Extend your Empathy and Prayers: Offer an ARK

In times of crisis, the strong need to survive is your top priority. Who wouldn’t be concerned, after all, it’s your life that is at stake? But what if you’re just an audience to somebody else’s crisis? What if you’re not in the middle of it? Big relief. I’m sure you’d be thankful that you’re far from it, at least for now. But would you care to extend your sympathy to those who were deeply affected by the crisis?

I hope you would.

For the past 3-5 days, a month-worth of rains poured all over Luzon, particularly the National Capital Regions. Not only that local media covered the damage this typhoon brought in the country but international media like CNN and BBC made their great efforts to reach out to people through their international correspondents (AP, Reuters etc). After President Corazon Aquino’s death and burial, the country literally hit front page again, this time with Tropical Storm Ketsana’s aftermath.

Being in the middle of calamity is no joke at all. You’d feel the adrenaline rush, the unwavering pain and need to live. And good hearted people feel the same way even though they’re not in the scene with you. They know how you feel, they feel your pain, your effort, your dilemma. They feel you. We feel you. And when situations like flash floods, earthquake, wars and terrorism hit a country and created turmoil to each citizens, the whole world react in pain, in agony.

It is but natural for humans to empathize with any sad events they’ve witnessed. At times, many are even carried away with their sympathy that they extend greater effort to reach out to those people who were affected with any unfortunate situations. That’s why we have mobilization groups handling gifts in kinds, gifts of mercy to people. And aren’t we thankful for their efforts? Sure we are!

Is it a different story if you can’t contribute any gifts in kind? Nope, there ain’t no difference at all if you will extend your mercy, your empathy and share your concerns to those victims. There are among us who share our best prayers. We are mindful for those people who are grieving because they’re stuck with the situation. We are mindful of their current situation even though we can’t give anything for now. We have the hope that at least, through our concerns and prayers, we let them know that we remember them. It's an ARK, it's my ark.

But when you expressed unacceptable feelings toward these people, the vulnerable sector, the whole world will fire back at you. So yes, everybody’s entitled to their own opinions, it’s a free country anyway. But not all opinions are worth sharing for especially if these aren’t helpful. And if you have nothing to say, why not claim a minute or two of your time, try to pray and empathize first with yourself. By doing so, perhaps you would learn how to extend the prayers and empathy to others who are needy as well. Remember, there is a time for everything and now isn’t the best time for recklessness. Offer an ARK, it wouldn't hurt you a bit. Trust me.

photo courtesy of comps photosearch dot com.

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“We don't read and write poetry because it's cute. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race. And the human race is filled with passion.And medicine, law, business, engineering - these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love - these are what we stay alive for.”-DPS from Robin Williams.

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Day and Shifting Paradigm 29th Post

Welcome to the September 28, 2009 edition of day shifting and paradigm.
personal development

On Personal Development, Carol Brown presents 100 Inspirational Blog Posts for Leaders & Managers posted at Career Overview.

nissim ziv presents Career Goals: Examples of Career Goals and Objectives posted at Job Interview Guide, saying, "It is only when a person has a clear thought about this/her career objectives that they get ultimate satisfaction from their jobs and therefore progress faster."
personal success

Tims C presents My first goal: Wake up early 5am for 30 days :)zZ posted at My Goals in Real Time, saying, "Blog Following Tim in real time making progress towards his goals."

On Positive Thought, Lisa Illichmann presents Lisa Illichmann » The Fog posted at Lisa Illichmann, saying, "Me alone in my car driving through a bank of fog."

That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of day shifting and paradigm using our carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page. I’ll also post the qualified submitted articles after these submissions Again, thank you so much for those who submitted their entries in this edition. I'm looking forward to another edition with your submissions!

Technorati tags: day shifting and paradigm, blog carnival.

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“We don't read and write poetry because it's cute. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race. And the human race is filled with passion.And medicine, law, business, engineering - these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love - these are what we stay alive for.”-DPS from Robin Williams.

