Easy ways to be happy! (Part 1)

Hi guys!

Today I want to share with you my own personal tips, how to be happy. During the bad times, I always try all these and most of times, it makes me feel better! 
I feel these tips are quite easy and common, but all you need is more and more practice :) 
I think I better describe one by one each post, so it will be much clearer for you.. 

Be thankful ( hey I know this already, so common!). This is the main key, I bet many of you have known about this but yet is still very very hard to really practice this. So how? 
All is about your mindset. Have you heard this quote? I forgot who's the author, but for sure it's not me :p " If you are not happy with the condition, change it. If you can't change it, change your mindset". 

Again, all is about your mindset. People tend to (or much easier to) see the mistakes, bad, fault, whatever you call it in events or things. I really love this story by Ajahn Brahm in his book, and I can say this is one of my life-changing-moment story. Lol. It's so simple but beautiful, titled "Two bad bricks". Long story short, imagine we build a small wall with 100 bricks, from all those 100, there are 2 slanted bricks. Those 2 are not in line with the others. What will we think in the first place? This is a failed wall, I don't like it, I am not happy with this, I will destroy this wall and build new one. Are you one of those with that thought? 

Here comes the problem of our point of view, we never notice (or just don't care) for those 98 good bricks. We just narrow down our view to the mistakes, or bad things we have or encounter. Why don't we try to broaden or view, like zoom out the wall and see, oh yeah, those 98 bricks are still good. Hmm.. This is the beautiful wall, indeed, I love it, and will take care of it. Then your life become much easier and happier. 

What are the other examples? This story is by Ajahn Brahm also (for you who don't know him, you can google his name if you are curious). Yes, you guess it right! He is my great inspiration, he is great teacher, and he is a great practitioner of  Middle Way, indeed :) I really love his stories and analogues, all so simple, yet beautiful and true. Ok, back to the story, the titled if I am not mistaken is "Nothing wrong with me". If we go to the doctor, what is the first thing you say? Doc, something's wrong with me. Why is something wrong with you? 

Easy, it's because we already set our mindset that our body should be always healthy. Why so? We all already know that every living beings all are subjected to sick, old, and death, no matter what. It's the truth. So why we all insist that we should be always healthy and young? So in the story he told us that instead, we should tell the doctor "Doc, nothing wrong with me, I am sick but I know it's normal thing. Can you please help me to heal this?" 
The fact that we are sick will not change, we still need medicine to cure it. But our point of view has changed. We don't really suffer as much as when we think being sick is something abnormal. 

These 2 stories, if you really think about it properly, are really applicable to our everyday life. And again, please consider about this. I heard this from one of great teacher too. 
As we live in this world, we play so many roles. First, we start as a child of our parents, then we become friends to other, brother, sister, niece, nephew, then we become student, after that maybe we become someone's girlfriend or boyfriend, employee, employer, teacher, religious devotees, wive or husband, and maybe most of us will become a parent, and many many more roles. 

So the thing is; please be reminded, if one of your role is not really played properly, that's not the end of the world. Please. Do. Remember. What if you fail on exam? You can still try, maybe on that role you are not a really good player; but remember you are still have many roles that you can play well. You are still a good child, or good friends to somebody, you love your hobby so much. What if you are breaking up with someone who can't treasure you? You still have a lot of roles, and you can always make the fail role to be better. I think people really need to be aware of this, so they can always think twice before become really desperate and even consider suicide *knock wood* 

So in the end, we can always think about the good sides our life, and focus on that. When we feel thankful, then all the good things will come to us even if you don't even notice it. Law of attraction. Don't exaggeratedly compare your life to other people, you never know how to walk in their shoes feel like. You can always set a standard to your life, your own accomplishment, but never ever let that thought make you feel unhappy or even depressed.  

To be happy or not is always your own choice. The ball is in your hand, guys!

Cheers!

Wedding preparation (General)

Okay, I will breathe deeply for three times first.. *inhale.. exhale..* Pheww..
The thing is, the wedding day is pushed forward to this November! Woohoo *panic*.. I will have only 7 months to prepare! At first it's on March next year, but because the church that we want to celebrate at, will be renovated starting January next year, so here we are. Bring it 4 months earlier.

What's the main things that have been decided up to the time I write this?
1. We will celebrate for 3 times, in 3 places.

