Be Healthier, Wealthier, and Happier

In this busy and busting world where survival seems like everyday focus, we seem to forget that kindness do exist in this world and there are people out there who wake up and choose to do something nice for anyone and everyone everyday. 

I have no clue how numb I have become to my surrounding until one day I came home and saw an Asian old man sweeping the front of my drive way; it has lot of fallen leaves on it.  I was confused for a moment, trying to remember whether this was the day that my gardener was suppose to show up but he didn’t look like my gardener (who happens to also be an Asian).  Then I realized this was the same gentleman who I saw was sweeping my neighbor (a Caucasian family) across street’s driveway a couple weeks ago.  Since I have been traveling for business in the past couple months, I remembered I thought to myself last time I saw him thinking “wow, I didn’t know my neighbor had sold their house while I was gone!”  But then I thought, “Why is he sweeping my driveway then?”  

Since my driveway was a mess and I was so grateful that he had swept it clean for me, I decided to walk over and thank him anyway.  As I was approaching him, an unknown fear and hesitation came over me, but I stuck to my gun and yelled out for him as he walked back toward his own house.  I greeted him in English but he doesn’t seem to speak English, he started replied to me in Chinese and Taiwanese.  Fortunately, I knew both, so naturally I responded back to him in both Chinese and Taiwanese.  He was surprised, but happy that I can speak his language.  I thanked him profusely with a bit of embarrassment as to how I had let the leaves go in front of my house.  He told me don’t worry about it, he is actually visiting his son and he is seeking opportunity to exercise.  He saw all those fallen leaves and decided that this is his opportunity to get the exercise he want and gather all the fallen leaves together in time for the scheduled lawn pickup for the street.  

I chatted with this sweet happy gentleman for a while.  I found out that his name is Mr. Lee.  His son has been living across from me for over 10 years; they are from a different town in Taiwan where I was born; he and his wife are here visiting the grandkids; it will be a short visit because he can’t get used to American living…  It’s amazing that I have also been in this neighborhood for over 10 years, but yet I have never knew this family; I have not even talk to anyone in this family until now.  I had no clue how indifferent I have become until this gentleman woke me up.  Without his simple kindness, I probably would have live here another 10 years without even thought of reaching my hands out to my neighbors. 

I was very grateful for the lesson Mr. Lee taught me.  I brought some cookies and stopped by Mr. Lee’s house to formally thank him.  He was not home.  I got to visit with his son for the first time and told him his dad’s kindness.  His son was just as amazed at what his dad did as I was.  We got to stop and connect as neighbor for the first time.

Mr. Lee’s amazing kindness just continues to fill my heart. While he is still around, he seems very determined to keep our street cleaned.  The next morning, I found him not only swept the sidewalk in front of my house, he actually swept the leaves out of my whole front yard!  Then the next week, I found him continued working his way down the street; covering and sweeping even more houses.  Now, not only my house, but my neighbor’s house (an Indian family) and my neighbor’s neighbor’ house (a Caucasian family)…  What a loving sweet old man!!!

Lately I’ve been experience a lot of foot pain, knee pain and even lower back pain.  When I told my friend about it, he told me that he has the same problem; but his feet have gotten better now after his wife (who is a nurse practitioner) brought some insole at REI to put in his shoes.   So, I quickly went to REI and got myself these “magic” insoles that he was talking about.  Just as he said, my feet had gotten a lot better after wearing the shoes with these insoles in them. 

After some research, I found that all of my pain could be a result of long term improper support on my feet to start with.  It turn out the long walking and the poor support caused my arch to collapse (or inflames) and therefore causing my knee extra strains when I walk… 

Anyway, the insoles that he was referring to is Super Feet http://www.superfeet.com/products/ they have all kinds of insoles that help to provide a better support for our feet.  The one I got was the green one.  I’m also trying the blue one for my boots.  They both seem to be very comfortable; I can definitely feel the extra support on my feet.  I can image that my arch is saying “aha, finally I can rest” J  So if you feel pain on your heels and having knee pains too, you might want to try a pair of these insoles before consider paying big $$ for other solutions.

