What is Your Center?

It's been quite a while since I wrote here. I had been recently busy with my exams and attachments at TTSH. I always kinda liked my attachments because I see it as a window where I see the sufferings of people and where I attempt to alleviate their pain by doing my best to improve their conditions and in the process bring some joy and laughter to them. This reminds me of a quote spoken by Robin William's character in the movie Patch Adams,"Treat the disease and sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. But treat the person, and I'll guarantee you'll always win no matter what the outcome." Oftentimes, healthcare providers forget to see the clients as human beings with emotions and in their stead, only see the disease or condition tagged to them. This dramatically influences their management of the sick because they are centered on ONLY improving the condition, not on bringing overall relief to the client as there are other aspects to a human being besides a physical one. Which is why I always attempt to bring a smile to my client's face by the end of my session.

Likewise in normal day life, we tend to focus, or center, our lifes on relatively short-lived things, which result in severe mood swings and feelings of hopelessness or depression. Some people center their lifes on their boyfriends/girlfriends. As a result, their mood changes as predictable as the daily weather forecast with the mood of their partner. Their thoughts and actions are in many ways restricted by the words said by their other half. Some others center their lifes around work and the result is workaholism. Like alcoholism, it has its deadly effects. Unlike conventional thinking where more equals to better, spending more time in the office to the extent of camping overnight to finish projects does not equate to better job performance. In the long run, you will only see yourself metamorphosize into a being from the nether world. So, after all these talk, what or who should we center our lifes on? The answer is simply, PRINCIPLES.

Unlike friends, principles won't talk behind your back and they will always be there for you in times of need. And, they definetely won't make you stay back overnight to finish your projects. So, what are principles? Just to state a few examples, honesty, balance, responsibility and hardwork are fragments of the big pie of principles. Very often in modern society, we are all tempted to take shortcuts and forego our principles to acquire material gains but truth be said, it will be your own ruin in the long run. As the director of Ten Commandments said,"You can't break the laws of nature. You will only break yourself against them." Therefore, centering your lifes on principles and living by them may not neccessarily make you rich, but I gaurantee you that you will be a happier person!