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!

Focus On The Opportunity Rather Than The Problem

When you are stuck with a problem, you can move forward by shifting your mindset. 

Consider the following diagram where the Problem is overwhelming and has left U hanging in the air.

However, by shifting the fulcrum of your Mindset so as to provide more leverage, U will be able to uplift the Problem as per the following illustration:-

An example of shifting your mindset would be to focus on the opportunity which a problem present rather than be tormented by it. 

Photo by Chris Barbalis on Unsplash

It is the same problem, but a positive take along the lines of 'What can I learn from this?' and 'Solving this problem will bring forth tangible benefits' would be more constructive than wallowing in self-pity ('Why me?') or despair ('Sigh, why is this happening again?').

Another change of mindset would be to actually make yourself happy because the problem does not constrain or limit you. You will maintain a happy disposition throughout each day no matter what life throws at you. What's the problem? It can be solved. Got problem? Bring it on. I am going to slay this monster for good, and move on.

When confronted with problems on multiple fronts, an example of a change in mindset would be to compartmentalise them. Imagine going into your workshop and placing each of your five baskets of problems on each of the five workstations there. Then decide which basket of problem to tackle first and focus on it till it is resolved. Do not be like the lion in a circus which suffers from paralysis when faced with a five-legged stool.

Keep learning and expand your mindset so that you can shift your mindset to tackle whatsoever problem which comes to test you (and make you stronger). You hold the answers to your problems, including the trump card of knowing where to find the help you need. 

By the way, you may find helpful ideas from the blog feeds of Stunning Motivation, Lifehack and Addicted 2 Success on the top-right of this blog. 

Thank you for reading Daily Refreshing.

Wouldn't You Fancy a Gorilla Watch?

As gleaned from its website, these are the salient unique selling propositions of Gorilla Watches:

1. Power

"Fuelled by a combined passion for cars and watches, exploring the fine line between far enough and too far, built on solid horologic design pedigree."

2. Performance 

"Radical material combinations pushed to the edge of reason, engineered to be worn and be seen, delivering addictive product experiences."

3. Rarity 

"If you’re looking for a brand that plays to the status quo, we are not for you. Our relentless spirit of disruption is only for those seeking the exhilaration of creating a new way."

GORILLA FASTBACK (ACID GREEN)
Image courtesy of Watch Wonderland;
https://wonderland.watch/collections/gorilla

GORILLA GT MIRAGE
Image courtesy of Watch Wonderland;
https://wonderland.watch/collections/gorilla

Click here for Gorilla Watches.

Click here for Watch Wonderland.

Click here for a review of Gorilla Watches by Watch Collecting Lifestyle.

Imagination + Action = Success

We are the sum of our thoughts, including imagination. This may be true where our thoughts and creative ideas/images/concepts translate into corresponding actions. 

We are the sum of our actions. However, we could end up saying or doing things which we do not intend.

What or who are we then? We are a hybrid of our thoughts and actions. When we are deeply convicted in our thoughts, we will work things out accordingly and realise our true self, undistorted, and become powerful as all our stars have become aligned, so to speak.

Let the words of J.K. Rowling inspire you to find greatness in the good stuffs that you are passionate about. 

By the way, passion is not just about being interested in some endeavours. More than that, passion entails doing something which you are willing to suffer or sacrifice for even when there is no recognition or rewards. That is, until you are discovered! So, be encouraged to go for your it.

Click here for 13 Most-Inspiring J.K. Rowling Quotes to Make You Stronger by Shawn Lim at StunningMotivation.com, which are summarised as follows:

1. “It is impossible to live without failing at something unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all – in which case, you fail by default.”

2. “We do not need magic to change the world, we carry all the power we need inside ourselves already: we have the power to imagine better.”

3. “It is our choices that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.”

4. “Failure meant a stripping away of the inessential. I stopped pretending to myself that I was anything other than what I was, and began to direct all my energy into finishing the only work that mattered to me. Had I really succeeded at anything else, I might never have found the determination to succeed in the one arena I believed I truly belonged.”

5. “I have never been remotely ashamed of having been depressed. Never. What’s to be ashamed of? I went through a really rough time and I am quite proud that I got out of that.” 

