how did it go 2018?

i exercised well. got 10k steps for 5 days in a week, which is a lot of achievement to my standard.

i realised and devised some sort of strategy to be able to get 10K. Wore my fitbit all the time. and every step counts. from morning when i need to do some mini chores before work. i stop scooting and chose to go to work to and from work. chose the stairs instead of the elevators. i make sure i moved around at work.

by the time i reach home, i need to cover maybe about 3-4k more steps. and i found a teambodyproject cardio videos and somehow, of all the exercise videos i have tried, i enjoyed their more. and i have been doing them for two weeks now.

so physically, i pretty much had it figured out. and i am really happy for me. the sweats give me satisfaction. haha. but the knee is still painful but i have to persevere.

i used to put a specific time for specific habit. but one year on in 2017, its a bit hard for me somehow. laziness sometimes take over. other things took my time away. i realised then that for me, i just need to lock that idea of doing a habit in my mind every day, and no matter when i do it, i know at the end of the day, i should have done it. it’s quite liberating actually, having it this way.
it’s quite easy then. every morning, woke up, have a quick reel of all the habits i need to do, stood up and then move on from there.

and now instead of having a long list of habits i need to tick every day. i grouped them into three or four items.

the cool plan – achieve 10K steps, do exercise or cardio now, limit sweet drinks
the faith plan – all my zikirs and do’as and Qur’an readings
the joy plan – reading, do journaling, blogging, netflix whatever is is to stay sane and destress
save – this one had to be a simple easy term – i just need to save = no shopping

and that’s it. does not look too much and heavy. Although i appreciated doing that long list in 2017, because now my brain knows what it means and requires to achieve the deeds above.

now i have to figure out the faith plan on how it all can make sense for me.

towards happiness.

34th Syawal

i turned a year older in the islamic calendar every 3rd Syawal.

i have to say its been melancholic and bitter sweet this year. i absolutely have no desire to go visiting or receive guests. i only feel all the exhaustion of ramadan starting to sink in and all i need is some quiet time to recharge. i have already given up of having to rush everytime first day of syawal and that inner fight of having to prioritise one family over my own. always having to give in. so if Ramadan is exhausting, Syawal is excruciatingly painful.

but i think i am having that today. a day of just me in this room. although the construction donwstairs and the short moments of having a fire at a neighbouring flat create some excitement and noise that you learnt to block out.

i have been a very sad person this year. i really is. so pardon me if this post is going to be some dreadful and boring post, if anyone is actually reading.

i feel like i lost some spark. i lost interest in work. i feel im not good enough. i feel tired all the time but i have to say its not physically tired, but emotionally, mentally and perhaps, even spiritually draining. i tried to overcome. it gets better and then it goes down again. its like my life graph goes up and down, up and down in steep curves. but i guess it is slowly getting better, i hope.

because life needs to move on and i hate feeling down. it gets better after a recharge. reading, just keeping quiet from the world, isolate myself a bit, because people bring pain.

i hope i can relive the spark, the purpose from what i am doing. perhaps find something that will excite me again. give me a sense of importance, a sense of being. i did timeline therapies and seemed to help. or maybe just a quiet time will do. and i am really appreciating every moment of it because once i start work, it will be nonstop.

Allah please help me. as You always do. as You always have. because this job is not for me to own. please guide me if whatever decisions i have to do. please guide me if it is for the best, for me, for my family, for the community. if it is not, please make it easy for me to leave it. Amiin.

perhaps, someday, i will find true happiness, significance and sincereness in what i am doing.

your many lifetimes

after a couple of years contemplating and fighting with the demons, or maybe for the lack of a better word, procrastinating. I had the desperate need to do the timeline therapy which i had learnt sometime in 2014. I do not know why. I think it was just the self wasnt ready to find the truth? to face the truth? and if i don’t face it, i cannot move on. literally move on.

for many days, i relooked into my nlp textbooks, trying to recall and rereading the dialogues, went through legit youtube videos on it. i always had trouble visualizing the timeline where you had to float back and up to the past and back again to the future. and i realized its really is trusting your unconscious mind to do the ‘job’. i still remember asking my trainer how do i ‘imagine’ it going back and forth and it was really because i think too much, she said literally that, don’t think too much. and then i asked myself how do i separate the thinking from the unconscious?! there’s really no need to ask.

but i did ‘train’ myself to find that unconscious zone doing countless practising with my pendulum.

