Wanders of Kim

Xiu Yang: Self-Cultivation for a Happier, Healthier and Balanced Life

This book is simple yet it is filled with wisdom that allows its reader to reflect about their lives. Xiu Yang is an interesting self-help book that is calm to read. It sounds like a friend who sits with you at the park, looking at the people who pass by.

I got this book in Lazada during the Big Bad Wolf sale. This is my second Chinese self-help book. I’ve also read Yang Sheng: The Art of Chinese Self-Healing, and I must say I love these ideas and beliefs.

This book contains practical tips on how to cultivate oneself to be happy, healthy, and obtain a balance life. I love how these tips are simple. These tips are attainable.

According to the author, Xiu Yang’s central aim is to help remind not our faults, but our potential to experience a true sense of balance and well-being.

Xiu means to cultivate. Yang means to nurture. And Xin means heat.

Xiu Yang values the quality rather than the process.

In the first chapters of the book, she shared the long-term support for our happiness. There has to be knowledge, compassion, wisdom, and insight. These words seem to be simple but the book elaborated how these concepts are crucial to happiness.

What I loved the most is her idea about compassion. She said,

“When you cultivate compassion, you begin to see the things that poison your mind or heart are just visitors, rather than permanent residents.”
Mimi Kuo-Deemer, Xiu Yang

I strongly agree to this concept. I love how the author reminds us that the trials we see are only temporary, not permanent. I will write this quote on my board for sure.

When it comes to health, she clearly stated that nutrition, body clock, and exercise are important. We should align certain rhythms with the patterns found in the natural world.

She stated how our body replenishes for a specific time in a day. She has this whole cycle about our body clock. She also described what are the activities that should be done by that time. Example, wake up between 5:00am-7:00am, and do some meditation, and walking.

Moreover, she also cited the things that we should eat. She gave suggestions related to exercising as well. She included poses, and basic movements that help in breathing, and qi flowing.

Lastly, to have a balanced mind, one has to handle emotions, too. She cited Mindfulness of Emotion by Michelle McDonald.

R – Recognize your emotion (label or name it)

A – Allow (Accept it, not fix)

I – Investigate (Be curious how this emotions feels in your body.)

N – Not Personal/ Non-Identification (This emotion does not define you.)

This acronym is a helpful mindset to those who are struggling in handling their emotions. This could be of help, of course, with proper guidance.

“The ancient Chinese believed that the heart’s natural capacity was like the midday sun: radiant, warming, spacious, and expansive. They believe that the heart supports our life and infuses it with qualities that make us complete as human beings.”
Mimi Kuo-Deemer, Xiu Yang

In conclusion, I love how everything is described in this book. It is calming, and relaxing. It reminds people to maintain balance, and see the extraordinary in every little thing.

I hope you give this book a try. 🙂

Life Lessons Lately

After a month of not writing any posts, I decided to summarize my realizations lately. Grabe. Ang daming nangyari. I could only look back and try to write what comes into my mind now. I’ve written here what I need to remember. Ayokong kalimutan talaga, dahil very personal ito sa akin.

Here are some of my takeaways about life.

Not all people will support your cause.

No matter how supportive you are to your friends, they will always have reasons not to support you. It’s not that I feel bad about them for not supporting me/us but a reply will do. An honest reply. Unfortunately, they didn’t even bother opening my message.

I feel so dismayed. But maybe, I need to understand by now that not all people will really support you and that’s okay. What truly matterst are the people who are willing to support you.

I also realized that people have different priorities, and maybe my concern is not their concern. Maybe I just expected too much. I believe I need to expect that much from other people.

Health is wealth.

I know, this is so cliche. But I needed to remind myself several times because I tend to overwork. When I wake up, I think about my to-do lists. I always want to finish my tasks before the deadline so I always work in advance. And of course, sometimes, working in advance may result to disappointments (again). I sometimes skip breakfast if I am on the mood to work.

Since I seldom rest, my body somehow gave up. There was a time when I vomitted after waking up. My body felt so tired. I didn’t realize that my body is now asking me to rest. I was so occupied with my to-do lists that made me forget to rest.

So I just slept the whole day and rested.

The next day, I felt better. Because of this incident, I became more mindful on how I treat my tasks. I scheduled a rest or break for myself, too. I allocated time when to check my work email, and when to check my social media accounts. I also became more mindful of my diet and food intake. Less coffee and caffeine I guess?

Saying no (again).

I refused to a lot of side gigs lately especially if they aren’t good for my mental health. Saying no became easier for me since I practiced this a lot. How did I do this? I set my priorities first. I tried to determine what really matters for me. Then, after that, I would only work on things that would align to my values and priorities. I also said no when I feel so overworked with the tasks.

