Tag Archives: live to eat

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

Fundonate – Share, Give & Receive

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who is my wise friend who said “money is NOT yours until you use it or give away…”? 🙂

in Feb2012, 3 friends & I started Fundonate = Do Something for yourself or loved ones & raise donations for the needy & less fortunate while you commit to achieve your personal goal.

Straits Times reported briefly = Raise money for charity and group adds to the fun(d)…whatever helps the cause. 🙂

this year, I turn 55 & am doing 550km run to raise donations for children of special needs at Rainbow Centre via Fundonate. it is also just to get friends together & share with my friends who are 55 this year to share their 55yrs as a fun contribution to children of special needs.

while c.h.e.f is a food & travel blog, for me perspective (like Live to Eat), sharing, giving, receiving, fun are all embodiment of friendship, eating, cooking, & travelling. 🙂

c.h.e.f andy

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hi friends & 55ers
my 2nd update –
on 27Jun2013, i completed 320km of my 550km to raise donations for children of special needs at Rainbow Centre.  the 550km run is to get 55 or more of us friends here to celebrate our 55yrs as a fun contribution to children of special needs at RC, I will be writing to 12 more friends to donate $55 each if they wish to.
 so far 22 friends have donated $3270. guys – am really thankful for your strong participation & support.
for those who wish to donate rightaway, the link is here=https://www.give.sg/TeamGIVE/andyquak/celebrate-55-years-of-joyful-living-donate-to
You may already know Fundonate’s objective is just to share our experience that giving is really a “fun & feel-good” thing to do, and while every $ donation is important to the beneficiary children, Fundonate is more about sharing & involvement & not just the absolute $ raised. So do donate to share our 55yrs & the many years we will have before us with the children of special needs at RC. 
the next update will be on completion of 550km.
brgds

Live to Eat….

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I was doing my 10km run on this side of Ulu Pandan jogging track (Holland Grove View side) yesterday morning.

With this run, I completed the first 100km of a 550km run to raise donations for needy children at Rainbow Centre via Fundonate. I am asking 55 friends who are 55 this year to each donate $55, $1 for every 10km I run so we can all share & relish the joy of living all these 55 seasons of our passage on planet earth , and many afterwards. 🙂

My mind was wandering as I ran thinking of living, eating, cooking…

Eat to Live…Live to Eat…Eat to Live to Eat..one of those cliches we talk about ( kind of like chicken or egg?) occasionally but with no particular meaning or importance attached..indeed so..as we select words & phrases to capture what is important to ourselves & the same words or phrases extract different thoughts (or depth of what they represent) depending on what we attach to them.

My mind went jogging too, 10km was short for the body, 1hr+ was long for the mind..haha. 🙂

I think in my younger days I “eat” to live, or do everything else to live – study, work, business travel, entertain, network, struggle with business start-ups, etc..the goal (but what is the goal?) was important so the process was a blur – like the movie “Click” – and you don’t know what you are “eating” basically since you eat to live..

Now I am kind of live to eat…ok I like food, I am greedy..and now I talk about worthwhile calories, worthwhile cholesterol. and maybe they are just excuses to eat unhealthy food, but I guess one can say also there is some perspective to it – that if you have to eat unhealthy make sure they are food you really really like & enjoy and feel “shiok” not something so-so, can do without – hopefully there are not so many such food in that category everytime! 🙂

anyway my own solution to that is just compensate, make-up (just as in managing relationship)..if you have more this time, skip or have less next time! if you miss a run this time, make-up another (but MUST make-up la otherwise won’t work right..) 🙂 just like relationship, if you miss an appointment, if you are not there for someone this time, pro-actively do it next time! don’t angst over the eating, and don’t angst over the relationship…

So I live to eat, “eat” being everything else in the perspective of savouring & relishing the process, so that there is joy in the living..and for me there is no right or wrong or best way about this..everyone’s needs are different..I am applying this for myself only..say for my children, they do need to focus & work on their studies, their future careers..they have their own needs and what are important to them..and everyone do need to work hard (and work very hard in Singapore & really anywhere else – China, Vietnam, major cities like New York, London, Tokyo etc) to get the results, and the process of working hard & achieving something are themselves very rewarding, and sometimes with a perspective shift (haha..very “sian” to hear paradigm shift) maybe the process is more rewarding than the physical material rewards…whatever to each his own. 🙂

To me perspective is the key though of course like everything else it is easier said than done. We say 退一步海阔天空 or 山穷水尽疑无路, 柳暗花明又一村..buddhists talk about attachments as the source of suffering & pain…so if we can, change or see the perspective…if we cannot, well i also have no solution, think of some other ways to make up lor. 🙂