Thoughts: Positive Attitude During Challenging Times

POSITIVE ATTITUDE DURING CHALLENGING TIMES

                                                                            

This is not a motivational crap, but it has been on my mind for so long. I need to write it out, so I could share my small key to happiness.

I know that I’m not a little kid anymore and people don’t care anymore whether I’m happy or sad. When you’re sad or angry, people don’t really try and treat you like a little kid anymore, you know, giving you a box of chocolate, a big warm hug or that kind of thing.

We all want to be a better person. Well, I want to be a better person.

To be a better person, I require myself to grow.

To require myself to grow, I should change the way I live.

I want to live positively. So I should live positively.

Things are tough sometimes and each time I’m having a hard time, I let it all out. I would cry if I could, upset a little or grumpy for a second. I mean, don’t be silly, of course, as a human being there will be unpleasant times whether it comes from inside of us or outside. But that’s it, with the peak of the negative feelings, comes another emotion: Gratitude.

Choose to see the bright side of everything and be positive through challenging times. If you want to be happy, choose to be one. It’s ok if you want to cry, but don’t let it get in you. The most important person who helps you in any kind of situations is yourself.

If you’re brave enough to choose to see the bright side of everything, I tell you, you will feel relieved and you will think that the problems you’ve been struggling with is nothing but a dust.  Be brave, clean that dust with your positive attitude.

Thoughts: Books. Reading

BOOKS. READING.

In my early teens I remember my first novel was the translated version of ‘Sleepover’ by Jacqueline Wilson, at first I bought it because I’m only interested with the cute cover. But turned out I enjoyed reading and I started to read more and more of Jacqueline Wilson’s. Not long after that, I really wanted to improve my vocabulary, not in Indonesian, but in English. At that time I knew that I should save some of my money to buy an English book. I was hooked with books since then.

But things changed. I lost it, my love for reading. It happened few years back, I stopped reading. I just did. I lost interest with books and reading. It’s not that I stopped buying book because I bought books occasionally. I even bought Murakami’s 1Q84 few days after I finished Murakami’s The Wind Up Bird Chronicle. Just for your information, The Wind Up Bird Chronicle was the last book that I read properly few years back.

But what happened exactly, what happened with me? Why the heck I lost interest on books and reading?

So here’s what happened…

I struggled on reading. Can you imagine? When you’re reading you should you’re supposed to have your own imagination about the characters and plots. Right? I mean, wasn’t that the purpose of books without pictures; to give readers a freedom to create their own ‘world’ of the written words. Well, it didn’t work for me that time. It was a ‘world’ of emptiness for me. I couldn’t concentrate, I forgot the plot easily and I couldn’t imagine everything.

I didn’t quit there. I tried a few more sentences and tried a few more and tried a few more. Still… No luck. It felt like a paragraph long for me is pages and pages of scientific research (meaning: hard to understand). So that was it, I thought my skill of reading was decreasing gradually (Pfft, reading skill? Yeah right). I thought I was stupid that I couldn’t even understand and concentrate on one paragraph! I am appalled of my own self. (Yes, I exaggerated, a little. But it’s kind of true though.)

You know what happened next, I gave up reading. So many books left unread. I neglected all the books I’ve bought. There were times where I really miss reading and most important, I miss enjoying it. Time went by, now that I understand completely I was unable to enjoy something that I love was because I was having a hard time few year back. Not that I’m sick or something. It was just that I wasn’t in my best time and a lot of things going on with my life.

You know what they say about ‘mental breakdown’? Yeah I experienced that too. When I stepped back to my past years, I realized, that moment I lost interest in almost everything that I used to enjoy. Reading was supposed to be a sweet peaceful escape for me, but that time I just couldn’t, it was a burdensome for me.

But that was that. I started to miss books and reading even more, so I told myself that maybe I should read something that wasn’t too demanding, something like articles in magazine maybe. I began to read again, my first book after years of absence was: Pengakuan Algojo 1965 by TEMPO. Now that I’m reading again, it feels like a part of me is healed. If I ever start to lose interest on what I love, I should remind myself that, I don’t have to push myself too hard on something that I should enjoy.

Good Things: Waking Up In The Early Morning

WAKING UP IN THE EARLY MORNING

Setiap orang pasti memiliki waktu yang berbeda beda untuk merasa reenergized. Tidak perlu melakukan suatu hal yang berlebihan yang membutuhkan banyak uang, buat saya hal itu bisa sesederhana seperti bangun pagi.