If you’ve been reading my blog (wow assuming), I was invited to different webinars. Biggest size would be more than five thousand (peak of pandemic). I was also paid to train teachers online and sometimes onsite. This was because of God’s grace. Yihh. Honestly, this happened because of my friend in MA who trusted me first to become a speaker. This made me work hard. Huhu.

I would give free talks when it is for public school, and for church activities as long as I was given enough time to prepare. However, there was a time when I was only given a week to prepare, a video recording of one hour to produce, and a very difficult topic to review. The 2020 Kim would find way to make this webinar possible, but the 2022 Kim realized that it’s okay to say no, for real.

Generally, I am happy and contented on where I am today. I have an opportunity to work from home. I have a lot of time to volunteer in our church. I couldn’t ask for more.

What are your life lessons lately? Care to share? 😀

A weekend in Bohol

The last time I had a long vacation was in La Union. It was in December 2021. After that, I didn’t have enough time to go out of town again. This year started with a lot of deadlines for work, graduate school, personal life, and other hustles. No complaints. It was a ‘happy pagod.’

I intentionally did not book any long weekend trip because it wasn’t in my priority (source: my 2022 Planner). Hence, this Bohol trip was actually a graduation gift and birthday celebration at the same time. It was a reward for all the struggles, adjustments, and other trials I’ve overcome for the past months this year.

Day 1 – Chocolate hills and everything in between

We left Manila at 7:00am. It was one of the earliest flight. We arrived in Bohol after one hour. Then, upon arriving in Panglao International Airport, we were greeted with buses, and private cars offering their services. What we chose was the bus ride instead. We decided that for the first day, we’ll do mostly tourist-y things.

The travel time from Panglao International Airport to Tagbilaran City was about thirty minutes. We reached the bus station. In front of that was the Island City Mall. We ate our breakfast there. I didn’t have any booked tours yet so I looked on Facebook and sent a message to a Facebook page. We hired a driver/tourist guide for 2,900php.

We went first to Chocolate Hills. It was a bit rainy but it was a fun experience. We took the usual photos like what the usual tourists would do.

Your usual touristy post at Chocolate Hills

After Chocolate Hills, we headed to Bohol Tarsier Conservation Area. Another tourist spot in Bohol. We saw some tarsiers which reminded us of our shih tzu, Tyni.

Then, we went to man-made forest.

Our tour guide said that the trees here were planted by some boy scouts who were assigned here.

After some time in this forest, we ate lunch at Loboc River. There were lots of foreigners here. This was one of my dream destinations. Now it finally happened. Thank You, Lord.

Day 2 – Our Lady of Light Church in Loon, Bohol

We woke up a bit late. We took our time because we both agreed that this trip would be a slow travel. Slow yet relaxed. If you’ve been reading my blog, you’d remember how enthusiastic I was before when it comes to ticking places to certain destinations. But now, I promised myself not to rush and take my time whenever traveling. So that’s what I did!

We took the van ride going to Loon. That was about 90 pesos fare. It was more than an hour trip going to Our Lady of Light Church in Loon, Bohol. The travel was worth it. We were able to see this church near the sea.

Front view of Our Lady of Light Church in Loon, Bohol

The church was said to be built by corals. It was destroyed during the war, it was reconstructed by the National Museum later on. Luckily, we saw the sacristan mayor. We talked to him, and he toured us around the church. We even went up to the kampanaryo–which was so amusing. We were able to see century old bells. Bells that survived a war. Wow.

The altar of Our Lady of Light Church in Loon, Bohol

We were able to see (close up!) some bells owned by the church.

One of the bells in Our Lady of Light Church in Loon, Bohol

Aside from Miagao church in Iloilo, this was one of my favorite churches I’ve seen so far and I thank God to finally visit here.

Day 3 – Panglao, Bohol

After roaming around Loon and Tagbilaran City, we headed to our next destination which was Samadhi Resort Panglao. My friend recommended this place to us. Her recommendation is superb. This resort is so relaxing and great.

It was so relaxing that we didn’t spend time taking photos. We were mesmerized. Period.

It’s me trying to be instagrammable.

After leaving our places in Samadhi, we headed to Alona Beach. We stayed there for a while. Look at the view. Eat kwek-kwek and barbecue. We also had our dinner there. The view was so nice. However, we didn’t try the island hopping. Budget constraints!

We instead had a tour in Panglao. This cost 1,000php. Basically, we went to another church, a cave, and Bohol Bee Farm. Everything was so nice and worth-trying. Pictures were uploaded in Instagram instead. Hehe.

This is my favorite photo from this trip. Our third day in Bohol was the steadiest among my trips. We spent our time at the beach. We looked at the beautiful views. We had our dinner here. We get to listen to kids singing using their natural voice.

We basically just look at the horizons and wonder if God will allow us to travel more.

Our trip ended on a Sunday. We were happy. We were recharged.

I hope you, who’s reading this, will also find the rest and happiness you deserve.