angry cat

How to Practice Gratitude When You Think Everything Sucks

How do you feel when someone tells you, ā€œlook at the bright side, you still have a roof over your headā€ right after you let them know about a distressing event that has happened or is happening to you?Ā Some of you who hate life (and people) may feel homicidal and perhaps also suicidal, as you already see life as something negative. You don’t care about anything good in life anymore. You may even feel like slapping anyone who tells you to be grateful for being alive. An interesting question may be, why bother practising gratitude at all? What are the benefits? The next equally interesting question would be, how to practise gratitude when everything sucks?

Continue reading ➞ How to Practice Gratitude When You Think Everything Sucks

Donā€™t Judge Ourselves? We Should! But Do It Properly!

Many of us, when weā€™ve done something embarrassing, unpleasant, or are simply having negative thoughts, often judge ourselves harshly, which inevitably makes us feel worse. Those who choose not to judge end up suppressing or repressing their ā€˜unpleasant partsā€™, not wanting to admit the existence of the unpleasant parts, let alone deal with them. These repressed unpleasant parts grow into what Carl Jung calls ā€œshadowsā€. Over time, these shadows leak through snarky comments here and there or unexplained hatred towards innocent people. What I suggest is, if we are to judge ourselves, we should go ahead and judge ourselves. But we should do it properly: go all the way setting a court with at least three people in it: a judge, a plaintiff, a defendant. And probably some police officers, just in case the plaintiff or defendant gets into a fistfight or something.Ā 

Continue reading ➞ Donā€™t Judge Ourselves? We Should! But Do It Properly!

How to Not Get Manipulated

The aim of this post is to introduce you to the basic concept of manipulation. Itā€™s not designed to hate manipulators (as all of us can be potential manipulators), but rather to understand why they are what they are, do what they do, and how they operate. It may help you avoid getting manipulated and avoid manipulating people intentionally or unintentionally.

Continue reading ➞ How to Not Get Manipulated

Social Media: How to Use It to Your Advantage

These days, there have been many articles suggesting that we have a social media break. Or even further: delete our social media accounts altogether. My personal opinion about social media has been the same since 2008: itā€™s like a sharp knife. Just because itā€™s a sharp knife doesnā€™t mean itā€™s dangerous. Depending on how we hold and use it, a sharp knife can be extremely useful.

Continue reading ➞ Social Media: How to Use It to Your Advantage

Should You Have Children: Traditionalist Parents, Childfree and Antinatalism Point of Views

Why do people want to have children? Why don’t people want to have children? In this post, Iā€™d like to share what Iā€™ve observed so far about the views of the Traditionalist parents, childfree supporters, and the Antinatalist community on whether or not people should have children. I will also share my personal view after the observation.

Continue reading ➞ Should You Have Children: Traditionalist Parents, Childfree and Antinatalism Point of Views

6 Ways to Get Better Soon when You’re Sad and Alone

Today Iā€™d like to share how to feel better when youā€™re sad and alone. Note that feeling better doesnā€™t necessarily mean feeling happy. But it helps when the sadness is too overwhelming and you have no one around to console you. Iā€™m a firm believer that all emotions need to be felt and acknowledged properly. Also, note that this post is in no way designed to distract your sadness as most contemporary happiness gurus tell you to do. Here are 6 ways to get better soon when youā€™re sad and alone:

Continue reading ➞ 6 Ways to Get Better Soon when You’re Sad and Alone

How to Discover Your Life’s Purpose: Questions to Ask about Yourself

Life, to some (or perhaps many?) people, is meaningless. They think everybody is going to die anyway, so why bother with it. Thereā€™s no purpose, they say. Some people brag about not wanting money and fame, and are excessively proud of their slow life. They think theyā€™re hip and cool for being able to detach from the materialistic world by not having any aspirations. Slow life is good. But simply staring at the grass and clouds with no aspiration to develop and improve your talents, and then bragging about your so-called happy life, is not hip and cool. Youā€™re wasting your potential. Here are some questions to ask about yourself to discover your life’s purpose.

Continue reading ➞ How to Discover Your Life’s Purpose: Questions to Ask about Yourself

Destructive and Productive Things to Do After a Breakup

Breakups have become something normal to me. Itā€™s no longer an earthquake-like event. Itā€™s more like, oh, weā€™re not compatible, OK then, bye. But Iā€™d still cry solitarily if I really like the person. Sometimes Iā€™d cry for several days. Or weeks. Or months. In this post, Iā€™d like to share what I know (from personal experiences, personal observation on friendsā€™ experiences, and from reading books and articles) about how to deal with breakups. The first part is how to deal with it destructively and the second part is how to deal with it productively.

Continue reading ➞ Destructive and Productive Things to Do After a Breakup

How to Make New Friends for Introverted, Middle Aged People: 7 Tips

Study shows that healthy and close friendships stimulate positive mental health and well-being. Problem is, old friends may be having a different lifestyle, moving overseas, or anything that makes it difficult to maintain the friendship. Another problem is, some people, the introverted ones especially, donā€™t really enjoy socialising much. Here are 7 tips on how to make new friends as a middle-aged introverted/ambiverted person:

Continue reading ➞ How to Make New Friends for Introverted, Middle Aged People: 7 Tips

What to Do When Your Parent(s) Hate/Dislike You

The topic of parents hating their children or vice versa has been taboo. All parents are expected to love their children unconditionally and so are the children. Through this post, I hope I can shed some light on this unpopular topic, about what to do when your parents hate/dislike you.

Continue reading ➞ What to Do When Your Parent(s) Hate/Dislike You