live.
Now.
– Joan Baez, American folk singer and songwriter

It’s one of those periods when you think of life – during death anniversary and birthday. May is the period of death and also the period of birth – it’s my Dad’s death anniversary as well as my birthday month, and also birthday month of a few of my loved ones.

Besides the new year period, such periods are definitely the time when we are more introspective and our minds are filled with reminiscences. Did you spend the year well? Have you been doing what you wanted to do? Have you been striving hard at your goals? Have you achieved your goals? Or did the year went by without much meaning and in doldrums?

I hope the year so far has been a great one for you. If not, don’t be depressed, as it will be better in the coming months as long as you understand that you can begin anything at any time, and what better time than now. Start one thing that you have always wanted to do, not tomorrow, but now. The mere act of just doing it, even the tiniest action, is progress. And progress means that today has become better than yesterday.

 

May 13

Aung San Suu Kyi

It is no simple matter to decide who are the more fortunate – those to whom life give all, or those who have to give all to life. A fulfilled life is not necessarily one constructed strictly in accordance with one’s own blueprint; it can be a glorious collage of materials that have come unexpectedly to hand. How wonderful it is that we do not know what tomorrow will bring. – Aung San Suu Kyi

I loved to copy down meaningful sayings and quotes when young. As I was flipping through and reading the sayings this evening, I came across this and I love the philosophical saying by Aung San Suu Kyi. Researching, I found that she has spoken these words during an interview with Alberto G. Romulo in 1997. We must remember that during that time she was still under house arrest, so it was admirable of her to be sanguine about her own circumstances.

While finding out more about Aung San Suu Kyi’s sayings, I also came across a thought-provoking blogpost by Mr Thomas Chua from Malaysia that I would like to share here.

May 12

Tony Robbins’ 5 Steps to Break Through Your Limits

In this video of an interview with Tony Robbins, he spoke about how you can break through your limits using 5 steps.

Here are the 5 steps:

  1. Plot your patterns
    For this point, he spoke about finding and changing your bad patterns. The key is to “keep progressing” as change is never easy.
  2. Find your purpose
    He explained that instead of focusing on the outcome, ask yourself why you want the outcome. The reason behind the “why” would be more powerful than the outcome.
  3. Feed your mind
    It’s important to read and Tony said that you should take minimum 30 minutes to read everyday. Many have put decades of their experiences and knowledge, compressed into books, which you can read in a day or several days. Experiences might sometime be painful and take time. Reading allows us to learn from the good and bad experiences of other people.
    I agree with this as we can learn a great deal just by reading a good book. Besides, we might not have the knowledge, time or resources to be able to experience what the authors have gone through. If the experiences have not been positive, we might not even want to go through them ourselves. Through the grace of the authors, who share with us their learnings, trials and tribulations, we the readers would have gained immense knowledge and insights.
  4. Push yourself
    Make it or break it. Early in his career, he committed himself into a “do or die situation”. He made it and this caused him to push forward.
  5. Nourish your spirit
    One of the best way is to practice gratitude everyday, as you cannot be grateful and experience negative emotions at the same time. He said he too has his bad days, but he only tolerate bad emotions for maximum 90 seconds. This allows him to build up his emotional muscles. Practice giving back or to someone personally everyday, and be ready and in the position to do that.
    Besides the spirit, we should also take care of our body, as health is important and most people underestimate the mind-body connection.
    I like the idea about how he only limits the amount of time for bad emotions to 90 seconds. I believe this allows him to train the mind to break free from negative thoughts, and not let the negative emotions fester. Small negative thoughts that gnaw at you will unknowingly grow into big monsters that would not only cause sickness but might even kill your body and soul.

To read more or to view the video, go to The Pursuit: Tony Robbins’ 5 Steps to Break Through Your Limits.

 

May 08

Happy Mother’s Day

If you feel beautiful, you’ll look beautiful.

Happy Mother's Day

To all the mothers … Happy Mother’s Day.
May all mothers remain happy, healthy and beautiful every day.