Laughing Out a Stress

I was sitting at my eight hour nursing orientation class yesterday and the speaker infused some videos for us to watch. One of the videos was about "Laughing Out a Stress" presented by a renowned comedienne and expert in discussing about stress at the job.

It was a very informative video and a funny one, too. I totally laughed out my self at it and I was entertained extremely and at the same time educated well about busting out stress.

One of the recommendation she made was about discovering your self first. She says that once you don't know your self you cannot handle your self in a crisis situation which to me makes sense a lot.

How can one tackle a problem if he or she doesn't know him or her self? Self discovery is essential because you'll know the limitations of your self and you know when and how to react when confronted with such very difficult decisions.

She also recommends to make a joy list which can infuse you something positive. Making a joy list can make you smile at the situation. She says that a dose of laughter a day can kill stress.

Laughter stimulates your body to circulate some hormones to bust some endorphins that caused you depression and sadness. It makes your circulation better and exercise your facial muscles at the same time thereby preventing the occurence of wrinkles. It makes people ageless and decrease their physical age by ten years.

The second recommendation she made was to commune with nature all the time. We must go out there and enjoy what the beauty of nature has to offer to us. It gives us peacefulness and calmness at the same time.

Nature can inspire us and gives us positive energy. The energy emanating from the living things around us like the trees and the beautiful flowers we see around us can make us more refreshed and energize. So always take it a habit to go out and refresh yourself with the beauty of nature.

The fresh air we breath, the swaying of the tree branches, the beauty of the space around you, the music of the waves kissing the sand at the beach, the chirps of the crickets in the afternoon in your backyard, the beauty of the flying eagle soaring and spreading its wings in the vast blue skies and others that creates a beautiful picture in our minds soothes our inner being and bring us calmness and refreshing thoughts.

The third recommendation she gave was give a gift to make people happy. Helping other people to make happy can make your burden easy. It takes away some aches in your heart and it makes your heart healthy.

It takes some good acts to make a heart skip a beat. It can touch our inner feelings to help something thereby making your self fulfilled and your subject happy. It relieves you from being downtrodden and gives you contentment in life.

A dose of philantrophy gives someone relief in easing the ills of society. And it gives you a good feeling to help somebody making them happy. It is never hard to help others when in need. It is God-like and very inspiring to help others. It is one of the awesome job we can do. It is never boring at all.

The fourth one was "Think happy thoughts." She says, "Thinking positively infuse some positive energy and vice versa." Which I think has a lot of truth to it.

Being pessimistic only does harm to your self. It not only gives you a negative energy but also can ruin your thinking and stay you out of focus which is not good either to all the people that surrounds you. You see every body gets affected and it will make your life miserable.

The last recommendation she made is "Move joyfully." Which she meant like act happy and smile all the time. She says; "Celebrate every moment with a smile." A smile can lighten and brighten up a day whereas a frown can kill the joys brought by a smile.

A smile can be likened to a fireworks. When lighted it will soar up to the sky and create a big bang emanating different sparks of joy and makes someone happy seeing the colorful sparks it just bursted out. It is self-fulfilling to see one.

Jumping and celebrating for joy can again increase your circulation to your system and kicks every organ in your body to function well. It can get rid of the formation of plaques in your vessels because the circulation is working at a high speed.

Life is never easy. We always have to think positively in order to carry out our tasks easily. It's just like a spoke of the wheel which needs a lot of collateral circulation in order to turn around and move the vehicle.

So we must enjoy every minute of our life for yesterday will be a history, today will be a day to celebrate, and tomorrow will be another day to anticipate. We cannot go back to what is past but we can still make up for what is to happen.

Follow these recommendations of busting out a stress and your life will be easier and meaningful in the end. I myself need to infuse this every day because I tend to realize that I only live once and I can still shape up the future.

It's never too late to give this a chance and life would be a better thing to enjoy all the time. Aaah....... I am glad I was in that class!

It Takes a Lot of Guts

Last week, it was just another turning point for my life. I just can't stop thanking God for giving me the courage to have spent the whole week successfully.

I started to decide to move up my scope of practice to the Emergency Department from my seven years of acute pediatric floor experience. It dawned to me that I missed my action days in PICU and NICU so I decided to up-tempo my hospital experiences and added the emergency field to my wide array of nursing experiences.

Although I have been floated and exposed to the emergency department several times, I still wanted to really feel the pressures and stresses it has to offer. None-the-less it is the area most of the nurses were being frontlined and exposed to all kinds of diseases which could either challenge them profesionally or harm them healthwise.

My decisions to transfer to this very challenging unit was to challenge my self extensively in the adult field apart from the pediatric field I've been used to for eighteen years. For sure this department will offer me more opportunities to learn every day as I will encounter a lot of very challenging cases, patients, people, colleagues, and diseases along the way.

