I suppose everyone come across this subject in any book or reading about it in one way or another.
Have you ever tried writing your gratitude list every day? And I mean in discipline, setting aside some minutes every day to write the list. Beside positive things, you can write about your emotions and feelings and frustration so that they’ll not be accumulated up and get all stuffed inside. Trust me, it helps. Write them down and you’ll feel lighter for the day. Here's mine for today:
Dear God, I am thankful that
1. I have a good walk to the train station today although I know that it will be a heavy work day and I feel stressful but I know that the day will end well.
2. I decided to have a short Sabbath evening tomorrow. I have a busy work schedule and classes three times at night and church and my exercise workout on Sunday. My flesh tells me I don’t think I can get through the week! But I am on my way to Wednesday now. This Gratitude list really helps.
3. I have a better sleep yesterday night, no more recurring dreams! Thanks, Lord!
4. I should be able to stay up tonight to finish on reading Book 2 from my class. And review the September exams paper. I have conquered 6 papers for now!
5. I am looking forward to meeting Aunty Nancy in the upcoming seminar on Saturday morning. She is such an inspiring figure, having done missionaries and led in high positions in the social service sector. The workshop is about Called to Do Good Work: A Vision for Vocational Holiness by Dr. Gordon T. Smith.
6. I have a significant responsibility at work to push the 13 APJ countries to keep their certifications in compliance for an upcoming CSAT review. It is quite a tedious project. But each day as I know I will deliver and have done my best, God will do the rest.
7. Today as I am crossing the road, hurrying towards lunch. I saw a simply adorable baby and smiled at him. He returned the most shy, smiley back and made my day!
These are just some of the points I have jotted down during the day and I intend to do that for the rest of 2012 as a Gratitude Project. Try it, you will be surprised of the quiet joy it brings.
Tuesday, January 10, 2012
Tuesday, November 8, 2011
FOAME
He is a seal pup. Foame is his name. Most seals have large, round eyes but foame was borned out of the norm with small eyes. There is always this look of sadness in his eyes perhaps because how his eyelids are droopy but he is a cheery pup. He barks like a a real pup when he got bullied by most of his sea mates over the catch of the day . Dory, mackerel, sardines are his favorites and he hates shrimps but occasionally when he finds shellfish, he will try to share that with his mom whom he adores. He'll roll them up the shore with his front flippers, and tucked them neatly away in a tiny reservoir made out of pool of stones. Also his secret hiding place when he gets tired of swimming and meeting strangers from the sea.
Foame was adopted since young when his mum passed away. Rame found his shrivelling and trembling body by the cliff and feed and nurse him for six months now. Unknown to Rame, foame has a keen of curiosity for all everything under the sun and does give her some trouble answering his questions all day. However his curiousity gives him plenty time of play and fun and adventures and Rame is careful to watch that he does not get himself into trouble each time. The last time, he was so curious to trace Liny, the crab's secret play shed that he tried to flipper himself sideways like how Liny did. He got stung twice and his howl echoed and ripple across the tropical water. Bernie and his flock of friends gathered to laugh at him as he ran to his mum for refuge.
He hates Bernie and his friends but Rame is trying to teach him to love others. 'You have got to love others, Foame. You cant be avoiding others that you dont like and hide in the pool all the time, barking and growling at them each time you see them, its rude'. 'But mommy, ' replied Rame, 'they are always teasing me that I am not your son but you are really my mommy. They always laugh at my short flippers. They made me so angry. Anggrry, angry. And they can laugh at me and flap and catch fishes at the same time. How can theyy..?? I am not going to trust them and made them my friends. Like I trust liny and love you. I don't like to love people I don't trust.' Foame frowned and walk away.
Rame is hoping that one day she is able to tell Foame that she is not his real mom after all. But it is hard.
'He will be really disappointed if one day he realised the truth. What should I do?', thought Rame as she stares out at the horizon.
The sun is beginning to set and the tide has beginning to calm down. Across the shore, others are gathering up their small ones homewards. In the backdrop, she could hear Liny crooning a lullaby to her babies and decided to look for Foame.
'It's only the beginning,' she sighed.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven.
Foame was adopted since young when his mum passed away. Rame found his shrivelling and trembling body by the cliff and feed and nurse him for six months now. Unknown to Rame, foame has a keen of curiosity for all everything under the sun and does give her some trouble answering his questions all day. However his curiousity gives him plenty time of play and fun and adventures and Rame is careful to watch that he does not get himself into trouble each time. The last time, he was so curious to trace Liny, the crab's secret play shed that he tried to flipper himself sideways like how Liny did. He got stung twice and his howl echoed and ripple across the tropical water. Bernie and his flock of friends gathered to laugh at him as he ran to his mum for refuge.
He hates Bernie and his friends but Rame is trying to teach him to love others. 'You have got to love others, Foame. You cant be avoiding others that you dont like and hide in the pool all the time, barking and growling at them each time you see them, its rude'. 'But mommy, ' replied Rame, 'they are always teasing me that I am not your son but you are really my mommy. They always laugh at my short flippers. They made me so angry. Anggrry, angry. And they can laugh at me and flap and catch fishes at the same time. How can theyy..?? I am not going to trust them and made them my friends. Like I trust liny and love you. I don't like to love people I don't trust.' Foame frowned and walk away.
