Planning Ahead in June to Be Better
For the month of June, I started the month with planning ahead the things I wanna do this month, break it down to weekly tasks and scheduling them into the daily planning. I also try to be actively engaged with each task and with minimal distractions. Yeah at times it can get rather dreary and I need to take a break like when I feel the motivation waning but I will come back to it later.
Recently I have been catching up on religious teachings, not so much on the technicals but rather the meaning behind some prayers and learning of those that are useful to us and our loved ones. I won't be turning this into a religious post but rather, how religion, whether Islam, Christianity or Buddhism, there's an overall goodness to them when they teach us about life in general, our relationship with people and also ourselves.
For 30 days during the holy month of the Islamic calendar, I paid $15 for daily lessons that would cover each day. Just today, I was only at day 22 but the fasting month has been over since last week. For another monthly paid subscription, I was hardly following the online lessons. I think because I don't need to be physically present live as they were recordings so I kinda took my time. And then also because it's mostly one hour now, from 30 minutes previously, I kinda feel a little demotivated to listen for that long, haha. But watching a live action manga for one and a half hour, I can, lol..
Anyway, I felt like I missed out so much. As and when I can, I try to follow up with the short videos in the Daily Reminders emails where every email and prayer were on point with the moral story which not only would benefit us, hopefully, but of the people around us and our loved ones like our parents, spouses and children. In general, he also wrote about how we can become better people such as by taking care of our words and actions and also questioning our intentions for the day. Like seriously sometimes we can get carried away with life's distractions, or be swept by gossip or online trends that can be unhealthy at times, we actually forget how to shift the focus back to ourselves.
During the Covid-19 period, where most people stay home and only go out for essential shopping or work, it can be frustrating at times like I wanna do things to fill up my time productively such as doing things that I normally wouldn't have time for. Learning new skills or improving the new ones are like the top of my list.
I've bought quite a few watercolour sets but I hardly used them because when I started, I am always dissatisfied. For instance, loose watercolour florals that the you tubers showed how to do online but I would face difficulty trying to recreate something similar.
Then I realised that I am not in this in order to make myself feel useful because others seem to be on the productivity train.
Recently I watched this Japanese youtuber and though she's immensely talented in drawing her favourite anime and Disney characters but she didn't develop her skills overnight. She's self taught and she is still learning and she mostly copy the characters out from the books, into her sketch books, her bedroom wall even etc out of interest because she loved them so much. She gets better with each drawing as she makes a conscious effort to learn how the actual artists do it and tried to do something similar while making it her own as well.
Before I watched her videos, I was also just randomly would do some creative stamping with my old stamps which needed some love after a such a long time. I found that I don't need the pieces to be complicated or as nice as other people but what I would define them as interesting just for my own keeps. Maybe if I have improved, I may sell them in Etsy or something but this shouldn't be my sole motivation as I find that it does dampen my spirits when I think that it's not of 'selling' quality.
At most, I use my long used sketchbook as where I mostly practise and mess up instead of always throwing the cut up watercolour paper pieces as I felt they were not good enough or that I ruined it completely. 2 hours of work into the rubbish bin, lol.
But I find that if we show interest in our works, instead of feeling forced to complete something and scrutinise every single stroke for perfection, we won't feel so overwhelmed but actually enjoying the process such as how I learnt to combine the different stamped images to make an overall scene. Like I'm always amazed how the artists of whom I tried to study their works, can do mere strokes here and there and voila! An amazing watercolor floral artwork that is near flawless. But it's ok. I know they didn't get to where they are magically but through daily practice.
Even for working out, when I tried to follow the HIIT workout online for each exercise, I also tried to perfect my step like literally follow the action and timing of the instructor and got myself out of breath quickly. It dampens my mood and I don't feel like doing it for like the whole week later, haha.
But this one instructor that I mostly followed, I liked how she said that we should not rush through it like her because she's trained for it. Instead, we should be doing it based on our physical abilities and to focus on the form. If we can do the actual exercise instead of the modified one, then go for it. Just don't be too hard on yourself if you can't get the steps right in the first place. Just like Zumba, how it used to frustrate me coz I had so much difficulty following the steps that I think I sweat not coz of the intensity but rather my brain was working too hard, lol.
Another thing that I want to add to my getting longer list, haha...is reading at least 2 books per month. It's actually to just write down thinking that eh, only 2 books, so easy to get it done and over with. Not for me. The only times I ever finished thick books in the past were the Shadowhunter series, a youth fantasy series.
One of the things I learnt from people is how she forms the habit of reading a few pages before she sleeps. Apparently a youtuber does that but she added some interesting points in which by telling ourselves to read a number of books is not enough. We need to actually place the books where we can see and make a conscious effort to pick up and read when we find the time.
Another way which I find personally that helps, which got through this 100 over chapters of a translated Chinese novel, is to read as and when I can outside. While waiting, queueing or in transit. Just read a few pages here and there and to actually be engrossed in the pages, imagining the characters' faces and the scenes. I did cry over certain scenes okay, that was how vivid my imagination was.
