But, how if you are still tied into the past or the future?

Don’t beat yourself up when you have negative feelings whether it’s tied to the past or to the possibilities in the future. Know, accept, let it pass through you, don’t avoid or stick into it. Nothing is permanent.

Picture and infographic by lailiving

In this post I won’t mention the things that I don’t do. All the things I wrote here are the things that I do whenever I can, so don’t worry, it’s applicable! You don’t have to do it all, just do the things you can. To show your love, you don’t have to do many big things, you can start by the smallest ones in the current place you are in. Even if you are the only one who does it, it doesn’t reduce the positive vibe you are emitting. Your simple act of love might inspire other people around you by time. You don’t need to argue with other people in order to show your love, just do it. The Earth will be happy if you can peacefully do good things on it.

With the current situation, people might be doing panic buying so there might be nothing left for other people. You are allowed to be scared and feeling your fears, but it's selfish to think only for yourself by letting other people getting nothing. It applies to any situation, everyday, every time, it's important to buy only the things you need. Don't buy too many products that will end up getting unused due to the expiry dates or getting broken because of the storage issues. It's not wise to buy everything and let it be expired and unused while everyone out there needs that products. If you have excess products, you can give them away so that it can be useful for other people too. Please remember that, the main purpose of making a product is to be used.

1// Unplug electronics and lamp when it’s not in use. Choose the eco-friendly lamp or the ones that consume less energy for your home and your office.

2// Bring your own shopping bag to reduce the plastic using. Some of stores will add extra charge for plastic bag if you don’t bring your own.

3// Buy foods or skincare products in recyclable or eco-friendly packaging. Some of skincare products use environment-friendly packaging and donate their sales for the forest and wild animals. Choose the foods that are grown locally to support local farmers too.

4// Finish off your meals. Empty your plates, don’t waste the resource, because there are still many people out there that need foods. Pick the small amount of meal when you are in a hurry.

5// Dry your hair naturally. Instead of using hair-dryer, let your hair dry naturally, especially if you stay at home the whole day. Also, use the sun energy to dry your clothes when it's sunny outside, instead of using dryer.

6// Empty your skincare products. Give the skincare products away if you can’t use it anymore. Buy the mini versions if you are new to that product, or buy share products with your friends. Clean the empty package before sending it to recycling center. 

7// Focus on the good. By focusing on the good, you magnify its power. You can love the Earth by loving the beings that live on it and choose to focus on the good things that will bring more good things to your surrounding.

8// Take care of a plant in your home / apartment to make the air more fresh and healthy, also it’s pleasant to see the plants growing by time.

9// Clean your place before leaving. It doesn’t matter whether you use public place or your own room, but it’s important to make sure the place you have used is in clean state before leaving it. If it’s a public area, you are not only helping the Earth, but also the public worker who cleans it.

10// Use bamboo / steel straw.  Bamboo straws are a sustainable alternative to plastic straws. They are naturally anti-bacterial and compostable at the end of their lifespan. You can bring your own straw when you go to restaurant (if they allow you to) or choose to buy the reusable ones for your home. 

11// Choose washable mask. Instead of buying the single-use type mask, you can choose the washable mask to reduce the waste. You can also make your own washable mask too.

12// Hug a tree. It’s a bit weird but you can hug a tree in front of your home to convey your thanks to the tree for being there.

13// Walk or use public transportation to reduce the air pollution from vehicle. Walking is also good for your health, especially in the morning. You can also choose to use stairs instead of elevator in your workplace.

14// Browse using Ecosia. Ecosia is a browser that will plant a tree for  every search we input. The numbers of tree we plant through Ecosia will appear on the top of the browser. I made the post about this browser in Bahasa Indonesia.

15// Use less paper. The technology we currently have makes it possible to reduce the paper usage, we can choose e-book, online tutorials, and digital journal.

16// Bring your own water bottle to avoid buying more plastic bottles. Beside it can reminds you to drink more water, you reduce the usage of plastic bottles. You can also choose the mineral water that provides refill service too.

