☾ the moon is watching over you

23. My mind poured in a blog. ★ 

[werenotreallystrangers]

[toscabernardino]

This has always been one of the most impactful questions I have encountered. It makes you think. It forces you to actually think about the last time you felt appreciated.When was it? Was it when you affirmed yourself for being productive and accomplishing everything on your to-do list? Was it when a stranger uttered a soft "thank you" when you helped him/her with something that wasn't even grand? Was it when your boss told you that you contribute so much to the team? Was it when your friend told you he/she felt so much better after you two talked? Was it when your mom thanked you for helping with the chores? Was it recent? Was it a long time ago? When was it?Recall. Consciously. Think about it.You are appreciated, even for the little, underrated things that you do. Go back to the times you felt loved and valued. Embrace those times.Thinking about this, maybe it can also serve as a reminder for us to be more expressive when we appreciate someone else. What's hard in telling that person that you appreciate him/her or even just one simple act that he/she has done? It's a good practice, right? Here's to hoping that we continuously express gratitude and appreciation to ourselves and to others. I'm sure that the world would be a better place with that.

[toscabernardino]

Knowing yourself should be a priority. No matter how old we get, there is always something to learn more about ourselves. And that gives us an infinite opportunity for growth and excellence.

Know yourself. What makes you laugh? What makes you cry? What is the thing you are most passionate about? What puts you in the state of flow? Where would you go to feel at peace? What is your best childhood memory? What is your greatest fear? What do you strive to be? What do you look for in a partner? How do you want to be remembered?

It's not a one-time reflection. It takes conscious effort to really get to know yourself, and you know what? It's worth it. You move forward, you grow, you thrive in life, but I hope that you keep in mind the important things, people and events you encounter along the way.

Take time to know yourself.

[toscabernardino]

For the longest time, humans try to conceal their deepest, darkest fears, thoughts, and habits, just to subtly convince others that they are worthy of love. But no matter how hard you conceal, suddenly, or gradually, it will surface. So what if you're vulnerable and emotional? So what if you've made terrible mistakes in the past? So what if you've experienced rejections and trauma? Aren't you capable of learning and growing? That's what's important. And you can't expect people to stay by your side if you present just the pleasant things about you.At the end of the day, it's best to stick and show our authentic self. And there's nothing better than being loved for who we truly are. Besides, I know that we all have the chance and choice to be wonderful persons, both inside and out. It will surely be hard and uncomfortable to just take off our mask and let go but it will give you peace, and you're going to be loved for the right reasons.

[toscabernardino]

It’s been almost two years since I wrote here. A lot has happened. Boy, life has no chill. We are still in the middle of a pandemic and I sincerely pray every day for things to get better soon. I can’t wait to wake up to better days. Personally, I am doing well. I haven’t gone out of the house for two months already and I don’t really mind. I don’t consider myself as someone who’s outgoing so it doesn’t really bother me that I cannot go out. I established my routine while on quarantine, and I try to maximize all the time and resources I have now. I have been meditating, reading books, working out, watching online courses and webinars, watching good movies, while still focusing on my work and graduate school. I honestly feel productive and healthy. Despite what’s happening, I chose to reframe my perspective and make this quarantine an opportunity for me to take care of myself and do things that make my soul happy and alive. I have also faced a difficult time even before this crisis and it makes me smile to think and know that I am in a much better place now. I made so much progress. I am moving forward, learning, and growing. Other than that, I am glad that my family is safe, and I get to spend more time with them here at home.

On the other hand, I genuinely feel sad and sorry for those people who are infected by the virus, their families and those whose lives were greatly affected by this crisis. Plenty of people lost their source of income, and I can only imagine how badly it impacts them. I know that a lot has also been experiencing anxiety and other mental health problems. Good Lord, may they find the right ways to cope. Bless them with what they need to feel better. Of course, salute to all the front liners who lay their lives on the line every single day to serve other people. Our heroes, indeed.

Here’s to waking up to better days. Stay safe and healthy, friends.

[toscabernardino]

DESTINY

(noun des·ti·ny \ ˈdes-tə-nē \)

a predetermined course of events often held to be an irresistible power or agency (https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/destiny)

 Is destiny really a thing??

