Marc and Angel repost #4

I'm reading new posts from the Marc and Angel Hack Life site all the time, but today I though I might share with you a new post that I read tonight. I strongly believe in a lot of the things that are written in this post, and I can say from experience at trying to apply these things to my own life and attitudes that it does indeed lead to a happier version of yourself. 

Feel free to read Marc and Angel's latest post: 8 Things Unhappy People Refuse to Admit. Let the words really sink in so that you can take away something meaningful from it. Number 1 and 7 on the list are particularly important to me. I find myself constantly telling people to make themselves their best friend. The way I see it, a best friend is always there for you. When you are sad they comfort you; they're someone whose company you enjoy; you readily forgive them for any shortcomings; you love them for who they are...and the list goes on. The person that you have to spend the most time with is yourself; become the type of person you'd want to spend every waking minute with. 

Number 7 on the list mentions being able to accept our true feelings. This is something that takes a lot of time to achieve, but will be worth it in the end. You can't fix a leaking tap if you keep telling yourself that it is the knob that is broken when really the problem is in the pipes. In much the same way, you can't resolve your own issues and problems if you aren't honest with yourself about how you feel. Sometimes admitting the truth is so difficult, but so is having to continue living with whatever problem you're facing. Choose to be the stronger version of you and face the truth head on. "Courage isn't a matter of not being frightened, you know. It's being afraid and doing what you have to do anyway.” -Jon Pertwee.

Relay For Life

Back in April, I gave a donation to Unicef and made an effort then and there to be more giving and make a difference whenever and where ever I can. A friend recently asked me to join their team for Relay For Life, an event to help support the Cancer Council, but unfortunately I am unable to participate because of other commitments. I still wanted to show my support though, so today I decided to help the team out and give a donation. I've never helped sponsor anyone for Relay For Life yet, and so I figured this would be a great something new for the day. 

I also wanted to share something else with you all today. I opened up one of my favourite sites Marc and Angel Hack Life today and saw a post that I had read a while back which they had re-posted. It is titled 8 Things You Forgot To Be Grateful For. This post definitely goes straight to my heart because there is one particular sentence (that I have underlined below) that motivates me to keep writing this blog:

2.  Every single experience that led you to today.

Life isn’t about a single moment of great triumph and attainment.  It’s about the trials and errors that get you there – the blood, sweat, and tears – the small, inconsequential things you do every day.  It all matters in the end – every step, every regret, every decision, and every affliction.

The seemingly useless happenings add up to something.  The minimum wage job you had in high school.  The evenings you spent socializing with coworkers you never see anymore.  The hours you spent writing thoughts on a personal blog that no one reads.  Contemplations about elaborate future plans that never came to be.  All those lonely nights spent reading novels and news columns and comics strips and fashion magazines and questioning your own principles on life and sex and religion and whether or not you’re good enough just the way you are.

All of this has strengthened you.  All of this has led you to every success you’ve ever had.  All of this has made you who you are today. 

I know that I have the wonderful support of all my friends and family that read this blog and for that I feel truly blessed, but just knowing that with or without an audience, I'm still making a difference to the future me is such a great feeling. 

Keeping this blog up and running everyday can be a bit tiring, but I'm reminded of how much I love doing this each time I look back over my past posts. Seeing all the photos and reliving the memories is an instant happiness shot. I am so blessed to have been given this gap year. 

Today is day number 231. Only 134 days left, and not a single one will be wasted :)

Graylands Hospital and Marc and Angel repost #3

I started my first day of clinical placement at Graylands Hospital today. Graylands is Western Australia's largest psychiatric hospital. Based on what I've heard from other people, I've always believed that it is a very intense psychiatric hospital. I've had all these ideas in my head about what the place could be like, and because of this I had no real idea of what to expect. 

However, after going there today, I can tell you that the grounds are very lovely and spacious and the hospital is not as scary as I thought. I didn't ever feel unsafe while I was on the wards today. 

I'm looking forward to seeing how this prac placement goes. I hope I gain a lot of knowledge and experience that I can take with me into med and for the rest of my career. 

On a side note, I read the latest post from one of my favourite blogs Marc and Angel Hack Life. The post was titled 8 Life Quotes and Tips to Make You Think. While I always gain so much from reading their posts, I thought I might share with you something that resonated profoundly with me in today's post. 

On the topic of happiness and personal growth, Angel wrote "The feelings of happiness and fulfillment are nice when they happen, and they are needed, but they don’t strengthen you."

When I took a moment to ponder this, I realised that this statement was very true for me. Happy times are great. I love experiencing happiness and look forward to this more than hard times and challenges, but there has never been a time which I can recall where I have built strength from a happy moment in my life. 

All my happy moments have just been there for me to enjoy and have resulted in lasting memories, but It has been the challenges in life that have made me strong. It is sad but true admitting to the fact that life needs both the good and the bad. It is something I've accepted for a long time now, but reading this just made me think about it in a whole different way. 

I don't always like facing life's challenges, but if it will help me to be a stronger person, I know it will always be worth it.

Marc and Angel's '50 Questions That Will Free Your Mind'

My something new for today isn't anything spectacular but it still turned my ordinary day into a pretty good one. 

While I was scrolling through people's lists on the Day Zero Project website I found a person who had "Answer all the questions on Marc and Angel's '50 Questions That Will Free Your Mind' list". I had briefly skimmed over the first ten or so questions a while ago but then got side tracked and never ended up actually answering any of them. I decided that it was time for a bit of me-time tonight so I set myself the challenge of answering them in one sitting. 

I copied and pasted the questions into a word document so that I could type out my answers. I think it will be nice to come back to these questions next year or something and see how much my answers have changed. 

I turned off anything that could distract me so that I could really have a good think about the questions because some of them were quite deep. There were questions that really made you question life and then you had other ones that were just funny and were good to answer because they're rarely asked. 

For example, question 20 is 'Do you push the elevator button more than once?  Do you really believe it makes the elevator faster?'. My answer: I'll only press it once until it lights up. If the button doesn't light up then i'll press it more times. But no, pressing it lots of times won't make it go faster. 

The button on the traffic lights on the other hand, I press multiple times...and I do it even though I know it won't make the green man light up any faster. 

Question 41 actually made me gasp out loud: 'If you knew that everyone you know was going to die tomorrow, who would you visit today?'. I didn't expect a question like that and no one has ever asked me that before so it took me by surprise.

So yeah, there are all sorts of thought provoking questions. If you're going to tackle these questions open your mind and really go all out and be honest.

I really enjoyed answering these questions because it gave me the opportunity to discover myself a little bit more. One of the questions was 'Is is possible to know the truth without challenging it first?' and now that I think about it, it kind of applies to self discovery and realisation. We get better insight into the kind of people we are when we see how we react and respond to challenges. Sometimes I didn't like the honest answers that I gave to some of the questions, but it's given me a lot to think about...in a good way :)