17// Make everyday as Earth Day. Say thanks to the Earth for everything, like the oxygen you inspire, in the morning and before bed. You might not get a reply from the Earth directly, but a thank you would not hurt the Earth.

Oh, it’s something that I often find here in Indonesia. When you have to print out your report or anything, it’s better to not ask for plastic bag to the printing service. Instead, bring your own document keeper. You can’t go 100% paperless, but you can choose to not use plastic as often as you can. 

Mom always brings her own shopping bag, literally every time she goes out. She taught me to reuse the bags we already have for shopping purpose so that the store or seller won't use any more plastic. Also, she has already been bringing her own food container for buying foods. During my childhood, I loved it when mom packaged her food container, because it means she would bring me somewhere to buy yummy foods. There was no food delivery services back then (only the big brands). She doesn't use the packaging (mostly plastic) provided by the seller. I think it's cool! Mom is cool! Haha.



Also, even if it's not February, you can do the #MyKindFebruary project I made this year that has prompts to do simple act of kindness everyday for 29 days.

#LearnWithMe | Kanji from Rara Card Series

17 Things You Can Learn from Slowing Down

Weekly Message : Focus On The Good
Let's Join #MyKindFebruary - A 29-Day Kindness Move

Browsing Sambil Menanam Pohon Lewat Ecosia

Title picture and infographic by lailiving

For some others, they can’t go to work because there is some employment cutting happening here. Criminal rates also increase. That spreads more fear to people. Fear of unstable financial condition and fear of the criminals. Some others feel stuck that their new step seems not to work at all. Even myself, I often feel the same too. The same “getting stuck” feeling. I remembered one thing from an old video I watched in the past, that EVERYTHING HAS ITS SEASON. Getting stuck, stagnant or stopped means you are currently in the winter season. You need to slow down, to go inward, to stop for a while. Yeah, it’s not as easy as it’s said but you can try to do it. This winter season is the chance to know yourself better, to talk more with yourself, and to understand what you really need. Do you really need that new car? Do you really need that high paying job in that famous place? Do you really need the people, the value, and the beliefs you’ve been holding for so long? 

3. Learn something new

4. Spend your time more with your family and loved ones if you live with them

5. Believe the divine timing, everything has its own season and timing

6. Stop beating yourself up because you have been doing it for years

7. Stop judging other people’s decisions because you really don’t know them 

8. Do the best thing you can do right now, focus on the good

9. When you failed to do something, use another way, or do something different

10. When you have tried almost everything you can, but you still failed, you need to take a break

#LearnWithMe series | Kanji from Rara Card Edition

Monthly Message : Update

Weekly Message : Focus On The Good

Hello, my loves! Welcome back to another weekly message. 

So, yeah, I've been writing a story for my private project. I'm excited for it! So I forgot that it's already Sunday, haha. Time runs too fast, or it's the sign that I'm getting older? I got advice from someone to do something like a private project in order to direct my thoughts and feelings to the right place. She said that it can reduce stress and avoid the unnecessary things that might result between May - June. I don't know what would happen, I feel I'm going to be okay during that time, but I'm doing that advice for fun anyway. It's fun to write a story, a magical one. You can do this too when you feel like having too many things inside your head. It’s important to direct your energy into something else creatively, because it’s not meant to get stuck inside. That’s the message I got from today’s card that I shared on my twitter account and my youtube channel here : #LearnWithMe | Day7 : Arrow (矢)

Well, okay, as I said last week that you are a wizard. We are all wizards with a big magic pot and the most powerful spell in the world. We are all having that magical side inside, it depends on ourselves whether or not we let them be part of us. 

Not only wizards, we have a big ugly frog as a part of ourselves too. That frog that we always avoid and hate because it's too ugly to be there. We don’t want to admit it that we have that part, because we never want to be like that. But, you need to remember that the ugly frog was once a handsome prince. He turned into a frog because of a spell. In another version, he turned into a frog because of his bad attitude. In Russian fairy tales, it's not a prince but a princess. But, whatever the cause is, whoever turns into the frog, the frog represents something inside us, the shadow that we have avoided. The shadow that needs us to love and accept to let it transform.

