Water never completes with other substances and focuses on nurturing lives.
 
A woman is like a teabag. You can’t tell how strong she is until you put it in hot water (quoted from Eleanor Roosevelt)
 
Or a woman is like hot water with the ability to harden an egg or soften a potato.
 
A woman is like water to cut through rocks not because of its power but its tenderness with persistency.
 
No doubt that a woman can do much work as any man. 
Women should be strong like a rock;
Or we are more appealing to be soft and tender.

Susan was a great wife with a son who was three years old. When she was going to deliver her second child, her husband had an affair with his secretary and insisted on divorce. Susan became a single mom without any financial support from his ex-husband. She knew no matter what she said or did and that would be no way to change the heart and mind of her ex-husband to bear the responsibility.  

And then she walked away from the relationship with this man to accept reality responding with kindness and tenderness.  She treated the family of her ex-husband as friends.  Life must go on.  Susan focused her energy on finding jobs, making money, and taking care of her children. 
​
Twenty years later, Susan did a great job building her business.  The family was proud of each other with love.  By the age of 55, Susan met a rich and great guy to ask her to marry him.  And it was a real story.

​A woman is more powerful to use her tenderness when dealing with a situation she can’t control.  Tenderness generates serenity and dissipates anger and anxiety.  At the same time, she never gives up her power to believe that the world is what she made it.  She starts to embrace the courage (strong like a rock) to change what she can control.

My co-worker took maternity leave for more than three months.  She returned office to release my double workload was a good thing.

One day, she found I had misplaced some files causing trouble for her.  She used an abrasive manner yelling at me to address what I was not doing right as if I was an idiot.  It was uncommon she used to amplify some trivial issues for a heated argument. 
Rationally, I told myself to neglect her rudeness.  But the issues kept spiraling in my mind to feel unhappy with negative energy. 
​
My immediate narrative of her abrasive manner was playing the victim. I felt like I was the victim to bear her workload during her long absence led me to get insufficient time to do my jobs well. She indeed should give thanks to me instead of picking any minor mistakes for blaming me. And then, I realized my narrative drove me in the wrong direction. I shouldn’t give up my power. What she thought and said was her choice. How to respond to her action was my choice.

Did you ever think about the fuel of her anger derived from the projection of her issue (psychologically called the dark shadow)?  It was not about you.  It was about her.  She wanted you to be part of it by drowning in the swap of her anger.  The emotions of anger, fear, and anxiety belonged to her and gave back to her.

Next, you imagine a mental picture pulling out this person far away from you towards the rooftop, to the sky, to the universe, and the spot will become so tiny as if it was dust.
​
How can tiny dust do anything to hurt you?

I try to awaken my consciousness and shift my perspective to the great things, great people, great nature, and a great environment around me.
Focus on what matters. Recalling my priorities are health, relationship, money, and career achievement.
I tell myself:
I can, I believe, I promise, I deserve, I choose XXXXX
Think about the world is what I make it. 
Bring back my power and positive energy.

I cannot control the thinking of others.  Letting go of my desires that the world should operate according to my expectation.  Tenderness, calm, and serenity are more powerful to respond to whatever happens in our life.  God has a plan we never know.  I’m where I should be.  All that happens is right.
​
“I understood how much it offended somebody when I tried to force my desires on this person even though I knew the time was not right and the person was not ready for it.  
Today I know: It’s called letting go.” (quoted from Charlie Chaplin poem)
 
I love the quote from Reinhold Niebuhr:
God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference

Finally, practice to tell yourself three sentences:

a) I am not my emotion. 
You tell yourself: I am not my anger (if you are preoccupied with the feeling of anger). 
You feel anger towards someone that happened in this particular moment only. It comes and goes.  

b) I embrace my anger.
You tell yourself: I embrace my anger.
We are human and inevitably get this anger emotion occasionally. You don't need to discriminate or attack it.
 
c) When I have this feeling of anger, I choose XXXX.
When I feel angry, I choose to be calm by using tenderness and serenity to accept things I cannot control for inner peace.

​All in all, not everyone responds to the same issue the same.
Ever wonder why some people, some words, or some behavior easily trigger your negative emotions? But others may regard it as no big deal and neglect them easily.
 
Let’s go on a journey to find out why and how to deal with it.  Stay tuned for the next post.

Ever wonder conflicts derived more from similarity than from differences.

