greenplaits

Self Esteem

Fri, 10 Apr 2009 07:04:33 GMT

If you think you might have low self-esteem, try talking to an adult you trust about it. He or she may be able to help you come up with some good ideas for building your self-esteem.

In the meantime, here are a few things that you can try to increase your self-esteem:

Make a list of the stuff you're good at. It can be anything from drawing or singing to playing a sport or telling a good joke. If you're having trouble with your list, ask your mom or dad to help you with it. Then add a few things to the list that you'd like to be good at. Your mom or dad can help you plan a way to work on those skills or talents.
Give yourself three compliments every day. Don't just say, "I'm so great." Be specific about something good about yourself, like, "I was a good friend to Jill today" or "I did better on that test than I thought I would." While you're at it, before you go to bed every night, list three things in your day that really made you happy.
Remember that your body is your own, no matter what shape, size, or color it is. If you are worried about your weight or size, you can check with your doctor to make sure that things are OK. Remind yourself of things about your body that are cool, like, "My legs are strong and I can skate really well."
Remember that there are things about yourself you can't change. You should accept and love these things � such as skin color and shoe size � because they are part of you.
When you hear negative comments in your head, tell yourself to stop. When you do this, you take the power away from the voice inside that discourages you.

By focusing on the good things you do and all your great qualities, you learn to love and accept yourself � the main ingredients for strong self-esteem! Even if you've got room for improvement (and who doesn't?), realizing that you're valuable and important helps your self-esteem to shine.

My little angel

Tue, 09 Dec 2008 09:13:47 GMT

I'm back from Phuket.
2 days of sun, 2 days of rain. 1 day of heat stroke and many days to come of itchy peely skin. haha! I had fun! Hanging out with the girls. Did a few things i wouldn't do in normal circumstances, but will chalk it all down to life experiences.

Moving on, I think i actually found my little angel. I love visiting my lil niece En Ting. Playing and taking care of her. Very therapeutic for the not so stable soul. ahaha! She's smiles and laughs so easily and she's so loving and small and soft. She screams at the top of her voice, "mai". So young but can speak hokkein already. haha! Love her to bits!

I still love Bangkok

Tue, 02 Dec 2008 11:27:58 GMT

This is turning into a very big disaster!
We were all so looking forward to Bangkok. Nobody saw it coming, the protestors moving their protest site to the airport and nobody saw it continuing on for so long.
So now the trip is cancelled and we can't find anywhere else to go to. We're stuck. It's terrible terrible terrible.

I hope the Thais see how much this protest is affecting tourism, not only now but in the near future and it'll affect their economy and the the brunt of it will be felt by the poor. sigh. I seriously hope they stop the protest by the 5th. It's the King's birthday. Fingers crossed.

Return of the angsty teen

Sat, 08 Nov 2008 07:39:29 GMT

Somehow my relationship with my parents have deteriorated badly.

Ever since i got my licence it's just been bad.
They are back seat drivers. They make a fuss out of the simplest and stupidest things. They take driving way too seriously. I know i'm not such a bad driver that I'd be going around every corner killing people. What they expect out of me is perfection, which i think is ridiculous!

And maybe cause i react very negatively to their critic-king, they now get upset with me over things like, not doing the housework on a regular basis, not being there with them when my brother has nights out and going jogging at 10pm. You know, it just seeps into everything, this animosity.

So this has affected our relationship a great deal. Somehow i just don't find any joy in talking to them anymore and i rather keep to myself when i'm at home. This is damn sad la. Mind you, i'm still doing my ''great'' duty as a daughter, sending, pikcing them up, buying dinner, doing the housework and generally staying at home more cause my mum always says she's alone at home. But i just feel so uncomfortable around them. And sometimes, i get irritated with things they do, like not buying me lunch. Which is trivial, but it just gets on my nerves.

You know, they love talking about me behind my back. It's very sad really. You know, friends backstab each other, but your parents, now that's just sad. I wouldn't say they backstab me, but they just love talking about what kind of a proud young know it all i am, who has such a bad attitude, that has no respect for her elders. Sigh. I'm 25 years old, but if you didn't know that, i prolly sound like a bloody angst-y teen to you.

I seriously don't know how to deal with my parents. So i've decided to just live like the ghost of the family and hope they don't notice me and leave me alone. It''s sad really, but wtf, i don't like being angry and argumentative, which i have found myself to be whenever i'm around them. I just want peace and quiet. Maybe i need anger management,

I Love the End of the Year Holidays!

