Good Things: I Am Enough

I've had my days in my earlier years; pimples, dull skin face, thin hair and even chubby body type (In someone else's vision, I was fat). But hey, after a long process of accepting myself and physically and mentally, I decided to appreciate myself by just being me.

There were days when I signed up for a gym, exercised daily, stopped eating carbs for quite some time just to achieve weight goals, getting skinnier, etc. Then I realized that I can't demand my body to be someone or something that I am not. I can't be skinny thin or fully-toned, so I don't have to be. I can't have long well-maintained hair, so I don't have to have it. It's all because I can't fit each one you guys inside my body and it's because I am me. 

Thankfully that thought makes me appreciate myself and others too. With all the best I can, I try not to say something that might be hurtful such as 'Oh you look a bit chubbier', 'Did you gain weight?' 'Your arms are so big!', 'You should lose some weight', 'You are fat' or maybe.. 'Oh my, I am so fat'. 

I've seen someone got so sad and cried many times because some people insulted her appearance. She even asked me 'What's wrong with having a body like mine?', 'Do they actually think about what I feel?'. You know what, she has naturally curvy body types and I envy that. To be exact, she is not even THAT fat. I don't get it why she was being called as 'fat' a lot, but you know, society. Whether they said it intentionally or unintentionally, in the end they did not care. So I told her 'No, they did not care about your feeling. You don't need to prove them anything, just be tough and do anything you like if it leads you to be a better person'. Even me for example, after feeling comfortable enough with my body, there are still people who think that I'm too thin, I'm too fat, I'm not toned enough, I eat too much and all those stuff. If I seriously listen to those opinion, I'd go crazy and I'd definitely go on to a dark road called 'self-hate'. But thank goodness instead of taking it personally, I decided to grow and have thicker skin. Because there are things that we can't control, such as someone else's opinion. Let them say what they wan't, it doesn't matter anymore to me :P. You know, there's a saying 'Once you accepted your flaws, no one can use them against you' and that's 100% true. (But remember, never let those flaws or bad things lead you to a negative life!)

Yup. I'm normal human being, even after years of learning, accepting and appreciating, I will still lose or gain weights, have dark circles under my eyes, have muffin tops, have flabby arms, have bad hair days or bad days in general. But you know, I constantly remind myself that I've come a very long way to be and feel as I am today, so I am not giving it up by 'abusing' myself and others who might be struggling. I am not giving it all up by not feeling enough with what I have. So I decided to do whatever I'm comfortable with; eat and exercise in moderation, drinks lots of water and love my skin in anyways.

Besides all that, I'm blessed that I have wonderful support systems. My sisters with our different body types, my parents and fiancé who tell me that beauty comes from souls. But remember, those things don't matter if I don't support myself and I am beyond grateful that I'm able to appreciate and embrace all the goods and the bad in me. As long as I'm happy, healthy and doesn't do any harm, I believe that the rest will follow. In the end, I don't want to be someone who seeks to much and savours so little. I am full with what I've given and received, therefor I'm enough.

Writing: Don't Wander

Don’t wander through the silence


You’re not ready for the disappointment

Or are you?

Don’t wander through the darkness

You’re not ready for the trickiest of time

Or are you?

Don’t wander..
Don’t wander..


Close your eyes and breathe it out..

Don’t wander, don’t wonder


You’re not ready, you will never be

Jakarta, 24 May 2013

Hastuti Viana Putri (Asti Viana)

This. I wrote almost two years ago. I couldn't remember what was going on with my life that time,  either it's a small or big thing, but I know I must be going through something at that time. Silly old me.

I wrote this as a reminder to not overthink and so I wouldn't easily carried away by the voices of regrets, doubts and curiosity especially when those voices come from the past or even worse, the future that wasn't there yet. This could work as a wake up call for those spaces who long for joy. 

We need to admit that sometimes, it's ourselves who let our soul feel the darkness of time. In times, we knew that we had the choice to 'not mourn', but somehow our mind chose to be buried inside the coldness even though the light was always there to gave a little warmth.

.... Even after two years... 

Of course, there were times when I had the least amount of smiles yet I still managed to skip it. There were days where the regrets and endless possibilities were ruthlessly dancing in our mind, but those doleful things could  be stopped by not letting our mind wander and wonder too far. 

By not letting myself drawn, I came to realize that I've grown into someone who I always wanted to be. I didn't need someone else's agreement whether I've grown or not. But I'm able to feel that I've become a better me, and I am a happier soul now.

Good Things: Letting Go

One of the most courageous thing to do is to let things go.
It doesn't necessarily mean you ignore or run away from problem heartlessly.
It means that you learn to openheartedly accept and realise that we just can't fix everything.

When you ask yourself to let go some aspects in your life..
You'll notice that you will feel better,
Things get brighter,
And you'll start appreciate everything even more.

It won't be easy, but letting go of things that chained you is a beautiful start..
And remember, happiness is an ongoing process.

So dear beautiful souls, have you let go things that burden your physically and emotionally?

Jakarta, 17 Mei 2015
Hastuti Viana Putri (AstiViana)

Writing: The Warmth of Winter

The sun comes out late and leaves a bit earlier to let the pale grass shines throughout the season

The breeze gives our skin a friendly pat

The trees without leaves that I find endearing

Oh how I miss that kind of warmth, the warmth of winter

Jakarta, 16 Mei 2015

Hastuti Viana Putri (Asti Viana)

Thoughts: Awareness, Skill and Knowledge in Intercultural Competencies

Imagine you’re joining a program where you’ll be meeting an interacting to a lot of people from another countries. You’re thinking that they are from Japan, Thailand, German, and Turkey or maybe from a place that you’ve never heard before. You can’t stop questioning yourself ‘How are we going to understand each other in this very diverse situation? Or ‘What if I say or do something and it will offend them?’. Now you realized speaking in English the main issue anymore and interaction between individuals is more than just a language skill.

