3 Virtues You Need To Get Through A Slump

I was reading an article about traveling when this suddenly hit me: I want to move to another country where no one knows me, meet new people, and begin a new life. Unfortunately, that's not exactly possible right now due to personal reasons. Then I asked myself, "Why do I want this? Why do I want to start a new life in a place with unfamiliar faces?'. There was only one answer: I'm starting to get tired of my current situation. 

I won't say that I'm becoming totally hopeless because I think I'm still pretty optimistic and hopeful right now ;) However, I'm beginning to question myself, everything that has been happening to me, and why in the world they're happening to me. But thanks to the power of all the inspirational and self-help articles and books I've been reading since the past year, I've successfully pushed myself to become more resilient and positive. Yes I won't deny that I'm starting to feel down again, but compared to how I was before, I guess I'm able to pick myself up and move on more quickly now.

In addition to Resilience, this slump I'm experiencing reminded me to practice another virtue: Gratitude. Why do I want a new life in a new place with new people when I already got a life here and now? With people who both challenge me and help me? I just really have to be grateful with everything and everyone I have right now and make the most out of them! I know this is not easy to do, that's why we have to cultivate Gratitude daily in our own little ways. Making a collage or a list of the things you're grateful for are some ways to do this!

Also, I cannot let myself forget that there's a good reason for all this. As the famous saying goes, "Everything happens for a reason". Instead of questioning and doubting myself and everything else, I simply have to work hard despite the odds.

To sum everything up, my advice is to practice:

1. Resilience - be strong, push yourself

2. Gratitude - be grateful with who and what you have and make the most out of them

3. Optimism - always remember that there's a good reason for everything

I hope these virtues would help you when you feel like giving up or escaping from a problem :) 

How about you? Do you have any advice that you want to share? :)

Nature Republic 92% ALOE VERA GEL Review

Nature Republic is one of the popular beauty brands in Korea. Just by hearing its name, one can already assume that their beauty products are made from natural ingredients. They use natural substances like fruit and tea extracts. 

I bought their 92% Aloe Vera Gel a few months ago, mainly because my favorite Korean boy group was endorsing it (yes, celebrity endorsements really work on me). But besides that, I also knew that Aloe Vera offers a wide range of benefits. 

When I entered the store, there was an infographic near the entrance that showed the different ways of using the Aloe Vera Gel. It was similar to this one:

It was a really effective in-store ad because after seeing it, I was even more convinced to buy the gel.

The gel is transparent, thick, and easy to apply. It smells good too!

Following the infographic, I use it to moisturize any dry part of my body (lips, skin, face). It gives a cool sensation as well so whenever I feel hot, I apply it on my neck. I also use it to grow my eyebrows. I apply it on my brows twice a day: after taking a bath and after washing my face before bedtime. It was effective in the beginning but now, the effects have slowed down. 

Besides using it for skin care, I also use it as part of my make-up routine. I was watching a Korean beauty program and the make-up expert said that mixing your moisturizer with your foundation/BB cream is better than putting your moisturizer first. So instead of using it as a make-up base as suggested in the infographic, I mix the gel with my BB cream and put them as one on my face. With this, the Aloe Vera Gel moisturizes my skin and at the same time makes my face look dewy/luminous. 

Nature Republic's 92% ALOE VERA GEL (recognized by California Certified Organic Farmers) works well both as a skin care and as a make-up product. For skin care, it moisturizes my dry body parts instantly. As for make-up, it works very well with my BB cream. It is priced at PHP 250 which is very reasonable and cheap. Overall it is an effective product and it's honestly one of the best beauty purchases I've ever made! 

5 Steps to Restore the Faith

Some of us may have come to the point where too many misfortunes were happening in our lives that we just decided to stop believing in God. In my case, my religiousness have started to waver when I was around third year college. All the aspects of my life just kept getting worse and I started to feel animosity towards God. I questioned Him about all the misfortunes I had and eventually, I began to doubt if there really was a God out there. So you see, it didn't just waver, my religiousness went down to 0. I stopped believing in God. I declared myself an Atheist and even had q&a sessions with my Atheist online friend to learn more about Atheism.

