Indulgence is also wellness

I can’t wait to scream out loud about a new discovery. Wellness is not all about health, appearance, beauty, and skin care. I found a new meaning to it – self pampering and indulgence celebrates wellness!

When was the last time you really splurge on self indulgence, when was the last time you felt you done something great to celebrate the love for yourself, and when was the last time you cannot stop smiling from within?

My recent business trip to Beijing, China, made me realize this – loving yourself can be such a beautiful thing. I have extended one night in Beijing after my business meetings. I have already checked out some hotels and have decided to book myself into a snazzy looking hotel, The Emperor. The tablethotels.com house the most amazing list of great hotels. In any case, The Emperor is under the Designhotels – you can start imaging how awesome the hotel is. Of course, great photos to share as you read on.

The hotel was way beyond my expectation. I cannot stop saying “awesome” as I hurried all around the room to check every single detail. A great quote by Bill Bryson, best seller writer of books on travel, can sum up my feelings.

“To my mind, the greatest reward and luxury of travel is to be able to experience everyday things as if for the first time, to be in a position in which almost nothing is so familar it is taken for granted.”

I have ever pampered myself with new clothes, new bags, new shoes, new makeup, but it has never felt the same as my experience staying in The Emperor. I was so tickled by small minor sweet thoughts this hotel provided – I was literally smiling into my sleep. (Frankly, I didn’t even want to sleep, I wanted to experience the feeling being in the room.) There is something amazing about the hotel and the room that simply made me fell in love with it. The wonderful pampering experience definitely lifted me from all my stress, and I was in the realm of total enjoyment and self appreciation.

I have stayed in a couple of 5-star hotels, yes, the service and amenities are perfect as well, but somehow, it lacks the personal touch, it lacks the warm feeling, somehow something is lacking.

I want to encourage you to take a step back, think about how you are treating yourself, and think about the last time you felt so extremely excited and over-joyed about yourself. Nothing beats that little bit of pampering. Look at the photos of the hotel and the room, and hope you can get the sense of how I felt.

I am not saying that such experience can only be felt when you travel or when you are in a physical space, but understanding how self-indulgence could bring about great wellness in life – go search for that! This is more than an appearance upgrade, this is about maintainence of your mental health!

I want you to be happy in life too. Cheers.

Love yourself, pamper yourself, time to yourself…

I have been following WiredBerries for the past two months, and this article “A Little Luxury” compelled to me. It talks about taking little (luxury) breaks in the midst of your busy schedule.  

The article is so apt for my stage of life now. My life has been hectic. Many times, I felt fatigue and burned-out. However, in order to move on, we need rest.

Here’s what WiredBerries and I suggest you could do.  Take time to enjoy a little luxury – do it for yourself, my dear friends.

Luxury #1 – Steal time for a short nap

I did that on last Saturday – it was awesome. 🙂

Luxury #2 – Take a long shower

I would add in a scrub session as well to pamper my skin a little.

Luxury #3 – Do nothing for 10 minutes

This would mean “stone” for 10 minutes and totally let go. I have tried this, and I almost doze off after a while!

Luxury #4 – Put on a face mask

I did that on last Saturday too! It was a great feeling – I could hear my skin exclaiming “thank you” to me for pampering it.

Luxury #5 – Enjoy good (or very good!) wine with some dark chocolates

I have not done this before. It would be my wish to have this session soon.

Luxury #6 – Indulge in mani and pedi-cure session

I cannot even recall the last time I have such indulgence. I definitely am going for one soon.

Luxury #7 – Stay in with a good book, or find a nice cafe and enjoy a good book

If I have time to finish reading my textbooks and case studies, I would love to reach for a good book.

Luxury #8 – Stay in your pyjamas for the whole day

I miss doing this.

Luxury #9 – Have a solo dance

This sounds cool. Has anyone tried this before? I am sure it would be pretty therapeutic! 🙂

Now, it is your choice – love yourself a bit more.

Lying has health implications

We all know that telling one lie would need another 10 lies to cover up. Following that, you will need 100 lies to cover that 10 lies up, and the number of lies just snowball to a huge uncontrollable situation.

Well, you see that there would be a lot of stress during that whole lying process. I will let you understand better, how does lying create a negative impact on your health. Again, I gathered great source of information from CLEO (Singapore) April 2008 issue. I cannot emphasize more again that this issue is very value-for-money!

Say no to lying #1 – do not let others control you

I always feel obliged to please everyone, thus I will always say yes to every invitation or task given, even though I am 100% packed with other tasks on hand. This has been true since young – I have no idea how I adopted this character.

Anyway, the possible solution is to say no to additional burdens so that you will feel less stressful. Well, easier said than done – this takes a little courage. 🙂

Say no to lying #2 – be truthful to your own feelings

Most of the times, I usually hold back my feelings because I wish to have more control over them. However, this form of supressed feelings would accumulate and create a tickling time bomb within yourself.

You should find an outlet to release any negative feelings, such as talking to a close friend, writing a blog, praying to God etc.

Say no to lying #3 – prevent cancer!

I did not know the repercussion can be so serious – people who tend to lie have Type C personality, which are charateristics of many patients with cancer! (What is your DISC personality?)

Release your emotions today! Be truthful to yourself, there is no need to lie or be ashame to understand yourself. Most of all, love yourself.

Flowers lift your mood – review

I am fascinated how flowers could have an instant mood lifting effect as I shared in my earlier post on Flowers lift your mood. I said I will buy flowers for my friends to see if people’s mood really could instantly be lifted.

When I secretly and sweetly present the flowers to my friends individually, each of them just went “Wow, so sweet!”, “Wow, for me?”, other surprise plus delighted expressions were also heard. However, one definite sign – the million dollar smile.

I am very happy to see them smile and adorn the flowers. It helps break off from the stressful mood for (at least) that moment. Most importantly, I expressed my love for them, and they felt it. 🙂

In the photos below is one of my best girlfriends in school. I believe from her expressions, you are able to see the effects of flower-power.

Now, you know the trick – it is very easy to make someone happy. 🙂