​Three years before, my boss fired me after my 5-years tenure.  At that time, I felt shocked, angry, and depressed.  Rationally, I was well aware of move-on to focus on tomorrow and let go of the failure that happened in the past.  However, I couldn’t overcome emotional suffering from that failure as the negative feelings of anger, shame, and sorrow in my heart affected my mental and emotional well-being.  I got help from my mentor by honestly scrutinizing my feelings on that issue and asking myself three questions:

My boss was dissatisfied with me for not being willing to work overtime.  She regarded working overtime as a sign of commitment and dedication.  I prioritized my schedule to spend time with my family.  Relationships with my husband and with my mom are my top priority.  My mom suffered a stroke last year and never could live the same life as before.  I did the right thing to spend time with my mom when she lived well with good memory.  I did the right thing by not allowing someone else to prioritize my schedule.   

​I recognized to walk away from a corporate job to realize my dream by building my own online business was far more interesting for persuading my talent and skills.  

I learned to recognize my weakness to become a better person and achieve my career goal.

At that time, while presuming I was a marketing expert, I never dug into the product knowledge in-dept.  I almost always settled for convenience, not studying the product in-depth for what I was selling.  You can’t create value without proficiency in your particular profession.  I couldn’t deny that I was lazy to waste my time not taking action.  Action is critical for success.  Learning the problem is not enough.  I have to apply it, edit and fine-tune it.  

​We have to learn to accept the things we cannot change (something like what had already happened yesterday).  Let it go.  The courage to change things for better tomorrow is more important.  

​The issue was no longer a failure.  It was a stepping stone pathing my way to growth and success.  

What is a toxic relationship?
It is when you overwhelm with negative feelings toward your spouse and trigger your anger and emotions.  You feel like he is

• Irresponsible
• Disrespectful
• Neglect you to pay more attention to someone else or something else
• Embrace bad habits

And so on…
 
Venting out the emotions to someone else or divorce is not the solution.  The repeated pattern will carry on.  Is there any way to get over the repeated pattern? 

When you start to love yourself 
respect yourself
trust yourself
honest to yourself
You will surprise the relationship with others will change.  

Have you respected your needs and feelings anywhere and anytime?
​
Ever happen in some circumstances where your heart says no, but you decide to say yes, instead.  You never reject others because you want to cope with the expectation of someone else.  If you care enough to respect your needs, you will respect others to make their choice for their needs.  Even if that choice is not what you expected, you will never feel angry.
 
You respect yourself, and you will respect others, and others will respect you.
If you never respect yourself, and you won’t respect others, and others won’t respect you.
 
Use respect to replace disagreement.

You trust yourself to do the right thing that is best for yourself.  Same as you trust that your spouse will do the right thing for himself.
 
For instance, if he is an alcoholic, you trust he is doing the right thing for himself as this may be his way to release his pressure or release the pain from his mental health.
 
Use the trust to replace judging.

You are honest with yourself about who you are and being authentic. You may look weird from the lens of the community.

• I like this and dislike that
• I choose this and reject that
• I do this and won’t do that 

You cover your true self to fit in the expectation of others to be the stereotype of a widely accepted person but preoccupy with anguish and emotional suffering.  When you start loving yourself, you feel good about yourself to live as an authentic being.
 
Instead of trying to change the person, you accept who he is.  You can recognize that emotional pain and grief are just warnings for him not to live against his authentic truth.

You and your spouse feel comfortable with each other. There is no covering, no role-playing, no lies, no imitation.

Allow I’m imperfect.
Allow I’m vulnerable.
Allow I’ve plenty of weakness.
Allow I have made stupid mistakes.
 
As I allow myself for those human weaknesses, so do I understand you will get those weaknesses as well.  When something goes wrong, I will never blame myself or blame you.
 
​----------------------
​
All in all, the toxic substances in a relationship such as hate, anger, and judging will replace by respect, trust, support, and love.
 
You know what?  Who is willing to abandon such kind of beautiful person?

​You may argue that it is not so simple. Well, yes, of course. It's a starting point for building your love story. 

You tell yourself the response is: Thank you for your sharing.
 

​Our life is like a finite number of heartbeats.
You can only spend the time and cannot save it for future use.
If so, the question is how to spend your time wisely?
 
It would be great if we always spend time in ways to make us happy.
Happiness is expecting the joyful time to come.
Do you remember what is the joyful mood to expect coming time before Christmas, before the vacation, before the newborn baby?
 
Yesterday was history.  If you felt depressed and sad about what had happened yesterday, it was as if you would die today without a future.
Tomorrow is a mystery.  Ever wonder if you worry about what may happen tomorrow as if you will live forever.
 
The more important is today.
Today to act
to go, to enjoy, to love, to live.
 
Let go of self-blame, regret, and sadness.
Embrace with love, compassion, gratefulness, and abundance.
Believe that the best is yet to come.
 
Which one is better?
“I’m doing terrible, but I’m living.”
or
“I’m living, and I’m doing great.”

