Living well and happy through troubled times ...

How are you coping with this biggest ever challenge to our humanity and sanity? Can you see light in the midst of all the darkness?

It is so easy to get caught up with all the unhappy chatter about the disease & the deaths, the economic disruptions and destruction, the restrictions of the rules and unhappiness with the rule breakers and rule makers alike.

That's completely understandable as this pandemic is after all the biggest ever health challenge confronting humanity in our life time, made more disturbing on two counts. One, there's been no disruption that has occurred on a world scale like this before - one that grounds airlines, curbs travel not just by air, but also sea and by road in an unprecedented way, keeping billions of people at home, inside their own countries and inside their homes. It has disrupted and even destroyed businesses, big and small. Two, this global health crisis is happening right before our eyes, under the microscopic glare of social media. We can all see what is happening all around the world. In addition, everyone does get to have his say on social media, adding to the generally unhappy and distressing chatter.

In times like this, if we are to live well, as well as possibly can anyway in abnormal times, it has become all the more important for us to live mindfully, and avoid getting swept up by all so natural fears, frustrations, restlessness and restiveness.

There are so many things we'd love to do that cannot do, given all the restrictions and public health guidelines that are in place or in force. But here is one idea that I believe will help - a determination to not let what we cannot do stop us from doing what we can.

If you believe this storm shall pass, for it shall, even if it takes a lot longer than we care to predict, then the next question we have to ask ourselves is how do we choose to stand on the other side of the storm? Victor or Victim? Winner or Loser? History tells us that in every crisis, there will always be many losers, and there will also be some winners and some big winners too.

Let's not fret about things we cannot do anything about. Let's focus on the things that we can do, and get ourselves happily busy focused on doing that well. And what would that thing be for you?

About vitamins and intellectual arrogance, professional blind-spots and unprofessional reactions on the subject

Be careful what you say about the place of vitamins in our daily life, and dismissing the need for them, I had to tell a doctor friend in a 23-member social chat group very recently. Days after, I continue to feel strongly enough about the intellectual arrogance, professional blind-spots and unprofessional reactions that were rearing its head that for the first time in 4 years, I wanted to blog about it. So, here goes.

Someone was asking about making donations towards Chinese New Year charity bags for residents in an old folks home, and in response to some concerns about mishandling of donation, a counter-proposal was made: How about donating some vitamins to improve the old folks' immunity? 

The doctor said: "I don't believe in vitamins. Skimmed through large studies. Most seems to not show convincing benefits. quite a proportion, negative effects." There was a disclaimer: "I didn't look at the details."

I couldn't not let this pass unchallenged.

"Dr XXX, Careful! I think it'd be good that you don't just look at the details, but study the details first, before dismissing an entire industry. The source of study material matters too." I have myself come across many questionable so-called scientific studies that sough to prove that vitamins are not only not helpful, they can be dangerous. It is interesting most of these studies use Vitamins A and E to prove the point. Not known to many is that of all the vitamins, Vitamin A and E in particular are the kind of vitamins that mega dose can harm the body and even increase mortality in subjects dealing with cancer!

I added: "I tell my guys don't pick on the side effects of certain medicine and the narrow-mindedness of certain professionals (I mean members of the profession) and then tar an entire profession or industry. Who knows, one day, you may well be in dire need of their wisdom and inputs and what are you going to do then? Reject the help ideologically?"

My doctor friend responded: "Thanks for the advice. That's why I had my disclaimer. Maybe you can advise us on what are the good and effective vitamins which we need beyond the healthy food we eat." 

I was careful to not go into anything that looks like an opportunistic sales pitch. So, I said: "Available on private consultations, depends on the concerns or the issues, general or specific."

Appreciating at that point that he was not going into an argument, I added: "Thanks for being a sport. Knowing what I know and experienced, I cannot let anyone make a dismissive remark about the relevance and need for vitamins and nutritional supplements and get away unchallenged."

I recall a seminar I attended many years ago at the Raffles Town Club  where a dietitian from a major hospital was speaking. She was asked what she thought about the need for vitamins and nutritional supplements, the same way this doctor friend was asked, "What do you recommend, good doc?" to which he said "I don't believe in vitamins...." That dietitian at the RTC talk said the same thing: "I don't believe in vitamins. All you need is a balanced diet." I could not let her dismissive response pass unchallenged. I raised my hand, stood up, and asked: "Excuse me, Miss xxx, You are a dietitian in a hospital and you care for the sick and advise them on their diet. Could you please tell me how many percent of people, on advice, can reasonably be expected to adopt the so-called balanced diet?" I remember she said, "cannot talk about percentage", to which I asked, "OK, could you say, more than half can do or less than half?" She said, "Less than half." So?

