The Art of Healthy Living (1)

The Art of Healthy Living (1)

Use it or lose it. Sounds familiar ? 60% of adult don't get enough exercise. Yet no one is too old or too out-of-shape to benefit from regular exercise. And it is not as hard to get started. The first is simple : try walking !

It is easy, cheap and safe. And a brisk walk burns as many calories as running!

Take the stairs instead of the elevator.

Go for a quick walk on your lunch hour or coffee break.

Walk part of the way to work.

For part of each session, push yourself til you are breathing hard.

As little as three 10-minute periods of moderate activity each day can make a big difference!

It is an established fact that compared to other diseases, the incidence of hear diseases is 3 times higher in case of people who live a sedentary life. The incidence of heart diseases is noticed to be most nil in case of those who exercise regularly or who are engaged in manual jobs.

I will exercise at least 3 times a week. Every Wednesday evening I will practise Qi Gong for 1 hour and 15 minutes. Every Thursday I will play badminton from 7pm to 10pm. During weekend, I will go for 5km run and sometimes swim at my place if the weather is good.

Your health (and future) is in your hands.

Story of Help Smart

Story of Help Smart



There was an old farmer leaving with a wife and 3 sons. He is quite rich at the time because he has 17 cows. One day he told his wife : If I died, you are to give our eldest son 1/2 of the 17 cows, the second son 1/3 of the 17 cows and the youngest son 1/9 of the 17 cows, with killing the cows. The wife does not know how to divide them according to what her husband wanted.



One day, the old farmer died, the widow was totally lost. Fortunately, she knew of a volunteer who leaves in the village. This volunteer has been helping people for many years. When she approached the volunteer, he to told her : That is easy, I have a cow with me, take my cow with you, your problem will be solved. The eldest son gets 1/2 of 18 cows, that is 9 cows. Your second son get 1/3 of 18 cows, that is 6 cows. And the youngest son get 1/9 of 18 cows, that is 2 cows. The widow also did not know that after adding 9 cows, 6 cows and 2 cows, the total is 17 cows. So she has an extra cow and decided to return it to the volunteer.



Everybody was so happy, not longer after the volunteer got back her cows, the cow that belong to the volunteer gave birth to 2 calfs.



The moral of the story is that we can be helping people, but with limited resources, we must also learn to Help Smart like the volunteer. In this case, he gave one cow to help solve a problem. In return, he get back 3 cows, how nice.

Vocation with a Cause - My First Trip to Cambodia

Voation with a Cause - My First Trip to Cambodia

As per what I have said earlier in my blog, I try to travel to a country each year where I have not been to before. Each place I go, whether it is for the first time or not, there will be new insight and new lesson to be learnt to share.

I was in Cambodia from 9 to 13 Jul 2008, with my wife and 14 other of my volunteer friends. I called it the vocation with a cause because it is also an overseas service project cum holiday. This is my first trip there and I hope to go back there again. We were there to build a new classroom for a school, give away cloths, shorts, bags, stationary, tip-bits to 2 ophanages and tour Angkor Wat, Bayon and some other historical sights.

Introduction

We booked our own air-tickets through internet with Silkair as early as April 2008. Each air-ticket is about S$320. Some booked in May 2008 only pay about S$280. We know a local tour guide in Cambodia, he book the hotel for us and got us a 20-seater mini-bus. The charges for the whole package is S$458 per head for twin sharing, inclusive of 4 nights stay at 5-star hotel, tour at Angkor Wat & Bayon, city tour, USD20 entrance fee to Angkor Wat and all meals. I should say what we paid is very reasonable.

As for our service projects, we brought with us about 400 kg of things for the children and adults of Cambodia. At Singapore check-in counter, we supposed to pay for excess baggage but Silkair was very kind to waive it because we said we are bringing the old clothes for the poor in Cambodia. We managed to raise USD4,200 to build one classroom in Cambodia.

(to be continued)

The Ten Commandments of Success

The Ten Commandments of Success

1. Speak to people : There is nothing as a cheerful greeting

2. Smile : It takes 72 muscles to frown - only 14 to smile ...

3. Call people by name : Everyone is pleased when you remember their name.

4. Be friendly and helpful : And others will respond in like manner.

5. Speak and act as if everything you do were a genuine pleasure ....

6. Be genuinely interested in people ..........

7. Be generous with praise - cautious with criticism .........

8. Be considerate with the feelings of others, it will be appreciated .....

9. Be thoughtful of the opinion of others, there are 3 sides to any controversy - yours, the other persons and the right one ?