But what we have been doing is avoiding that shadow, but we unconsciously react and do things that are rooted on that shadow. We hate it so much that we are not aware that we do the things under its control. You have your own self that is easily getting angry, but you do it over and over again. You hate it, yet you are unaware that you’re trapped inside your own shadow because of your hate.

You don’t need to hate something to make changes. You don’t need to speak in loud voice using harsh words to make peace in this world. You don’t need to kill someone to erase the evil. You don’t need to hate yourself when you want to transform yourself. See it as a 3 year old kid who made a mistake, you get angry to that kid, he might stop making the mistakes, but you have planted a seed inside that kid to get angry at any mistakes he made. He might be scared to try new things, he might hate other people who made similar mistakes, or he might live his live hating himself for one mistake he made during childhood.

We were born as an innocent and pure human being until we absorb everything around us, the knowledge, the value, the habits, the rules, everything, both consciously and unconsciously. Those might be the spell we are currently under. Those have turned the prince or the princess side of us into that big ugly frog. That we have no reasons to love it, we hate ourselves, we feel ashamed of that frog part inside us. 

How can we love something ugly like that? If we know that it only needs love and acceptance, that it's originally a prince or princess, will we still hate him? Then whom should be blamed? The spell? The witch? The prince's carelessness? No one!

There is nobody to be blamed. Love doesn't need hate. In order to love, we don't need to hate anybody else. Yes. Once you are a handsome prince, then you're under an evil spell that turned you into a frog for years. These past years is a journey to find love from a princess that is yourself. You are that "true love". You are the princess that will break that evil spell. That frog knows that's why he never leaves you. He has been waiting for you

Your ugly frog part of you only needs your love and acceptance. Let it be there as it is without trying to change it into a handsome prince (you’ll be disappointed if he can’t be as handsome as your favorite boyband’s member). Don’t ever say that he is a handsome frog when you don’t think so. Just let it him be there without judging him more.

Everything has happened. The frog has learned. Beyond his ugly appearance, he still is a prince. He is even better than he was. You are the only one who can love him more than anyone else, because deep inside you understand him, you know what he needs, you know that you loved him before like everyone did back then. 

Kiss that big ugly frog with love and acceptance, that's the only way to break the spell. Even if it needs 10 years more to turn him into a prince, it's not a problem because you have decided to love him again beyond his past mistakes or his current appearance. 

Title picture by lailiving

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Hello, my loves! How are you? It’s Aries season, which means it’s the beginning of a new cycle. As I mentioned in the April monthly message, it’s time to update your life by downloading the new ones that are serving the current you and releasing the old that is no longer relevant. So, what updates do you want to download this time?

Recently, I’m continuing the book by Jon Kabbat-Zin : Wherever You Go, There You Are that is supposed to be March reading, but then I re-read The Power of Now for the whole month. Since it’s been paused, I started all over again because I love this book and I want to deepen my understanding about mindfulness. So, there is one chapter that talked about fairy tales and magical stories. You can find the characters like prince, princess, king, queen, knight, wizard, witch, fairies, beast, and many more magical creatures. This book states that those characters and creatures represent our psyche, the sides of ourselves that mostly we are not aware of. We have the princess, the queen, the king, the prince, the knight, the wizard, anything inside ourselves. You have all of that inside you. There might be also the big ugly frog that needs your kiss to turn it back into a prince. You have the power to choose which ones you want to be. 

The reason why we as kids really resonated with this kind of magical stories is because we are naturally magical and as kids we haven’t absorbed too much limiting beliefs from our surroundings. We then grow up thinking and believing that that kind of story is not real, it’s silly to still like magical stories. But, let me tell you one secret. You are what you believe to be true.