Interacting with people from another country means you’ll be facing different concepts of perceptions, acting, feelings and thinking ahead of you. In this situation you should learn the whole process not just limiting yourself to the languages they use by understanding the intercultural competence.

Intercultural competence or cross-cultural competence is the ability to communicate with people of other cultures appropriately and effectively. It can be the strong foundation or preparation that will guide you when you’re placed in a very diverse environment and can be described as having these components:

Awareness

Start yourself by realizing that diversity is actually exists and understand that everyone has reasons behind their actions. Having awareness is important because it will be difficult to know the point of view of others unless you have the consciousness of wanting to understand the cultures and their backgrounds.

Knowledge

Learning in order to gain more knowledge means that you’re one-step further and move beyond judgments. You’re not just wondering why do some people say or act in a certain way, but you’re actually having the urge to learn more about other’s cultures and behaviors. Knowledge can lead you to ‘see something from someone else’s lens and it’ll help you to accept, adapt and finally be comfortable in a global environment.

Skills

Synthesizing knowledge and awareness becomes a skill on valuing diversity. It will support you on reacting towards differences. You’ll be improving your intercultural competences and have the ability on behaving with an appropriate manner.

Developing awareness, knowledge and skill is an ongoing process and it won’t be successful over a night especially because it requires practices in real life. But the more you learn the more you’ll know how to prevent yourself from having to misinterpret the multicultural differences. It’ll make your task easier and increase each one’s satisfaction while interacting with people from different backgrounds. That way each one of you’ll manage embrace and celebrates the differences.

Thoughts: Technology and A Moment Of Reflecting

TECHNOLOGY AND A MOMENT OF REFLECTING

In today’s world, technology plays a vital role. Since there are so many advantages that technology offers us, it’s nothing new that technology has become an essential part of our life. Some people think that the existence of technology should be used for positive references especially for human being.. With the help of it, we are able to communicate and share information to people from around the world in seconds, we are also able to learn new things and gain knowledge. Compared to earlier days, now we surely are having better facilities with the help of technology. There’s no need to deny that we’ve gathered many benefits from the technological inventions.

Well, it actually doesn’t matter how big or small the technological inventions, but what matters lies on how some specific applications are used to define the impacts to society. For example, before there comes any help from digital pictures editors, people are doing everything manually straight from the camera, adjusting lights, adding focus etc. But years have gone by and things have improved. People are inventing various picture editing programs to help them beautify photographs, people let technology plays its role to make their job easier. 

However, despite all the fun, people are having too much ‘fun’ and it ends up to abusing the functions of it.  We’ve seen some people excessively using the picture-editing program whether it’s for fun, for business and for other particular reasons or purposes. From advertorial pictures to political campaigns, we’ve seen pictures that have gone to editing program before it actually seen to public. Even sometimes we personally cannot help it to use the editing program, because it was darn easy.

With the help of the digital technology, there are pictures of a person’s that are enhanced to look ‘perfect’ almost unreal, such as models, actor, actresses, or public figure in general. What’s worse is, by picture editing program people can create a seemingly different person by heavily editing the pictures.  While on reality, there’s no way that people will look flawless. But with the power of technology, a little touch of editing surely goes a long way. On some people, it makes them feeling envious of the unrealistic images and almost become an obsession to become ‘perfect’  just like them (by implying an unhealthy lifestyle).

In other case let’s jump to the recent issue; intimate photographs of Chairman Of KPK, Abraham Samad with “Puteri Indonesia” 2014 Pageant winner, Elvira Devinamira Wirayanti spread to public’s eyes through local press and social media. For a moment, those pictures had people believe that those were real. Turned out later there was a statement explaining the pictures were edited. Not to forget during the 9/11 accidents, there was a man posing on the top of World Trade Center building. The infamous “The Tourist Guy” claimed that the picture was taken a moment right before the twin tower attack. People didn’t know how and who started it, but when the fictitious images were shown to public, we all thought those images were real at first and some people are trying to ‘reveal’ the truth being the pictures, whether the they are real or edited. 

From what we have, we can see how powerful the technology to make people assume something that isn’t true. It’s a bit shocking to think that how technology can be troublesome and misleading in some ways. All the digital ways above on editing pictures lead people to believe that what we’ve seen in really what’s really happening, but sadly it isn’t. It’s even remotely messing out perceptions about reality and creates such misconception. The existence of technology was to help us, but on the other side, technology can also makes people instantly create such a false perception. 

When some people think it’s not a big deal, some other think it’s inappropriate because it causes confusion, humility, in rage or disappointments on people. So, it is important to be thoughtful and having the ability to understand there are risks of every action by using digital technology. Boundaries are still needed and sticking to good values on using digital technology is also remarkable, therefore we can continue to innovate better in order to create more helpful inventions in the future. What do you think about it? Since when is a picture-editing program become a moral issue? How far is too far? Let's pause for a moment in order to reflect the impacts of abusing the uses of technology. Hopefully in the future we will be more aware on using it and won't cause any harm to others.