Tag Archives: calm

Cherian George – Singapore please listen to him!

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i said on my Facebook-

Cherian George…you are my new idol!

NTU don’t know what they missed that such an outstanding person as yourself could be denied tenure & have to find employment in HK..

PAP leaders should seriously listen to you!

such fairness, moderation, balance, intellectual honesty & calm & incisiveness!

all my friends, please listen to this guy…

agree with & learn from everything you said, in particular LKY’s incorruptibility & how Singapore is so lucky to have him!

i had expected a very professional analysis but with the usual fashionable western liberal emphasis on mr lee’s intolerance towards alternative views. after all  cherian george does have some very recent legitimate grievances with NTU denying tenure.

it is NTU’s & Singapore’s great loss that the man is now plying his trade in hong kong.

instead his depth & incisiveness demonstrated true intellectual honesty, moderation & balance in examining the issues and also genuine care for singapore’s future. it is a fair & balanced mind with respect for the truth (& equal respect for other human beings with difference of opinions) that is constantly considering, weighing alternative viewpoints & angles, & new facts & information.

cherian spoke as he believed. his was not some shallow piece beautifully crafted to appear to be balanced & fair in order to look good or to impress, which i see often these days circulated on the social media.

i liked his observation that mr lee was in fact more liberal & ahead of the curve than the present PAP leadership, that it is in fact the present leadership that is dogmatic clinging to past formulas of success rather than working from basic pragmatic principles of service & what’s good for singapore. in contrast, the founding fathers under the leadership of mr lee had been truly pragmatic, serving & delivering what was good & what worked for singapore & not constrained by dogma & ideology.

cherian’s humanity & generosity of heart really resonate with me. mr lee & his generation of leaders were pragmatic because they cared so much about the well being of the people of singapore.

c.h.e.f andy

 

Reset Your Point of Happiness

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reading tan chade meng’s  (google’s “jolly good fellow”, his official title, & personal growth pioneer) book “search inside yourself”, about emotional intelligence.

interesting book.

he talked about a set point for happiness which we can train our minds to reset – that when he was young, the resting state was “unhappy”…if nothing good happened, by default he was unhappy..now it’s reverse, if nothing bad happens, he is happy! 🙂

the important takeaway is of course that one can reset the emotional resting state…& that emotional skills are trainable & free us from “emotional compulsion”. in the book meng quoted viktor frankl “between stimulus & response there is a space. in that space lies our freedom and our power to choose our response. in our response lies our growth & our happiness”

the emotional skills also help us develop calmess & a deep sense of well being…so that happiness maybe an “unavoidable side effect” of cultivating emotional intelligence. other side effects may include resilience, optimism & kindness. if one’s resting state is “happy” & “calm”, then one is naturally having a favourable view of life & so optimistic, less reactive to hurdles & failures & so resilient, and also in naturally expansive mood & so kind. 🙂

my blogging is all about happiness…like prayers (i am not christian) my blogging is to constantly remind myself of the good things in life, to relish, treasure & reminiscent. as in an earlier post, “grateful for what we have” opens our hearts, makes us appreciative, caring, generous, see the positives about ourselves & others & not stifled by negative emotions. it also has us enjoying the process, as in an earlier post “live to eat”..

& the recurring theme of perspective…when we change our perspective (reset the point of happiness), we see the world in different light..1/2 full not 1/2 empty…as was said in the same post, 退一步海阔天空 or 山穷水尽疑无路, 柳暗花明又一村…its all about perspective! 🙂

c.h.e.f andy