If I could choose one character that might suit us all, it will be wizard. Yeah, we are all wizards of our life. You are a wizard, even though you don’t realize it. Your body has the ability to heal by itself. Your cells work following your orders. Universe always responds to you, it always says yes to your words, your feelings, your beliefs. We have the most powerful spell in this world which is the words we speak to ourselves.

My most favorite spells are “Miracles happen in the unknown” and “Everything will absolutely be okay!”. What are yours?

Everything corresponds to you. They work in alignment with your magic. When you believe that bad things always happen, it really does. When you constantly say that you can’t understand yourself, it becomes more as you say. When you believe that you can face anything coming for you, you absolutely can! When you repeatedly say you are capable of anything, you are!

There are days where you might feel negative feelings or think negative thoughts then you beat yourself up for that. There must be a reason why those feelings or thoughts come in, you don’t have to know it all now. It’s not about deceiving yourself. It’s about being honest to yourself. All you need to do is be clear that you have those negative thoughts or feelings and you don't know what to do, and release the resistance towards it. Don’t be afraid, having negative feelings doesn’t make your day negative unless you feed into it unconsciously. Consciousness is way more than negative feelings and thoughts. Jon Kabbat-Zin says it is like a big pot, a big magic pot where all your feelings, thoughts, and beliefs can be placed there. 

So, you are a powerful wizard with a big magic pot and the most powerful spell in this world. Then, what do you want to do? Are you planning to continue creating the same things in your life? Or are you planning to try something else? It’s really up to you, you are free to choose. Anything you choose is right for you and it surely has something to learn that grows you.

Title picture by lailiving

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Hello, my loves! It’s April! Wow, doesn’t it feel so fast?

March was a peaceful month for me as I set the theme to be PEACE. We sometimes get heavy rain and cloudy days too. Overall, March was like a closing month, where we end the 12 month cycle as it’s marked by Pisces season and Mercury retrograde in Pisces that required us to slow down. Also, Saturn and Mars move into Aquarius in the last half of March and create a conjunction today at the very first degree of the sign. We might want to do many things but there are some limitations, like the current regulations for social distancing and restrictions for some areas. When you force things, it only hurts you, so it’s important to slow down, and to take alternative steps that both protect us and other people.

Lailiving is now a one year old baby! Yay! I created this blog on March 6, 2019. But I used to remember it as March 15, somehow, haha. So, the first time I decided to create this blog is for spreading more good things that are under the lifestyle category. I once had a beauty blog and music/entertainment blog, but then I felt like I want to do something more than this. There are still many things about life that I’m currently learning and I want to share it to everyone on the internet. Since it’s about lifestyle, lailiving popped into my head as a blog name, and it’s super easy to remember, it’s not too long, and the most important thing is that my name is in it, haha. This blog grows so much in one year, as I decided to post in English in November 2019. So, I hope this blog will reach more people, and I can improve my English too. 

My March theme is Peace. March is a peaceful month for me. I'm blessed with peaceful circumstances, the books / articles that bring peace, and also meeting kind people. When you are able to be in peace with yourself, your outer situation will follow. The uncomfortable situation in our outside world is a reminder that our inner world needs our attention because something is not in equilibrium state. So, when you face something that you perceive as not peaceful, like someone who makes you angry, it might be that your inner world needs you to go there to put some good energy.

I’ve started something that I believe will change my life one year from now, it’s #FocusOnTheGood Project on Twitter. Everyday I will focus on good things I experience and be grateful for it. In the middle of this pandemic, the mass focus is on the fear and it can be easily controlled by some people to spread more negativity to the world. But, we have the power to choose. We can choose to give our focus to anything we want. Anything we are focusing into will magnify its power. When you focus on the fear, the more fear you get. When you focus on gratitude, the more things that make you grateful will come. As I quoted from my favorite series, when you believe that people are bad, you can not see the good ones. It applies to everything in this world. If you can see this blog post as a good thing, it means you have focused on the good. 

