My experience with Hal Elrod's Miracle Morning routine

I'm the type of person who will experiment with a self-help tip to check if it works.
If it works, I keep it. If it doesn't, I ditch.
Either way, I decided to write about my self-help experiments to give other people an idea about it.

This is a "review"or "testimonial"of some sort.

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This time, I'll be covering in. Hal Elrod's "Miracle Morning": S.A.V.E.R.S 

source: www.makemistaker

SAVERS stands for Silence, Affirmation, Visualization, Exercise, Reading and Scribing. 

I've been doing it for... 3-5 days now? (can't recall when I started exactly)

And yes, I've been consistent. 

Benefits of doing a rigid framework another person is writing on? 

1. I actually give myself a chance to bathë in silence. 5 minutes to be exact. It feels weird, considering my mind babbles a lot. But it's a decent activity. 

2. I treat myself nicely, heck, I motivate myself. Through affirmations. People speak affirmations. I write them. I speak them. I found that talking and writing drives the impact affirmation has. One of the results of writing affirmation is my personal take on frustrations and persistence.

"The situation won't kill me, but my mental perception of it will. Keep calm as possible. Write 10 candidate moves. Write 10 next steps. Panic once you've exhausted a hundred options"

3. I draw my visualizations. I admit I have difficulty in visualizing good things for my future, or my day. But I'm a very good visualizer on what wrong will happen (Murphy's Law, ahem). To improve my visualization skills.... I decided to draw it. I use basic stick people. I write dialogues. As a matter of fact, it looks like a comic! It's a legit style of visualization... and I think it works for me. 

4. Exercise. For 14 years, our school has a simple exercise program which I ditched upon entering college. I practiced it again. At least I'm stretching my body now. I have a reason to do bodyweight exercises at home. I use household items to help me. Hah!

5. I finally have a reason to read the Bible. I read the Bible (proverbs to be exact) and Og Mandino's the greatest salesman in the world. Yeah, and I read a bunch of ebooks lying inside my smartphone. 

6. I still journal. Maintained my 10 ideas a day and morning pages. Writing has been very helpful to me. I can't imagine how I'll survive a day without jotting down my thoughts. I ruminate a lot. I reflect a lot. Writing is one way of decongesting the traffic inside my head. 

7. I wake up to the sound of my alarm clock. Because the ritual takes approximately an hour. I can't be late for work. 

8. It taught me to find my scooby-doo. I taught myself to wake up early because I needed to watch the 5AM episodes of scooby doo. I was excited to wake up everyday because of scooby doo. Somewhere along the way, Scooby Doo ended, I grew up and I hated waking up. Reading the book taught me that the last thoughts in my head before I sleep, the first thoughts during the morning. That prompted me to be grateful for the number of hours I will sleep. To look forward the next day. 

So far, it works. (though I have moments of struggling). I remember sleeping for 3 hours, yet the night before, I thanked myself for the 3 hours of sleep. I thanked my body that 3 hours was sufficient to keep me awake. Thank God I wasn't groggy when I woke up.

So those are my initial experiences. 

I might update this entry, or write another one in the future. 

Either way, I finally posted something in my blog!

Gratitude Glasses

Everyday, I have two choices. 

Wear my complainypants glasses and whine about the injustices brought upon me.

Or wear my Gratitude Glasses and look for the benefit of every unlikely situation.

Learning and insights  are subject to the glasses we wear.

The challenge is to chose wisely.

Smartphone Zombies

I witnessed a different kind of horror yesterday. 

Our neighbor invited us to have dinner to celebrate her grandson's graduation day. The last timeI saw the kid more than 10 years ago. And who could say no to free food? So when we went inside their house,  I was greeted with a lovely sight:

 Five kids sat beside each other as their eyes made love with their smartphone screens. 

I was transfixed with the scene that greeted me as well. As I slowly absorbed the scene in my head, I caught a glimpse of what my mother must have seen everytime I made love with my playstation games and smartphone as well.

Not a pleasant sight, I tell you. 

Though I'm well aware how different the present generation of children are. When I was their age, I was playing my gameboy and reading comic book magazines. When I was their age, I impatiently waited to go home and play games. When I was their age, I had not idea what the internet was, nor what Friendster was.

Of course I'm well aware of psychological projection. I've done the same thing they're doing. As a matter of fact, I still do it!

I'm aware how it's unfair to compare my childhood with theirs. I'm not saying how horrible these kids are and that their parents should stop them. They're not my children. 

But I just felt sad for myself and for my mom. 

So that was how it felt to be with someone in the same room yet their attention wasn't focused on you. 

I could treat my mom better. I could treat my other friends and acquaintances better. 

It feels so different. I thought I could excuse myself for just staring at the screen when I'm bored  But when you see a bunch of people group together making love with their smartphone screens...

It's a different kind of horror story. 

How I used my interest in RPG to win a free Undertale game

For the first time in months,I'm going to play a game that's "hot" right now. Okay, maybe "hot"is subjective. But I've been hearing a lot of praises for Undertale.

I think God has been so good that he found a way for me to acquire the game legally.

