Is Your Body Ageing Faster Than Your Birth Age?

The following clips from BBC's "How To Stay Young" might be an eye-opener to you as you discover that you have two ages: birth age and body age. 

Photo by Sam Sabourin on Unsplash

It is well worth watching so that you are reminded of proper diet, suitable physical exercises and healthy lifestyle (including getting enough sleep)  to slow down the ageing process and build some muscles along the way.

Click here for the introduction to How To Stay Young.

Click here for Jenifer Tutty discovers her true body age. 

Click here for Patrick Luckie discovers his true body age.

Are You Fully Charged?

"When you are fully charged, you get more done. You have better interactions. Your mind is sharp, and your body is strong. On days when you are fully charged, you experience high levels of engagement and well-being. This charge carries forward, creating an upward cycle for those you care about." -- Tom Rath

Photo by Clem Onojeghuo on Unsplash

In his book "Are you fully charged?", Tom Rath outlines three key conditions for you to experience a full charge (you need to be charge-up as with your mobile, e-scooter and future e-car):

1. Meaning -- helping others or do things that benefit them;

2. Interactions -- creating more positive moments than negative ones; and

3. Energy -- choose things that improve your mental and physical well-being.

Click here for more on "Are you fully charged?"

Click here for some useful chapter-by-chapter resources from "Are you fully charged?" 

There is even a documentary "Fully Charged" in the offing. 

According to a review by Film Reel, "Fully Charged should be required viewing for everybody. If we all tried to act and react positively to everybody around us, the world would certainly be a better place, and that may be precisely what we need at a time like this.”

Click here for more on "Fully Charged" and share this positive revolution with your contacts.

Unstuck Yourself From Yesterday

Yesterday is a memory. The miracle of Today is a gift waiting for you to unwrap and savour. 

Are you still stuck with yesterday along the following lines by The Beatles? 

"Yesterday all my troubles seemed so far away.
Now it looks as though they're here to stay.
Oh, I believe in yesterday." 

It is time to face Today head on, rather than wishing for yesterday to come back, even if there is only a single flower of hope.

Click here for Today by John Denver. 

Click here for Today by C3 Church.

Whimsical Wintry Christmas Season

Even though bereft of winter and all that it entails, the atmosphere of a wintry Christmas has, as before, blown its way to a tropical country like Singapore. 

For example, here is a whimsical Christmassy Wonderland at a Cold Storage supermarket.

Who Shrunk My Thumb Drive?

In a flash the thumb drive has been cut down by more than half its original size without any loss of storage capacity. This is a boon for users of external storage devices.

The hassle with the previous thumb-sized drive is that it protrudes from the USB port and has to be removed after use -- and safely at that. 

With the new mini flash drive such as the following from SanDisk, it is small enough like a dongle to be left in tact in the USB port. This is a huge step forward for convenience and seamless usage of the external storage.

The advance in technology is nothing short of amazing. For those of you who have been alive longer, you would look back at relics such as the following compact disk re-writable (CD-WR) and diskette (aka floppy disk) with a smile of gladness that those days are gone for good and have paved the way for the current sleek mini drives:- 

Remember Your Blessings

The recent Remembrance Day (aka Poppy Day) observed by the Commonwealth Nations on 11 November 2018 commemorated the 100th anniversary of the Armistice which ended the First World War (1914 to 1918).

The blessings such as peace that the people of a nation enjoy today is a result of sacrifices rendered by others who have gone before them. 

At the personal level, we are able to scale new heights because of the sacrifices or inputs provided by other people. All these blessing have given us the foot holds to keep climbing onward and upward. 

 

As and when we attain our goals, a new vantage or breakthrough for a sweeter life, may we never forget our foot-holds of manifold blessings and, in turn, learn to help others within our means by paying back to our community.

When we reach out to one another, we strengthen social compact for a more cohesive society where the disadvantaged are not forgotten or left behind at the foot of the boulder in the corner of our world.

By the way, rock climbing, be it indoor or outdoor with proper safety safeguards under the guidance of trained professionals, will, inter alia, provide a full body workout, train our focus and really remind us of how the blessings in life have held us up when we were hanging on for dear life at moments of crisis.

Click here for Rock Climbing Fun. 

Click here for 11-Year-Old Girl Shatters Climbing Records.

Messages in a Bottle

Further to the earlier post on UOB 37th Painting of the Year, 2018, the following is my favourite painting therefrom (yes, i have saved the best for last!):-

Highly Commended
Emerging Artist Category, Singapore
Artist: Chen Junyu, Ryan
Title: Unlabelled
Medium: Oil on canvas 

The text accompanying this painting explains that:-

"To the artist, the idea of identity is a fluid one that is never fixed, just like water. Here, the water takes on whatever shapes the bottles hold, a representation of one's search for identity while growing up, attempting to fit into different moulds and forms as dictated by societal norms. With the labels of the bottles peeled off, the artist is also suggesting that the search for identity is an endless and uncertain one. The bottles are leaning against one another precariously, highlighting the tension and struggle people go through during this search." 