Sat, 01 Nov 2008 09:02:04 GMT

Exams are over, done with marking and school's out! Yipee!!
I think i got a good deal starting work in August, had to teach a few classes, mark some scripts, invigelate a few papers and guess what, it's the holidays! Of course it's not gonna be so smooth sailing when i'm a trained teacher but hey, while the grass in greener on my side of the pasture, why not enjoy it?

Have done a few uncharacteristic things recently.

1) Went to the Zoo with XW and Viv. It was so fun! Besides getting some sun, it was so cool looking at the animals, like the lions being fed, phytons banging their heads against the glass casing, turtles humping, kids trying to pickup butterflies and yummy Ben and Jerry's ice cream at the end.

2) Went jogging at the ECP. I used to love jogging so much when i was in Secondary school. But the busted ankle put a stop to that. So when Des asked if i wanted to go jogging, i was thinking of a way to get out of saying yes. But eventually i just went along and it was so worth it. You know when you're jogging and you feel like you can't carry on anymore but you keep pushing yourself and finally when you reach the end point you realised you've jogging more than you thought you could, that's an awesome feeling!

I guess you don't have to travel half way around the world to sightsee and have fun. Sometimes, you can find it simply in your own backyard. And of course, good and treasured company makes all the difference too!

Selamat Hari Raya!

Tue, 30 Sep 2008 18:07:52 GMT

How time flies! It's Hari Raya. We've just gone through a month of fasting.
Fasting month was a good month for me this year. As compared to the past few years, this is one of the best fasting month i've had. I think having regular working hours helped too, cause i have to wake up in the morning and i sleep early at night and i don't go out much. Thank you God.

Sadly, I don't feel excited about Hari Raya anymore. For that matter even Chinese New Year no longer excites me that much. I used to love these festive occassions. It meant being so excited on the eve of the occassion you can't sleep at night and you just can't wait to get up and out of bed the next day cause you had new clothes, visiting relatives and pigging out on the snacks. I still love meeting up with the relatives and i still love eating all the goodies, but the feeling's just not the same anymore. It just feels like any other day now. Perhaps it's just me growing older. But it's quite sad really. I feel like i've lost something important without realising it and i don't even know how to get it back. I am thankful i am around though. Not being in Singapore during Hari Raya the past few years was quite a bummer.

I caught up with a few of my cousins after dinner today. It was good to just relax and chat and update each other on what's happening in each other's lives. It's just bugging me a little what one of my cousins talked about though. She seemed to see marriage as her way out of her "problems", She feels that if she marries, her husband will be able to provide for her and give her all the things that she can't have and for that reason she's very keen on meeting guys that are willing to offer her a ring and go ahead with things, even if she doesn't know the guy well enough. I'm worried cause i don't wanna see her stuck in a situation where she's mistreated or misled. I can see she really wants to get married and i'm sure guys will be able to catch on easily too and if some cunning bastard leads her on and dangles the carrot just so he gets a free ride, she'll be played big time and she'll just come out hurt. And i can see it's already happening by the stories she told about the guys she was seeing. I don't know how to tell her tactfully about how i fears and what i think will happen. I don't wanna be the cynical jaded relative that kills dreams.

Ok, i wanna write more, have so much say about school and the kids, but it's way past bedtime. Till my next post.

Life is cool

Sun, 14 Sep 2008 15:07:07 GMT

So so, first week of school just went by.

It wasn't as bad as i thought it would be but neither was it a walk in the park.
Firstly, i'm getting less then 5 hours of sleep on school days. It's fasting month so i have to wake up early to eat and then there's no point going back to sleep after that. By the time it's 1 in the afternoon i'm a semi-zombie. My head is so damn light, my eye lids so heavy it's amazing how i actually continue to sit at my desk and do work (which of course i realise i am not productive at all in such a state cause i had to re-do so much of the work over the weekend).

The start of school also signalled the start of national service for my brother. It was a lil distressing just thinking about not having him around, but it was a comfort finding out that he could book out every Friday. Today was the 2nd time seeing him prepare to go to camp. Just before leaving, I saw the feeling of dread that overcame him which put him in a really bad mood and it didn't help that he had to make sure he'd taken everything. Well....it's not easy but i guess in the end, he will be able to chalk this all down to life experiences.