6. “You’ve got to be prepared for hitting wrong notes occasionally, or quite a lot. That’s just part of the learning process. And read a lot. Reading a lot really helps. Read anything you can get your hands on.” 

7. “Sometimes, you have to stop trying to force it, walk away and let your subconscious show you the way. Fill up on life for a while.”

8. “The world is full of wonderful things you haven’t seen yet. Don’t ever give up on the chance of seeing them.”

9. “Failure is so important. We speak about success all the time. It is the ability to resist failure or use failure that often leads to greater success.”

10. “Imagination is the foundation of all invention and innovation.”

11. “If someone asked for my recipe for happiness, step one would be finding out what you love doing most in the world and step two would be finding someone to pay you to do it.”

12. “The discipline involved in finishing a piece of creative work is something on which you can truly pride yourself.”

13. “Happiness can be found, even in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light.”

May you see the light soon at the end of your tunnel and find good success. All the best to you, my dear readers. Never ever give up on your dream.

Bloom Where You are Planted

You are unique. There is no one quite like you except for your twin sibling and futuristic clone.

Bloom where you are planted. Be the best that you can be. Develop your natural giftings and it will open doors of opportunity for you.

"A man’s gift makes room for him, and brings him before great men (Proverbs 18:16; NKJV)".

Hone your skills and increase your mastery. Do not settle for mediocrity or join the so-called cult of the average. Be an outlier by learning from others who are far better than you in what they do.

The following is a sample of outliers for your refreshing to raise your level of competency.

a) Janice Wong - Dessert Chef

  

Click here for NHK "Her Story" Chef Janice Wong Singapore

b) Nuseir Yassin - Vlogger

Click here for Life Of Nas In 10 minutes | Nas Daily

c) Lang Lang - Pianist

Click here for Lang Lang - live concert in Vienna  

The only limitations are those you place on yourself. Take massive actions and create the future of your dream. 

"The rewards of life are only distributed to those who have chosen to  embrace the art of distinction." -- Robb D. Thompson 

Start today, continue what you have started, make adjustments along the way, learn from your failures, learn from others, keep on believing, and persist until you achieve your breakthrough. 

Have You Found Your Path To Happiness?

What makes you happy? Can you sustain it or does it come and go beyond your power to control it?

Photo by hafizh armynazrie on Unsplash

Emily Esfahani Smith would have you know that finding meaning in life would be a better path to take than chasing happiness with a void on the inside of you.

Slow down and engage gear for some deep thinking as you reflect on what Emily has to share with words of gold in setting of silver concerning the Four Pillars of a Meaningful Life:

1. Belonging (receiving and showing love)

2. Purpose (making a contribution)

3. Transcendent (connected to a higher reality)

4. Story-telling (your personal narrative about you)

Click here for There's more to life than being happy | Emily Esfahani Smith.

 

Jazz Up Your Atmosphere

Music can work wonders to your atmosphere.

For some help to chill out while, say, reading a book or prodding to get on with your tasks at hand, you might find the following refreshing.

Click here for BRAIN POWER JAZZ & Bossa Nova - Relaxing Music For Concentration, Study & Work

If it is late at night and it is raining outside, or you just wanna to relax with a smile on your face while enjoying the pitter-patter of rain, the following clip will not disappoint you.

Click here for Relax Music: "Rain" (4 Hours of Relaxing Music - Chill Soft Jazz & Rain Sounds for Sleep and Study).

And, if you can't sleep, then the following slower offering might just be the snooze dosage for you.

Click here for Relaxing Rainy JAZZ - Amazing Cafe Piano & Saxophone Jazz Music for Studying, Sleep, Work.

Have a jazzy atmosphere. May your blues be chased away and you get to appreciate and smell the carnations of life.

Thank you for reading Daily Refreshing.

The Predecessors of Pokemon?

Pokemon - gotta catch them all.

That's easy. Try catching some of these sea slugs who are deadly attractive, literally, as they are well armed to fend-off predators and capable of transforming into predators themselves.

Photo by Kris Mikael Krister on Unsplash

Click here for Mucky Secrets - Part 18 - Sea Slugs inc. Nudibranchs - Lembeh Strait

Click here Meet Nudibranchs, The Best Looking Sea Slugs!

What is a spork?

As a first-mover, you get to make the name-call. 