I don't know what came into my mind why I changed departments so suddenly but one thing I am sure about it were the challenges I am going to encounter along the way which I could be sure will make me more stronger and resilient to hurdle life's every day atrocities.

I started the application process last April of this year and I had met a lot of hurdles along the way calling the recruiter several times after he informed me that my application was been considered. It took me three months to contact him, have I not initiated to ask help from my cousin who worked as a manager in one of the department to bug him and try to reconsider my application.

The second setback I met was actually my health requirements approval. Despite of my inability to hear, I struggled so much during the physical exam because my hearing aids were so brand new that time and was still under the process of testing and evaluating. Of all the days of doing it it fell during the day of my physical exam which eventually almost had prevented me from being cleared in starting for my hospital orientation.

Good thing the employee health doctor had given me another chance to come back the next week to finalized my health requirements which apparently was been successful after I came back to my audiologist and had the device fixed and double checked. Whew! I almost slipped my chance to be accepted in the emergency department.

I started my orientation on Monday and so far that was a very successful day for me. I still have a lot of apprehensions about what I put my self into but I am still positive that every thing will be in good hands with God's guidance. It's just that I just realized that I am there already and couldn't go back anymore. It's too late to go back to square again. Life is not just that easy.

Now that I am here, my third setback had arised (not just that I wanted it but I have no control about it). My schedule for my school's clinicals were getting in the way of my hospital orientation process so I have to decide right there and then which weighed so much for me.

I took the courage to asked permission personally from my DON from school to reconsider my request because I really needed their consideration and understanding at this moment in time, now that I got what I wished for and made a promise to him to make ammends once this ones will be over. Good thing all my requests were granted and I just can't thank God for siding on me this time.

Now all my schedules were fixed including my oncoming vacation to Dominican Republic for my volunteer work. I know God is really too good because He made all these possible without any obstacles at all including this mini-vacation I have to do in between this orientation process which was been also approved by my new emergency department manager. Thank you Lord!

I just couldn't express my happiness that every thing went well as of this time and that hopefully every thing will be okay until I get absorbed in the unit and finished my probationary period. It really took a lot of guts to have hurdled all these obstacles and without God's help and the help of the people around me I couldn't made it through eventually.

Now, I am happy with the outcome and as I tackled my orientation process smoothly I just couldn't help myself teary-eyed looking back to all those hindrances I have to pass and made through. It just made me a more accomplished person in the end. Hallelujah!

Love Lessons

Well, they say that love is universal but one thing for sure that we must remember we must always leave something for ourselves when it comes to love. We couldn't show our love unless we start it on ourselves. We must love ourselves first before loving somebody.

There are many forms of love but the most that really affects us emotionally is the love we gave to our love ones and special someone be it familial or romantic. Love is always hard to fathom.

Familial love is the first one we always learn. The love of a mother and father, siblings, and relatives was the first one we always experienced. Then as we grow older we experienced love to a greater heights, a love with our opposite sex and get romantically involved with them. It always feels good to be in love.

A romantic love is really a complicated kind of love. There are a lot of facades and faces about this kind of love. It is not my forte and I am not really an expert with this kind of love but I have some valid observations, close encounters, and mutual experiences from close friends and people around me that gave me a vivid idea about this aspect of love.

Sometimes we got too engrossed with a romantic love. We tend to get drown with it and have forgotten to leave some little respect for ourselves. We tend to forget about the very important people in our lives and come to a point not heeding their concerns and advises because we are overly involved with it then it will be too late for us to go back when we realized that we were wrong about our own immature decisions.

We tend to rebel to all the people around us when we a romantically involved with somebody. We tend to get high and imbibe well of the emotional feelings that a romantic love can offer us and all of a sudden we then realized that we dropped ourselves suddenly from the zenith we were at during that turbulent emotional experience.

All I can say, in order to get back to where we are we should leave something meaningful for ourselves. We shouldn't give every thing in all out way a hundred percent when were on a roller-coaster ride with a romantic love. In that, if ever we fell down many times we still stay grounded in the end.

Some says they feel crazy when they were in love. Yes.... being a fool is a normal feeling. Every body had experienced it but as a simple reminder we should always be mature enough with our decisions rather than being impulsive with it.

At least we know where we're at and know how to trouble shoot ourselves just in case we were emotionally hurt. Yes.... it hurts to get heartbroken yet at least we know that we can bounce back eventually if we are prepared for the consequences of our impulsive decisions and actions. We all make mistakes.

So next time, if you got involved romantically please leave a little bit of respect for yourself and always stay grounded. Don't over do it for the sake of love. Always leave something for yourself and know where to bounce back. Be smart enough and always think of the consequences of your actions in that every thing would be easy for you to go back where you started in the end.

