What the first 10 days of 2016 taught me

It’s the first day of February tomorrow and hooray for another month of surprise! It’s been a quite some time since my last post. Chinese New Year’s fast approaching, and it reminds me of this unpublished piece I wrote last January 11 that I’ve found from my blog drafts J

There are a bunch of words of wisdom and inspirational quotes out there but sometimes it just takes certain events in our lives for these words to sink in within our fragile hearts. And mine perhaps was the first 10 days of 2016.

1. We need no new year to start over again.

New year must be a new beginning, a fresh new start. We have this mindset that we need to start the year right to place everything right all throughout the year. This may be true, but the thing is, what if our beginnings was not the ideal start and wasn't that right? Does that mean we'd screw up the whole timeline?

No. It's only the human mind that said we have an ideal plot to follow. Even if your story began with a conflict or climax, remember that even Broadway tragedies don’t start their story that way. So, rough start doesn't mean a rough ending. Endings have nothing to do with beginnings; it's just all up to how we wage the complete battle.

So if you didn't have that "Happy New Year" everyone's been greeting you, it's okay. You could have a "Happy New Day" tomorrow J

2. Actually, we also don't even need a "Happy New Day" to start over again

We need no new year, new day, nor any other ceremonious declaration for the better change. Any moment, any next second you feel like you have to get back again, with no further ado (inhale... Exhale...), just do it.

3. "Conceal don't Feel" advice from Elsa isn't really that healthy

Studies show that holding back tears is dangerous to health. In fact, "shedding tears can be a huge and very healthy emotional release, particularly if you are experiencing deep pain, sadness, anger, or stress." http://www.everydayhealth.com/emotional-health/is-crying-healthy.aspx

https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1755&dat=19840224&id=C7gdAAAAIBAJ&sjid=u2gEAAAAIBAJ&pg=6629,3363995&hl=en

So, if we feel like crying, it's okay. It's a sign of being normal human, human with feelings. Being true to the world about your emotions was never an antonym of maturity. We just have to make sure that we release our emotions at the right environment.

4. We could feel anger without knowing it's anger

It's a trap. It starts with simple hate that later builds up, without us noticing. To avoid it, always find time to reflect and pray at the end of the day of the things that happened. When life gets hard on us, it’s difficult to see the things in life we should be thankful for. But we shouldn’t let life being hard on us harden our hearts too.

5. If plans A-Z did not work, alcohol's never the answer. Guess what?

Prayer.

Sadly as we grow older, the more we take praying for granted. The more we get too complacent of our faith. Of our “faith.”

I’ve learned from elementary that prayer is a two-way communication. But sometimes we don’t let God talk to us anymore. We take prayer shortcuts. We tend to think that “God already knows what I wanted to tell Him.”

Sometimes we already stay too high from the ground. L

That is why I’m just really thankful that the first 10 days of January let me stumble but showed me how amazing allotting even a little time for a little prayer can change everything. J

***Preceding blog post (My New Year's Resolution from Pia Wurtzbach) was written while I was taking care of my Lolo before he passed away on New Year's night.