Thursday, February 2, 2012

The need to EXPRESS

I had enough of yesterday, and today didn't help as well. There was a storm in me. A great flood was drowning me to my own death. I couldn't be what I wanted to be. I was tied down to this bad feeling and all these dark clouds started to gather above me and rain over me.

And yes, I had a bad day! A hopeless one. It seemed that Lenka was right, "trouble is my friend". It goes wherever I go. At any moment I could have broken down and started dying helplessly with this unresolved and unexpressed feelings.


I couldn't bother my friends for a hug, or an ear to talk to. I wouldn't go to my psychiatrist nor my psychologist. It would be another talk to my purse. Every session would cost me around P500-P1000 pesos. I was looking for some alternatives. But cheap and fast as my condition was slowly eating everything that is left of me.

Entering the Guidance Center, I was greeted by this blond old woman. She had small eyes peeking from her small-framed spectacles, resting on her powdered nose. She asked me for my concerns and asked me to write down my name on a piece of a cut-out recycled paper.

Bringing with her my name, I sat in the receiving area staring at one of the councilor's son. He was playing with his toy cars. He would slam the car into his toy truck and shouted in victory. This boy was a bit harsh. He was violent to be playing car-crash-pretend. I could tell that he was enjoying this mini-manipulated accident.

The old woman with the blond hair came back. She was holding a folder in her hands and went to approach me. I was  asked if it would be okay for me to talk to a male councilor. Left with no choice and on a state that needs immediate attention, I said yes without bothering anymore.

She gave the folder, she was holding, to a man sitting inside the room across me. I was called inside and asked to sit down. I sat comfortably on the soft yellow-green sofa. He closed the door and the window-blinds.

He sat across me and smiled. Before He could ask me a question, my eyes started flooding,  everything was blurred and my heart was pounding faster and harder. I burst into tears. He offered me a box of tissue and I pulled three sheets.

He began asking what I wanted to tell him. I cried more and started to tell him how I felt. My words were not clearly spoken. My thoughts seemed to break and rush all at once. He let me cry first and when I was able to hold my sudden rush of emotions, I went narrating what happened earlier.

He didn't interrupt until I had finished my story. He kept on staring at me keenly as if he was reading my thoughts. After telling him what happened, he asked me further questions and I cried a lot again. Base on what I told him, I am one of the people who kept their feelings and emotions repressed.

From the things that my friend did to me, I was not able to talk back despite the hurt feelings she made me feel. I was a social introvert. I held feelings and thoughts secretively. I was one of the shy types and it wasn't good for me, he said.

(Don't wait until it burst painfully)
Holding back and reserving what I really felt was not helping me at all. It is in the nature of humans to express. We need to release what we truly want in order for us to be heard and to be known. Because every time we keep these feelings in us it doesn't go away. It builds up inside until it fills and eventually explode.


 My current condition may have been caused by these habit of repressing emotions. My sleeping pattern, my hallucinations and my difficulty in discerning reality from imagination may have been the effects. Since I have been keeping my emotions and issues in me, I was not able to address these problems. My mind have placed these unattended feelings into my thoughts.

There are situations where I thought  I dreamt it all. Yet it all happened and it was the reality. I remember them as blurry and vague scenes. It could have been the mechanism of my subconscious mind that the things I cannot accept or solved may have stored these realities into dreams.

He told me to recognize these feelings and accept them. It wouldn't be easy. Habits are not easy to break. We need to diligently correct them over and over again until we form a new habit. He also mentioned about my poor self-concept.

I need to correct this because it has it's disadvantages for me. The tendency is that I am easily manipulated and turned against myself. A small discouragement will influence me to do the opposite and change the opinions/beliefs I have established. I need to build a stronger foundation and stand for what I believe in. I should not let others stir my own sail. I am my own captain and I should sail wherever I want to.

No one can hurt and oppress us, if we do not let them. We should speak up and learn to say no to things we do not want to. All of us are given the potentials. No one is higher than the other. We only differ as to how we see ourselves and as to how we use these potentials. We must start now and do it over and over again until it becomes our nature, our habit.





Respect is to be earned. We need to demand for it.
Learn to EXPRESS, but also learn to control aggression as well.



















❤Tadz

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Namaste: The respect we need to have

As a product of a catholic private school, we were taught religious values. In my 4th year, as a high school student, I was under an Indian sister. She would speak in Indian English and we giggled and tried to impersonate her. I could not remember her name. But her face and teachings are imprinted in me. I guess as a high school student I was really not that attentive and took everything less seriously.

One of the teachings that never left my memory was the Indian greeting she told us. "Namaste!". What does it really mean? In India, sister said it was a greeting you say to people you meet. It is not just a word like "hi/hello" in English language. It is more than a noun. It is an act, a respect and a religious practice.

Namaste in India means "I respect the God in you". They believe that each person has a God in them. They try to recognize and respect that in each individual. God comes in many forms. He is present from the beggars we see on the streets, to the policeman who wades under the heat of the sun, and in us.

Our body is a sacred temple. We may have forgotten to respect it and abused it for the wonders it can do. Besides of respecting others, we must also learn to respect and value the God in us. It is in this act that we do good and improve in ourselves.

We can say no to others when they disrespect the God in us. Hopefully, we can do the same to ourselves. "Do not disrespect the God in you". We are not the masters of this body but the diligent disciples for this God in us.

We must cultivate and try to know more the God in us. It is in the recognition of this God that we can truly express the goodness in us. Discover God, respect God in you.
Namaste!



❤Tadz