and then just one night, after doing revision, i felt this is it, i have to do it now. release the emotions. pictured my trainers in my mind, like asking permission, and ‘just do it’. i had released anger during my training, but somehow, i thought i could do it again and then move on to sadness, fear, hurt, guilt. did the anger few times though, because i wasnt sure i was doing it right. doing on your own anyway, so i was like closing my eyes and then relooking at the dialogues, but it can be done. with eyes open, yes it can. its not the vision we are looking for, its the unconscious. somewhere between practices, i think im doing it all wrong. again, the thinking. but once i got the ‘flow’ i was sure of doing it. and really, for being not ‘thinking too much’ during the whole process, my unconscious ‘helped’ me move and put me where i am supposed to be, i am a visual person and its always i need to see it or picture it right with the details, but i let go and the ‘pictures’ were not perfect, but it was shaped by the UM and i just follow it.

the answers or memories i received were ‘weird’ it doesnt make sense really, and even now, i may not be able to describe them to you what i saw, and also made that ‘mistake’ of not writing them down after every timeline because i was from one emotion to another as i didnt want to lose that unconscious authority i was having at the moment.

but briefly, the anger brought me to a different time from when i had that anger released the first time, i do not know whether that can happen. i had a different lifetime when i first tried it, but this time around i was brought to a childhood time, different types of anger, maybe? but i did remember that moment clearly. very clear.

there was one within two months in the womb for sadness, and how do you picture yourself in the womb then? i didnt, my unconscious gave me a picture of my younger mom feeling sad and i knew i wasnt allowed to question what’s happening at this point of time but what is it foetus me were going through. when i came back to the now, i had the urge to ask my mother what happened then, but i didnt because what i learned then it was an emotion i shared with my mom through our umbilical cord on whatever she is facing at that moment, it wasnt mine. it was hers, perhaps too personal for her too. maybe one day a story might revealed from her. i got to trust my UM.

fear brought to a 3 lifetime and it was a ghostly experience. i was like s*** why did this happened? i cant face it man! but i learnt it was not something i could control eh. actually felt the hairs standing a bit in that situation. i was like s*** get this over with. Trust Allah. it get spiritual ayy.. quickly came back. i had to phewwww that moment out. please know i was doing all this at night, i was alone in a different room, hubby was sleeping already. but there was no more fear. still it doesnt mean im cocky and smug now. they exist that’s all.

hurt was hurtful. it was lifetimes away, i was hurt in an abusive manner. how? i dont know. i cant see who hurt me, but i saw a me lying crying full of hurt. wow. i came back feeling a bit numb, but it was not to find answers, lifetimes away. i just touched my heart and comforting myself. but i learnt that hurt feeling was the one thing i wasnt able to face. i was fearful of getting hurt. it had always been at the back of my mind. perhaps with the release of fear, i was able to face that hurt.

had to break state like really break state. took a drink read a book before moving on to guilt.

guilt was hard. it wasnt difficult to find that emotion, it was what i had been feeling for so long now. and the past, there were many guilts along the way, i kept on floating further back to the past. i couldnt picture them all. but the final pic was pretty clear to me. i was walking away leaving someone behind and there was so much guilt there. i dont why or who of course, i was just surrounded by trees and remembering just standing there in the middle of ‘nowhere’ saying over and over again ‘im sorry i had to go’, couldnt even begin to look back to who it was i was leaving. the emotion was there. not looking back was the trigger. but i told this me, the learning process, i did what i think was right at that moment and that person might had let you go. i had that small inkling it was to save that person, whoever i was leaving. cant change the past. it happened.

break state. test state.

it was exhausting. i just sat here reviewing all that i went through. or rather the me of different lifetimes whoever me was then. just sliding back in my seat. staring into space for awhile. saying thank me UM. and wondering why didnt i do this much earlier. really Seri.

but i had one the most sound sleep i had that night. woke up feeling light. i can face anything. there’s so much hardwork and difficult times, but i know i can face it and face the consequences if there is, with an open heart. there’s no heavy feeling. just monitor the emotions from now on. and heal me. but it wasnt dreading. it was uplifting.

i guess i did alright with the timeline.

grateful

second weekend of raya and i have to say i am tired from all the visitings. of course, of course, it is good and only appropriate and despite all the exhaustion, it is truely a once a year thing. i have truly nothing against it. i pretty like it still. just tired.

but alhamdulillah, visited the important people, uncles and aunts and then some, cousins who have had new houses. i actually found this year’s visits a bit more satisfying in a way. perhaps it was due to the week’s off i had on first raya week. and then spending that weekend with husband side of the family, and this second weekend with my side of the family. i did not have that’stressness’ of having to choose or feeling torn and angry at myself. even with having to go to work in the mornings of this weekend (as we just re-opened madrasah classes), and then continue on to the outings in the afternoon all the way to evening, even that does not stress me out. so im grateful. im happy. family’s happy, my parents are happy. that’s what matters.

and somehow, i loved all the dresses and baju kurungs i wore these few days. and somehow, i looked nice enough in the photos. haha. like i dont look too tired like previous years’ pics and the lipcreams ive been using also helped alot because i dont look dark lipped in the photos! im so going to keep using these lipcreams. they don’t cost a bomb either.