My religious past self used to believe that God won't give me problems that I can't bear and that He would always help me. I also believed that everything happens for a reason and behind every reason was Him. But the time came when all of these beliefs didn't make sense to me anymore. My thinking became more worldly.

But fortunately, I woke up from that state and decided that I'm going to believe again. I realized that not believing in God didn't improve my life and make me any happier. So how did I do it? First off let me tell you at this point that it's a long process, of course. Even up to now, I'm still not done. I'm still working on restoring my relationship with God. The following are the steps I came up with:

1. Decide whether you're really going to stop believing in Him OR you are just mad at Him.
   
2. If you feel that you're not happy with whatever your decision is, take a step back and look at everything, the whole situation. Then ask yourself, "Why am I not happy?". I
   n my case, I realized that I made the wrong move when I decided to quit Catholicism. I thought that doing that would finally help me feel better and happier. But dude was I wrong. Weeks turned into months and eventually, the truth came to me: I was just mad at Him. I was so mad that I convinced myself that He's not real, I denied His existence. I forced myself into Atheism thinking that that was the right thing for me to do given my circumstances. In answering the question above, you should be totally honest with yourself. It's better and more helpful than denying your feelings, questions, and thoughts. Once you find the answer, this question should come next, "What should I do to be happy?".
   
3. Realizing my big mistake, I started praying to Him right away. I asked for forgiveness and explained to Him everything: all my thoughts, feelings, and worries (though He knows all of them already). I also suggest to try to always talk to Him even if it's not exactly a prayer, you can talk to Him even in random moments throughout the day; express your thoughts and concerns and ask for help. To be honest, I think it's just like trying to reconcile with a close friend you had a fight with.

   
   
4. Go to Confession. I haven't done this yet because I'm still in the part where I'm trying to be comfortable with God again. But I will do it soon. This is advisable because once you do this, you would feel like you're a new person. This would help you leave your sins, guilt, and mistakes behind and start anew.
   
   
5. Go to Mass. I believe that this should be done ONLY after going to confession, because that's the right way, isn't it?

So those are the steps that I took, have been taking, and will take as someone who wants to go back to God after spending a part of her life as a non-believer. Though I want to restore my faith as soon as possible, I believe that this kind of thing should not be rushed. If you try to rush it, you would feel that it's wrong and it would just make you feel worse. I hope those steps would be helpful to a Catholic who's having doubts about staying in the religion or not.

A Way Healthier Alternative for Mayonnaise

We always use Mayonnaise for different purposes: dressing, spread, dip, etc. But we also know that it's really fatty so we often think about what healthier alternatives we could use instead. According to this Buzzfeed article, Avocado can serve as a healthy substitute for Mayonnaise. I strongly agree but recently, I realized that there's another healthy alternative: Pesto. 

Pesto is an Italian sauce that you can make easily. You just need fresh basil, olive oil, garlic, salt, and pepper. Sometimes people add cheese and nuts too. You simply have to mix them all in a blender or food processor. But just a little trivia: Italians in the olden times used to mince the ingredients manually using mortar and pestle. This is where the word pesto was derived from, it came from pestare, which is Italian for 'to crush' or 'to pound'.

I always make Pesto and serve it with almost anything because it effortlessly turns any simple dish into something more special, both in taste and in presentation. I mix it with eggs to make a Pesto omelette. I serve it with Tuna to make a healthier sandwich/taco filling. I spread it onto Cream Dory to add flavor. And of course, it's the best when you have it with pasta. That was the first and original use of it anyway. See? There are indeed a lot of ways to include Pesto in your own recipes! If you want to make it even more healthy, you can lessen the oil and don't add any other fatty ingredients like cheese and cream. Based on my experiences with it, I can totally recommend it as a healthier alternative for Mayonnaise. Try it!