Always make prudent decisions and give time for yourself to think over your decisions a million times. It takes a lot of guts to get involve romantically. They say love can move mountains. Despise not all but love yet nobody prevents you from expressing those internal feelings called romantic love.

So whatever decisions you make later on always be sure to make your decisions wisely, stay grounded and humble, be mature with every thing you do, and leave a little respect for yourself. Keep your faith that every thing is possible. In that life would be fulfilling and your experiences in love will blossom happily till the end of time.

Feel good, love good, and decide good about your love experiences. Take care of your self and good luck in your search for a true love. My prayers to you and your love ones as well as your special someone. Feel loved to a maximum, leave something for your self, and always look back where you came from.

Life's Analogy

They say life can be compared to a lot of things. And it depends on a persons interpretation how to get some lessons from it. I've been living beyond my prime now and I always never stop learning every day. Every day is always a learning process for me.

This process had made me strong enough to be a man. A person I am now. I am happy with what God had inspired me, my parents had taught me, my teachers had instilled in me, my friends had influenced me, and the people around me who gave me something to pick up along the way which had made me into what I am. Never been better had I not learned from them and I am thankful for what they are never the less.

There are two analogies about life I am going to lay out here now. This is a more simple analogy which needs a lot of understanding, yet sensitive enough for us to learn upon. The complexities of the lessons is beyond compare and I hope this will instill more wisdom to each one of us to get inspired and keep learning every day.

Life can be compared to an empty glass. It is hallow and void. It is pristine inside. It needed to be filled up constantly in order to get full. Every day life is not easy. We tend to pick up some lessons to learn day by day.

As we fill the empty glass with drops of water, each drop represents the lessons we've learned every day and picked up along the way. We never stopped learning until we are satisfied like filling that empty glass with drops of water up to the brim until it overflows.

Each level represents our stages in life. From childhood to adulthood until we get old. And as we fill our life with lessons learned every day we tend to develop the wisdom as we grow old. Life is always a learning process. We never stop learning each day until we understand about ourselves.

Learning each day is always a struggle. Sometimes we tend to hurry up by opening our faucets full blast in order to fill our empty glass right away. This makes it a lot complicated because we tend to drown ourselves without control. Sometimes we take time by filling our glass with drops of water and this makes our tasks more calm and slow thereby picking up the lessons easily. It makes our life more controlled and programmed.

Our life depends on how we fill our glass with water but for sure I know we never stop learning each day and the method you learn depends on how you pace yourself whether opening the faucet full blast or opening it drop by drop.

Another comparison I wanted to share is a burning candle. Standing tall at first and all melted when being used up. A candle can be scented or just plain bland or may be plain white or colorful. Life can also be like the candle, white or colorful, scented or bland but it all depends on how we use it up.

As we burn the candle we are also getting to the end of our life. We can burn it fast by putting a lot of oxygen or air inside the room to make the combustion rapid or place the candle inside a votive to melt it slowly. We can lit the candle all night long to finish it up or we can put it up from time to time when we only need it until it's done.

As we grow, our life depends on how we handle our own candles. We can abuse our body and infuse a lot of things in it to make it worn out. Like drinking alcohol or eating non-nutritious foods which can clog up our arteries thereby making us sick. Or we can take care of it by pampering ourselves and eat a balance diet and live a healthy lifestyle.

Which ever way you choose it all depends on you. Life is just an empty glass waiting to be filled up with water until it overflows or a burning candle that is melting up to the end.

Lessons To Ponder

Hi guys!I have three stories to share with you. I just can't keep this to myself. I know this one will give a lot of lessons to everyone who happened to bump on this blog.

As I was working for my clinical class at Catered Manor Nursing Home in Long Beach, California I happened to read this passages from a picture frame plastered on the walls at the conference room we were staying at.

These stories looks so inspiring that I just can't let it stay there in that lonely conference room. So without further ado here they are:

***** Making a Difference ******

An old man walked up a shore littered with thousands of starfish, beached and dying after a storm. A young man was picking them up and flinging them back into the ocean. "Why do you bother?" The old man scoffed. "You're not saving enough to make a difference." The young man picked up another starfish and sent it spinning back to the water. "Made a difference on that one.", he said. Yes.... we can all make a difference everyday.

Lesson Learned: "Our acts right now is for the future." It is not too late to make your goals happen. We should always have to make a change in our life while we're still young but having to start it later also doesn't matter. In doing so we can make a difference for our future generations so that your children and your children's children can enjoy it.

***** The Power of Team *****

The flightless fairy penguin of Australia stands less than a foot tall and is clumsy on land where the fox is it's natural enemy. Alone, one penguin wouldn't survive for long. So, after each day in the water, they gather where the surf meets the shore, waiting until the last penguin joins them. Then shoulder to shoulder they march up the beach to their burrows. They support each other. And everyone except the fox, wins. We're a stronger team because of you.

