Tick Tock!

How long do you stay in front of your computer these days? With the technology and the lifestyle that most of us have today would probably give us an average of 5 to 6 hours onward. Let's face it, the internet has largely become part of our system and without it even for a single day would leave us feeling incomplete. 

Today has been a beautiful warm day. It would have been a fine day to go out to the park, go to the mall, go out for a swim, or simply hang out with friends and loved ones some place. Yet, I found myself stuck in the four corners of my room trapped in some sort of a trance in my own cyber world this modern era has created. At times I get too engrossed with checking updates from one social networking site to another or read on some amazing materials which often ends up forgetting other things and skipping my meals. I didn't plan on postponing some errands today for instance, but I unfortunately did. Truly, computers have become a primary source of modern procrastination nowadays. Moreover, we may not be aware but the internet is somewhat eating our social life as well. Notice that for as long as we have our laptops and ipads  wherever we are, we don't really bother to talk to the people around us anymore. We simply choose to ignore them and isolate ourselves in one corner.  Soon enough, we find ourselves absorbed into this cosmic realm again. It has decreased our ability to socialize, communicate, and deal with others. The longer hours spent on the computer, the lesser time we have left to interact with other live people physically. I bet some would probably prefer to break up with their partners in the comfort of their cyber lives through chat or private messages instead of talking to each other personally and deal with the awkwardness and all. 

The internet has so much to offer to everyone. I can even stay at long stretches of the day from morning till night in front of my computer just surfing the net and streaming videos. There are a lot of things out there that we can learn from and things that we absolutely know nothing about but would still spike up our interests. But then again, too much of it is not going to do us any good. It could make us or break us. There are other things that are important and worth our time. We have families, friends, our careers, and even pets that we should also spend some time with. We don't want to end up one day only to realize that days or even a week has passed right after you have finally figured out what your facebook status would be, do we? Tick tock, life is too short and we do not want to just let it slip away so fast. May we all learn to manage time between our cyber world and the real world before we get to the end of the rope and miss life itself!

Rx Laughter

Laughter has always been considered as the best medicine. Clearly, everybody needs a good laugh from time to time. We need to laugh our hearts out in order to veer away from the routinary and phlegmatic ways of living. Unfortunately, with all the problems bombarding us in our daily lives, we sometimes find it improbable to crack one hearty laugh at life. 

 

I personally admire people who see humor in unlikely things and in very inconvenient situations. Take for example bumping into an acquaintance during a party who was apparently wearing the same dress that you were wearing. Other people would become uncomfortable, ashamed, and even feel bad about it, while some would find it funny in a peculiar way and would just laugh it out. Studies show that learning or being able to laugh at difficult circumstances like this would not only send positive vibes to one’s body, but would also improve the immune system, increase pain tolerance, reduce the risk of heart diseases, and a lot more. One concrete proof on this matter is a study conducted by researchers at the University of Texas on people with ages 65 years and older who were monitored for six years. They found out that subjects who scored high on their ha­­­ppiness questionnaire had a significantly lower risk of stroke compared to their counterparts who scored poorly. This study somewhat suggests that the happier and the more often a person laughs, the healthier he or she becomes. With several studies conducted in this field, laughter has been proven to provide wonders to our well being either psychologically, emotionally, and spiritually. 

 

With this in mind, may we also take time to laugh at ourselves with the silly things that we do, or with the petty things that may happen us. Let us allow ourselves to laugh as much as we can, until our tears would come rolling down our cheeks coz when we do, then, we would also be healing wounds from within.

Happiness is a choice...

The happiest people in the world do not always have the best of everything. They are the people who make the best out of everything that they have. Life indeed is a constant struggle. There are times that we triumph amidst adversities while at times we may sulk in defeat. Sometimes we feel like we are on a pedestal, while there are also times when we are in deep shit. These are some things that may happen to anyone of us which may leave us feeling helpless of the situation. Oftentimes, we forget that we actually have the ability to disallow these unwanted circumstances to rob us of the happiness that we may experience in our short-lived lives.

I dare say happiness is truly a choice and that we can choose to be happy if we really want to. In psychology, I’ve learned that the way we perceive something can greatly affect the way we feel towards it. Therefore, we can control our emotions by changing the way we think towards a certain object, person, place, or event. Taking a negative experience for example as a blessing in disguise can turn a negative situation into a positive light. Human as we are, we also unknowingly engage ourselves in social downward comparison with others. This is simply comparing ourselves to somebody who is less fortunate than us. It may be in terms of beauty, intelligence, or socio-economic status. Through this, it maximizes the positive aspects in our lives by maximizing the negative things in others and thus, making us to feel good about ourselves. Moreover, contentment is another key to being happy. Being contented with what we have can help us become more appreciative with the things that we already have. Discontentment would only lead us to a continuous hunger and thirst for something which would only rip our chance of being truly happy in life. Being happy is largely our decision. It may sound that easy, but sometimes it’s not. I guess it takes time to practice looking at undesirable things in a different angle. At times when I feel really down, I pull up my checklist to bring me back to my senses and to remind me that there is something that I can do to maintain a positive affect despite unfortunate events. After all, we can’t just be sad all the time. Let us keep in mind that our happiness mainly depends on us...