What are paths to happiness and peaceful living everyday?  This has been a question that I have pondered for years.  Through out the years, as I have slowly chipping away many things that I thought it was “me” but really not and start substituting the space with behaviors, people and habits that enriches me, I discovered that my life has indeed being quite happy and peaceful.  (This doesn’t mean I am never upset or angry or being judgmental, it just means that I get over quicker and often even upset turned into some wonderful golden nugget insight after I looked deeper and I often end up feeling quite grateful afterward for the broader prospective I discovered as result from it).  But, I still couldn’t quite put my fingers on articulating what the path to happiness and peaceful living really look like.

This morning as I was roaming about in my home and in the grocery store doing grocery shopping (my frig. is completely empty!), it dawn on me that one clear path to happiness and peaceful live is definitely being drama free!!! 

I’ve notices one thing that it really made a difference to me is when I decided to stop being interested in dramas around me nor do I feel obligated that I must participate or engage in the drama that is unfolding in front of me in any shape or form (i.e. taking sides, gossiping, joining in making others wrong or someone right, feeling guilty for being who I am…)!  I stopped feeling I absolutely need to join any drama just to fit in this world.  As I stopped giving my interest to my friends’ sob stories, my own sob stories … funny thing happened:  my own sob stories disappeared; those friends who used to love to “stop” in to share their sob stories for hours disappeared.  I really thought I would miss them a lot!  But the incredible thing is I discovered that I really didn’t!  I thought I’ll be really lonely with no friends to “fill” my life anymore,  but instead I found my life got all filled up with one idea after another and one dream after another that I can’t wait to go execute them! (This website being one).  Also, different types of friends start showing up in my life; those that want to discuss their ideas, their dreams and what they are up to with me, not just their sob stories.  Wow, in hindsight, I should have made this trade long time ago!!

I decided I still love dramas, but just not in my life and in my surrounding.  If I want drama, I would happily pay the $10 to go see it in a movie theatre or just give myself permission to play couch potatoes for couple hours and catch some soap opera on TV.  But in my own life, I’m declaring a drama free zone.

Yeah,  I’m so excited that this website is finally happening!  2001 seems like a year of rebirth for me; after being in the trenches in corporate America for over 14 years, I really thought I was playing big in life; climbing the corporate ladder; with tear, sweat, long hours, lot of proving and reproving….; slowly but surly inching toward my vision of what a successful career would look like for me - in a men’s world; So I thought…  Then I got invited to go to a personal development course.   I thought why not?  I can always improve on my communication skills, especially I’m a manager now; there are many situations that requires me to have better refined ways of communicating with my team and my boss.

I had no idea what I had signed up for then.  Instead of getting tricks and formulas to better communicate,  I got to see my whole life replay back in my head; one snap shot after another; one relationship after another; one job after another;  I was in tears.  I saw a frighten little girl pretending to be a strong, tough woman, stubbornly throwing her whole life into proving one and only point –  I’m just as good as any guys out there!  In the process, I ignored everything else: my happiness, my health and managing my own financial success.  I was sick to my stomach to realized I’ve had work so hard all these years in minding other people’s business and making others rich; yet I have contributed very little in minding my own business and building wealth  for myself and the people I care about.

As many people said, awareness is the first step toward giving us the option and the power to choose a different route than the one we are on.  Since 2001,  I have took myself on and committed to myself to work through everything I need to work through to create a life full of abundance, happiness and health - different than the one I’ve been on.   The journey wasn’t an easy one,  I was very glad to discover and utilze abundance of resources that is out there to assist me in working through and confront the dark corners, unconscious habits and incomplete pasts that I have forgotten about yet continue haunting me and impacting my life in ways that are not align with fufilling and enriching my life.

So, why am I so excited about this website?  I’m excited about this website because this is the vehicle that I get to finally share with you my journey, what I learned, what resources really helped me breakthrough what barriers and what resources really didn’t.  More importantly, I’m excited about the possibility for this website to grow to include a big community of you who are also actively creating happier, wealthier and healthier life for you.  This will be your vehicle and playground to celebrate your breakthrough, share what you learned and discovered, and send all your love and positive energy around the world.  Together, I’m confident that the world we are creating will definitely be a fun, loving, abundant and peaceful one. 

Meanwhile, my conclusion about life is: life is really not that bad afterall; as matter of fact,  life could be quite good if we are willing to just let it be sometime and pay attention, tune into and discover its greatness.   I discovered greatness do snowballs just like the negativities in this world.  The question is which channel are we committed to tune in.

I’m really looking forward to hearing your discoveries soon!!

1) Just be happy
2) Repeat step 1