Actually, the book for March is Wherever You Go, There You Are by Jon Kabbat-Zin, but then The Power of Now was like summoning itself everywhere. It’s like saying “Please read me, again”. So, I paused the first book, to reread The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle. The first time I read this book felt different. I could absorb the good messages, but during March I felt like it had more deep messages in it that I enjoyed reading this book like the first time I read it. It’s a popular book that is recommended by almost every youtuber I subscribed to, so if you haven’t read it, you better read it! You can get it through Google Books if you are an android user. There are more good messages that I wrote in my journal so that I can come back to read it whenever I need to. The Power of Now emphasizes on being in the present moment, to wake up, to break the chain of unconsciousness, that will absolutely change your life if you practice it. It opens my eyes and gives me more understanding of what life throws at me. 

As I mentioned in February Highlight, I emptied almost all my skincare products, so I decided to buy new ones. This time, I only bought the ones I need the most which are another sunscreen, moisturizer and hydrating products (it’s essence). The sunscreen I bought is the same one I emptied this one which is Skin Aqua UV Moisture Gel. I also bought a new moisturizer that has been on my wishlist for years, iUNIK Centella Calming Gel Cream. The reason I chose this moisturizer is the gel type (which won’t make my face shiny during the day) and the niacinamide on the top 5 ingredient list. Even though niacinamide is everyone's favorite for brightening, I love this ingredient for its ability to calm my skin. This moisturizer also has centella asiatica extract, centella asiatica leaf water and allantoin that work as anti-inflammatory. Since I don’t use the day / night cream as moisturizer, I always choose the moisturizer that won’t make my skin greasy on a hot day, so the gel type one is the best choice for me.

Another skincare I bought is the one for hydrating purpose, that is PURITO Fermented Complex 94 Boosting Essence. This one also has niacinamide and allantoin in it. It has some fermented ingredients that are claimed to slow the aging process. So, yeah, I will be forever young, haha. PURITO is one of clean brands that is cruelty free and has recyclable packaging. It also uses only green labeled ingredients for most of its products. This essence has essence consistency that is thicker than hydrating toner, but it can easily be absorbed. I only use it during the night or when my skin needs more hydration. 

And, I got Senka Perfect Whip White Vibrant White for free! A friend on instagram kindly did a giveaway for her extra purchased face wash. I haven’t tried this variant yet, so when my current face wash runs out, I will switch to this one. This product has Fuji Sakura Essence (you can find it listed as Prunus Speciosa Leaf Extract) and White Cocoon Extract (you can find it listed as Sericin and Hydrolyzed Silk). The ingredients show me that it does contain some ingredients such as alcohol, stearic acid, myristic acid and lauric acid that are usually drying out my skin, also it has fragrance. But, I can’t judge a product’s performance by its ingredients, so let’s see next time when I try this product! Yeah! 

One skincare that I emptied in March is a sunscreen from Skin Aqua that is Skin Aqua UV Moisture Gel. The one with green cap is for oily skin, and it’s named “gel” even though it doesn’t have the gel consistency. It’s pretty similar to the other 2 variants for normal/dry and sensitive skin. It’s one of my favorite sunscreens that I recommended in my sunscreen blog post. It’s super affordable and it has my favorite UV filter : Tinosorb M in it. I usually wear it for my face, hands and feet, since it’s not sticky anymore, so it’s super comfortable to wear during the hot weather.

Thank you to everyone who has subscribed to lailiving channel and who has listened to lailiving audioblog! Yay! From this channel I learned many things from this channel especially about confidence and courage. I used to be a shy and a not confident person when it comes to expressing myself in many forms especially speaking my thoughts. So, gradually I shed away those aspects that have covered me for years, I decided to question what makes me hold myself back and try something different. It really doesn’t create anything scary. All the time my mind used to tell me that people will hate me when I express my thoughts that are different from them. But then, I realized that people’s perceptions belong only to them, because the world is an illusion created by the beliefs. There are people who love the sun, be grateful for its existence, and be super happy when they see the sunshine. But there are also people who dislike it, they complain of hot weather and the sunshine is something  that makes them angry. But, the sun remains as it is. It keeps shining even though nobody sees it, even though nobody is happy.