I'm a reader of www.thinkinginsidethebox.blogspot.com ever since I read a rant posted for Wild Arms 2. When I heard guest rants were welcome, I browsed the remaining posts to learn what games he hadn't written about.

He didn't have Persona 2, so I wrote one.

And I had fun!

I submitted it and I had two options:

A. He doesn't agree to post it

      > next action: post it here

B. He agrees to post it

     > Be happy!

I never heard from him days after I sent the post. I accepted it fell to Option A.

Then Lo and behold! He replied and replied he liked my rant. Though he did want some parts to be clarified and he asked permission to correct some minor grammatical errors. (I'll assume the one running the blog is a male)

I clarified and improved some parts and resent it to him.

He still liked it!

Not only was my guest rant going to be posted, but he was also going to give me a FREE RPG (he gets to decide what game it'll be though)

I totally forgot about the free RPG in case he was going to post the rant since I was focused on writing the rant/tribute I really wanted to write. But hey, I haven't played an RPG for months now. When he asked what my favorites were and what style I was expecting, I replied "something like undertale? Or a game that isn't time-consuming since I limited time to play"

The succeeding day, I woke up to check my email and found out he gave me UNDERTALE!

Whoa!

It's been a loooooong time!

Might as well play 30 minutes a day, huh?

I will definitely write another guest rant for The RPGenius! (not for the sake of the free RPG, but for the privilege of posting in his blog).

So once again, thank you The RPGenius!

How to decide like a Judge

I met another policeman while studying at graduate school. He was a former Chief of Police (COP) in a municipality in Region 6. He was then re-assigned in Region 11 around January/February 2015. 

He shared me some tips on how to decisions. Some of these tips were gleaned from his experience when he handled his men during his COP days. He told me this was how Court Judges decide on the cases they're handling. 

I thought it would be something interesting to share. His tips have sat on my post-it note that I almost forgot about it!

 1. Think before you decide

Rule number one. I think it's common sense. Don't make rash decisions. Think it over. 

2.  Look for the three sides of the story 

      (Yours, theirs, and the truth)

Each person has their own version on what things happened. To make your decision making process complete, gather even the opposite party's version of truth... and ultimately, the truth itself. 

3. Weigh everything and then decide.

After gathering the three stories, thoroughly weigh each scenario. Try to form a clear picture of what really happened. Then decide.

   4. Always seek the truth

 

5. Always rely on reason

Logic. Because feelings are irrational. 

6.       Give the benefit of  doubt

A person is innocent unless proven otherwise. 

7.  Even the damned and the fool have their stories

Because the damned and the fool are humans. And to be human is to live your own personal story.

Submit that post anyway!

I had a productive (?) day today. I finally sent my proposal for a guest post. I have no idea whether it will be accepted or not.

In case if it won't, I can always use the material for this blog. I have a bunch of ideas I can always write about.

My job is to take care of the quantity. God will take care of the Quality.

Saying Yes to new experiences is hard

One of my commitments for 2016 is to open and explore new experiences which I know would allow me to grow. 

While I've been taking baby steps (such as maintaining two blogs, a 10 daily comic ritual, and writing 10 ideas a day ritual, posting a chapter for my fanfic on a weekly basis), I find ot diffuclt to say "Yes" to some actitvies which I know meets my commitment.

It's not that I don't want to, but I have been conditioned to always ask for approval from other people.

So I'm taking my baby steps to freedom. No one describes to you how hard it is, but I'd like to share mine.

Take this for example:

It was my good friend ate guil who tagged me this workshop. I was hesitant because I thought I still had graduate school classes for that day (thank God I don't). The one-day workshop costs Php 1,800.00, but I didn't mind shelling out some cash.

Watercolor isn't my favorite medium of choice. It's my weakness. But I won't let that stop me from learning, right? And besides, it's a perfect avenue to meet like-minded people!

Then came another workshop:

Last wednesday, Leanna and I went to Abreeza mall to shop and have a date. We purchased some pens and notebook when a rubber stamp set caught her eye. There was a lovely set with a travel theme. I knew it was perfect for her. She does love to travel and has a travel blog. But when we flipped the set, we were shocked at the price tag. Php 459 for a 3-piece set? No thanks.

So I told her that some people make their own stamps by carving erasers. Cool idea, huh? I don't know whether it was the universe conspiring for us, but as I checked I am Artisan's blog, she was planning to organize an Eraser carving workshop.

Naturally, I sent the link to Leanna and slept. She replied to me the next day and asked if we could go.

Immediately, I found myself hesitating. I planned to pay my school tuition that day. Plus, it was far. It's on another island (well, it's still near my city). What if my mom wouldn't agree? I could feel the conflict.

But I remembered my "new experiences for 2016" promise. I'd spent majority of my life stuck in my house. I needed to be like my japanese rpg heroes---they left their hometown to embark on a journey of self-discovery.

I still asked my mom for permission. To my immense relief, she said yes. I immediately texted Leanna, and 6 hours later, she paid for our slots! (Gotta pay her back on monday though)

So it looks like I'm going on another adventure this next weekend!