Q

I’ve been sleep deprived, severely constipated, and generally lacking of health care the past few days. Every day’s jam-packed and somewhat fulfilling but I’m dead beat.

But I’m here.

Write your own Happiness

#3: Spend time knowing yourself.

While surrounding yourself with people to prevent depression is important, so is spending time with yourself. Give yourself some space away from the madness of social interaction and get to know yourself.

Just do something you liked, maybe something zen and satisfying. Not the kind like aimlessly zombifying on Facebook, where you’ll look back and think WHERE DID MY WEEKEND GO. (Okay maybe cyber-stalking is zen for you, idk.) I myself have a wide range of such activities.

The most fulfilling would be reading. But it’s really time consuming, and once I start, I’ll spend the entire day reading novel after novel. When I can’t afford to do that I’ll buy a couple of Betty & Veronicas and Jugheads and spend about an hour or so with them. It leaves me happy and satisfied and ready for life.

If you are more activity-based, try walking or shopping alone. I used to be big on walking, it’s a mindless activity, where you engage in both external stimulation and internal reflection. When I have the time and energy, I used to walk from Ang Mo Kio back home. Holland V and assorted posh housing estates are also my favorite routes. I sometimes spend hours just walking around and admiring mansions. That makes me sound so creepy but I assure you it’s a lot more sane and wonderful than it seems.

Spending time with yourself is important because

a) You need to free yourself from the pressures of others and discover what YOU yourself truly want when distanced from external influence.

b) You need to get to know yourself. If you spend all your time with friends, you are introducing yourself to them, interacting with them, but never to yourself. The you in you feels neglected too. And I sound so, so much like a bad self-help.

c) To achieve happiness you need to understand yourself and what you truly want.

d) Everyone needs time to just think, consolidate their thoughts, be one with their inner self, et cetera.

Today’s rather corny, I might as well ask you to go chant the Buddhist mantra. Well, if it helps.

30-Day Blog Challenge

03 – Your views on drugs and alcohol.

They make a good meal. Just.

Drugs are retarded. They are a sign of weakness. Weakness at pursuing your own happiness, weakness at maintaining control, weakness at refusing your friends. Also, I hate people who do drugs with the conception that it makes them ‘cool’. It is retarded and so are they.

On the other hand, I have little faith in the drug abuse education in Singapore. There is rather a history in this actually. No one I know has any drug related problems, at least not that I know of, so drugs were never really part of my concern.

The only time they manifested in my life was the arduous and heavily hyped campaign against drugs. All of us have memories of that. The endless supplies of redundant accessories from badge pins to fridge magnets advocating the battle against drugs given to us. The constant talks, pamphlets, lessons conducted to educate us on ‘responsible drug usage’.

I WAS VERY CONFLICTED. The only effect this campaign had on my impressionable Primary school self was to make me EXTREMELY. CURIOUS. ABOUT. DRUGS. If they had shut their fat yap about it, I wouldn’t even have given it a second thought. But because they kept expounding upon the scariness of these miracle pills and how many had succumbed to it, and bla and bla, I REALLY WANTED TO TRY IT.

I mean, it sounds AWESOME. For a few months of sniffly nose and trembling in the corner, I can get high and escape from my troubles. According to the TV, the teachers, and the twenty-nine stories in the Drug Abuse short stories anthology, kids used drugs to FEEL GOOD~.

My logic was: I want to feel good too. I don’t mind looking like a zombie for a few weeks to get well and then choking Coke to feel good~ AGAIN. The thing was, the effects of drug abuse was never really explained properly. The most vivid image I have of it is some Edward Cullen-esque kid sitting in the corner being stoned. That didn’t look so bad. I mean, there wasn’t any blood or intestines or perforated brains. So why not?

This powerful and all-controlling substance sounded like such a miracle pill with all it’s psychedelic effects that managed to allure and addict millions (at least that’s what the media made it seem like) of kids MUST have some form of advantage to it.

I was so convinced I wrote a two and a half page essay discussing the failure of drug campaigns and how it creates greater exposure and attraction towards drug use, and even submitted it to my form teacher. Who was, from what I remember, half amused, half exasperated (again).

I was a very strange child, I was. So basically, BECAUSE of the drug-abuse campaigns, we’ve formulated strange and conflicting ideas of drugs, or at least I did la. IDK let me know how it was for you.

ALCOHOL. Is good. Have it twice a day. End of story.