Spork is now spot on although it could well have been forpoon or forkpoon.

Safeguard Your Quiet Time & Happiness

Are you driven to get so far ahead in life that you are playing catch-up with the real you on the inside? Learn to slow down and carve a niche-time for solitude and contemplation -- let your thoughts surface.

Photo by Joshua Earle on Unsplash

You might the find the following article written by Alan Lightman to be refreshing for your soul.

Click here for Go ahead, waste some time — it’s good for you. Here’s why.

"Our hyperconnected lifestyle, without downtime, threatens our “inner selves.”

My inner self is that part of me that imagines, that dreams, that explores, that is constantly questioning who I am and what is important to me.

My inner self is my true freedom.

My inner self roots me to me and to the ground beneath me. The sunlight and soil that nourish my inner self are solitude and personal reflection."

-- Alan Lightman

As you observed your quiet time, you could well find what makes you happy and go about doing it to make yourself happy.

"I think true happiness means understanding what makes you truly happy and to live for that purpose. From the perspective of outsiders, such happiness may seem trite or weird, but as long as one understand what makes one happy, and pursues it accordingly, that would be a wonderful life indeed." -- Sayaka Murata (Source: The Straits Times, 18 September 2018)

Reach Out In Your Struggle

There is no room for shame when you are struggling in life and in need of help. The main fight now is not to give up but to reach out and find help. 

You are not alone. What you are going through, someone somewhere else has likely gone through something similar, though not identical. 

Photo by Maarten van den Heuvel on Unsplash

The bottomline is that change is constant and your ordeal has its time and season, before it fades away. For example, you may be pulling an all-nighter just to meet tomorrow's deadline or down with chicken pox and quarantined.

There is help from Tim Denning in his article "My Message to Those Who Are Struggling" with the following nuggets:

1. Become More

2. Do More

3. Travel More

4. Be Happy With Now

5. Struggle Together

Click here for Tim Denning's "My Message To Those Who Are Struggling".

Your struggle will only make you stronger along the vein of 'what doesn't kill you will make you stronger'. It is a tough way to grow, but you are refined by it to be more tenacious and persevering a la building mental muscle, if you will. Consider it free training or workout, upon hindsight.

Daily Refreshing recommends that you invest some time to read a book such as literature, novel or biography so that you can identify yourself to the struggles of other people and see how they find the courage to go about solving their problems and/or achieving their goals. Yes, Chicken Soup For The Soul would be suitable, too.

Click here for must-read 10 Things Chicken Soup for the Soul Got Right by Brittany Burke.

Also, click here to relax with beautiful sights and sound of Coral Reef Aquarium & The Best Relax Music - 2 Hours - Sleep Music - HD 1080P.

Know How Privileged You Are

You would have heard it often enough on how good it is to be grateful and count your blessings.

Photo by Stefany Andrade on Unsplash

Another take of this is to: Know how privileged you are.

Being privilege means not taking things for granted. For examples, things such as:

1. Freedom (from war or imprisonment due to unfavourable circumstances).

2. Ability to use your 5 senses of sight, sound, taste, smell and touch.

3. Education or literacy.

4. Access to the internet.

5. Opportunity to earn an income.

6. Help from family, friends and community.

7. Healthcare whenever you need it.

8. Happy tummy.

Consider, happy tummy. Imagine that your descendants migrated from a country where once upon a time there was widespread famine and abject poverty. The people were so desperate that a lot of them chose to disperse overseas and brave the raging seas so as to reach distant shores to make a living. 

Fast forward today, when they meet one another, they do not say "How do you do?', but rather they ask, "Have you eaten?".

For your further reflections, you may find the following clips by Channel News Asia to be insightful.

Click here for Inside Singapore's Only Women's Prison | CNA Insider

Click here for The Hawker's Assistant | Singapore's Elderly Poor | CNA Insider

Click here for The Ice-cream Uncle | Singapore's Elderly Poor | CNA Insider  

Click here for Why The Danes Are Happy | Conversation With | CNA Insider

Do You Wanna Change Your Life In 2 Years Time?

It is already past the first-half of 2018 and you find that your life has not changed for the better notwithstanding your New Year resolutions and steely resolve to make a transformation.

