29 January 2016

My lessons of gratitude today:

• Wow, it's been 2 and a half weeks since I started my gratitude journal! Well, I have to say that it's been a very interesting way to show my appreciation in the many things in life and it always puts a smile on my face and also brings me a greater sensitivity to my own emotions. Perhaps that's what they call narrative medicine. I'll definitely continue to do it. Even if I don't write on days I'll make up for it on other days. I'm grateful to have started it up and kudos to the positive psychologists who came up with it. 
• First-aid finally ended. Well, it was a pretty fun experience because it incorporated strange things that first-aid in Singapore would never teach - such as treating all the dangerous bites like scorpions, spiders, and all kinds of stuff around in WA. It's kinda amazing and I feel so empowered now that I can prevent someone on the street from dying from poisoning with my new skills :)
•  While looking at all the exotic life, I suddenly realized... Well, I really... really want to learn the various medicinal herbs found in Eastern medicine. It'll be amazing if I could see a plant and then immediately know what fruit it bears and what kind of treatment can be made from it. Maybe I'll pick up a book on it soon and start haha
• I'm so grateful for everything in my life right now. Sometimes I'd think - Oh I need this and this and then I'll be happy but then I realize that my thoughts have already gone wild and my mind brought into illusion - a state of craving. Everything right now is perfect and beautiful, since everything is always imperfect. It is imperfection that allows perfection. But perfection is a process and it comes from imperfection, just like how a caterpillar goes through many changes within its cocoon before it emerges as a butterfly. And I need to be present in every single moment. To give my all at every single moment. I must remind myself that my eventual goal is to attain enlightenment and be a bodhisattva to give more to the world.
• I loved how the birds chirp in the morning and little ducklings waddle across the lawn of my university. Then I remember the innocence of the world and how so many people, in their urgency to "fit with the world" and become an "adult" have already forgotten what it was like to be content with nothing but wonder. As a child we never knew what was coming up for us, but we were in the moment all the time. So I am grateful at how nature frequently reminds me to be present. When I hear the birds sing, I hear them and that's all I hear. At that point my heart would soar and I would just walk by, my mind refreshed and light. Sometimes I wonder what the birds are talking about.
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