Rame is hoping that one day she is able to tell Foame that she is not his real mom after all. But it is hard.
'He will be really disappointed if one day he realised the truth. What should I do?', thought Rame as she stares out at the horizon.
The sun is beginning to set and the tide has beginning to calm down. Across the shore, others are gathering up their small ones homewards. In the backdrop, she could hear Liny crooning a lullaby to her babies and decided to look for Foame.
'It's only the beginning,' she sighed.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven.
Saturday, October 8, 2011
Feelings
Read this book by Richard Rohr :
The gift of Contemplative Prayers Everything Belongs
I attended the first of a 4 days workshop on emotional well being & spirituality organized by the St. Andrew Cathedral and left the first session feeling more connected to myself. Often, the world has such a denotion, that feelings ought not to be emphasized too much in our life, as feelings are well, just fleeting ones and do not represent the rational way of looking at things from an objective perspective and definitely is not a basis of decision making or embarking your actions from.
And thats where the peril lies. We bottled up our anger because anger is sinful. We dare not expressed our sadness and gave them little time or attention to release them. Every emotion has to be "get over soonest" , and let go and move forward before you've got dragged down and fall into a depressive stance. Look beyond your feelings. Does such comments sound familiar to you? Therefore, we held back our emotions, we suppressed, we bottled up and force ourselves to move forward so that we will look as though we are back on track with our seemingly normal life, surviving all trials and well - outwardly strong. Just what the society think we should look, don't we? Survivors. Conquerors.
And so, unknowingly, we laid the foundation of a wall made up from cement of mixed feelings, pain, hurt, cries of frustrations, bitterness and resentment neatly brick together and we see ourselves more recluse ever and isolated from getting in touch with our heart and feelings and not withstanding in relating to others as well. We hit the wall most of the time. We fell into a period of brokenness and see ourselves unable to breakthrough the wall. Years of building up unhealthy emotions and not allowing it to release and feeling them in a deeper way left most of us creating the human wall that we later on, find it hard to chip away ourselves.
And when things get explosive, we seek therapy and counselling and medication.
It'll take a lot of time to unravel the past and slowly getting into touch with your own feelings, asking God to minister to us and help us and giving plenty of forgiveness to people who have hurt you before, it is worth it. Rather than avoiding the whole issue althogether. Although things may not be at the same level of friendship again for example, allowing ourselves to feel deeply during moments we need to, to mourn, to grieve, to overcome the loss, to release the emotions till we feel we are ready to get up and go again is important. Do not be afraid to do it, or be afraid of the world view of being weak or vulnerable. Allow yourself space and time. Care about your feelings, care about how your heart feel and be confident to follow your heart.
You love yourself more than you think.
The gift of Contemplative Prayers Everything Belongs
I attended the first of a 4 days workshop on emotional well being & spirituality organized by the St. Andrew Cathedral and left the first session feeling more connected to myself. Often, the world has such a denotion, that feelings ought not to be emphasized too much in our life, as feelings are well, just fleeting ones and do not represent the rational way of looking at things from an objective perspective and definitely is not a basis of decision making or embarking your actions from.
And thats where the peril lies. We bottled up our anger because anger is sinful. We dare not expressed our sadness and gave them little time or attention to release them. Every emotion has to be "get over soonest" , and let go and move forward before you've got dragged down and fall into a depressive stance. Look beyond your feelings. Does such comments sound familiar to you? Therefore, we held back our emotions, we suppressed, we bottled up and force ourselves to move forward so that we will look as though we are back on track with our seemingly normal life, surviving all trials and well - outwardly strong. Just what the society think we should look, don't we? Survivors. Conquerors.
And so, unknowingly, we laid the foundation of a wall made up from cement of mixed feelings, pain, hurt, cries of frustrations, bitterness and resentment neatly brick together and we see ourselves more recluse ever and isolated from getting in touch with our heart and feelings and not withstanding in relating to others as well. We hit the wall most of the time. We fell into a period of brokenness and see ourselves unable to breakthrough the wall. Years of building up unhealthy emotions and not allowing it to release and feeling them in a deeper way left most of us creating the human wall that we later on, find it hard to chip away ourselves.
And when things get explosive, we seek therapy and counselling and medication.
It'll take a lot of time to unravel the past and slowly getting into touch with your own feelings, asking God to minister to us and help us and giving plenty of forgiveness to people who have hurt you before, it is worth it. Rather than avoiding the whole issue althogether. Although things may not be at the same level of friendship again for example, allowing ourselves to feel deeply during moments we need to, to mourn, to grieve, to overcome the loss, to release the emotions till we feel we are ready to get up and go again is important. Do not be afraid to do it, or be afraid of the world view of being weak or vulnerable. Allow yourself space and time. Care about your feelings, care about how your heart feel and be confident to follow your heart.
You love yourself more than you think.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