So, during this current pandemic, some Japanese artists / agencies hold special live streams on YouTube that we can watch for free. They aim for cheering up and bringing good vibes to the fans around the world. So, I’ve watched some of the live streams whether it’s a mini live, special live, or concert DVD streaming. You can also watch them since they’re archived after being streamed. 

Some of lives that I watched :

>> LDH (they streamed past concert DVDs simultaneously on their channel, they manage some artists / groups like EXILE, 3JSB, E-girls, GENERATIONS, The Rampage, Doberman Infinity, DREAM Ami, Happiness, Leola, Aoyagi Sho, and many more).

>> Avex (you can watch Ai Otsuka, Ayumi Hamasaki, AAA, moumoon, Do As Infinity and many more. The one that I watched was Avex Special Live on March 8 that had some artists performing in the same stage like Beverly, GENIC, lol, FAKY etc. From this special live, I found a new favorite song by GENIC, haha.

>> Johnny's & Associates (a big and famous agency that has debuted many popular artists like Arashi, V6, Kinki Kids, Kanjani8, Hey! Say! JUMP, NEWS, Johnny’s WEST, King & Prince, and many more. They held special live for some groups from March 28 - 31, along with the birth of a super catchy song Wash Your Hands - a song that will stick in your mind forever once you listen to it. Haha. So, I watched the one this one that had kansai groups ~ because I’m so sexy baby, lol~, and the backstage/making part)

Show Yourself is a song by Idina Menzel and Evan Rachel Wood, for Frozen 2. When I first listened to this song, I didn’t feel anything, but during March, I felt like this song speaks more than its lyrics to me. So it’s an urge for me to do some “updates” for my life. I like both the original and Japanese version by Takako Matsu and Yoh Yoshida. Check my favorite part of this song that speaks my heart in my tweet below :

Show Yourself - Idina Menzel, EvanRachel Wood ( Spotify )

Show Yourself - Takako Matsu, Yoh Yoshida( Spotify )

Glory Days is my number one favorite song from Johnny’s WEST newest album Wtrouble that has reggae touch and refreshing vibe. Unfortunately you have to buy the physical copy of the song to listen to the full version. The preview is available on their release site. When I first listened to the preview I immediately got the image of summer and beach and sunscreen. So I think it’s suitable for a sunscreen commercial song, haha. By listening to this song, my days are being the glory days.

Glory Days - Johnny’s WEST ( CDJapan )

Glory Days - Johnny’s WEST ( ReleaseSite Preview ) 

Tobira wo Akete is an old song by ANZA from my favorite childhood series Cardcaptor Sakura. I just found out that the soundtrack for this series is available on Spotify, so yeah, I re-listen to them all and it feels so nostalgic. I can come back to my magical childhood era whenever I listen to the songs. One of my favorites is this song. It’s a cheerful and a positive song! The very first lines of the lyrics are : It's’ all right! It’s all right. It’s all right. It’s all right. A miracle can happen. Here we go. Let’s go. Let’s go. Let’s go. Spread your wings.

Tobira wo Akete - ANZA ( Spotify )

Dakishimetara is the newest EP titled MOONGENIC from avex group GENIC that I just found out during the Avex Special Live. I like this song immediately after watching their performance. It’s a cute love song that you can dance for. I think this song doesn’t only apply for romantic relationships, but also any relationship like friendship and siblings too. You know when you have a really close friend, no matter what gender they are, you feel safe with them even though both of you are doing your own thing, not talking to each other. You hug each other and feel the warmth and you laugh together. 

Dakishimetara - GENIC ( Spotify )

So, yeah! This was another super long blog post I made, haha. I believe that April will be a wonderful month too, and there are more new things to do and to learn. I hope you enjoy this post, see you on the next lailiving monthly message on May! Keep living, keep loving, and peace!

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