Joy

I am single at 42. Whew! What an entrance.  Ahahaha! My point is, happiness begins with acceptance.  My bigger point is - happiness seldom happens when we cannot accept what IS. For many, it is easier to account what others have, appreciate their qualities, admire what they own, even ridicule their short comings than to stare down on what is IN YOUR LIFE.  It is as if judging other people's lives allow one to escape facing one's own life Sad to say, looking outside the window will not make us tend what is inside our own home, so to speak. Here are three things I think we could do to accept life as it is, NOW. 1.  Take stock of what you have .  The good and the bad. Listing down the good things makes us grateful. Writing down the bad makes us courageous.  Accepting them both makes us wise.  Taking stock is our ability to look at what we have on our plate as they are.  No judgments. No regret. No conditions.  This is your today. This is you. This is the PRESENT.

When I went home to the Philippines in 2010 after my mom passed away, I had no job.  I went home precisely because I was to tend to my dad's business anyway and so I did not have getting a job outside of home in the agenda. Soon after, in 2011, when my dad's company was ably staffed and all system was in place, I ventured on an adventure to start my own travel agency business. With the nudging of my brother Aaron,   I attended a month-long class with Travel Depot and they guided me through the process.  The best contribution this training gave me though was that they forced me to register the business. Thus, XPERIENCE TRAVEL SERVICES was established. You see, if it were just another course, it would have been just one of those that I attended and forgot after sometime.  This one was different. I registered my business in November against the advise of my accountant because I knew that if I waited for January, this will never come to be. LESSON NUMBER 1:  START I plunged

How much do you want to be KNOWN? In no time in history, I believe, have people been given this much opportunity to let themselves known.  Vloggers, bloggers, even people who are actively engaged in online communities have all the avenues open to them to expose their thoughts, feelings, and whereabouts.   Sample of a heavily edited selfie! Nowadays, the ability to become vulnerable is being hailed as a strength. A symbol of honesty. Putting oneself out in the open, where people can form an opinion of you, is the consequence of social media whether it is welcome or not.   Indeed, this is what we are making every time we post.  We form a public profile.  An image, the way we want to represent ourselves.  Needless to say, the opinion of others will get to us no matter how ready we are of them.  So today I want to share some thoughts on how to keep sane in a world where other's opinion of us are inadvertently invited into our lives in our effort to put ourselves

I am in Singapore as I write this. Technically, not a holiday and so I write. The previous post was about sadness and true to what I felt that day, I honor my sadness. However, in the past week, I also recognized that sadness is a feeling, not a state.  I felt sad, I AM NOT SAD.  There is a big difference.  As a good friend quickly pointed out, "ayos naman ang buhay mo". So, there.  It does not mean that everything in life is doing OK, the feeling of sadness will not visit us.  It can still mess up your mojo, lower your energy and distract you from time to time. However, since it is not a state, especially when it actually is not within your control, it has to pass. One important thing I had to do though was to ask myself why I felt that low last week. Yesterday, at mass, I was given my answer. I have been ungrateful. You see, gratitude is a powerful force - especially in the head.  When we are grateful, there is an elixir of happiness that is attached to it.  Y

Nope, not the reason why I did not have a post last Monday.  I was on a holiday and as you know, I already made it a rule not to post when I am on holiday so I can relish the moment. I am sad today because I chose to. Yes, today I chose to stay in this feeling so I can take a step back and understand why.  Give it reason for its existence and then DEAL with  it. Deal with it. That is what adults do when they are sad. What DEALING with sadness IS NOT?   It is not just about SOLVING your sadness.  What if it does not have any solution? What if it is beyond your control? Dealing with sadness is not about bouncing to HAPPY.  Bouncing to happy for me is like finding the nearest EXIT sign and scramming towards it in fear of being unhappy. Lastly, dealing with sadness is not an UGLY phase. It is necessary but not altogether ugly.  It is a time of discovery either about yourself, others, your feelings or situation. What then is DEALING with sadness? It is a time for sorti