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Awkward Moments Unlimited

Have you experienced being caught up in an awkward situation because you lost control of yourself? Truth is that when a burst of emotion occurred, there’d always an awkward moment if that emotion remained uncontrolled. What’s embarrassing is that when the situation led to a more serious event (so called domino effect). Oh I bet you wouldn’t dare recall such incident and just pretend it was just a very bad dream.

Some people get to laugh at their funny moments and get passed those situations easily. Most people get their chance to feel embarrassment in many ways and the only difference is that these people wouldn’t let their lives revolve around their clumsiness or embarrassment. These people learn how to stood up and learned from their mistakes. They learn how to take chance on their clumsiness and use their weaknesses for their advantages. How?

Imagine yourself living within your limitations. Wouldn’t you explore your skills and talents to get passed your limitations and try new avenues of success? I’m sure you would. So if others remember you for those awkward moments, why not erase awful to successful moments? I’ve had my perfect awkward moments too and out of these I’ve developed this cheat sheet for you:

• Think before you speak – when words mixed in the airspace, you can no longer retrieve them. So if you’re angry at someone, give time and space and get back to that someone when you’re ready to accept your personal errors and ready to say sorry regardless if it’s your fault or not.

• Use the power of silence – when someone engaged you in heated argument, pretend to be a mute person to prevent your tongue from arguing back to insensibility. Remember, two angry people would never agree on something so why waste your energy negotiating with that person? If you have nothing good to say, maintain the solitude of your tongue. Believe me, it can save you time, energy and relationships.

• Get off that keyboard – when someone sent you nasty emails or annoying messages, never click the reply button immediately. Forget courtesy in this regard, your response can wait at a latter time. What you need to do is stand up and have a break. This holds true to sending SMS.

• Never bring the sleeping person to life – if you’re angry at someone and that person is sleeping, wait for him/her to wake up and gain his/her composure. Never wake that person up just for you to tell him/her upfront how upset you are. Believe me, you wouldn’t be pleased to hear the words from that newly awakened person.

• Forgive right after – if you’ve been to a heated argument with a friend or someone and you weren’t able to control your emotion, be ready to apologize and ask for forgiveness from that person and from yourself. Nothing is more rewarding than maintaining confidence in yourself that you can improve your behavior moving forward.

These aren’t justification that you can misbehave in any possible way, no. Remember, losing composure in a difficult situation may destroy your reputation if you can’t redeem yourself for repeated mistakes. Sometimes, there are unpopular decisions you need to do depending on the situation and others may never understand your reasons. And while we always have rooms for improvement, this isn’t an excuse at all to fall short on being a good and a considerate person for others. Lastly, be ready for the consequences of your behavior as this will help you redeem yourself in the long run.

And oh, I forgot the key to an awkward-free moment: never try misbehaving, at all.

image courtesy of FuzzyFace Files

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“We don't read and write poetry because it's cute. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race. And the human race is filled with passion.And medicine, law, business, engineering - these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love - these are what we stay alive for.”-DPS from Robin Williams.

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When Sleep is Elusive

I’ve probably counted all the stars that my eyes could see. Yet this wandering mind of mine can’t seem to say goodbye from the day. I’m still wide awake and uncomfortably annoyed for all my efforts to sleep were all in vain. And in the middle of all my self-whining, I am panicking myself for my day’s reserved for another set of activities. Sigh.

Situations like these are always challenging. Not a novelty so to speak yet the dilemma is just the same: how to sleep? To invite my smoky eyes to sleep, I've finished watching Serendipity for the first two hours of my non-sleeping mood. I’ve read 18 pages of the new novel I bought in Cebu entitled Thousands Splendid Sun (by Khaled Hosseini) right after. A single toast of red wine helped a bit. And when I felt that my eyes are really tired, I played my mellow and romantic list of songs and sang the lyrics of every song I listened to.

