10 Minutes Relaxation Music

Set aside 10 minutes each day to calm down your tired mind, release tension from work, close your eyes and listen to this relaxing music.

Advice From People Who Have Been Through It

It's normal reaction to see psychiatrist for anyone who suffers from depression. There is another equally effective way that is to listen to those people that actually struggled with and successfully overcome it.

Some of the advices are as follow:

- 'For anyone out there who is struggling, know that you're not alone, there are others out there going through what you are going through too.'

- 'What you feel is real and it matters. Give yourself a break, take some time off even if it's just a day on the weekend.'

- 'Get off the couch, force yourself on a walk. Make sure you're moving your body. It doesn't matter if it's dancing or joking, just move that body!'

- 'Be good to yourself, forgive yourself, be kind to yourself, you deserve it.'

- 'Write down things you are grateful for everyday. Whenever you find yourself in those dark places, stare at the list that you have written and read it out loud until you believe it. It's going to be OK. You have so much more to live for.'

Garbage In Garbage Out

In computer science language, there is this phrase called ‘garbage in, garbage out’ or GIGO in short. What it basically means is that if you input nonsense or useless information to the computer, you will get faulty output as a result. The same can be said for practically everything else in life really. If we constantly feed ourselves with junk food, we will have bad body shape or even terrible health as a result.

Unlike our physical bodies which are easy to monitor as we can observe in the mirror everyday if we want to; our mind is what we have to watch out for it is less ‘visible’. If we constantly feed negative information into our mind, we will gradually form a mental perspective that life in general is just terrible. By telling ourselves that everything around us is bad (input), we end up feeling miserable and pessimistic (output).

The Christchurch mosque mass shooting in March 2019 is a perfect example of how bad input to the mind can cause horrible reaction in the physical world. In the midst of his shooting frenzy, the shooter filmed the entire process via Facebook live in an angle that look very much like a first person shooter game. By consistently feeding virtual reality into his mind, sadly it projected into reality in the real world. Perhaps this unfortunate incident may be prevented if the accused was playing Candy Crush instead.

Our mind is a very powerful tool given to us by GOD as a gift, we have to sacredly protect it, nurture it and grow it in a positive way. Think of our mind as a garden, if we are really so busy with our daily lives, we have to at least pull out the weed every now and then to prevent it from overgrown and dominate our entire garden. To go one step further is to obviously nurture the garden by applying fertiliser that will give nutrients to the soil. Our reward will be more beautiful flowers and bigger fruits in our gardens.

Proverbs Chapter 4 Verse 23 summarizes this point succinctly: ‘Be careful how you think; your life is shaped by your thoughts.’ How true this is! 

在电脑学里，有一个口头谈“垃圾进，垃圾出”。它的基本含义是，如果您把垃圾讯息输入电脑，你将得到糟糕的答案。我们的人生岂不是一样吗？如果我们不断吃快餐，那么我们就会变胖甚至也会影响到我们的健康。

我们的思想也是如此。它是上帝赐予我们的一种非常有力的工具，我们必须保护它，培育它和让它能继续成长。

箴言第4章第23节总结了这一点：“注意你的想法; 因它将影响你的人生。” 

How To Avoid Depression When There Is No International Travel

Still can’t believe that we are almost three weeks into 2021. Come 1^st February, we will be marking the first anniversary of Australia’s international border closure. We may have survived 2020 but we are yet out of the woods. This is confirmed by Dr. Brendan Murphy, Australia’s Health Department Chief today. Dr. Murphy foresees that there will be no international travel for Australian in 2021. Although the Australian government has planned to bring forward its vaccination plan to end of February, it does not mean that everything will be back to normal as soon as we put that needle into our arms. Dr. Brendan Murphy based his prediction on scientific ground. He is confident about the effectiveness of the vaccines to prevent us from being infected. However, nobody is currently sure that those who have been vaccinated cannot still infect other people.

It is an understatement to say that I was disappointed when I first read the news. Before Covid-19 hit, I used to travel back to Penang, Malaysia from Melbourne every year. Last year needless to say I was stuck in Australia and now realized that I may have to spend my 2021 Christmas in Melbourne again. If there is one common thing that Covid-19 has done to all our lives is that we can’t make plans anymore.

I’m sure that I’m not alone in this situation. There are lots of other people all around the world being separated from their loved ones thanks to the pandemic. We basically have two choices, one is to feel helpless and depressed, or there is a better way. Instead of focusing on things that we can’t control, why don’t channel our energy onto something we have control of, the way we response to the situation. We can take this opportunity to slow down and ponder upon our lives. Take this extra time that is now made available since we can’t fly to re-prioritize our personal values and goals.

If I have to name one positive thing that comes out of this pandemic, I’ll call it reflection. We now have the luxury of reflecting on ourselves and explore inwards to investigate what our lives are all about. It definitely isn’t about running around like a headless chicken which we used to do daily in pursuit of materialistic goals. For me, I realized that Covid-19 taught me to cherish family even more from now on. It also gives me opportunity to reassess my relationship with others and with GOD.

The reason why depression is common illness in modern times is because people overestimate in themselves and constantly aiming for higher achievements simply because others around them are also doing it. It is this Fear of Missing Out (FOMO) that makes our lives so competitive and stressful. Too much attention has been focused on ourselves and we believe that everything is within our grasp and control. Covid-19 has proved to us that regardless of how positive minded or rich you are, we are all vulnerable when facing this invisible enemy. It turns out that we are not so great and powerful after all.