Lesson Learned: "United we stand, divided we fall." There is always perfection if we do it together. We always survive and surpass our atrocities if we grow and nurture together. Together we can achieve success, alone is instability. There is power in many!

***** Together Everyone Achieves More *****

With every flaps of its wings, the lead bird in a flight of Canada geese is breaking through a wall of air, creating a swirling vortex that provides a "push" for each follower. Some estimates show that the geese in a V-formation can fly as much as seventy percent further than they could fly alone. It's exhausting work for the lead bird, but Canada geese, have an answer to that, too: They take turns. When the leader drops back, another takes it's place. It's good to be flying together with you.

Lesson Learned: "We can achieve further if we take turns." Monopolizing an act will slow the whole process. Each one of us has a unique talent and we should come out there to show that to the whole world and share it to achieve progress. The world is a stage and each one of us has a part to play. Play it well.

I hope these meaningful and inspirational lessons can help you in pondering what's good or bad. Get out there and reach out!

If It Meant To Be, It Will Be Yours

I was so worried about my fate for my pre-employment application last week at Long Beach Memorial Medical Center. Because of one slight mistake I almost slipped my chance to get in that prestigious and well-known hospital. Thank God I finally got it.....

Last week was a crappy week for me. My mind was been reeling until now and I cannot concentrate well because I was so worried about the opportunity that I almost lost from the palm of my hands. Good thing God had answered all my fervent prayers.

After my pre-employment physical examination a week ago, I went to my audiologist and had fixed my hearing aid which had almost stalled my physical examination clearance at the hospital.

My audiologist had fixed the problem and I have to wait for another week to come back at the hospital for another check-up appointment to finalize everything and to be cleared for the job I applied.

When I came back this Wednesday at the hospital I was so nervous and frightful. This was my last chance to be cleared for the said job and I was so anxious and worried that time. The employee health doctor had scheduled me for another audio exam in order to be cleared.

At 12:30 pm the certified audio technician performed my hearing test with and without the hearing aid and fortunately I passed it. I was so nervous that time and didn't stop praying to the Lord to help me for the last time.

I was so relieved and happy when I got a positive result. The employee health doctor had cleared me after the test was done and at last the thorn that got stuck on my throat was been extricated right there and then. Thank God!

Now the next goal will be to prepare for my hospital orientation next week and work on my schedule at the emergency room before I go on my one week vacation at Dominican Republic to volunteer for the children at the orphanage.

One more thing I needed to tell you was about my prayer I've fervently asked from the Infant Jesus of Prague. I've asked him to give me a single and definite sign if the job was really meant for me. I told him that if the job is not meant for me, I will personally accept it wholeheartedly.

One day before my second visit for the clearance at the employee health my previous subject at my child advocacy work had visited me unexpectedly at my apartment asking me for help because he has a very complicated problem with his family.

I helped him without any qualms and went to their home to check out what had happened following the protocols from the advocacy office. Good thing it was a minor problem which I fixed immediately.

When I was driving home I've realized that that was the sign I've asked from God. Despite of my feelings about what had happened last week I am still not feeling well and confident about the outcome the next day.

Well, here we are I got the job successfully despite the little glitch and I am about to start at that hospital I've dreamed to work with and share my talents in caring for the pediatric patients in the emergency room.

I was so ecstatic when I heard that I've passed the pre-employement exam. I am so excited to start for my orientation on Monday. And I cannot wait to join the hospital's massive health work force. Yay!

I know I had hurdled the first test, and I know there will still be more test ahead of me. I don't know what they are though. I hope my courage will not taper abruptly to face all these challenges in order for me to serve my patients well.

With all the unexpected challenges and nerve-wracking tests I've had these previous weeks I hope I will be more willing to be open and honest despite of my weaknesses.

I know I cannot do this without God's guidance. And I am always in trust with Him who always provides me with a progressive and productive life and challenging tests I had encountered.

I always believed that God doesn't give us heavy task to hurdle. It is us who always weighed our loads as a heavy one despite we can tackle it by ourselves easily.

God doesn't want us to get exhausted with our own problems but that's always the mistake we always do. We couldn't do our task without God's help. And what He wants us to realize is that not all of the tasks we met we can accomplish, that's why failure in our lives are always normal occurences.

In the end, if things are really meant to be then you can have it. And we must thank the Lord God for it whether we win or fail. We must count not just our blessings but also our failures. And we have to be thankful for them because they make up our fragile life.

Hope this will give you another lesson for this day. Thanks for your patience in coming here and reading my boring blogs. Hehehe. Salam!