How else could you spend a sleepless night but to mesmerize and relate with all the romantic songs you hear all night long? I know that it’s not a good idea to listen to sad songs when you’re alone, more so, if you’re keeping some sadness within. But I’ve got to try and invite myself drown through the notes. Feeling that all songs are written for me, my mind starts to wander years ago and reminisce good times with the people who brought about good recollections of memories for me.

Well, it isn’t that hard to remember. After all, I have all the time tonight while music plays at its best for me. And there I saw the smiles, the chuckles and the tears…all of which are vividly portrayed in my late night perspective. And while Mikaila sings my favorite song, I can’t help but to sigh and quietly feel every word embedded in the really sad but powerful song “Art of Letting Go.” I then realized that tonight’s sleepless moment is all about letting go-- of some tangible but lost opportunities, of sorting things out from plain to complicated, of unspoken opportunities, of lost pieces of the puzzles, on unrequited moments and of vague hopes to black and white—all of which are captivated in the elusive truths of a sleepless night.

Goodnight world, finally.

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“We don't read and write poetry because it's cute. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race. And the human race is filled with passion.And medicine, law, business, engineering - these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love - these are what we stay alive for.”-DPS from Robin Williams.

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Day and Shifting Paradigm 28th Post

Welcome to the September 15, 2009 edition of day shifting and paradigm.

Erin Pavlina presents Transformations posted at Erin Pavlina's Blog, saying, "I spent the last week in Bermuda hanging out with members from the Transformational Leadership Council (TLC), which is a group of thought leaders and personal development speakers who gather together twice a year to support each other. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but what happened there has completely transformed me."

Brain Blogger presents The Psychology of Minority Students posted at Brain Blogger, saying, "A major public policy concern is the well known fact that many minority students under-achieve scholastically. The roots of the discrepancy in performance of some minorities and their white counterparts has been attributed to many causes, such as socioeconomic disparities and poor school systems in minority communities."

Eldon Sarte presents This is My Night Job posted at Wordpreneur.com, saying, "Writing is everything. Or is it? Sometimes, even with the best laid plans, it needs to take second place. Temporarily at least."

Lena presents 23 Pictures to Help You Through the Day posted at The Colors Magazine.

Elisha Webster Emerson presents Ever Widening Rings posted at My Inconvenient Body, saying, "A meditation on the circles we make with our lives--for better and for worse."

Broderick Durisseau presents Prioritizing Values Exercise posted at Personal Growth From the Bottom Up.

On Self Improvement, Karl Raats presents 5 ways of dealing with your inner critic posted at Pinching the Ostrich, saying, "You"

GreatManagement presents Is total control the no 1 must have quality for great leadership? posted at Great Management, saying, "very person with an opinion on leadership will dispute the number one quality for leadership as discussed in this article (and my previous articles).

OPTED Magazine presents How to maximize your day with only 24 hours posted at OPTED Magazine.

Vincent presents Don’t Create Your Vision Board Until You Read This posted at Hit Your Goals, saying, "Learn how to create a vision board. A great success tool that everyone should use."

That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of day shifting and paradigm using our carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page. I’ll also post the qualified submitted articles after these submissions Again, thank you so much for those who submitted their entries in this edition. I'm looking forward to another edition with your submissions!

Technorati tags: day shifting and paradigm, blog carnival.

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“We don't read and write poetry because it's cute. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race. And the human race is filled with passion.And medicine, law, business, engineering - these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love - these are what we stay alive for.”-DPS from Robin Williams.

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When you turned your Back on

Three cups of latte and I felt good all night long. Instead of wine and whine, I managed to spend few bucks comforting myself with the cheats of the day – few carbs, calories from the sweets etc. I dare not to count how much I’ve gained for the night. It’s a cheat day for me anyway so I perfectly said “ok.”

