Thursday, November 26, 2009

The Secret To That Everlasting Glow

I’ve read many personal development books, and many of them swear by the belief that happiness comes from within. It’s inside you. Happiness doesn’t come from a gleaming new half a million dollars sports car. Nor does it come from a wardrobe full of branded clothes, bags, scarves and shoes.

It comes from what’s inside you – your emotions, thoughts, feelings. It is what you feed to your inner soul that emanates to your brain that tells you that you’re happy.

Now, I swear by these too. And I also witnessed one more thing that will make you feel, think and have loving and positive feelings, thoughts and emotions. What is it?

It is something that we have all known already. We probably have heard it so many times that we’re numb to this word.

It spells like this – A.T.T.I.T.U.D.E

Spells easy, reads easy. But to have a positive and cheery one isn’t as easy. To have a positive and cheery one and still maintain it in lousy days is even more challenging.

Yet there are those who’ve done it.

There was this taxi uncle who had it. He made my journey a very pleasant, enjoyable and certainly memorable one as he extolled the merits and virtues of being a cab driver.

There was this waitress who had it. She would beam with pride and happiness as she recommended us the popular dishes in the restaurant and watched us eat them in content.

There was this teacher who had it. Her gentility and tireless energy brought so much goodness into her class of students who had been sidelined by mainstream teachers due to their poor grades and even poorer concentration and interest in studies.

There was this stay-home dad who had it. His positive outlook in life made him appreciated the opportunity to be with his daughter, watch her grow and be a part of her life in an intimate way, even when the society still carried an unspoken prejudice towards men homemakers.

Hey, you would have known him if you had tuned in to Channel 8 from 9pm to 10 pm, Monday to Friday! Okay, I know, he isn’t real. He’s just one of the daddies in the current drama serial Daddy at Home. But, he has clearly demonstrated an undisputed fact that with a positive attitude towards anything in life, you are ultimately the winner.

By learning to see the merits of another side of life – one that was the total opposite of what he used to be: a senior corporate person who had it very well in his hey days to a family man whose world revolves around his wife and daughter – this daddy had discovered the true meaning of happiness.

It doesn’t come with the number of zeroes in your pay cheque, or how long your title is in your name card.

It comes with a positive attitude in your life. And with it, no matter what you do, you derive pride from it. You feel that you are important, and you are contributing to make this world a better place.

Naturally, you feel happy, because you have love. You love life. You love your family. You love yourself for who you are.

And when happiness seeps from inside, you can’t help but carry a glint in your eyes, glow on your face and a spring in your steps.

Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Send me to Paradise

Those fingers gently but firmly caressed my arms in masterful strokes. The slightly rough bits found in the scrub added texture and pressure to the massage. I could feel the dead cells exfoliated, and my skin scrubbed and cleansed. Instantly, I felt I was one kilo lighter.

Then, those same fingers found their way to my upper shoulders and kneaded away my fatigue, before ending their voyage on my face. I could feel the molecules on those areas being teased and pampered as my pressure points were lovingly tended to, sending a wave of bliss over my entire body and soul. It was like I was floating in the air. The warmth of the bed reminded me that I was still rooted: I was on Earth, and not heaven.

My therapist would vary her strokes – swirling round in circles, grazing in longish strokes or patching in palms – and yet with a consistent rhythm that served well to put one into a trance. The humming and water pattering sounds on a surface at my upper-left side above my head was a tad loud for my comfort. At a window of opportunity when the therapist was preparing for the next ritual of pampering, I tilted my eyes leftward and caught a glimpse of the culprit. Ahh, it was a fish tank.  The engine’s humming and the water pattering was consistently sounding off, so they too had a rhythm. All these combined to put me in a trance-like consciousness. Very soon, I drifted into sleep.

Forty-five minutes later, I walked out of the facial room, refreshed. My skin felt suppler and I couldn’t resist smiling. I love such pampering of my skin – facials, massages and spa. You name it, I would jump at it.

One would suppose that everyone would love the sensation of being caressed and touched. Yet, I was utterly surprised when I learnt that wasn’t the truth! Among my friends, there are some who aren’t impressed with such blissful adventures. My husband happens to be one of them. Fortunately, these are minority.

I can’t figure them out, especially when I love being massaged to death. I can lie there and be willingly, longingly and uninhibitedly at the mercy of the ten fingers. Knead, rub, twist, pat, swirl. Anything that can ease my body fatigue, relax my physique and entrance my soul is wholly welcomed.

Most women are like me. We love this kind of physical touch. So guys, if you are willing to invest some time to learn the basics of body massage and do your partners this service, you’ll have some “puppies” at the end of each session – gazing at you lovingly and waiting to paw all over you with eternal gratitude.

I only wished the humming could be much softer.

She’s Inspired By The Other She Who’s Inspiring!

Julie and Julia. These two women don’t just share a similar name. They are intimately connected by one deep passion too, despite separated by space and time.

Julie is at a crossroad in her life. Not someone who has ever completed something in her life before, she gamely takes up the suggestion of her husband to start a blog. After a few rounds of to-and-fro on what to write, she decides to challenge herself to blog about cooking. Not just ordinary cooking where she does when she has time or the mood to, but to finish cooking 52 recipes by the famous celebrity chef Julia Child in 365 days.

What does this challenge mean?

This means she has to cook everyday, by hook or by crook, be it rain or shine, in sickness or in health. In order to achieve this, she’ll be putting her full-time job and her marriage at risk, according to her, all because of one person’s inspiration.

Meet Julie Powell (Amy Adams) and Julia Child (Merryl Streep) in the movie Julie and Julia. Julie is so inspired by Julia that she not only throws herself such a huge challenge, informs the whole cyber world about it – thereby putting herself at a bigger risk if she calls it quits half-way – she eventually manages accomplish this feat, despite some hiccups and a marriage crisis in the process.

Have you found yourself in a similar situation before? I’m sure all of us would, at one time or other, feel lost in life. It seems as if nothing matters anymore, and we feel a huge sense of defeat weighing on us, pinning us to the ground. Our goals are either blurred, or they are still non-existent.

We stand at a cross road, and we can’t decide which way to go. For others, they are just standing on a road which either leads to nowhere or they are facing a dead end.

At times like this, how we wish we can have someone walk to us, and lead us to the light. To tell us that we aren’t alone. To encourage us and let us feel that we are still important. He/she doesn’t have to be exactly a friend, or someone we have met.

Like Julie and Julia. One has never met the other, but through Julia’s works, Julie feels immensely inspired. It feels great to be able to inspire someone. And it’s also a wonderful uplifting feeling to be so greatly inspired by someone too. It’s like a huge dose of confidence that propels you to take immediate action. This motivation is so stimulating that you simply cannot not take action and do it.

I have experienced such inspirations before. To me, it is a one-of-a-kind moment. It takes my breath away, leaving me so rejuvenated that unless I do something right away, the energy will over-accumulate and drown me in it.

It is a moment of truth, of empowerment, or realisation, of discovery and of hope. Endless hope.

And when you have the fortune to be on the other side, you’ll feel equally blessed too - to be able to inspire someone who might still be searching for their life’s direction if not for something you’ve said or done.

Was there such a moment in your life before? How was it like to you?