10. Be willing to give service, what counts most in life is what we do for others ..

Happiness Lies in No Anger

Happiness Lies in No Anger

Everybody seeks happiness, and the whole manking seeks world peace. But, because of the anger prevalent in all sentient beings, few people feel true happiness, and world peace seems an impossible mission.

Anger has the most destructive power among all negative emotions. Anger will afflict and weaken one's body and mind. On a larger scale, anger will harm or even destroy the world. Anger arises when one feels that something or someone is against his or her wish. Driven by anger, one will become aggressive, irritated, annoyed, etc. It is where conflict, dispute, disharmony, fighting, even killing or war will thus ensue.

How to deal with anger ?

We need to train ourselves over long periods of time to cease our anger. Try taking a long inhalation, go jogging, running, swimming or some other sports. You can also do yoga, qigong or other workouts to release tension and calm down the outburst of angry fire.

Finally.....

The benefit of no anger is countless. A lot has to do with the mind if you think carefully. If the mind is purified, we will be purified, then how to has anger ?

Sharing on my Batam Trip

Sharing on my Batam Trip

Was in Batam on 24 and 25 May 08. I truely believed every new place we visit, there must be something that one can bring back. I meant lesson we can learnt and not the things we buy and bring home.

Batam Island is only about an hour away from Singapore by ferry. We stayed at KTM Resort while we were there. In our group, altogether there are 38 people ranging from child to senior citizen. The trip cost me S$150 for twin sharing room. The exchange rate of rupiah (Rp) is S$1 to 6,800 rupiahs. We can called ourselves "millionaire" when we are there.

KTM Resort is just next to the sea. The restaurant at the resort was built above the sea. There is a huge goddess of mercy at the resort too. There is also a small temple near the Goddess of Mercy, in it is the Monkey God. The owner of the resort should be a Buddhist or taoist.

The cost of living in Batam is quite low as compared to Singapore. Our tour guide told us the people there earn about S$300 a month. Over in Singapore, a cleaner earns about S$800 a month. But the things there are much cheaper than Singapore.

We stopped at a shopping centre after visiting a temple, bridge and some local performances. At the shopping centre, my wife and I went to a small eating house to have coffee. To my surprised, I noticed the fried rice there is so cheap compared to ours here in Singapore. For just Rp 6,363, I can buy a plate of fried rice plus a bottle of Frestea ! That is less than a Singapore dollar. In Singapore, a plate of fried rice alone will cost us S$3 - S$3.50. Fried rice is one of my favourite food, if not because of I have just have a sumptous lunch and it is also near to dinner time, I would have ordered the fried rice there to try its taste.

I can feel that the people there are generally contented. The first place that we were taken to is a suspended bridge. Beyond this bridge is supposed to be where the Vietnam refugees used to live. At the bridge, a lot of hawkers were selling prawns and crabs. The size of these prawns and crabs is big. The hawker is friendly as you can see from the photo. Among us, only one guy bought a crab.

One of the main entertainment there is massage. More than half from our group went for the massage or spa. For just S$20, you can relax for 90 minutes and enjoy the massage by the local. Spa will cost you S$30.

Finally, the lesson I bring back from Batam is we should appreciate what we have and be thankful for what we have now. There are a lot of people out there who are not as fortunate as us. Why I said that ? During my trip in Batam Island, we saw a lot of shelters or "temperary houses" next to the road. Our tour guide told us they are all not legal. Any time the governtment need the place or land, these people will have to make way for development. The shelters do not have address and there are plenty in Batam, to them, it is their home.

Life is Full of Problems

Life is Full of Problems

Life is full of problems, there is no need to pretend one does not has any problem. Most of those stresses and failures are reliving old hurts or worrying about future concerns.

Gail Blanke runs a executive coaching firm. She helps executives see problems with new eyes. Her mother once called her to share the tragic news that her older brother, Jay, a pilot, had perished in an accident. She still remembered her mother told her that day : "Gail, we will never lose him." Today, she uses defining moments in her work.

A colleague once said this : You are lucky that there are a lot of problems within the organisation. If there is no problem, the organisation will not need you. A lot also depend how you look at problems. Life is full of problems, who does not has ?