• First, Singapore. Holy matrimony, ROM (Registry of Marriage), and lunch reception. This will be held at Orchard Road Presbyterian Church. 
• 8 days later, we will have a dinner buffet reception at Jakarta, Angke Restaurant. 
• 7 days after second one, we will have a family table dinner at Medan, restaurant is still to be confirmed. 

2. How many bridesmaid-best men? 3 pairs. I think we gonna have gate crash. Be prepare, groom-to be and best men! *evil grin*

3. Make up artist? Deal with Marcella Widita at Jakarta, and Laura Wijaya at Singapore. 

4. *think hard* Oh no I think the rest is to be confirmed, have not deal with any vendor yet rather than spoken earlier. >.<"

OK I will update to this blog soon. Let's hope I won't be a bridezilla! *Roar* Lol. 

Cheers! 

Why doing good matters?

I had a very interesting conversation with my colleagues today, it's about spiritual thought. Well, I always love to indulge in this topics. What is the take home moral from our discussion? I will share it with you guys. 

Do good. It matters. Why? 

First (and the most important thing), it makes you feel happy, joyful, and peaceful. Who doesn't feel good after doing kind thing? It is even better when you do a good thing with full awareness, with a good intention. Sounds complicated? Not really. For example, you give your seat to needy people (pregnant woman, elderly, disabled person), you are aware that they need the seat more than you, and because of that you give it. As simple as that, you need to be aware of your own feeling and your own action. Trust me, it really matters :)

Second, you help to relieve one people's suffering, or at least you make them feel good. Who knows your kind action is the only good thing that happens to them on that day? Who knows your kind action will brighten up their whole day? One kind action per day for everyone, imagine how the world will be? It will be a more cheerful world!

Oh yeah, please note this. Smile more. Smile when you help people, it is like a bonus. Smile from your heart. I really feel happy when I smile often. Think about this, you usually smile when you are happy, right? How about we change it, even if you are not in a super happy mood, smile. Your smile can even change your own mood. It even better for other people to see it. Smile to stranger, smile to people who have eye contact with you. :) 

Well, then came this question from my colleague, common things that happen to most of us. We don't commit crimes, we don't do evil things, but nor we do very good things. It's like "neutral". What is the example? You walk down the street, very tired after work, and you see something drop from one's pocket. You just walk pass by it without any meaningful thought. Yes, like robots. I personally think we are human but often act more like robots. 

Her question is, how is this count? Well, my answer is this. If we spend our life like that, yes we don't seed a bad kamma, but nor we seed a good kamma. So we only now using up all our good kamma saving. Everyone knows, no matter how rich one person is, if he only use up his money without working, one day it will finish. It's the same for this. 

At the end of the day, I just want to say don't waste every single time of your life. Have good thoughts, speak good words, and do good things. Everyone can do good things, no excuse :)

About me :)

As what I've described in my first post, I am an ordinary girl who's now working in Singapore. I am working in Science field (yes, lucky me I love my job) :). I have a deep interest in spiritual thing, and I focus (and follow) more about what the Buddha has taught. Don't worry, I will share more about practicable daily thing rather than the very difficult ones. But perhaps, sometimes I will share the deeper thought also. Hehe.. I hope what is meaningful and beneficial for me can also benefit this blog readers (if any :p)..

My other interests are make up and beauty stuff like skin care or hair care. I am looking forward to share some tips and products to you! I also like to play badminton, swimming, but I don't like (or hate?) to run. I think my body is not designed to run much. Lol. I hardly feel very tired when I play badminton or swim, but soon after I start running I will feel like fainting. Haha..

Hmm.. what else? Oh, right now I am planning my wedding (hi, lovely fiance! ^^) and I hope all of you can wish this will go smoothly (thanks! :p).. Maybe I will share about this preparations as well (in Jakarta and Singapore) for future considerations of other bride and groom-to be.. Some of my wedding preparation posts will be in Bahasa, but mainly in English, i suppose. I don't know why I feel more comfy to write in English (but please pardon my only daily conversation-level English >.<)..

I will start writing about those topics soon!

Cheers :)

This is a start :)

Hi everyone! 

Well, this is my first post online. I'm an Indonesian and currently stay in Singapore :) Hi!

Today I just decided to create my own blog that is simply me. I will write about many things, maybe product reviews, what're happening in my daily life, or even my own thoughts. Hmm.. I'm excited to start sharing! 

But I still need to learn a lot of blogging, don't even know how to design this! Lol. I will learn soon!

See ya! 

Cheers ^^