Saya merasa fresh kembali di saat saya bangun pagi, di mana langit masih berwarna hitam kebiru biruan terlihat bulan dan siraman bintang kecil dari kejauan, belum terdengar burung yang berkicauan, jalanan yang masih tenang tanpa suara kendaraan ataupun suara orang menyapu halaman rumah. Saat itu juga sehabis shalat subuh saya menikmati secangkir kopi susu panas di ruang makan entah membaca majalah atau hanya mengecek sosial media dari handphone sambil mendengarkan lagu. Bangun pagi membuat saya merasa tenang dan senang, menjadi saksi atas hidupnya kembali sebuah hari dan saya pun menjadi semangat untuk melakukan aktivitas kedepan. Maka dari itu, tidak peduli selelah apapun saya, saya selalu berusaha untuk tidak melewatkan moment itu. Kecuali jika saya tidak sengaja snooze alarm berulang kali :D

Bagaimana dengan kamu? Kapan kamu merasa reenergized?

Places: Český Krumlov

ČESKÝ KRUMLOV

Republik Ceko, pasti Negara tersebut sudah tidak asing lagi di telinga Anda. Namun dibalik kepopuleran kota Praha, di bagian selatan Republik Ceko rupanya ada kota lain yang tidak kalah memikat, kota tersebut adalah Cesky Krumlov.

Kunjungan saya ke kota ini bukanlah kunjungan yang direncanakan oleh tour yang saya ikuti, ini adalah murni spontanitas dari tour leader saya, bahkan kalau tour leader saya tidak mengajak saya kemari, mungkin saya tidak akan pernah terpikir untuk mengunjungi kota kecil nan cantik ini. Namun kunjungan pertama kali ke Cesky Krumlov ini ternyata sangat mengesankan.

Saat itu sedang musim dingin, jadi saya mempercepat langkah dari pemberhentian bus ke kota tua Cesky Krumlov sehingga saya sampai ke jembatan yang menghubungi pusat kota dengan kota tua dalam waktu cukup singkat yang normalnya memakan waktu  kurang lebih 20 menit. Sesampainya ke ‘pintu masuk’ kota tua, saya tidak langsung menelusuri kota tua Cesky Krumlov. Sungai Vltava yang menyambut saya dengan bunyi alirannya yang sangat lembut membuat saya terhenti di jembatan ini sambil menunggu rombongan tour yang belum tiba.

Menenangkan adalah kesan pertama yang saya miliki, bagaimana tidak? Aliran Sungai Vlatva yang ditepiannya dihiasi rerumputan dan pepohonan yang tidak berdaun. Ditambah dengan sejuknya udara serta langit yang biru, tidak bosan bosannya saya menarik dan membuang nafas. Saat saya berjalan menyusuri kota ini, banyak toko kecil khas Cesky Krumlov seperti mainan kayu untuk anak anak, hiasan antik untuk rumah, jajanan ringan, stalls sisa dari Christmas market, sampai ke toko souvenir yang dapat dijumpai di setiap sudut jalan, namun sayang sekali saat saya berkunjung ke Cesky Krumlov pada tanggal 1 Januari masih banyak toko yang tutup karena hari itu adalah hari libur setelah malam tahun baru, tapi hal tersebut tidak menghalangi saya untuk berkeliling kota tua yang terdaftar dalam UNESCO World Heritage Site pada tahun 1992 ini.

Saya beruntung karena berkunjung ke kota tua Cesky Krumlov pada musim dingin dan sehari setelah tahun baru, sehingga jalanan tidak dipenuhi oleh turis, maklum banyak orang yang bilang saat musim panas kota tua ini sangat ramai. Walaupun begitu kota ini berhasil memikat banyak turis dari berbagai negara, tidak heran, karena kota ini sangat cantik dan memiliki suasana yang tenang seakan memperlambat waktu Anda, membuat Anda bisa menikmati perjalanan di dalam kota tua ini tanpa merasa diburu oleh waktu. Benar benar jatuh cinta pada pandangan pertama dan saya tidak keberatan jika harus mengulangnya kembali.

Dilarang mengambil dan mempublikasikan foto tanpa izin