So so, life is cool. It's all about the experiences. You make life livable by ejoying the minute details of everyday life. Cause when you just rush through life, it becomes a blur and you somehow feel life becomes pretty boring and meaningless. A philosophical moment there to end the post. :)

Typing to the Carpenters on Winamp

Fri, 05 Sep 2008 09:50:46 GMT

One month.
Being the lady of leisure.

Now that one month is up and i will be starting school next Monday.
I'm a worrier. A person who hardly knows me can tell within an instant that i'm a worrier. So yes, i'm freaking out big time now. I suddenly feel like i have too much on my plate. But i guess it's just nerves. Had a meet up with a future colleague, she was nice took me around, told me what to expect, reserved a table in the staff room for me and of course gave me work to do. haha! So yeah that's work. :)

Over this one month, i've had the opportunity to renew and strengthen my existing friendship with my lovely friends. It's only now being back on ground that i realised how much i've lost touch with my friends. We might meet up when i was flying but it was just different, like there was this invincible barrier. But it's starting to feel just like the old days now, being around all the time and me putting in the effort to come out and meet up, my friendship is recovering to full health. And we even have a new inclusion to our group. So yes, all rosy and good on the friendship front. :)

Love life? Never say never. Cause whatever you said never to could become a possibility. Yup...not much else to update here.

*SMILE*

A struggle that was all worthwhile

Fri, 01 Aug 2008 10:58:20 GMT

Last day with my previous company was a couple of days ago. Been meaning to post this entry but have just been busy catching up with friends, tidying up my room, going for driving and running errands.

I'm officially done with that stage of my life and sitting here and thinking back on what i've gone through, i'd say it was a raod of struggle and self discovery . I've learnt so much and done so many stupid things. I feel sorta wary just thinking about it.

I've learnt the joy of having my own company. I've learnt that i'm actually quite an introverted individual. I've learnt that only me and me alone controls the direction of my life. I've learnt that you and only you should watch out for yourself. No matter how nice and caring a person is, never let your guard down and watch your back. I've learnt many small things that i would not otherwise have been exposed to, like, how to make up, control my wavy hair, paint nails in 10minutes, CPR, mixing cocktails, washing baby bottles etc. You know thinking about it, i can't really type all the things that i've learnt but yeah i've learnt.

I've done many stupid things. I guess, becuase i was overwhelmed by the freedom and the sudden ability to afford many things, i just went wild, out of control. But i think i had to go through this. I had to learn how to be an adult. I had to learn when to tell myself i had to stop, that what i was doing was wrong. Pulling myself out of the lifestyle i eventually found myself in- excessive clubbing and drinking- wasn't easy. I can still remember having this conversation with my mum, she telling me i should stop clubbing. And me telling her, i can't do that. But right now, i can and i do it willingly cause i know that clubbing isn't everything. So yes, it's been a struggle. There were many days i woke up with a headache and not knowing how i got into bed and seeing the dissapointment in my parent's eyes and feeling my heart sink and me slipping deeper and deeper into depression. I'm glad i've pulled myself out of all that rubbish. I'm glad i woke up one day and told myself, fuck, how many times more do you wanna feel like that? And you can't even blame anybody else but yourself cause nobody forced you to live such a lifestyle. Although i must say quitting my job and finding a job totally different from what i did previously, is rather drastic. But i feel the lifestyle comes with the job and if i have to put myself into an environment that promotes a wholesom lifestyle, so why not right?

Looking forward (i know many people have the opinion that my character is more suited to the service industry, that i should be in a job that is glamerous, whatever that means), i will try out teaching. As you can see from a previous entry, being a teahcer is one of my goals and so i'm now fulfilling another of my dreams. I'm sure it'll bring many many more experiences and there'll be more lessons and struggles to go through. I have my doubts about handling teenagers, but i will take this as a challenge, no matter how cliche it sounds. And hopefully all of this, will help me to become the person i am happy being.

Nearing the end

Wed, 16 Jul 2008 13:17:31 GMT

One day away from this briefing i have to attend to know which school i will be heading to or maybe i'll be going directly back to school, back to being a student!

4 more flights to go before i'm done flying.

It's so exciting, so scary and i feel so sad.

Mumbai
Mangoes

Australia
1) Clothes from Supre
2) Fruit and nuts for my mum
3) Snakata
4) Arnott's Tim Tam (this one can buy in singapore, thank god)