Back to my recent chat, I decided to offer some thought-provoking public service message about "the healthy food we eat". I said, "Most people don't or don't know how, and even those who are careful, tend to live and eat with "blind spots" that make people sick over time. That's why prevalence of diabetes rise alarmingly from 1:100 for people in their 20s to 1:5 for those in their 50s, and 1:3 for people in their 60s. Diabetes is not a major cause of death but it is a major cause of many major causes of deaths, Covid19 included. Supplements can and do help but supplements alone is not enough: Resetting our eating habits matter too and so is exercising our body."

"Happy to share more with anyone who seeks such knowhow."

The response, after the chat took a detour: "Thanks Eng Hai for the discussions. You have rightly said, "most don't or don't know how. So, instead of spending money and efforts getting vitamins for the general population, wouldn't it be better to spend efforts educating these people? I personally feel that most of the expensive vitamins, with additives, and sometimes preservatives and colorings, wouldn't be useful to them most times."

I said: "In this information age, there is no lack of education and information. Only a lack of receptivity and too much mental blockages, for which thankfully there is a powerful solution ;)" 

"Buy me a nice lunch some time, Dr, and I'll be happy to share the things people need to know to stay healthy and alive that they don't even know......"

This is where the chat went downhill, very fast. To my comment about there being no lack of education and information, the doctor said, " I think there are a lot more advertisements than information/education." To my comment about mental blocks, he said: "I am amused with accusations of mental blockages." 

I think I hit a raw nerve and the doctor seemed to have taken it personally. 

He made a passing remark to "vitamin peddlers". I chose not to react with comments about drug peddlers or drug pushers", though those words crossed my mind. 

To my offer to him to buy me a nice lunch so I can share my expertise, he took me for a cheap-skate and said: "If you'd like a free lunch, anytime, but I think I can do with less promotions." At that point, I chose to leave the conversation, and said "Haha, forget it". 

I did not want to impose on the other 21 members of the chat group who had stayed clear of what had become a kind of debate. It is a lot more serious and in-depth that the chat group is used to. But the doctor did not stop. 

Intellectual arrogance: "I am open to advice/insights from anyone who had read and digested fully information from reputable scientific journals".

Condescension: "Nowadays, there are a lot of fake videos out there. Just like fake information about vitamins." 

After the chat took another  detour, he apologized for side-tracking the discussion, and had to say this:

"Frankly, when our time is up, our time is up. It doesn't really depend on how much vitamins or exercises one indulge in but to a large extent, it depends on genetics and the type and amount of food."

He must have felt the urge to have the last word on the topic. What do you think of that final comment? "When our time is up, our time is up." What does that mean about seeking medical treatment when one is confronted with a potentially terminal disease? 

Why is taking vitamins and exercising an "indulgence"? 

He said much depends on one's genetics. If he was more open-minded, I would have like to invite him to a discussion about epigenetics, the science of countering one's genetic code and altering a genetic or hereditary pre-disposition to certain diseases. 

We agree on the importance of type and amount of food. But who do we go to for such information? There are lots of free advice and personal opinions. Who and where would be a good reliable and accountable source of information on metabolic nutrition?

I didn't feel a need to have the last word in that chat, or counter every debatable assertion. But I do want to serve notice that I will not allow any dismissive remarks about vitamins, nutritional supplements, nutraceuticals and genomeceuticals go unchallenged, especially from doctors to whom many surrender their judgement. 

Passive Income: Luxury or Need?

Passive Income, the income that keeps flowing into your bank account every month, well after your work is done and your income-building efforts have been fully completed ....

In your opinion, is that (the passive income) a luxury that would be good to have but alright to not have, or is it something that you need that you cannot do without, or cannot not have? What do you think?

If someone were to come up to you, and say, "Let me show you how you can create a massive, ever-growing, passive income of USD1,000,000 a year upwards in 2-5 years", what would you say? Would you say, Show me how, or would you all too quickly pronounce it "too good to be true"?

CNY 2013: A Great Time with Family

 

I just had the most amazing time, over 4 days, with my family - my dad, my brothers Eng Hooi, Eng Keong and Eng Leong, my sisters Lee Lee, Lee Ling (who although thousands of miles away in the US stayed in touch with almost everything that's happening, following our every movement via facebook, and even making a call during Reunion Dinner) and Lee Fang, along with their families. Also included in our festive plans is Christina's side of the family: We called on my father-in-law on the 1st day; the whole family came over to our place for dinner the 1st day and on the 2nd, we went over to Lee Han's at Mandarin Gardens.