Let us make this June to be a month of learning while easing ourselves back to normal although things are not expected to be the same as before. We can do dssss.....
Recently I have been catching up on religious teachings, not so much on the technicals but rather the meaning behind some prayers and learning of those that are useful to us and our loved ones. I won't be turning this into a religious post but rather, how religion, whether Islam, Christianity or Buddhism, there's an overall goodness to them when they teach us about life in general, our relationship with people and also ourselves.
For 30 days during the holy month of the Islamic calendar, I paid $15 for daily lessons that would cover each day. Just today, I was only at day 22 but the fasting month has been over since last week. For another monthly paid subscription, I was hardly following the online lessons. I think because I don't need to be physically present live as they were recordings so I kinda took my time. And then also because it's mostly one hour now, from 30 minutes previously, I kinda feel a little demotivated to listen for that long, haha. But watching a live action manga for one and a half hour, I can, lol..
Anyway, I felt like I missed out so much. As and when I can, I try to follow up with the short videos in the Daily Reminders emails where every email and prayer were on point with the moral story which not only would benefit us, hopefully, but of the people around us and our loved ones like our parents, spouses and children. In general, he also wrote about how we can become better people such as by taking care of our words and actions and also questioning our intentions for the day. Like seriously sometimes we can get carried away with life's distractions, or be swept by gossip or online trends that can be unhealthy at times, we actually forget how to shift the focus back to ourselves.
During the Covid-19 period, where most people stay home and only go out for essential shopping or work, it can be frustrating at times like I wanna do things to fill up my time productively such as doing things that I normally wouldn't have time for. Learning new skills or improving the new ones are like the top of my list.
I've bought quite a few watercolour sets but I hardly used them because when I started, I am always dissatisfied. For instance, loose watercolour florals that the you tubers showed how to do online but I would face difficulty trying to recreate something similar.
Then I realised that I am not in this in order to make myself feel useful because others seem to be on the productivity train.
Recently I watched this Japanese youtuber and though she's immensely talented in drawing her favourite anime and Disney characters but she didn't develop her skills overnight. She's self taught and she is still learning and she mostly copy the characters out from the books, into her sketch books, her bedroom wall even etc out of interest because she loved them so much. She gets better with each drawing as she makes a conscious effort to learn how the actual artists do it and tried to do something similar while making it her own as well.
Before I watched her videos, I was also just randomly would do some creative stamping with my old stamps which needed some love after a such a long time. I found that I don't need the pieces to be complicated or as nice as other people but what I would define them as interesting just for my own keeps. Maybe if I have improved, I may sell them in Etsy or something but this shouldn't be my sole motivation as I find that it does dampen my spirits when I think that it's not of 'selling' quality.
At most, I use my long used sketchbook as where I mostly practise and mess up instead of always throwing the cut up watercolour paper pieces as I felt they were not good enough or that I ruined it completely. 2 hours of work into the rubbish bin, lol.
But I find that if we show interest in our works, instead of feeling forced to complete something and scrutinise every single stroke for perfection, we won't feel so overwhelmed but actually enjoying the process such as how I learnt to combine the different stamped images to make an overall scene. Like I'm always amazed how the artists of whom I tried to study their works, can do mere strokes here and there and voila! An amazing watercolor floral artwork that is near flawless. But it's ok. I know they didn't get to where they are magically but through daily practice.
Even for working out, when I tried to follow the HIIT workout online for each exercise, I also tried to perfect my step like literally follow the action and timing of the instructor and got myself out of breath quickly. It dampens my mood and I don't feel like doing it for like the whole week later, haha.
But this one instructor that I mostly followed, I liked how she said that we should not rush through it like her because she's trained for it. Instead, we should be doing it based on our physical abilities and to focus on the form. If we can do the actual exercise instead of the modified one, then go for it. Just don't be too hard on yourself if you can't get the steps right in the first place. Just like Zumba, how it used to frustrate me coz I had so much difficulty following the steps that I think I sweat not coz of the intensity but rather my brain was working too hard, lol.
Another thing that I want to add to my getting longer list, haha...is reading at least 2 books per month. It's actually to just write down thinking that eh, only 2 books, so easy to get it done and over with. Not for me. The only times I ever finished thick books in the past were the Shadowhunter series, a youth fantasy series.
One of the things I learnt from people is how she forms the habit of reading a few pages before she sleeps. Apparently a youtuber does that but she added some interesting points in which by telling ourselves to read a number of books is not enough. We need to actually place the books where we can see and make a conscious effort to pick up and read when we find the time.
Another way which I find personally that helps, which got through this 100 over chapters of a translated Chinese novel, is to read as and when I can outside. While waiting, queueing or in transit. Just read a few pages here and there and to actually be engrossed in the pages, imagining the characters' faces and the scenes. I did cry over certain scenes okay, that was how vivid my imagination was.
Let us make this June to be a month of learning while easing ourselves back to normal although things are not expected to be the same as before. We can do dssss.....
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