FocusPositives

Others hurt us but we have a choice not to continue hurting ourselves. I’ve always known a long time ago I needed to learn to love myself first before I can love others. This short dialogue between child and adult made me realize how simple it is to love oneself. Personifying our body parts taught this child, as well as the adult (me), to understand the things we do directly damages ourselves. Every part of us deserves to be loved and treated with respect and cared as our closest family and friends.

If you were a body part within yourself, who would you least like to be and most like to be?  What would you have to say about the relationship between the two of you? Would you like yourself?  Are you forced to work over your capacity 24/7 with no rest, day after endless day? How long would you last without striking back or falling ill? If I were my eyes I would want a replacement and quit right now! Learn to look at things from “their” position and what “they” have to endure. When we are overworked or unhappy our bodies becomes unhealthy and fall sick. We directly effected and influenced by ourselves more than anyone else. Love is a two-way street, take care of “them” and “they” will love and protect you a 100 times more. Don’t just “love yourself” but “love every PART of yourself”.

~ Inspiration from
Title: Swipe Tap Love, 愛我請留言 – Ep 04
Genre: Romance drama

“做朋友很簡單, 只要大家包容對方的缺點, 方大對方的優點就成了.”
Being friends is very simple, just accommodate each other’s shortcomings, and magnify each other’s strong points.
~ Inspiration from
Title: Come Home Love, æ„›.回家 – Ep379
Genre: TV series

Last night my burdens fell so heavily on my shoulders that I physically felt the pain. It felt like I had a hard time breathing and my head started to hurt. I would always lingered in this pool of disparity in the past. I dug myself deep ditches of sorrow to make sure I wouldn’t have an escape route. Yes, what a gloomy person, I agree.

Last night I decided to put my worries in prayer. I am not an organized eloquent speaker and my thoughts are scattered with worries and fears that I do not comprehend. I never knew how to clearly verbalized my fears to God and yet I expect to be comfort and my problems solved.

For the first time I was directly asking for what I needed, peace. For the first time I truly felt the peace instantly after my prayer. And For the first time I felt the Holy Spirit’s guidance that helped me clearly communicate with God and He answered my prayer in an instant. Thank you, God, you are amazing.

Guy: 好香 (Smells good)
Girl: 做人要自得其乐. 活在当下, 享受每一刻. 就最開心了 (Everyone should enjoy themselves. Living in the moment and enjoy every moment. Would be most happy.)
Guy: 你每一刻都这么開心亳无煩惱吗? (You are so happy every moment, you have retained no trouble?)
Girl: 怎么会沒有? 但解決了就不用不开心, 如果解決不了.就慢慢想办法, 办法总比困難多 (How could I not? But once trouble is resolved you need not be unhappy, if not resolved, slowly think of solutions. There’s always more solutions than problems.)

~Inspirations from
Title: The Hippocratic Crush II, oncall36小時II – Ep 12
Genre: Medical drama
Translations: Google & Focuspositives.com

Do you believe there are more solutions than problems? I often focus on the problem and the difficulties that I need to face. This makes everything worse then it really is. I fell in love with 車車’s character, played by  (岑麗香, Eliza Sam), and her perspective from the start. She reminded me to focus on the solutions and encouraged me with the idea, solutions outnumber problems. When I think of this idea I have new hope in solving difficult and unavoidable situations in life. She lives her life slowly and enjoys every moment. She cares and sacrifices for others. She takes time to resolve her problems one by one. When she can’t find a solution she tries again another day. At the end of the story, she dies within a week with incurable cancer. She knew her own lifespan since she was fifteen. I asked myself, does it really take an incurable disease to make us wake up and live like her? She wanted people to remember her smile and goodness when she was gone. Could we truly imitate her attitude towards life? I hope I can learn from this character and live life to the fullest without any of the misfortunes she had to go through and if I have to go through her misfortune, I would have her courage and attitude.

Vocabulary:

(Vocabularies below are written in the Traditional Chinese. The drama characters are written in Simplified Chinese)

辦法總比困難多 There’s always more solutions compared to difficulties

辦法 bànfǎ, means / method / way (of doing sth)
總 zǒng, always / to assemble / gather / total / overall / head / chief / general / in every case
比 bǐ, (particle used for comparison and “-er than”) / to compare / to contrast / to gesture (with hands) / ratio
困難 kùnnan, difficult / challenging / straitened circumstances / difficult situation
多 duō, many / much / often / a lot of / numerous / more / in excess / how (to what extent) / multi- / Taiwan pr. [duo2] when it means “how”

Learning Materials:

CLICK to study Chinese pinyin and character flashcards: Quotes & inspirations from January, 2014  Click here and rollover >> icon for strokes, audio, and more.

I recently had an experience which made me realized the more I fought a feeling, the more it controlled me. I was subsiding my emotions for my own reasons. When I thought I finally had it under control, it suddenly surface in the least expect time and place. My mind was blank and I was not my self, tears just overflowed.
From this experience I learned I needed to be true to my emotions and sometimes needed to release it without worrying about its outcome. One friend told me not to apologize for my emotion, they are part of me, the real me. People who value you and cherish you will not forsake you. They will listen and be considerate of you. As for those who mistreat or think badly of you, it’s really not your doing. It’s their thoughts and actions which are not your responsibilities. We are each responsible for our own actions and thoughts. Their evil thoughts about you does not equal you are evil. Their thoughts stem from within in their own creation. Then how could we overcome what bother us? Today I read the following, it turned a light on for me.

“Replace negative thoughts rather than resisting them. Whatever you resist, persists. The more you fight a feeling, the more it controls you. The secret of victory over any temptation is simply to change the channel of your mind. Refocus your attention on some-thing else, and the temptation immediately loses its power over you.”
~ The Daniel Plan, page 26

Refocus! What a powerful switch that flips and transforms our thoughts. Instead of focusing on the broken glass, focus on the beautiful sparkles that broken glass creates ^_^