Unlabelled depicts bottles which are everyday objects that I could easily relate to unlike some abstract forms which would leave me clueless. As a still life painting, I would assess its quality by how close it resembles the real objects, which, in this case, I deem it to be excellent at 85%. I am still intrigued by how paints alone could be used to shape the bottles and shed light so sufficiently well on them with accompanying shadows.

Having dwelled on the intended messages by the artist through this painting, I ventured to reflect on the usefulness of bottles. This opens up a floodgate of thoughts, which you may add to the comments segment of this blog post.

Here are some of my thoughts:

The true worth of a bottle lies in its content. A bottle may contain, for examples, life-giving water, a beverage such as coffee or prized liquor such as whiskey. 

When a bottle is empty, it may be recycled as a vase to hold flowers or crushed at a recycling plant.

I think a bottle can also represent human life. Our body is like an empty bottle to contain our spirit and soul (mind, emotion and will). 

While good at taking care of our physical body with the help of toiletries, beauty products, proper nutrition and medical care, we also need to take care of our spiritual and mental health. 

When we neglect the content of our bottle, we may spiral into depression with a dim view of life. If this become chronic, we may find that life is meaningless. This explains the tragedy of people who ended up in sanitorium or took their own life.

Take some time to be alone each day for quiet reflection and prayer. Also, take time to read a self-improvement book and/or the Holy Bible, which I reckon is like a love letter from God on what really matters in life through it all. Loved ones and close friends are there to help us, but we need to be self-reliant to take care of ourselves because over time they may not always be around to be there for us.

Thus, let's keep our bottle filled up everyday just like we need to charge our mobile phones and scooters.

Don't despair if your life is in a shamble. The Good News is that there is a Living Hope.

Click here for CityWorship: Living Hope (Bethel) // Annabel Soh @City Harvest Church.

UOB 37th Painting of the Year, 2018

Here are just some highlights of winners in the recent UOB 37th Painting of the Year competition for your viewing and contemplation:-

2018 UOB Painting of the Year

Established Artist Category, Indonesia

Artist: Suvi Wahyudianto

Title: Angs't (ANGST)

Medium: Mixed media on aluminium plate

"To the artist, despite our racial and cultural differences, we are essentially the same. This artwork thus evokes our sense of empathy towards the lives of innocents in the face of conflicts and symbolises the hope that someday, the thick wall that separates us from seeing and treating each other as equal human beings will come down."

2018 UOB Painting of the Year

Established Artist Category, Thailand

Artist: Apiwat Banler

Title: Persistent Problems

Medium: Acrylic on canvas

"Through the painting, the artist conveys the impact of being surrounded by chaos in everyday life through persistent problems such as Bangkok's traffic congestion, urban sprawl and mass transit outages."  

2018 Most Promising Artist of the Year

Emerging  Artist Category, Singapore

Artist: Hu Jingxuan

Title: Encapsulated Time

Medium: Mixed media on canvas

"In modern society people are constantly moving and travelling, resulting in hybrid identities, blurred cultural borders and confusing social contexts. How does one negotiate the perplexing realities of contemporary life and identity in an ever-changing landscape?

Using art as a visual journal, the artist examines these ideas of modern life and migration in Encapsulated Time, capturing lost memories in a manufactured setting by re-imagining the gaps rather than recording them as they were supposed to be."  

Most Promising Artist of the Year

Emerging  Artist Category, Thailand

Artist: Chaichana Luetrakun

Title: Rhythm of Transformation No. 4

Medium: Acrylic on canvas

"Here, the landscape of junk cars represents the change of humans through time. In the artist's eyes, he views society as consisting of people with different background, experiences and memories. He reinterprets the human form through the asymmetrical arrangement of cars to symbolise humans grow up and become different elements driving a society."

For your further inflection, here are some quotes on painting:

"Painting is an illusion, a piece of magic, so what you see is not what you see. " -- Philip Guston

"Do activities you're passionate about - which make your heart and soul feel perky - including things like working out, cooking, painting, writing, yoga, hiking, walking, swimming, being in nature, being around art, or reading inspiring books." -- Karen Salmansohn

"Photography is about finding things. And painting is different - it's about making something." -- Saul Leiter

"Painting is concerned with all the 10 attributes of sight; which are: Darkness, Light, Solidity and Colour, Form and Position, Distance and Propinquity, Motion and Rest." -- Leonardo da Vinci

Are You Interested To Become A Positive Genius?

In his book "Before Happiness", Shawn Achor puts forth his case that your potential can be evoked by changing your mindset or deep-seated limiting beliefs. 

He opined that "The better your brain is at using its energy to focus on the positives, the greater your chances at success." The following is a summary of the five practical strategies to creating a positive path to success:

1. Reality Architecture -- Choosing  the most valuable reality

2. Mental Cartography -- Mapping paths to success

3. The X-Spot -- Using success accelerants

4. Noise Cancelling -- Boosting the signal by eliminating the noise

5. Positive Inception -- Transferring your reality to others

For illustration, the 2-dimensional pyramid would have three sides representing Intellectual Quotient (IQ), Social Intelligence and Emotional Intelligence. 