How about you? Do you have another healthy substitute for Mayonnaise? I want to know!

The most striking thing I've learned from the 1-day Sales training I had last Saturday. Damn.

Curious and Concerned: Why Knowing the Difference Could Save You

I'm sure all of us have experienced someone asking us, 'Are you okay?'. However, we should be cautious whenever others ask us that, or any question along that line. Because not everyone who asks that is concerned, some are just curious.

There’s a thin line between those two. Concerned people really worry about you and your circumstances. They want to help you get out of your bad situation, they want you to do better, they want you to be well. While curious people on the other hand just ask you the question so that they would know more about you, but not exactly in a good way. They want to know how you are doing and what kind of situation you’re in so that they would have one more person to gossip about, so that they could talk about you behind your back. 

In life, it’s very important to know which ones are concerned and which ones are just curious. This is a very vital step in having a good life filled with good relationships. We have to be careful or else we would really have major trust issues and get hurt in return. And of course we don't want that.

One way to evade mistrusting is to get to know everyone around you.  Talk to them, know their reputation, observe them from a far. Once you think you're done, choose which ones to keep and which ones to avoid. Still having a hard time differentiating? Just trust your gut, your intuition. It won't fail you. There are things that cannot be guaranteed just by seeing and hearing, you also have to feel the things and people around you. 

Circumstances of a Fresh Grad: Can't Let My Mind Get Rusty!

Being a carefree bum comes with being a fresh grad who's trying to land her first job. I'm in that part of my life right now and I must admit, I have a love-hate relationship with it. I want to stay as relaxed as this for a longer time but at the same time I want to start working already. But I feel more strongly for the latter, of course.

I don't want my senses and mind to get rusty so I really make the effort to learn about relevant things as much as I can. I'm currently taking up free online courses about blogging and interior decorating because I really want to learn about those two and be good at them eventually. But of course Marketing, my chosen field of profession which I took up in college, is still a good topic for me to explore. I believe that graduating from school doesn't give one the option to stop learning. Learning never stops! 

The 1-day training I had under an out-of-home advertising agency yesterday was a really good opportunity for me to learn more about a possible career path. The speaker discussed about sales and how to get clients to say 'YES'. There were a lot of key takeaways from the training and my mindfulness and senses were really sharpened after days of bumming around. Interacting, taking down notes, paying attention, and listening to new people were indeed refreshing.

After the training, my new friend Michelle went with me to a nearby mall to pick up and pay for a book I reserved last week. It's a book about blogging written by the editors of The Huffington Post. It's entitled 'The Huffington Post Complete Guide to Blogging'. I love reading and browsing through Huffington Post because they have articles that are both witty and informative. I can't wait to start reading the book!!

After that, we went to a milk tea store and boy was I so happy to finally satisfy my cravings! I had GONG CHA's Ice Cream Milk Tea♥ It tasted so creamy and had just the right amount of sweetness! I've had it before and I'm gonna have it again and again. It's one of the best milk tea flavors I ever had!

Look at that froth and melting ice cream!

When I was about to start my day yesterday, I kept telling myself that it was going to be a good and productive day, and it turned out to be even better than I expected! I learned a lot, made new friends, got my hands on the book I've been wanting to have, and had another one of my milk tea adventures♥

This Interior Design Exhibit Was Conceptualized By Students: UNBELIEVABLE (Part 2)

In my previous post, I talked about my top 3 picks from this year's Philippine School of Interior Design (PSID) Exhibit. But of course I still gushed about the other countries featured in the exhibit! So I'll be talking about them in this post.

1. KENYA
I love the huge circular door for the TV set!

And the colored ropes tied around the pillar which really gives off the tribal feeling.

2. EGYPT
I love the black and gold combination. Very Egyptian. I especially love the chairs and the shiny pillar. Very extravagant! It's not hard to imagine Cleopatra in here, actually.

The ceiling is inspired by the famous pyramids.

