Conversing with Life: February 2006

Sunday, February 26, 2006

Last stretch

Saturday, February 25, 2006

Wish I have a Mercedes SLK

I'm a Mercedes SLK!

You appreciate the finer things in life.

You have a split personality - wild or conservative, depending on your mood.

Wherever you go, you like to travel first class.

Luxury, style, and fun - who could ask for more?

Take the Which Sports Car Are You? quiz.

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Anyone care to sponsor the car to go with this personality? Free driver included.

Friday, February 24, 2006

Times when...

There are times when things don't go right.

Sometimes you feel trapped.

Sometimes you want to smash things up.

Sometimes you want to cry.

Sometimes you want to run away to some place.

Wednesday, February 22, 2006

DIY Motivation

We all need a little motivation along the way.

Download these home-made posters to help you keep mugging!

Tuesday, February 21, 2006

Managing stress

Trying times ahead. There's no avoiding stress. The best way is to conquer it and use it effectively.

2 methods to manage stress: (1) mental, (2) physical.

Mental:

Imagery in Relaxation

One common use of imagery in relaxation is to imagine a scene, place or event that you remember as safe, peaceful, restful, beautiful and happy.

Use the imagined place as a retreat from stress and pressure.Scenes can involve complex images such as lying on a beach in a deserted cove. You may “see” cliffs, sea and sand around you, “hear” the waves crashing against rocks, “smell” the salt in the air, and “feel” the warmth of the sun and a gentle breeze on your body.

You will be able to come up with the most effective images for yourself.

Other uses of imagery in relaxation involve creating mental pictures of stress flowing out of your body, or of stress, distractions and everyday concerns being folded away and locked into a padlocked chest.

Imagery in Preparation and Rehearsal

You can also use imagery in rehearsal before a big event, allowing you to run through the event in your mind.

Aside from allowing you to rehearse mentally, imagery also allows you to practice in advance for anything unusual that might occur, so that you are prepared and already practiced in handling it.

This is a technique used very commonly by top sports people, who learn good performance habits by repeatedly rehearsing performances in their imagination. When the unusual eventualities they have rehearsed using imagery occur, they have good, pre-prepared, habitual responses to them.

Physical:

Deep Breathing

Deep breathing is a simple, but very effective, method of relaxation. It is a core component of everything from the "take ten deep breaths" approach to calming someone down, right through to yoga relaxation and Zen meditation.

To use the technique, take a number of deep breaths and relax your body further with each breath. That's all there is to it!

Progressive Muscular Relaxation

Progressive Muscular Relaxation is useful for relaxing your body when your muscles are tense.

The idea behind PMR is that you tense up a group of muscles so that they are as tightly contracted as possible. Hold them in a state of extreme tension for a few seconds. Then, relax the muscles normally. Then, consciously relax the muscles even further so that you are as relaxed as possible.

Experiment with PMR by forming a fist, and clenching your hand as tight as you can for a few seconds. Relax your hand to its previous tension, and then consciously relax it again so that it is as loose as possible. You should feel deep relaxation in your hand muscles.

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A little routine to follow would be:

Sit quietly and comfortably.
Close your eyes.
Start by relaxing the muscles of your feet and work up your body relaxing muscles.
Focus your attention on your breathing.
Breathe in deeply and then let your breath out. Count your breaths, and say the number of the breath as you let it out.
Do this for ten or twenty minutes.

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A poor life this if, full of care.

We have no time to stand and stare.

~William Henry Davies~

Monday, February 20, 2006

What does your name mean?

Wei Qiang --
[adjective]:

Benevolent to a fault

'How" will you be defined in the dictionary?' at QuizGalaxy.com

Just for fun. Needed some break in between pages.

Sunday, February 19, 2006

Know thyself

The Johari Window was invented by Joseph Luft and Harrington Ingram in the 1950s as a model for mapping personality awareness.

Help me map out mine by visiting:

http://kevan.org/johari?name=WeiQiang

Saturday, February 18, 2006

Moaning

Why didn't they teach us this earlier?!

Wednesday, February 15, 2006

Torino 2006

The Winter Olympics have captured my attention for the past week.

Opened my eyes up to a whole new area of sports. Some, I've seen; some I've heard and some I simply cannot imagine.

Learnt a few points:

1) Alpine skiing is VERY exciting! Almost like the 100m sprints.

2) I didn't know they had cross country skiing! Always thought skiing was done downhill, climbing a hill with skis just seem so weird.

3) If you thought number 2 was funny, they also have a biathlon. Consists of both skiing and shooting. Dumbfounded.

4) China's really getting good at figure skating. Very artistic, especially the pairs event. 5) Canada rules at ice hockey.

6) Luge can be exciting but can also get a bit boring after you've seen the athlete run the course 4 times.

7) Speed skating is also very exciting! And it makes me want to pick up inline skating! Too bad I missed the skateline valentines promotion.

8) Snowboarding (half pipe event) is not as exciting as I thought. The X-games are much better.

9) Ski jumping. How did they come out with a sport like that?

10) Free style ski jumps, the diving of winter olympics.

11) Curling = polishing ice.

12) Ice dancing, chio babes to oogle.

As you can see, I'm collecting google logos. Wonder if I can get one for every event.

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And already an Olympic moment to treasure.

If you don't know why, read here to find out.

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Saturday, February 11, 2006

The Prof Low legacy

"Are you all right? No, you are half left and half right."

"Gallstones are tombstones which bacteria write their epitaph."

"Look for the flowers in the desert, the corals in the sea, the stars in the sky and the patients in the wards."

"Don't do a mutilating operation unless you have definite proof."

"Not every disease can be cured, but every patient can be given care."

Doctor: Nurse, we need to get new surgical equipment.
Nurse: Doctor, what surgical equipment should I order?
Doctor: The usual lah!

Wednesday, February 08, 2006

Checkmate

"The only way to pass the MBBS is to take it."

I remember an orthopaedic surgeon told us this.

The ball's in our court.

There's only one option.

Serve an ace and game, set, match.

Wednesday, February 01, 2006

Cure for heatiness?

I've been experiencing a sudden surge in my body temperature recently, or more correctly an awareness of my body's temperature.

You see. I'm not really running a fever, my temperature's 37.0 oC.

But I feel 'feverish'. Maybe I should coin this 'dysp-ver', an awareness of one's body temperature or more commonly termed in TCM as heatiness.

Or maybe I'm just thyrotoxic.

No amount of herbal tea, ice cubes is cooling me down. Even sitting in front of the full-blasted fan does little to help dissipate the heat.