surprisingly, this year, celebrating my 33 years was nice too. surprise cakes from two separate occassions, one from colleagues and the other from the tweevran family. so again, alhamdulillah. for the love and care, for making me feel i deserve to be celebrated.

alhamdulillah. Thank you Lord. please protect all the people that matters to me.

birthday wish

so that poem has been playing in my head almost the whole day since morning. perhaps it came because i am a year older starting tomorrow. perhaps it came because it seems like every other person i know is getting pregnant by the dozens. ok, exaggerated. i mean, i am jealous of people who seems to be so easy to get pregnant, sometimes lost one and then poop, another one comes. like don’t they ever stop reproducing? and i am honestly sorry, but i cannot be happy seeing you with a baby bump. you, whoever you are. it’s like hi, so long never meet, and suddenly, what, another one? already? you know those awkward moments. because i don’t know how to react anymore to hearing pregnant news and you, no doubt, do not know how to react knowing i have not yet any. and then it is better to just keep quiet.

i have never really say it out loud. but hearing news after news just breaks my heart. i want to be happy for other people, but there is always a rip that i can hear in the deep core, i ended up feeling numb. and then i just retreat in my shell and pretend life goes on as usual. when it is not. because someone else will have an addition in the family, because someone else will get to be busy and start posting pictures of anything and everything related to babies, because someone else’s life has changed and i am still here. still me. still just me, no upgrades yet.

still, i am pretty much lucky and fortunate. because my aunts and uncles, even his side, never and i say, have never pressured us or questioned us. i guess, its pretty much in the family.

we will keep trying. eventually Allah will answer our prayers.

so, happy birthday to me. my wish: a baby, please.

but my wish and prayer too, that Allah protects me and my husband, and family. i have been truly blessed with so much more from Allah, that sometimes im ashamed to be yearning for a baby, because really, Allah knows better what is good and right for me. He definitely knows when i will be ready to receive His gift or otherwise. He knows the mystery of what lies ahead for me. so for all that He has bestow on me and my husband and my family, i am grateful. and saying i am grateful is not enough. i am grateful to be breathing till now and may Allah grant me longevity and health and strength to serve and accomplish what He lays ahead of me.

Ya Allah, embrace me and my husband in Your love, mercy and protection.

so much from and for this man. thank you for loving me.

ready to be me

appreciating this one week holiday even though me and hubby are not going anywhere. seriously, everyone are going somewhere globetrotting. we’ll just be a tourist in our own country and staycationing at our ‘resort’ home. hehe.

the past weekend had been fulfilling with time wellspent with both sides of the family. we watched star wars movie with my brother and father. and then a trip to the super crowded gardens by the bay in the evening. pretty with lights and a carnival going around, enjoyed the satay and i just love the walking. i had been thinking of doing more walking as part of this healthy routine i am doing and finally had it. according to sil who tracked steps with her phone, we pretty much walked about 10k steps. not bad huh.

sunday was a day spent with my sister and mother. my little sister siti is no longer little and believe it or not, she is getting engaged this January! so we went to find her a nice outfit for the event. she is such a simple and practical girl, i am proud of her. will be going to jb tomorrow to check out some things she had in mind.

i finally managed to come up with a personal mission statement. it took very long alright. i had been reading the 7 habits book and i practically stopped reading at the personal mission statement part. i know i have to write down something before i could move on. i have to say it took almost a year to perfect it i started reading 7 habits somewhere last year, mind you. and now i have the personal mission statement written everywhere. in all of my planner diaries and journals. and writing them down makes conviction and a commitment. i hope i can persevere.

 

i am ready to be me. to be. me.

 

 

return to the pen

i am now your ‘certified’ journal writer. not one not two but three journals. or rather planners and journals.

i have started writing since the start of december and i realised i couldnt stop writing. and it surprises me how much i have to tell from just one day.

why so many? i guess i want to separate my worklife from my personal life. i used to dumpl everything into one planner and then as the months go by, i saw that work took up more and more space for it and leaving little for my personal life. so now i have two planners. one purely for work and its like everyday there seems to be a new list of things to get done. covered the whole weekly page!

i have a little black book dedicated to my personal life, my habits, my list of things to do for home and family. i have to do this and make it a commitment to love my self more. and i pretty much love it.

i also have a daily journal that i have been writing nonstop. its a one page a day journal and hey, sometimes i have so many things to write within a day, i kind a have to stop and make it to another day.

i am also currently trying to write a journal which is more like a biography of sorts. who knows, it could be the start of something. may not be my story, but still a story to tell.

i am not abandoning my space, my virtual space as yet. i still love blogging. its just that there is more to write than just blog. perhaps this space could evolve.

learn and relearn

i think i can do a lot of things.

