ALWAYS YOUNG

Take care of your body

What you sow, you will reap. This is a very old saying proven to be so true. To keep ourselves young, we have to keep ourselves healthy. A healthy body feels vitality and emits vibrant energy. And when we do not take care of ourselves, it will get back to us sooner or later. So eat well, exercise, take supplements, maintain your weight and skin, keep your hair healthy so your body will respond with the same intensity of care you have given it and stays young.

Release negative thoughts and feelings

Fear, loneliness, uncertainties, anxieties, guilt, shame, anger, name it and we all have it. All these feelings will come in our life once in a while and disturb us. To stay young we should not dwell in painful and shameful experiences but instead thank God that He allows us to experience trials and failures to cleanse our soul and to prepare us for something better. All these are just passing so hold on tight and trust God that He has better plans for us. Release all these in prayer and in any way we can think of. We are never given such adversities if we won't be able to win over it. So have faith, stop worrying and maintain peace and happiness in our hearts to stay young.

Always do something new

To keep our soul young, we have to expose it always to something new and to something that will lift it up, make it curious, excited and young. We never grow old merely by age but by the way our soul survives and desires to live. So to keep it in a healthy state, it should always be stimulated by new things, motivated by inspiration and strengthened by prayer.

Have a positive attitude

It is true that life is really hard and sometimes frustrating but only to the people who never have the right attitude to cope the hardest of times. To stay young, one should try to approach things for the better. A positive attitude means that we should know how to treat negative and positive things alike in an objective and creative manner. We can't control the circumstances and the people that surrounds us. We can only control ourselves and thus, we can do something on how we approach things and should make do whatever it is that will make our life more happy, productive, and worth living that will keep our soul young.

Do good

Doing good is a good feeling and a young heart feels good. A heart that desires good will always do good and will feel good in every good things done. Good things are always positive and to fill our hearts and soul with only good will keep them light and unburdened and thus, will keep us young.

In a Different Light

I’ve heard a conversation between a 2-yr old child and a 56-yr old woman. I’ve even found it amusing… my attention was caught by the girl’s question… she was wearing dark sunglasses and the old woman was wearing clear eyeglasses. The girl asked, “is your surrounding dark?” the old woman smiled amused by the girl’s naivety. The old woman answered her “nope”. The girl further asked…“Why? Mine’s dark you know…” “…It’s because you’re wearing dark glasses and mine is clear…if you remove it your surrounding would be brighter…”

I was able to ponder on that simple encounter. That time I was bitter about something… I was even discontented and bored with my life. But I’ve realized that blessings are just there waiting to be noticed… to be seen clearly. I’ve recognized that I’m just refusing to see my obvious blessings. I now regret over the time spent sulking and hoping for something else when the good things are just around. I could have done a lot of things out of it. But I’ve wasted my time thinking how unfortunate I am. It’s a pity I never realized it immediately. I could have spared myself from the pains of feeling inadequate. Oh well if I hadn’t felt that I wouldn’t be able to appreciate things as intense as I appreciate it now. It is still a blessing then… see how the way you look at things can change how you feel and eventually your whole life!

Change

I got this friend who keeps on sending messages in my email account. Most of those are of the usual stuff. One day, my attention was caught by one of these messages. It was titled “Strategic Change”. The other messages could have been more striking but I found this one more notable. Maybe because this is what I’ve always wanted… CHANGE… not just a plain change but a
“STRATEGIC” one. So I commented on this and sent him a reply telling him what it did to me. And I got a more arresting phrase when I came to read his reply. It said, “If you do what you’ve always done then you’ll get what you’ve always got”. It made sense to me and maybe for others too. We kept on complaining whywe’re not getting anywhere and always have to content ourselves with what is at hand. Isn’t it time for us to change gears?

I’m the typical office employee who works 8 hours a day, deals with monotonous tasks at my desk and voila! my day is made without having to really think on how to spend it. Isn’t that nice, having my friend “routine” make everything easy for me? Instead, this cycle has made me restless. Comfort zone isn’t at all comfortable. Realization dawned on me… I’ve reached a bottleneck.

It seemed like I’ve ceased developing and that I’m living with no direction at all. And I certainly wouldn’t want to go back. I’ve gone this far but I don’t want to undo everything I’ve invested. It’s just that I want a way out. Just a little chance of learning more and growing and enhancing
and exploring… something I can call a liberating change. This change can mean a lot of things… it can be a change of lifestyle, of outlook, of goals, of preferences, of beliefs, of values, of strategies, of location, of dreams, of wants and needs, of friends… and even your whole life. Such changes, if carried out strategically, determine our destiny.

When we think of change, a lot of emotions will come out. One of them is fear – the fear for the unknown. It’s not very an entertaining thought leaping into something without knowing what awaits you when you get there. It certainly invites goose bumps. But it’s this same uncertainty that thrills us. There’s always adventure in taking risks… in deciding with only limited knowledge of what to come. Relying only on sound judgments and instincts and customizing each respond to certain situations when they come along. This can be both exhilarating and tormenting but would definitely bring out the creative and stronger side of us. These nerve-racking experiences brought by anticipation will bring us into a hell of a roller coaster ride,
which, if rode with ease and playfulness, will undeniably be a blissful ride.

Death

Nothing's more certain than death.. This is our ultimate destination but it is on how we see death that can make or break our life. It can motivate us to live a meaningful life or a wasted life full of regrets.. And its really good to be open to that idea coz we'll realize how precious are the people, the things, our experiences and especially the time that we're given.. It can help us to take every chance to be happy, to love, to grow and to learn because we realize we only have little time to live... But of course this openness can never take away the fears of death, of the unknown and of what lies beyond death.. It only gives us courage to gracefully face it..