​Beware what game you are playing.
Never try to play the victim.

Ever wonder happiness is good health and a bad memory.
Whatever experience makes you angry, do one thing: put all feelings aside and forget it.  Forget means to forgive.  Otherwise, you will pay a high price to sacrifice your health.

My mom suffered from a stroke caused by diabetes and hypertension as she used to eat fatty and processed food for a long time.  What made her obsessed with food (especially sweetie food)?  The key reason was her unhappiness as she hardly could feel the sweetie from her life that preoccupied her emotions with complaints and anger to drive her crazy or depression.
 
It is so true that:
Your belief becomes your feeling;
Your feeling becomes your action;
Your action becomes your character;
Your character becomes your habit;
Your habit becomes your destiny.
 
What applied to my mom was that:
My mom got the belief that she was the victim;
Her thought generated anger and sadness;
Such negative emotion made her appear judging and picky;
And she felt to eat the sweet food could make her happier;
Repeated pattern to feel sad and choosing to eat the unhealthy food for too long;
And the culminated poison broke down her health physically and mentally.

Change the thought, change the feeling, change the perspective, change the destiny.

​​My morning routine helps me get through the jobless days from dull to sunshine.

1. Enjoy a great breakfast

​A great breakfast helps me to fuel up the day with energy. Don't forget to leave some time for yourself to eat breakfast without rushing, select a comfortable environment, sip a cup of black coffee, and avoid sweeties and high carbs. And get ready for the day!

2. Read the motivational articles or quotes

​During breakfast, I like to read some inspiring articles or quotes. It's a great way to feed my brain with positive energy and strength.

3. Give thanks to God

​Practice gratitude. Give thanks for all the blessings from God.
​It’s so great to enjoy the greeting from the trees, the flowers, the breeze, the birds, and the grasses. Or a neighbor walks a dog and says hello to me with a beautiful smiling face.

4. Deep Breathing Exercise

​Exhale for 5 seconds to let go of anger, anxiety, and sadness
Inhale for 5 seconds to accept compassion, love, and happiness

5.  Stretching the body

​Do exercise or practice yoga.  If you don’t have time, at least stretch the body physically.

6. Affirmative Mantra

Self-talking to affirm yourself:

​I believe XXXXX
I deserve XXXXXX
I choose XXXXXX
I can XXXXXXXX

​And then
My power has turned on
Keep moving and do the work now!

​Ever wonder color plays a role in our state of well-being, evoking a certain mood from our hidden aspiration.  It can influence the way we feel and how we respond to our surrounding things.  What color do you like?

​While red elicits passion, intricate with assertion and romance, it may represent danger or threat (like a fire engine or the signal for stop).  It is no surprise that when you strongly want to get something and at the same time, this will mean risk and danger.  Is there anything that comes with a guarantee in this world?  One way to get the most out of life is to look upon it as an adventure (William Feather).  Adventure is fun and exciting. However, you may feel fear midway along the journey. Do you have the gut to follow your intuition in order to pursue what you strongly desire?  Fear is no longer your enemy to hold you back. Dance with it, instead.
​
  “Only those who risk going too far can possibly find out how far they can go.” — T.S Eliot

​While some people see the color yellow to associate with sunshine, light, hope, happiness, and wisdom, others would like to label yellow with decay, old, sickness, and dullness (like yellow tree leaves, old books, and papers). What does it all mean? You decide.
How we see the world is more important than how the world is. Susan is my friend who told me she hated yellow as it seems like sickness and dullness.  
 
She hates growing old and dislikes to mention her age. 
Are younger people happier than older people? 
My mom is 70 years old and always feels the wisdom of her years. She always has a story to tell and has little to worry about jobs and responsibilities.
One day, I asked her whether she would worry about her age. She replied that "Oh yes! I am old, but so what? I am so happy in my times right now."
It is up to you to see yellow as sunshine, or as a gloomy decay leaves.

​What color is your mood right now?  You want to get away from the blue mood (melancholy) for sure.  The Smurfs (comic characters) are blue with happy faces.  They have nothing to do with gloom. 

Blue is associated with the ocean and sky to embrace with a feeling of openness and caring.  Openness reflects the appreciation for curiosity, adventure, unusual ideas, and imagination over a strict routine.  If you limit yourself to what you know and what you were comfortable with earlier in your life, you will grow increasingly frustrated with your surroundings as you age. Many of us might not take on new things because we think we don't have the skills. The good news is that almost everything is learnable. Are you ready to learn and make a leap into the unknown?

​All in all, we own our story.
​Color is fabulous
Blue is ocean or moody
Yellow is sunrise or sunset
Red is dangerous or passionate
It depends
Up to you
Only you can decide.