Part of me wants to believe in it. It sounds so full of hope. But, I just can’t. I am a strong believer that we make our own choices. We get to decide. We do one thing now and it affects the future. I do believe that 90% of the things in life, we can control. The other 10%? We cannot. Which are natural occurring phenomena and.. oh well, it takes basic knowledge to know that there are really things that are out of our control. It is also true that we cannot control an event, but we can control how we react to it. Going back to destiny.. Actually, I’d like to think that people tend to believe and hold on to this “destiny” thing for positivity. Just so they can reason it out for something that happens, especially when something bad happens. Like when things don’t work out and somebody tells you “Maybe it’s destined to be like that.”…. Okay…. I ain’t buying that. I mean, thanks for trying to cheer me up but it’s not realistic, right? I don’t know. It’s just that, for me, destiny isn’t reasonable. If so, then we could just go with the flow and do whatever because why would we stress ourselves knowing there’s already a fixed future for us. It’s just me. I have nothing against people who believe in destiny. I like people who are positive. To be honest, I kind of hope I had enough positivity in me as well. But for me, it’s smarter to look at the realistic perspective – just in between positivity and negativity. Besides, if we don’t just rely on destiny, we’d make better decisions in life, I guess. And that’s a good thing. So, yeah...

[toscabernardino]

Huge step closer

A lot has happened and the year is almost ending. Where did time go??? It seems like everything happened so fast. I just passed the board exam anyway. Your girl is now a registered psychometrician. This is just a step, but a huge step towards achieving my ambition in life. Hopefully, things turn out as planned. I am not expecting but I am really hopeful. Lately, I have spent weeks alone in my room reading books, singing my heart out to songs that I have always loved, just lying on the bed, contemplating, thinking about random things, sometimes just doing nothing. But in a few weeks, another big change is coming because I am going to have my first job. I look forward to it but it kind of makes me nervous, you know. I can’t help it. But I hope I would be able to do well and enjoy it.

The months I spent reviewing for the board exam have been literally a blur for me. There were days I’d prefer to do anything other than studying. I underestimated the time but when there’s just barely a month left before the board exam, I crammed and the anxiety in me was almost eating me alive. I must say it’s a shame I didn’t use all the time I had wisely. But I know I did my best to study everything weeks before the board exam. It was effective, though. I passed. It’s very satisfying and heartdropping to see my name on the list. I felt sad for those who didn’t, of course. I felt a little shy to comfort them but I wanted them to know I am still proud of them. Everyone exerted effort just so we could pass and that’s something to be proud of. We may have done things for the first time just for the sake of that exam. I think, that alone, is an achievement.

I passed and I am very grateful. I consider this another beginning. May I be able to do my responsibilities as an RPm and may the heavens bless me with the guidance I need.

Have a great day!

[toscabernardino]

2017

It’s the third day of the year. Yesss, HOLA 2017! I am both scared and excited for the things that’s going to happen this year. But I don’t wanna talk much about what’s yet to happen.

2016 has been...................... good? Lol hey, not to sound really optimistic or unrealistic but it’s really a good year because we survived right? So much has happened. We lost and gained opportunities, friends, pounds?? Haha. We had a lot of disappointments but we stood up. We broke down and cried so hard before we were able to sleep but we woke up stronger. We failed but we learned. We felt like we weren’t enough but we realized we can do much better. We felt like giving up but we held on tighter. I love 2016. God has always been there, loving me and protecting me from all harmful people and thoughts and things. And on 2017, I am hopeful for a year filled with love, joy and kindness. I just always wish for the best and I hope everyone, including me, would experience not only what we want, but what we should experience.

Have a great and blessed 2017, everyone. :)

[toscabernardino]

It’s 7:17 in the evening and I should be reviewing for two long quizzes tomorrow. But obviously, here I am, talking about how lazy I am right now. If you’re guessing I am gonna rant about the massive amount of school work I have so far, nope, I am not. I am going to try to motivate myself. It’s quite ironic though that I am going to motivate myself through writing this blog post instead of just reviewing. But anyway, you get it.

There are tons of things for me to do at this moment. Quizzes, homeworks, requirements everywhere. And it’s definitely because I am graduating and finally leaving college in less than a year. I can’t fully absorb that yet, but it excites me. I keep in mind that all these hardships will pay off. Some days in the future, I am going to look back and think of how worthy all these are. I promised myself that I am going to be where I wanna be, eventually. And that promise is enough for me to just work harder on school. Of course there are days my motivation are so damn reaching the lowest level, but that doesn’t mean I am just going to leave everything just as is.

One thing that’s really important and helpful is to never lose sight of your goal. It’s the cheapest and apparently, an effective way to stay focused because if you keep your mind on your goal, you’re automatically gonna reach the high level of motivation you need. Get your ass up and work on yourself for your goals. It’s okay to rant because we’re free to do that, but it’s better to avoid it by just doing what you have to do. By that, you’re gonna have nothing to rant about anymore.