 

We enjoyed feasting & snacking, visiting & catching up, singing and dancing (with Kee Leong doing the hotel lounge-class singing, and the girls and the boys dancing along with Dance Central 2 via Kinect), lounging about neighborhood walkabouts ... The 'mahjong kakis' got satisfaction too, as they got to play a few rounds of the game, once at Meadows @ Peirce and then at Mandarin Gardens. Chris was a winner on both days :)  

 

The weather, I find, most agreeable. While some might have complained about heavy rain occurring every day, I find that the rain kept the temperature down and provided us a cool, wintry feel in which to enjoy our get-togethers. When we needed good weather to move about, or take long walks, we got them too. Chinese New Year in past years tended to be too hot. What we got is very welcome change.

 

For me, it was a good many days "off work and at home" so I got to really enjoy being at home a lot more than normal. I really loved our beautiful dream home, very much livened up this season by many guests - both young and old, be they energetic or lethargic. One or two were, but that's fine as we have grown up to live with no judgment about each other  ;)

 

I found time to go out on a ride around the estate on my new, but largely neglected bicyle. I still enjoy pedalling around, enjoying the cool air on my face ...  I went as far as the nearest petrol station, as I had to first pump up the tyres flat out from disuse ;)

 

Looking back upon the last 4 days, I am deeply thankful to God for all the great blessings in my life. I can really feel the freedom to enjoy this precious and rare time with the entire extended family without any concerns whatsoever - be it about time, about money or about health. 

 

I felt really happy to have the opportunity to pay for the Reunion Steamboat Dinner, and little expenses here and there - like the visit to the Gardens By The Bay, without any concern, and without having to calculate. What is success if I haven't arrived here. And by the way, I've not become so blase about my abundance as to not notice that I own my money; my money no longer owns me!

    

Dad, not surprisingly weak due to his age (he is 82 this year), could master the easy walk around the sprawling condominium with me yesterday morning. This morning, with a steadying hand from Joan from the side, and a little prop-up from the back now and then, he could join us for the long walk out of the condo, all the way to and through the Lower Peirce Trail - up to the water's edge, overcame the many steps up and down along the boardwalk (despite them looking formidable to him). We reached the neighbourhood prata shop in time for him to get a much-needed seat and breakfast before all 13 of us took a slow walk back.

 

We just said our goodbyes about an hour ago. Eng Hooi & family are flying back to Kuching from Senai at 4pm. Joan & Family have hit the road for the 300+ km journey home to KL. Eng Leong & Family are still in Singapore, spending time with his in-laws, visiting the Bird Park presently - and it's raining heavily again. Eng Keong had gone off on Sunday, after our afternoon at the Gardens By The Bay, and had taken his family on a visit to Legoland. Lee Fang is staying on with us till Sunday. Lee Ling had been stuck in the US but will join us belatedly in June, for a 6-week holiday back home. That's when we will do our next big get-together, possibly at Colemar Tropicale in the Bukit Tinggi highlands.

 

Yes, we will have another family get-together like this, before the next Chinese New Year get-together, this time in Kuala Lumpur, with Joan & Family taking their turn to play host. 

 

I love this life that I live, and I am glad for the freedom (health, financial and time) to enjoy it all as I am. 

 

Praise the Lord for this greatly blessed, highly favored and deeply loved Happy Life.        

Stand Tall, Stand Strong

"I've learned a big lesson, which is, if I stand long enough, I will win. I will stand, I will win, I will succeed." 

 

We have stood, long enough, until we achieve a certain measure of success. We can call this the Mercedes Benz standard. We are the Unipower-empowered Presidents in Unicity Singapore.

 

Now, we will stand, and stand, and stand, until our work is done, until there are more than 100 of us standing together, for the people of Singapore, Malaysia, Hongkong, Indonesia, Philippines, Brunei, and standing in great friendship and partnership with our good friends in THAILAND, in Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Myanmar.

 

We are breaking down artificial barriers within Asean that keep people down, and small, and creating a borderless community of powerful leaders, big people with the power to help millions to redesign their lives, and live the life they choose, a life that is healthy, wealthy, free and happy. Awesome opportunity, awesome partnership!

An Old Donkey Tale: Seeing the good in the dirt thrown at you

Have you ever found yourself in self-pitying situations where you wonder why circumstances seem to develop against you, and the very people whom you trust or have served loyally, also turned their backs on you, and even go further to throw dirt at you? It is hard in such situations to see the good in anything, and it'd be so easy to wallow and self-destruct in self-pity..... But the truth is that, there is always some good behind every bad, and that, is usually a little realization away.

Consider the story of the old donkey that fell into an old disused well while wondering around the farm early one morning ... It kicked up such a noisy fuss it's hee-haw woke up the old farmer... The farmer studied the situation, felt helpless, and shook his head. He could not figure out how he could ever get the injured donkey out. To him, there was only one way out. Bury the donkey to get it out of its misery, and cover up the well so no one and no creature would ever fall into it again... So, he called out all his farm hands. After instructions, everyone started shovelling dirt into the well.