However, in 3-dimensional reality there is a hidden leg to the pyramid as can be observed in the following picture of glass pyramid at the Louvre Museum. This fourth leg or facet can be likened to having a positive psychology towards life. 

Photo by Irene Ledyaeva on Unsplash

A positive genius, in Achor's definition, is "someone who see solutions, possibilities, and connections that are unseen by the average person".

Photo by Mike Marquez on Unsplash

For example, the average person is seated down and sees only the half-empty or half-filled glass cups before him. But, his positive genius buddy enjoying a cuppa with him sees the waiter and signals for the cups to be topped up.

To learn more, click here for Shawn Achor "Before Happiness" on "Valuable Reality" | #OWNSHOW | Oprah Online.

Zest Up With A Muscular Mini Cooper

This gleaming Mini Cooper is all beefed up and ready to hit the road.

Game, Set, Eat Your Chocolates

“Life is like a box of chocolate, you never know what you're going to get.” 
― Winston Groom  

Are You On Target?

Excuse me, where is your life heading? Are you on target or do you even have a target?

Make your target clear. Hold it high in your mind so that you do not divert from it as a result of the distraction of other people, your myriad of personal activities or the happenings in your environment.

You have only one life to live. Make it count by making a good difference in your small, medium or large ways. The power to create your future is in your hands as you keep pursuing your target and fine-tune your process of reaching the target.

The day will come when the ball is at your feet and it will be easy enough for you to kick the ball, strike the target and trigger your celebration of success.  

Don't Waste Your Day and Take An Instant Vacation

"The most wasted of all days is one without laughter." -- e. e. cummings

"Laughter is important, not only because it makes us happy, it also has actual health benefits. And that's because laughter completely engages the body and releases the mind. It connects us to others, and that in itself has a healing effect." -- Marlo Thomas  

Photo by Lidya Nada on Unsplash

"A day without laughter is a day wasted." -- Charlie Chaplin

"Laughter is an instant vacation." -- Milton Berle

"The two things in the world we all share in this world are laughter and pain. We've all got problems. The levels of those problems vary, but we've all got problems. When you can take things that are painful and make them funny, that's a gift - to you and your audience." -- Kevin Hart

"Live by this credo: have a little laugh at life and look around you for happiness instead of sadness. Laughter has always brought me out of unhappy situations. " -- Red Skelton

It is time to rattle your funny bones, wash your eyes and exercise your stomach muscles.

Click here for Just For Laughs Gags Ultra Best Of Video.

Life Is Now Today, TODAY!

Life and death is like the ebb and flow of waves. People appear and disappear.

While we have life, let's not squander our time. We do not need the daily headlines in the news of tragedy to remind us that life is fragile and transient.

We are like the leaves on a tree which grow and flourish for a season before they become dislodged and fall to the ground.

While there is life, go out and seize the day and gather the rosebuds while ye may as Walt Whitman reminds.

Take out your musical instruments or whatever it is that serves as an avenue for your celebration of life and let loose. Make music, spread some happiness and invoke positive thoughts that life is good no matter the circumstances.

Life and time will not delay. Life is now, today, Today!

Looking for a Necktie in Singapore?

If you need to wear a necktie regularly as part of your work outfit or you need one for a special event, then Isrida Silk & Tie Collections would tie-in nicely with what you need.

At Isrida you will be spoilt for choice at the range of neckties available and you  can get one for S$7.00 each. For this price, you get similar quality as what you may have to pay thrice as much elsewhere for more upscale-sounding brand names. 

Isrida's owner, Mr Shaik Mohamed Abdul Razak, believes in treating everyone the same and this is inscribed on his business card as "(Singaporeans and tourist same price since 1989)". Mr Shaik is young at heart and would not hesitate to sprinkle humour into his conversation with all and sundry.

Not-for-sale decorative ties

Besides retail, Isrida also handle wholesale or bulk orders for your organisation's needs. 

Not-for-sale decorative ties

Aside from neckties, Irida also deal with other neckwears such as shawls, scarfs and bow ties.

Not-for-sale decorative ties

There is something for everyone here at Isrida if you are looking for neckwears. 

Not-for-sale decorative ties

In the vicinity you can run other errands at the plethora of businesses such as money-changers, banks, drink stalls, food outlets, tailors, office stationeries,  electronic gadgets, cobblers and hairdressers.

Not-for-sale decorative ties

If interested, the address and contact details are as follows:
ISRIDA
#02-01 The Arcade
(Above Raffles Place MRT station)
11 Collyer Quay
Singapore 049317
Tel. (65) 6339 7655
   

To tie this up, here is a quote for your rumination: 

"Like a necktie or a bouquet of flowers, an idea was best if one did not fuss with it too much." -- Galen Beckett