Tag: faith

Relax

Tina 5 Comments

Also known as: On relaxing. And…chilling out

I have a problem with my mind sometimes: it runs too fast.

This is me. Sometimes. Many times. Image from we heart it

I wonder if it’s possible to invent something that could turn off certain parts of the brain the moment it starts to over think. I swear I’ll be the first one to get that.

* * *

Sometime two weeks ago I had a legit asthma attack because of stress. It wasn’t even the kind of work-related stress, which was a good and lovely and valid reason if you ask me. It was something a lot more…shallow. And really unnecessary because I brought the stress upon myself, and when things finally cleared later on, it was all for nothing.

I was so annoyed at myself then. I hated how the moment I saw that cause of stress, my mind went a mile a minute, leaving me scrambling behind and unable to catch it. I went from Point A to Point…I don’t know, S? in a matter of seconds. And what I thought, I cannot un-think. It was just so annoying because I just totally stressed myself out.

It sucks.

And with that stress, comes some kind of fear. The one that stops me cold, and just made me wish that I could burrow somewhere and hide, because I don’t think I can handle it if my fears were true, and I wasn’t even sure what exactly I was afraid of. No wonder I got an asthma attack.

With that, my friends usually tell me one thing:

Relax.

Of course…it takes me a while to do that.

Read More

The Question that Matters

Tina 2 Comments

Also known as: Because I need this reminder until further notice


When I started staying in the dorm back in college, I experienced what my college friends and I called “liberating moments”. I was an achiever back in high school, so getting good grades were pretty easy, but in college it became ten times harder so I became one of your average Janes as far as grades are concerned. I managed to keep my head above water during my first two years. Sure, I had two failing marks, but they were because the subjects were just so difficult. Then I started dorming and I noticed that I seemed to care less about my studies and more about org stuff and fun times.

Then I saw my midterm grade for Biology, a minor subject — it was a failing mark. And it shook me out of my liberating moment. So, in an effort to get serious, I decided to hang some signs at the dorm that said: I LOVE BIO. Then on my laptop, I switched the wallpaper from something cutesy to a black, plain one that states: MAG-ARAL KA. ((Translation: YOU SHOULD STUDY. Or better yet, STUDY NOW.))

I think it worked, because I passed Bio. The next term I switched to another wallpaper, this time it said,I’m too blessed to be stressed, because I had too many activities ongoing for me then.

So, after that long introduction, I realize that I should do something like that now so I would remember the One question that I really need to answer now:

Do you trust Me?

Read More

Playing for Keeps

Tina 2 Comments

Also known as: A quest for clarity

Last Saturday was another book discussion day for me with my awesome friends from my awesome book club. It was another awesome day (I use this adjective a lot, I know), and I’ll talk about it in the book blog. One of our activities in that discussion was to pick song verses that describe a specific moment in our past, be it good or bad. It was a hard thing to do, since I have so many songs that were really more like life anthems, but after a lot of thinking, I finally chose a song and submitted it before I chickened out. I remember thinking, It’s going to be a bit hard explaining this, and I thought of writing a blog entry about it before Saturday came, but I just didn’t have enough time.

Well, I didn’t really have a hard time explaining it after all, because as cheesy as it may sound, I took it all from the heart. I’ve always believed that for difficult situations and sharings, you just really have to be honest and say it all from the heart and people will see that effort and it will be okay. And I guess it pays when you pray about these things, too.

Anyway, my chosen song was one of Switchfoot‘s old songs: Playing for Keeps. Specifically, it’s these lines:

Read More