Recognise and show appreciation

I have been consciously appreciating my team in each of the staff mtg via a PowerPoint and verbally in a group.

However today, I’ve realised that it didn’t mean much to my team members and many of them had already forgotten about it.

Saying Thank You and Kudos is easy but it doesn’t give the recipient much of an impact, and they tend to forget as it’s not heartfelt.

Today I learned an excellent way of showing my recognition and appreciation.

Look the person in his eye, speak straight from your heart and mean it, …. and the impact was HUGE!

I ended up tearing and sobbing. as it was soooo touching when words were spoken and the recognition and appreciation I gave was straight from my heart.

When my team members recognised and appreciated me, I also became emotional and cried. They were touching tears.

This will be a recognition session that I will always remember and I will forever remember what my team members said to me.

I’m grateful and glad that I had the opportunity to practise this.

Life is unpredictable

A happy smile, a huge guffaw

A single news, a dropping heart

Life is so unpredictable

Things can change so suddenly

From a happy moment into a total loss of words and idea, and vice versa

People can make a forecast, but nobody owns a crystal ball that tells the future accurately

Sudden news can be happy or utterly shocking

As life is unpredictable

Make the best out of your moments in life, be it with your family, at work, or even doing chores

Sometimes you’ll look back and long for that simple moment you took for granted

But it may no longer be there for grasp.

Calmness is found within

Amidst the hustle and bustle of the busy world

Amidst the pressure and stress surrounding us

Amidst the hectic routine and all the must-do items on our list

Step back for a moment and take a deep breath

The core to handling all these is to be calm

When you are calm, you are steady. Your mind is not a whirlpool

You can think clearly, you can see things clearer and you can handle it all

Our human mind is powerful. It controls our actions and emotions

Only if we can control it, then we can find calmness in within us.

Whenever you are feeling agitated and uneasy … pause, stop what you are doing, take a deep breath, close your eyes and think of something that makes you happy, clear your mind and find peace and … calmness will surface

When you find calmness, you can handle the world!

Have a wonderful weekend!

Beautiful nature soothes our mind and soul

To get vaccinated or not to get vaccinated?

This has been a question I’ve been pondering in my mind.

In addition to that, to get vaccinated with Pfizer OR Astra Zeneca OR Sinovac OR …..?

I did a lot of analysis and research to help answer the questions I had as I wanted to make sure I was making a very conscious decision on this.

Here are my findings.

Note: These are purely my own opinions. It’s just information that I’ve gathered, but ultimately everybody needs to make their own decisions. There is no single right decision. It depends on individual perspectives and situations.

1. Covid cases are on the rise in many countries and in the place I live in. Following the mainstream path, it may take a very long while before I get the opportunity of getting a vaccine. The longer I’m unvaccinated, the more risk I bring to myself and to people around me.
2. Globally, there is a shortage of vaccine. In some countries where Covid cases are spiking, their citizens are anxiously trying to get a vaccine, but unable to. This may also happen in the country I live in. Is it worthwhile waiting for such a drastic situation when I have an option to be vaccinated earlier?
3. Are you at risk of Covid? Do you need the vaccine? What if you continue to stay at home?
   • Well, as long as you still go out and buy essentials or pickup delivery, you will always be at risk, be it a very minor risk. The bigger question is, apart from risking yourself, are you also risking your family and loved ones? That is the question I ask myself.
4. Pfizer vs Astra Zeneca vs Sinovac vs other vaccines?
   • To be honest, I would love to take Pfizer since that is largely being taken, but in the place I live in, I will probably get to choose Astra Zeneca or be given Sinovac in the near future.
   • I did a comparison of all of these vaccines. They are very comparable in terms of efficacy and side effects.
   • For me, I then looked at the method of how the vaccine works. I personally don’t like the idea of the virus being injected into my body (be it inactive, dormant, dead, whatever you call it) and prefer the methods of the strand or a simulation of the virus instead.
5. Astra Zeneca has the additional risk of blood clot at a statistic of 4 cases in 1,000,000 vaccine. I have to say this does scare me as other vaccines doesn’t seem to have this called out. But after going thru more data and analysing it, the risk is really low. Even if I go for an operation or deliver a baby, the risk may be even higher. Hence, I read thru as many materials as I could, including facts shared by doctors and such, and the conclusion I have is that, the gain is certainly a lot higher than the risk. And imagine if (touch wood), I contracted Covid, the negative effect and risk would be way way more than this.

Alright! This is the analysis I came up with. Once again, this is purely my own opinion. I am not a doctor nor a medical person. I am a very normal citizen who just wants to do what is best for myself and I find that the best I can do is to read, understand and then make my decision. I hope my article can give you a little bit of idea on what to think of when you are making your decision. God bless everybody!

Social media – yay or nay?

**Fiction**

A dream, a dream, it was just a dream! That was what Monica thought when she woke up abruptly. She was having a beautiful dream of her ex-boyfriend and it had all seemed so real. The feelings she has had back then, the feel of his palm, his scent, it was as if she was right there all over again.

Monica looked out the window. She saw birds standing at her window sill, chirping away and the rays of sunlight shining in thru her window. She wondered whether she could go back to her dream if she were to close her eyes, and did that for a few seconds. After a moment, she opened her eyes and decided, oh well, morning has come, and she’d better get back to reality.

She walked in to her kitchen and started preparing breakfast. She put the ham into the pan to make sandwiches and started brewing coffee. Hmmm…. the sweet aroma of coffee filled her kitchen. She felt so satisfied and contented. That’s how she likes to start the day.

Today is a Saturday. It’s been a really long week of working during the day and also attending meetings throughout the night. Finally, the much awaited weekend is here.

She heard a beep on her iPad. She saw posts of her friends with their breakfast at fancy cafes, selfies of themselves in trendy clothes, pics of couples staring into each other eyes. “Not again!”, she thought.

She walked into her bedroom, put on a pretty blouse, powdered her face, put on some light makeup and lip gloss, gave herself a smile in the mirror and said to herself “Hi, lovely!” muacks… Then she walked into the kitchen, poured a cup of coffee into a stylish mug and brought it into the bar area. She looked at the beautiful painting that would serve as her backdrop. “Ah-ha, I knew it would be useful! “, she thought to herself.

She arranged her breakfast and her vase with flowers on the bar, setup her iPhone on the tripod, at an angle to her bar. Alright, nearly ready! She then walked to the bar, positioned herself at a 45 degree angle away from the camera lens, with her mug in her hand, sipping the coffee, with her eyes closed and looking contented, turned on her iPhone camera button, and click, click, click, she took a couple of selfies of herself. She reviewed the photos…ahhh, perfect!

She uploaded the photos into Facebook. Within seconds, comments started coming in.

“Where is this cafe?”

“Wow, you are looking great!”

“The food looks yummy!”

“What coffee is that? It looks good!”

“Enjoying life there, huh!”

Done! Monica felt satisfied. How easy it was to use the internet and create stories just with a few photos!

Author’s thought:

Social media is amazing. Within minutes and seconds, posts gets seen and shared to your friends and even people whom you may not know. However, there are folks who leverage social media to gain popularity and to make people envious of them. On the flip side, it makes people feel inferior, feels as if something is lacking in their lives, feels as if their life is just not perfect enough when everybody else is. Always remember, what you see in social media may not be the actual. Your life may already be perfect in its own way. It’s better to appreciate and see the goodness of what you have than to long for what is in your neighbour’s yard.