I hope I am making sense here but anyway, I am writing these things for myself and it’s helping, I must say. Ciao, Imma work on some school stuff in a bit. Best of luck, self!

[toscabernardino]

It is afternoons like this where I just lay on my bed, contemplating on how things are going and how my life has changed. For the past months, my blog has been on a hiatus. And it’s because I was occupied by so many things, mostly school, of course. Now that it’s summer vacation, I can finally write again. Okay so, I can’t really think of a good topic to write about but I have been keeping myself motivated enough to reach my ambition and here I am, one school year away from graduating college. If you think I’m going to talk about my past three years in college here, no. That would be for an after-college graduation blog post. Instead, I am here to write about the things keeping me inspired enough to work on my goals like what I said earlier.

I can’t believe I’m down to my last year on college. How did time pass by so fast? It was just like yesterday when I was struggling and finding a really hard time coping with college life. I am so excited to graduate. It means I’m getting closer and closer to reaching my ambition. Now I’m not really the type of person to tell everyone what I exactly wanna be when I get older but, we all wanna be successful right? So to keep myself motivated, I always search for articles and read about successful psychologists. It helps me.

Also, if you wanna be successful, you should find time to relax. It’s never about cramming and rushing to get where you wanna be. It’s about taking the time to gain enough experience to learn and pursue what you want. It may take a really long time but what matters most is that you’ll get there. There are gonna be circumstances that may lessen your motivation to work hard but those are the things you should avoid. Your ambition should always be greater than the negativity that will come your way. Because, if you get through those negativity one by one, and slowly, you get one step closer to your ambition and that’s a really great progress. I know I hold my future so I am doing the best I can to be the person I have always wanted to be. I don’t believe in fate. We make our own fate. So if you want to be successful someday, you should be goal-oriented and you better work hard to reach your goal. After all, it would give us a great feeling to imagine that after all these hard work and sleepless nights and struggles and breakdowns, we can say that it was all worth it. These things will be worth it. And I can’t wait to be successful! This is enough motivation for me. I hope you also keep your eyes on your ambition. Good luck! :)

[toscabernardino]

I’m still stuck wondering how people grow up. Yes, maturity is not proportional to age. Just like how a cliche saying goes, just because you grow old doesn’t mean you grow up. They say that life’s challenges help us grow as individuals. I hope it’s really that easy. Some people have encountered lots of ups and downs already. I mean, you know, we all have. But some never seem to grow up. I’m not the type of person to hold grudges because I know that it’s not good for myself. I don’t wanna spend my life with hurt, pain, disappointment and anger inside me. We all need to let go. After all, holding those grudges won’t cause us any good. So might as well just drop them. I always find time to reflect on things and analyze situations in my life so most of the time, I choose to be just quiet and understand what other people are going through. But have you ever told yourself “How are these people going to grow up and learn if people around them just remain silent and try to understand them?” It confuses  me, big time. Nobody is ever small-minded but lots of people are close-minded. How do we help them open their minds and grow up? I badly wanna help them. If only there is a way, I’d willingly do it. But it remains a question to me and one day, soon enough, I hope they find their peace of mind and just go on with their lives. There’s more to life than stressing yourself over things and people who don’t even care about you.

Do yourself a favor. Focus on the things that matter. Focus on the things and people that you know will help you grow as a better individual.

[unapologetically-human]

Not all toxic people are cruel and uncaring. Some of them love us dearly. Many of them have good intentions. Most are toxic to our being simply because their needs and way of existing in the world force us to compromise ourselves and our happiness. They aren’t inherently bad people, but they aren’t the right people for us. And as hard as it is, we have to let them go. Life is hard enough without being around people who bring you down, and as much as you care, you can’t destroy yourself for the sake of someone else. You have to make your wellbeing a priority. Whether that means breaking up with someone you care about, loving a family member from a distance, letting go of a friend, or removing yourself from a situation that feels painful — you have every right to leave and create a safer space for yourself.

(via fearlessknightsandfairytales)

[midnightjellys]

Ok like I’m here for the whole “if it doesn’t make you happy, don’t do it” movement but like, be smart, yeah? Don’t just quit your job out of the blue, even if it is soul sucking, get another job first. Don’t just kick your roommate out because you aren’t getting along, talk to them first. And don’t say absolutely everything that pops into your mind, because discretion will save your ass on occasion. I’m not saying you can’t live authentically, but be smart.

[psych-facts]

Any time you talk to anyone about something that they love, they’re, like, their most beautiful. It’s a cool gift to get to talk to people about what they love.

(via abbeystorey)

[i-love-art]

[rachelbennettdraws]

[erosboi-deactivated20130619]