  

The Man Who Cried Wolf?

A 6.9 magnitude earthquake hit Cebu this afternoon. I was sound asleep when my mother woke me up terrified about the ongoing shuddering of the earth's crust. Half awake, I managed to stand up and a bit terrified myself of whats happening. We found ourselves hugging and standing right to each other that very moment at the door instead of running outside the house for precaution of possible falling debris. We stood there barely moving until the earthquake stopped. I would have grabbed her and ran out of the house if only I were in a sound mind, but I was  guilty of paranoia myself which I evidently got from her. Soon enough,  my brother arrived since they were sent home from school, then my boyfriend, and then my father came home as well. The next thing we know, we found ourselves watching a whole lot of panic stricken people running on the streets as if trying to get away from something. It pretty looked like a scene from some movie like "2012". Then we heard people saying that there is a tsunami on its way and that the water level in the South Road Project has risen above sea level. People were shouting, and some were already carrying their belongings trying to move out to some higher grounds. Seeing this, my mother went paranoid again. She was really afraid and insisted that we should also leave. However, my father thinks otherwise. He decided to go to SRP himself to find out if any of this was true. Thank god, he got home safe with a positive news that it was nothing and that it was in fact low tide. The experts then confirmed that a tsunami would not be possible and there is nothing to worry about. Some people just spread false alarms out of their idiosyncrasies and scare the hell out of everybody. My mother calmed down but there was still one member of the household who wasn't home yet -- my sister! She stayed at TGU tower since it was the highest place she could be with that tsunami scare and was worried because a whole lot of different stories has reached her. She called a few minutes later after the network clogs has cleared, telling us to evacuate our home because the streets are flooded which apparently brought us to a bunch of laughter. Yes, we got scared but after everything that happened, we just have to laugh about it and thank the lord for keeping us safe and that after all, it was not real.      

Save Up

I have been in the BPO industry for almost 4 years now. I started working right after I graduated from college and has been quite attuned with this nocturnal lifestyle associated with the career path I've chosen. I get to buy what I want and pamper myself with the highly competitive salary I am getting from this line of business. However, when I looked back from the very first day I started working, it just dawned on me that I haven't even bothered to save money for myself, and for my future. I'm guilty of  living a life as if there is no tomorrow and spent every money I had to the last centavo. Ironically, I sometimes find myself financially broke compared to someone I know who is earning  relatively lower than I do.

It just hit me one day how uncertain my future can be which motivated me to start saving. I started to note down all my expenses on a daily basis for me to check as to where my money goes and then forced myself to learn how to spend not more than what I am earning. Fortunately, I happened to have a friend who also helped me and taught me about BPI Save up which is very helpful. I have setup an automatic deduction from my salary and it goes straight to my BPI save up account without even noticing it. In this way I get to pay myself first before others. Believe me, with this kind of system, you'll be surprised to see your money grow each month without you knowing it. I know it's tough, but with a strong determination to save up for my future I know I can, and we all can make it and become successful one day.

Responsibility

I just got home from work and my body is aching at 3 o’clock in the morning. My feet are sore, my back hurts, my head is heavy, and I’m totally exhausted. I feel like all the energy has drained out of me. Officially, this is my third week of working as a Subject Matter Expert otherwise known as — SME after I got promoted. I didn’t realize how big the responsibility that’s associated with the said position then. I started working at 6 pm that night and was the only SME available for the entire stretch of my shift. I was literally running back and forth from one agent to another answering questions from here and there, and taking escalated calls from irate and upset customers. It was totally not what I’ve expected.

Taking responsibility over things is something I’m not that very good at. I’ve always been a follower and not a leader by choice. I prefer to stay in the background most of the time and get as little attention as I can. But things changed when I accepted the challenge of becoming one of TP Cebu’s SME. I had to take control and direct them on what to do. I take responsibility of providing them with the right resolution to their calls and believe me, it ain’t easy! I only took calls for roughly 3 months and there are quite a lot of things that I know nothing about. Yet I have to pose myself as someone who knows exactly what she is doing when in fact I don’t. However since I already took the position, I guess there’s no turning back at this point. I made it this far already and I’m pretty sure I’m gonna make it till the end.