Fret not, there is help from Tim Denning if you can spare 7 minutes of reading time to feed your mind and, thereafter, digest some of his ideas, mull over them and then take appropriate actions. 

His writing is engaging like a 1O1 conversation with the reader that is refreshing and energising. 

Indeed, there is a still glimmer of hope in the horizon for you to pursue the change you wanna see in your own life. 

Photo by Werner Sevenster on Unsplash

Click here for How To Dramatically Improve Your Life In 2 Years with the following summary pointers:

1. Do one crazy thing.

2. Prevent yourself from overthinking.

3. Look for quick wins.

4. Consume less. Invest in yourself.

5. Find a way to share your thoughts.

6. Build a diversified foundation of income.

7. Read some life-changing books.

8. Become really good at saying no.

9. Do the right thing no matter what.

10. Stop saying yes to dumb stuff.

How To Overcome Boredom

Idleness or boredom is the devil's workshop. When you are not down physically but still unhappy, there are things you can do to take charge of your life. The following are just a sampler:

1. Dream

   

Give yourself the freedom to write down your wildest dream. Make it as clear as possible until you can see it plainly like a picture. Put in all the details for your dream. Start with a sketch. Think of a fishbone chart. Draw the head, backbone and tail, and then line up the rest of the bones.

Your vision or dream in the eye of your heart will give you the motivation and courage to endure the valleys, knockdowns and detours before you reach the Las Vegas, Hawaii or Paris of your dream.

2. Smile

It takes less muscles to smile than to frown. Smile and keep the wrinkles away in your later years. Choose the positive over the negative, and the outcome on your mental wellbeing will be a world apart. 

Be thankful for the little things in life and you will be a happier person with a lot more reasons to smile. Stay on the positive side as you don't need to wait until you are reminded by someone who is always wearing a smile because he has 'lost' his mind.

3. Enjoy Life

Be content with your lot in life. There will always be people who have a better quality of life than you. On the other hand, there will also always be people who are much worse off than you.

Stop comparing and enjoy your current state of being. Take in a few deep breaths right here and now to pump in some fresh oxygen for your body and brain, and you will already be more uplifted.

4. Imagine 

Do some dreaming or visualisation while you are awake. If morning is too rush for you, then schedule for the evening before you hit the sack. Read your written dream and spend some time imagining living out your dream life -- how it feels, looks and sound like; where you will be and what you will be doing; how you will look like and what clothes you will be wearing; and what kind of people you will be hanging out with.

Feed your subconscious mind with the image of your future, and you will sustain the achievement of your goals.

5. Be Kind 

Being kind and doing good is a virtue as with having a good character. There is a difference between being good and being great. You can be a great person, but not a good person. Likewise, you can be a good person without being great. Greatness has to do with size or magnitude.

Choose to be good, primarily, rather than to be great but void of a good heart. That said, charity or kindness begins at home. Start by treating well the people who are in your immediate circle.

6.  Have Fun 

Life is serious. Our actions or inactions will have consequences. And, the choices we make may hold untold ramifications. The journey of life goes on unstoppable.

However, if we take ourselves too seriously, we may blow up whenever we make a mistake where even a molehill may appear like a mountain and a milk spill like an oil spill.

Also, take some time off from work and enjoy a Sabbath day of rest weekly. When you are working without rest, you will become dull and lacking in sharpness, alertness or cognitive skills -- "the core skills which your brain uses to think, read, learn, remember, reason, and pay attention". 

The worst time to do some thinking or work is when you are tired or lacking in sleep. Take a nap or get some sleep and you will find yourself in a much better shape mentally to enjoy life, thereafter.

That's a wrap for this article. Thank you for visiting Daily Refreshing.

Waterfall and Take It All

Let the songs "Waterfall" help you overcome depression and "Take It All" give you courage to deal with your imperfections.

Photo by Blake Cheek on Unsplash

But, first up, please meet the young songwriters on the inspiration behind their Waterfall and Take It All.

Click here for City Harvest Church: Emerge Songwriters’ Feature

Click here for Take It All - Chervelle Chua 

Note: Currently, "Waterfall" is not available on YouTube yet. Will be posting the link once it is made available in due course.

Brighten Up Your Day with Sculptures by Lee Sangsoo

Click here to visit OdeToArt and find out more about the artist, Lee Sangsoo.