3. SOUTH AFRICA
I love this spiral wood from the South African exhibit.

4. UAE
I love the colors and the shape of the bed! Reminds me of Jasmine.

5. INDIA
I want this hanging/swinging mini sofa from the Indian exhibit in my own home.

The ceiling is really eye-catching too!

6. PHILIPPINES
Of course our own country, the Philippines, had an exhibit too! And my most favorite part of it is this wavy metal around the ceiling and wall. I asked the student how they made it and he said they pounded it manually. AWESOME.

7. CAMBODIA
This is the exhibit that gave off the most vacation-y feeling. Look at that wallpaper! They also used fake grass for the floor.

8. JAPANESE
I love these red and white lanterns!

9. RUSSIA
This is the kitchen wall of the Russian exhibit. They used chalk pen to write on it.

These are recycled wine bottles with lights in them! So beautiful, it's the most memorable part of the Russian exhibit for me.

10. SWEDEN
My favorite part of the the Swedish exhibit is the ceiling. It was influenced by the Aurora Borealis. The students in charge used LED lights and printed pictures of the Aurora lights. They overlapped those two materials and the product was like a moving picture with animated lights! It was really amazing! I think it would be really nice to fall asleep while looking at that.

I also like these triangular pieces of furniture.

11. SPAIN
This is the shower room from the Spanish exhibit. The design around it is inspired by the Flamenco, a Spanish folk dance. The students patterned their design on how the gowns of the dancing Spanish women flow while they dance Flamenco.

12. ITALY
I love the whole package: the desk, the lamp, the big red chair, the television set and its doors, and especially the fireplace.

The ceiling is very well designed too.

13. GREECE
This is the only exhibit that had this amount of curtains. Well, it's Greece after all. Whenever I watch movies about Greek gods, they're always clad in curtain-like costumes, so I guess this was expected.

One of the walls had this maze on it. It's based on the Labyrinth in the Greek mythology. The student told me that you could solve it when you're bored.

I think this exhibit is the most heartwarming to look at. The yellow lights and the curtain certainly made it feel that way.

14. MEXICO

The ceiling design is very beautiful. It's like you have a colorful 3D ceiling with lights! I also like that triangle thing, it makes me feel like I'm on vacation in a rest house.

15. CZECH REPUBLIC
A highschool batchmate was one of the students in charge of the Czech exhibit. What I love the most about this is the design of the walls. The variety of color and pattern really match well. The wooden floor gives a homey feeling as well.

16. USA
It's the American Eagle on wood. I love it.

Instead of the usual Modern America aesthetics and vibe, the students in charge of the US exhibit chose to go with the American-Indian feel. It's different and I like it!

17. CUBA
I love the quote written on the wall, both the meaning and how it looks: it's cursive and the letters are huge. It's a quote by Ernest Hemingway and when I asked the student why it was used for the Cuban exhibit, she told me that Hemingway spent some time in Cuba while writing a book. I'm in love with the color of the wallpaper too!

18. AUSTRALIA
I think this is the most minimalistic exhibit. I love the colors and the shape of the sofa. Overall, it looks really clean and I like it.

That's it! But I don't have any pictures of the Turkey exhibit because there were a lot of people when I passed by and it didn't feel right to take photos because they kinda covered the exhibit :/

So, do you have any favorites?

This Interior Design Exhibit Was Conceptualized By Students: UNBELIEVABLE

Interior Design is a newly found interest for me. It all started on Pinterest, where I would pin photos of cute and minimalist-designed rooms onto my INTERIOR DESIGN board. From then on, I've always looked for great interior designs online and try to get ideas that I can use to beautify our home even in the simplest ways. So when my friend, Jairus, a Philippine School of Interior Design (PSID) student, invited me to his and his batchmates' annual exhibit, I didn't hesitate and grabbed the opportunity to see amazing and eccentric interior designs. I was sure that it would be a feast for my eyes, and it didn't fail me.