I am just reacting, what else can I do? This is better than other segues you know. I usually don’t react easily and I know myself well that I am too passive most of the time. But there are certain events that trigger my reactive mood, missing the point is one and rejection is another thing for another level.

When I can’t seem to understand a thing or two, I ask “why.” For one, I’d like to know why you’re avoiding me without any valid reason. I’d like to know why you suddenly won’t talk to me. I’d like to know why you offered hopes and break them instantly. I’d like to know why. These are few but common questions every woman has in their minds when they’re left understanding the many “why’s” but aren’t given concrete reasons. I am but one of these women and these are the very questions I’ve had. I think I’ve kept them instill for full 72 hours until I finally gave up my reasoning.

My reactions were subtle and graceful, that I can still recall. And while I can’t help but to show my bitchy reactions for such paranoia, I tried understanding you as always, regardless if you’d talk to me again or not. So when the heavens poured out its morning monsoon that very day, I fixed my things, gather my lost confidence in you and breathe heavily on my way out. I finally saw you facing that clear glass window and your back on me.

It was the quietest goodbye we’ve had, no tears, no words, no glances. I hope you all well, no remorse, just pure betterment for the path you’ve chosen. You were right at one point, that goodbyes mark new beginnings in our lives. I wonder where you’re heading to but I hope that you won’t regret the time you turned your back on me because if you do, then I wouldn’t pick for you another tray of hope as before.

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“We don't read and write poetry because it's cute. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race. And the human race is filled with passion.And medicine, law, business, engineering - these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love - these are what we stay alive for.”-DPS from Robin Williams.

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A Game that’s Not Yours

How far would it take for you to claim something that’s not yours? Just like a child who’s robbed off his treasured candy, that to him, that candy is his life and happiness. That’s how it feels like owning something that’s not really yours…lest, robbing someone’s happiness.

Everyday, we get to face our fears and our strengths the same way we meet our allies and our enemies. There’s no space in our lives that we could excuse ourselves from the sometimes-bitter-reality that you’re alone and you cannot join a game or two. That can’t be the reason, that’s why the saying “no man is an island” brings about a powerful message to those who fair themselves to solitude, to loneliness.

But there are times that you need to be alone. There are meetings, parties, workshops and games that you cannot join for a simple reason that you’re not invited. There are also groups that you cannot join, that a duet cannot be trio or that a square can’t be a triangle. What part of these simple facts of life can you not understand? That is, if ever you really are trying to understand.

Believe it or not, there are people that are annoyingly persistent in promoting their selfish interests just to get even…or get ahead of others. Think about a colleague whose love of fame and promotion almost crack your nerves out. Think about someone whose narcissism is climbing to its toll that invites you to vomit your soul out. Think about a woman who’s trying to steal your boyfriend or husband and is very proud of what she’s doing. Think about the man who’s trying to wreck your marriage or relationship with your spouse or boyfriend acting like a stalker 24/7. Think about those people who are untiring in their own lives and are very much interested to join a game that’s not theirs.

If you’ve been hit with such issue, you may succumb to a moment of solitude for a while until time heals that heart-breaking experience. But what if you’re the one who inflicted pain towards others? Would you feel guilt, would you feel sorry for what you did?

If you felt something that pinched your heart the moment you arrive in this paragraph, you must pat yourself a little. Why? Because it means guilt is crawling your mind and piercing your heart subtly. There’s a chance for you to straighten your path and leave the path of destruction. If at arriving to this phrase and you’re numb, that only means three things: (1) you haven’t experienced this story so you can’t relate much (2) you’ve had that experience and finally moved on or (3) you’re unmindful of the situation because you yourself inflicted the pain to someone and that guilt is absolutely absent. Your thoughts?

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“We don't read and write poetry because it's cute. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race. And the human race is filled with passion.And medicine, law, business, engineering - these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love - these are what we stay alive for.”-DPS from Robin Williams.

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