PURPOSE: THE MEANING OF LIFE

Most of us are wondering what really are our purpose. The following will help us to identify our very purpose why we were created by God.

Identify your natural talents

If you meet a cellular phone for the very first time, what's the first question are you going to ask? You would of course wonder what it is for and try to find out its capabilities. And when you discover it, you will then use it for its particular purpose. Same thing with people, to know our purpose is to look for its indication in the things that we are good at. From there, we start to know the very intent of our capabilities. Our given talents were planted in us when God created us. He never made us exactly as we are without a purpose and that's why He equipped us with our capabilities for us to carry out our mission – our life's purpose.

Know your deepest desire

Our mind is powerful but it only helps us in the things that are rational. It's the heart who will guide us to life's purpose and meaning. God planted a particular desire in the deepest part of our heart for us to know our purpose. A desire that will never be quenched when it is not fulfilled and when the creator is not present. The key then is to make God the center of our lives and listen to His whispers in the depths of our hearts. And when our heart knows, our mind will provide us wisdom to know what to do.

Identify the things that you love doing

Our God is a loving God and He meant us to prosper and to enjoy life. And so He assigned us a particular role in our given situation. When it is our purpose, we will find it in our hearts. When we find it in our hearts, it will not become work but an activity that we enjoy doing. It is because it is in line with our heart and our soul. There can never be happiness when it is not vertical with our talents and our heart's desires. So to be certain that we truly have found the desire of our hearts, we must be able to love our work and thus find our purpose.

Find time to refresh your soul

When seeking the depths of your heart for your ultimate desire becomes so hard and frustrating, find time to refresh yourself to do away with all the clutters. You never hear God's voice whispering to you because your heart is very noisy. Take away the fears, loneliness, shame and anxieties that prevent you from finding your happiness and real purpose. Aim for silence and calm and seek your heart in your most serene, confident and trusting state. Have faith that God will allow you to hear His voice and lead you to finding your life's purpose.

Pray for guidance

Anything done excluding God is nothing so be sure to involve God in everything that you do and He will guide you all through your life. And in the end, you will find your life worth living because you have found your purpose and lived it all for His will and glory.

My Birthday Present

It's my 26th birthday! My family took off from tagum very early just to surprise me. And I was indeed surprised :) They were the one's who woke me up with their happy birthday song. I was so touched and felt so special. They brought me food and flowers. What a wonderful way to celebrate birthday. I availed my birthday leave and spent the rest of the day enjoying my family at my rented house. Not only that my sis created a birthday presentation for me. It's quite funny but I love it :)

My Favorite Author

Of the all the novels I’ve ever read, it’s Paulo Coelho’s work that I like most. I came across this author thru reading his work for the first time “By The River Piedra I Sat Down And Wept” and fell in love with his work instantly. It even got stronger when I got to read my all-time favorite “The Alchemist”. I really love this book. I even got enchanted for weeks after reading it. It inspires you to run and follow your dreams.

One thing that’s really different in Coelho’s work is that, it speaks to the soul. It has something supernatural in it, I mean, something that elevates your perspective in life. It’s very enchanting yet spiritual. He tells a very simple story. In fact very simple and ordinary but the effect is extraordinary. He makes you see things you have never seen before and grasp emotions that lifts you on another dimension, the level of the heart and the soul. I love his ironies too and how he turns simple things into extraordinary, the ugly into glorious, the minute into important, etc. His style on making his sentences are somewhat lyrical.

Other books I’ve read by the same author are the “Veronika Decides to Die”, “The Devil And Miss Pryme”, “The Pilgrimage” and the “Zahir”. They all have the same effect on me. In fact they’re all my favorite. He seemed to have a deeper understanding of life and death, love and hate, passion and suffering. Though sometimes, some of the things in the story gets weird like in “The Pilgrimage” but then again it’s fiction and you get the soul of the story or maybe those things are just imagery or illustrations for an underlying thought and emotion and it’s just that I didn’t get it so I put it on the weird criteria hehe But over all, his work is brilliant and beautiful and I really want to emulate his writing but he seemed too deep to fathom.

Tried but failed?

I made a decision 3 years ago to become financially-free before retiring time comes. So, I went into doing my first ever attempt on business. I started with lending and merchandising having money, cellphones and other goods as my products for credit. On the 1st year, it was doing good so I decided to enter another business on events management with 3 of my friends. It was established in a partnership but registered as sole proprietorship under the name of one of the partners. It was a very hard start with tight money as capital. The business run for a year and was later liquidated together with my lending and merchandising business. It was a tough try but a good one. Tough because I did everything to make it work but really failed. However, it was good because I’ve learned so much from it. I learned what it takes to be an owner-employee. I learned how to take risks, I gained friends and network, I learned to work under my limits (tough times in business bring you to your limits and challenging your ability to troubleshoot hoping that the situation can still be saved), learned to accept disappointments and still look forward for another try. To fail is really painful but it brings you a lot of good things in your character, skills and knowledge. Trying to run a business was the one thing I really can say that I tried my hardest but only failed.

Year-end

year-end... the busiest year for accountants, i can bet on that hehe i can see the loads of work that's goin to fill my days until february 14 of next year (the last submission of the year-end report). i can feel the pressure ryt now. i just came from a very exhilirating and exciting activity that has just concluded - the mindanao film festival. twas my first tym to do a film and i was really thrilled and amazed especially wen we won 6 major awards, not bad for amateurs like us hehe that event has marked my year 2006. twas my major adventure for this year. i earned lots of friends, i experienced sleeping anywer hehe may it be in the hotel lobby, or joy's house stairs, at the van, some people's house wer we do our shooting. i even got into firing without having to plan about it ahead of tym. my hasol powers have come out. Nice experience :)