Every year, the students of PSID hold an exhibit where they showcase their own interior designs. The students were divided into groups with 4-6 members and their professors assigned them a country which served as their inspiration for their respective designs. The students had to make a very thorough research about their country's history, traditions, customs, and famous places. They would use the information they got to explain to the visitors the rationale and inspiration behind their design. I was very impressed by how much detailed their research was!

The exhibit for this year was called GLOBALSCAPES. 

There were 22 countries, meaning their were 22 exhibits. I love this flight board because it really gives the feeling that you're about to travel worldwide!

Before visitors entered, they were given a voting slip where they would list their top 3 favorite exhibits. I voted (1st) Peru, (2nd) United Kingdom, and (3rd) Brazil.

PERU

This is the Peru exhibit, one of the students who designed this was my friend, Jairus. I really love the stone wall around the television. It gives off a nature-y vibe. According to the student who was explaining, they got the idea from the place where a famous Peruvian feast takes place yearly. I also love the colors of the sofa and throw pillows. It was a nice combination.

This string wall made of colorful yarns was really striking! Jairus told me that many people said it was their favorite part of the Peru exhibit, and I couldn't agree more!

Behind the sofa and the string wall is the study area. I love the white desk because it makes the area look clean. The design of the cabinet doors are lovely too, really Peruvian! I also like the corkboard and the design around it. 

What I really like about this exhibit is not only did they use designs inspired by a famous Peruvian place and selected Peruvian colors, they also made the study area a level higher than the living room. It really looks good and makes the whole exhibit more sophisticated.

Overall, I like the simplicity of this exhibit and the colors they used. They used designs inspired by a famous Peruvian place and selected colors that give off the Peruvian vibe. You could really see the Peruvian aesthetics in each corner.

UK

I literally gasped in awe when I saw this bus-inspired design. We all know that UK is known for their buses, so the students used it as a part of their design and it was an extremely creative idea.

So this is the inside of the bus-inspired reading nook. There's a sofa, throw pillows, a lamp, and bookshelves.

Beside the reading nook is the living room. I really love how they used an actual tire for the bus! Their wall is red brick-inspired because UK is also known for that. And of course there's  this minimalist imitation of the Big Ben. I love the pattern around the clock.

And for the telephone, well, they used a mini table designed like a mini telephone booth! When we think of UK, we cannot forget the red telephone booths, right? I really loved this furniture I actually wanted to take it home!

What I loved about this exhibit is their use of the things UK is really known for: bus, red-brick walls, Big Ben, and the red telephone booth. How much more UK-ish can you get than that?

BRAZIL

Like UK, the students for the Brazilian exhibit made use of a thing their respective country is known for. In this case: FOOTBALL. They designed an outdoor room where families or friends can gather to have a drink. And what's really amazing? They designed the parameters of the room based on a soccer ball! Instead of having the usual square room, they constructed a distorted round thing that looked like a football. They used acrylic instead of glass because the latter would make the whole thing heavy. I really love the transparency because when you place this in your roofless garden or backyard, you'd see the raindrops fall on it when it rains and I think that would be a good sight to see. I love the lights too!

So there are sofas on each side and between them is a black and thin pathway that has the same patterns of the acrylic football. I love the lights under the sofas, they make the whole thing look and feel like a real bar.

As you can see, the colors of the throw pillows are the same as the colors of the Brazilian flag. I love the indoor plants too because they give a homey feeling.

This is how the whole thing looks like! Awesome right?

This is how it looks through the acrylic from the outside.

I love the Brazilian exhibit because it's not just a room, it looks like an art installation too. Very creative.

I'm very much in love with this exhibit. It was a great experience and to be honest, I can't believe they were done mostly by students who have the same age as mine! They did everything from research to execution. They have my respect. Also, thanks to their awesome sponsors who helped them out! Without their sponsors, this exhibit wouldn't be as great as it was. 

Everything in the exhibit is for sale/auction.

I actually took photos of all the exhibits, but this post would be too long if I talk about them here as well. So I'll just make another post about my other favorites from the rest of the exhibits.