  • sewing
  • scrapbook – guestbooks/bookmarks/cards
  • blogging
  • write articles
  • creative writing

and i want to do or learn more things.

  • photography
  • photoshop
  • designing
  • cooking/baking
  • calligraphy
  • flower arrangements
  • journaling
  • book reviewing
  • tahfiz Qur’an
  • crafts
  • brooch making

i used to know/do

  • crochet
  • play the guitar
  • origami
  • beads jewelry

i have tried making

  • felt bookmarks
  • pin cushioned frames

now that i think about it, i am surprised and grateful that my parents allow me to do or learn all these crafts and i enjoyed doing them. i don’t know why i stop. especially crochet.

there are so many potential and interesting hobbies i could do and pursue, even relearn some of them.

and i must not say that i don’t have the time. i must make time. but i also need to make sure the skills i learnt are made to good use. beneficial at least to other people. tangible useful stuffs.

need some serious mind exercise and effort to really do this.

finally..complete

from the shoes perspective. haha.

i finally bought myself dr martens shoes. two pairs. as my birthday gift for myself. I’m sorry if this is going to sound materialistic but i have waited for so long to own dr martens. like seriously long.

the last time i owned a dr mart boots was during my uni years. my royal blue dr mart boots.i think i had another one before that, a maroon pair of boots.

so finally last tuesday, i was decided on dr marts. went out to orchard central, to initially just have a look and see/feel if i still have love for dr marts. turned out i feel like a girl ‘reunited’ with her most favourite thing, i couldn’t stop smiling looking at all the boots and shoes.

surprisingly though, i didn’t bought the boots. i was contemplating long and hard. i took out some faves, and tried them on. i finally decided on two which was love at first try. what happened to the boots? somehow i felt that wearing boots are a beautiful remnants of my teenage and younger days. honouring my lost maroon and blue boots. maybe simply not yet. perhaps, for now, maybe a bit of change to reflect the me now. the two pairs screams me too.

i guess, i will always be a dr marts girl.

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Al-Ma’thurat – Checked

So I set a goal this year that I will memorise the Al-Ma’thurat and makes it a habit for me to recite it every day and pray that Allah receives this as my ibadah and do’a to seek guidance from Him.

It was a goal I was not sure if I am able to achieve because my brain is not as sharp as in the younger years and I was not sure if I can allocate time to spend memorising.

but alas, I set my mind to do it. it was not without some difficulties. Al-Ma’thurat (AM) is a compilation of do’as by Imam Hasan Al-Banna that is recommended for recitation every morning and afternoon. every do’as was based on hadiths and has its benefits.

So I tried. I had a small booklet I received as part of an Al-Qur’an I bought. Actually I have tried reciting AM since last year, quite loosely. my intention was to read it every Friday morning because it was my off day I do not have to rush. so it was a once a week basis. Also I only read when I felt like it, ie, when I don’t feel like sleeping or I just have a certain extra energy in the morning. it was not a consistent thing.

Except when this year, somehow, I felt like it’s about time I take it seriously and read it everyday because, let’s face it, I’m a weak human and I need all these extra deeds to help me through. I even wrote it down in my planner as part of my habits checklist that I must read it everyday.

slowly and gradually I picked up the habit. seeing it checked day by day gives some satisfaction, although there are ‘cheat’ days still. and on ‘lazy’ days I put on a youtube video of an ustaz reciting it and follow the recitation.

somewhere somehow, it just clicked. I built up the habit, it becomes a deed that I feel complete when read, and incomplete when I miss reading it. and I guess it helps also that my ‘red days’ occur once in two months so I have longer periods for doing it after Subuh. even if I’m having my red days, I still listened to it.

the few weeks before Ramadan, I started reading it ‘memorizing’ style. I read it closed book. only when I forget a verse, I refer to my AM book and repeated it few times. and knowing my visual learning style, I had to picture the page in my mind to recall it.

and on two days before Ramadan, on 16 June 2015, that morning, I read it through, with some pauses here and there to recall the verses. and Alhamdulillah, by Ramadan, I declare myself AM memorized!!

This is such a relief and quite a deal for me because I have not memorized anything since I finish my studies, and its an indication that it is not too late to memorize! and I finally could read it without referring to the AM book throughout this Ramadan, except for one or two times when I got a bit confused on its sequence. I finally memorized it. I am so happy and grateful that I achieved this goal. I have been wanting to do this for so long and I finally did it!

Now that I have memorized AM Sughra, I am adding verses one at a time to complete it into AM Kubra. Insya Allah.

The power of the unconscious mind and setting your mind to achieve your goals and objectives. Masya Allah.