The donkey looked up in dismay, and couldn't help feeling awfully bad... "After all these years of serving my master, he is now going to give up on me and bury me alive!" ... As donkey shook its head feeling really hurt, the dirt keep raining down on its back....  Then, suddenly, a thought hit it... The dirt was raising the floor of the dry well. It didn't need to stand still and surrender to the situation. All it needed to do was to shake off the dirt as it rains down, and step on the rising level of dirt ..... The farmer and his farm hands eventually realized what was happening. The donkey was rising higher as they shovel more dirt at him.... They sped up the process, and eventually, the donkey could simply step out of the well, and was reunited with its master, who felt both bad and good, guilty yet relieved, about all that had happened.

What can we get from this story? 1) When people throw dirt at us, it may be that they don't know how else to respond to a situation. 2) It pays to quickly regain control of our emotions when things seem to be going against us. Anger, hurt, disappointment or self-pity can blind us to the good behind the seemingly bad. 3) We can turn dirt thrown at us into stepping stones to freedom. The more dirt gets thrown at us, the faster we get to freedom ;)

Did you get anything else from this story? If you do, please share.      

Choices in a storm? Be chicken, crow or eagle?

Life is about Choices, and how it turns out comes from the choices we make. Keep making the wrong choices, and we will keep getting the wrong result. Want to change your result? Change the choices that you make. When God created Man, he left man with the Power to Choose e.g. Tree of Life or Tree of Knowledge of Good & Evil - Choose. But Man were not left clueless. God did indicate his preference. Yet ....

Back to the present, are you dealing with some storms in your life? Bad winds blowing.... How are you going to respond...

Yesterday, at the Unipower Seminar in Singapore of 26th May 2012, I spoke of 3 possible responses: Respond like a chicken, respond like a crow, or respond like an eagle.

The chicken, which would normally be scratching through the ground for crumbs, would, on realizing a storm is upon it, flutter its wings but cannot fly and then use its dainty legs to run into the safety and comfort of the barn. It would re-emerge when the weather has cleared up.

The crow would normally be rummaging for food among garbage, or picking up on the incidental food droppings on the ground. Like the chicken, it would respond only when the storm is upon it. It would then take off from wherever it is, with a sqwuak, flap its wings, and fly away, aimlessly for unlike the chicken, it does not have a barn to go home too. Homeless.

What about the Eagle response? The Eagle can sense a storm coming well before it breaks. On detecting a storm approaching, the eagle will fly to a high spot and wait for the winds to arrive. When the storm hits, it would set its wings against the winds, so that the winds will pick it up and lift it above the storm. While the storm rages below, the eagle soars above. It does not seek to escape the storm. It simply takes on the storm and harnesses its energy to fly even higher than without the storm. To the eagle, storms are not a curse. Storms are a blessing, an opportunity to triumph in life.

So, what shall we be in the current or the next storm in life?

Run away scared, fleeing to the safety of our comfort zone, like a chicken? Or throw up our hands and complain, sqwuaking like a crow? Or shall we get ready to take on another storm and another, and let them lift us higher, like the eagle?

The choice is clear. But some of us may be scared of what it takes to take on the Eagle Being. We may be simply afraid of heights? Or whatever ... Before we try to fly like an Eagle, why not go to Eagle School? Ask around for a good one to enrol into ;)

The Eagle is an "extraordinary creature has great beauty, tremendous strength and skills. They inspire respect by man. Its flight is nothing short of dramatic. They glide in the air with movements more elegant than the waltz," writes Randy Vild in www.blowthetrumptet.org

We can learn so much from this beautiful, majestic creature, created by God to inspire Man to Be A Leader in Life. Of all the birds ever created, the Eagle was created as Leader, reigning undisputedly over all birds.

There are two things we can get and learn from the Eagle. First, its extraordinary way of dealing with adversity, its being in the face of storms, as described above.

Second, its incredible vision. The Eagle can see a fish swimming camouflaged under the surface of water even from several hundred feet above water. Its vision is at least four times sharper than a human being with perfect vision. It can pick out a rabbit scampering around within a 3 square mile area, while flying 1,000 feet high above open country.

Let's be inspired by the Eagle to have an incredible vision for our life - like, being able to see into the future a new reality that we would love to create and to design, with all the blessings that we already have with us in our being and in the tools placed in our hands to help us reign in life.

Let's be inspired by the being of the Eagle in the face of storms. Let's welcome troubles, welcome problems, welcome challenges, for we can harness the exceptional energy within them and use them to soar high above the ordinary, and live out the extraordinary life, enjoying breath-taking sights others cannot imagine.

First, go look for your Eagle School! Or Eagle Mentor!