Christians believe that GOD is the only ONE who has control of everything. Accept that we are vulnerable, start praying and open our ears. You will be surprise what you can hear when you open yourselves up. Whatever your faith is, rest assured that there is a greater force than all of us. Make use of this down time to tap into that universal force and start healing our souls. Stay safe and pray for each other.

我仍然不能相信，我们已经差不多进入2021年的第三个星期了。2021年2月1日将是澳大利亚关闭国际航线的第一周年。我们虽然已辛苦的度过2020年，但我们仍然还没有走出困境。澳大利亚卫生部局长布伦丹·墨菲（Brendan Murphy）博士今天证实了这一点。墨菲博士预测澳大利亚将不会在2021年重新开放国际边界。尽管澳大利亚政府计划将其疫苗接种计划提前到2月底，但这并不意味着一旦我们接种一切就会恢复正常。布伦丹·墨菲（Brendan Murphy）博士的预测基于科学根据。他对疫苗预防我们被感染的有效性充满信心。但是，目前尚无人能确定已接种疫苗的人不会感染其他人。

这新闻令我很失望。在Covid-19之前，我每年圣诞假期都会从墨尔本回到马来西亚的槟城。去年很明显我不能回去，现在看来今年圣诞节又得在澳洲度过了。

我深信我在这种处境下并不孤单。全世界还有更多人被逼与亲人分离。我们基本上有两种选择，一就是感到无助和沮丧。或我们可以将精力集中在我们可以控制的事情上。我们可以借此机会放慢脚步，沉思我们的生活。

我们可以反思自己，并重新探索我们的内心世界。绝对不要再回去我们过去为了追求物质目标而每天迷糊奔波的日子。对我来说，我意识到Covid-19教会我更懂得去珍惜家人。这也使我有机会重新评估我与他人和神之间的关系。

在现代社会中，抑郁症是一种常见疾病，其原因在于人们高估自己的能力，不断追求更高的成就，因为周围的人也是这样做。正是这种对错过的恐惧使我们的生活充满竞争和压力。太多的注意力都集中在自己身上，我们相信一切都在我们的掌握和控制当中。但是Covid-19向我们证明了，无论您有多积极向上或有多富裕，当面对这个无形的敌人时，人人都非常脆弱。事实证明，我们毕竟不是我们想象中的那么伟大。

基督徒相信只有神是唯一能够掌控一切的。我们必须接受我们的脆弱，开始祈祷并睁大耳朵聆听神的话。

Gratitude On A Rainy Day

The Covid-19 pandemic has wrecked havoc to the global supply chain. Every corners of the world are experiencing shortage of PPE and other essential items that we used to take for granted. To make matter worse, people rushed to the supermarkets and started hoarding products like toilet papers, pasta and other food supplies. Here in Australia, the government has to constantly reminds the people that supplies are sufficient and advise not to hoard unnecessarily. Seriously, are you going to do your business in the toilets several times a day that you need to stock up one year of supply?

To further complicate the problems we all face, one thing ironically has no shortage during this unprecedented times; that is negativity. We are bombarded with negative news several times a day on a daily basis. People complain about conspiracy theories, reluctant to wear masks, unwilling to isolate etc.

We should instead cultivate the habit of being grateful of what we have. It has been raining the whole day since the morning. Melbourne temperature plunges to below 10 degrees celsius. It is currently sitting at 8 degrees but felt more like 3 degrees when the wind blows. However, I'm grateful that I'm able to stay indoor with my heater on full blast (not that I have a choice to go out during Stage 4 Lockdown anyway). Feel great that I can sit down, quiet my mind and write this block while it is wet and cold outside. Satisfied that I can take a sip of my hot coffee while enjoying the rest of the afternoon.

There are many things around us that we can be grateful of. Start counting our blessing.

Weed and Feed

Anxiety is the most common mental disorder in the modern society today affecting around 7 percent of the world population. Thanks to our fast paced life and multi-tasking work culture, people are becoming increasingly difficult to relax! More serious case can even lead one to depression.

Picture this scenario: a person gets extremely anxious on the busy highway after driving for long hours without having a good sleep the previous nights. He is physically tense and unable to enjoy the ride. He is tired physically and his brain starts to behave strangely. Negative thoughts start creeping in every now and then while he is driving and that leads to fear of having trapped in that situation. The traffic jam doesn't help and is making him worry that he may stuck in that situation and can't escape. He starts to think that what if he suddenly has an emergency situation and the ambulance can't get to him in time due to the jam. He becomes desperate and wants to get out of that situation ASAP! The fear starts the vicious cycle in his mind that tells him that he is in danger even though we know that isn't true.

Have you experience the above episode before? If you have you most like have anxiety disorder without knowing it. A few simple things you can do to reduce chance of that happening:

• Have enough sleep the night before you going on a road trip.
• Stop more regularly along the way, come out from your car and do some stretching exercises.
• Take deep and slow breaths. This shall calm you down.
• Being mindful, stop your mind from wandering all over the places.
• Listen to soothing music and enjoy the freedom of driving!

One important thing to note is that anxiety is largely caused by the brain. Imagine the brain as the beautiful garden at home. The garden requires constant maintenance and care. If left unattended, weed starts to grow very quickly. There is a product available at the store calls 'Weed and Feed'. When you spray 'Weed and Feed' in your garden, it will kill the weed while providing the much needed nutrition to your Buffalo lawn. The first time I saw this product on the shelf, I thought to myself "What a great idea!?" The same principle applies to our mind, we have to constantly feed our mind with positive information in order to get rid of negative thoughts. This has to be done regularly until we completely kill anxiety and can enjoy modern day driving once more.