A TIME FOR FOR US-A SONG TRIBUTE TO FRIENDS 10/1/2016

September has just ended!  It was full of activities, starting with 50^th High School class reunion on September 11, that I just attended for the first time after graduation.  Then there was a September Game with a challenge from the leader of WFG Cruzader Nation group top leader for a promotion to Senior Associate.  Also there is a challenge to support the fund raising efforts of my missionary son for Thai Word Prince of Peace Book Christmas 2016 project.  Last but not least is a September five-song challenge from my music professor, David Cowan!

The Song Challenge

It was unforeseen circumstance in conducting my new business and other activities that delayed the completion of the musical challenge.  The process inevitably makes me realize how much work it involves for a musician to play a piece of beautiful music for us to enjoy.  I chose my own songs to play, figure out the guitar chords and review with my professor.   The first song was “Just A Closer Walk With Thee”, which is relatively simple.  The second song, “Moon River” took me more time because of the rhythm, which I needed to improve.  The third one was the hardest since I had to play bar chords, requiring strength in my fingers for the chord to sound right.  It will need more of my practice time and finger exercises to make it sounds good.  I had to perform and record it even though it is not quite good yet.  But hey!  It’s the journey that counts and not the destination!

Despite the challenges, I like this song because the lyrics and title are beautiful and full of hope.  The song is “A Time For Us” from the movie Romeo and Juliet that was released in the late 60’s (Word by Larry Kusik and Eddie Snyder, and music by Nino Rota):

A time for us, some day there’ll be

            When chains are torn, by courage born

            Of the love that’s free.

A time when dreams, so long denied, can flourish

            As we unveil the love we now must hide

A time for us, at last we’ll see, a world worthwhile for you and for me

And with our love through tears and thorns

            We will endure, as we pass surely through every storm

A time for us, some day there’ll be a new world,

            A world of shining hope, for you and me.

The Tribute

I mentioned earlier that I had the opportunity to celebrate 50^th anniversary of high school class reunion and a chance to catch up with my classmates.  One person in particular that I was glad to reconnect was my American host sister when I was the school’s foreign exchange student.  And from our conversation, I learned that my classmate, Ruth Shinn, whom I admired a lot for her talents, took her own life, a few years after graduating from high school.  She played Maria Von Trapp in the school musical, the Sound of Music.  Every time I watched the movie, the play, TV show, or heard the song the Sound of Music, I would think of her and such a fun time I had participating in the play!  I wished I would see her again and find out how she was.  Then I learned of the tragic story that she took her life after being denied an opportunity to pursue studies or career in music or stage performances.  Her parent did not want her to sing “worldly music” and songs.  I could understand that one could feel hopeless when she could not do what she loved to do.  After all, that was the way God created her to be, a singer…

I would like to dedicate the song “A Time for Us” to my talented friend, Ruth Shinn, and also a friend in the junior class, Joseph Scott.  I didn’t see him at the reunion but he was part of the memorable experience during my foreign exchange student year.  It was in the middle of civil right movement at the time, and I learned about American race relations first hand.  I learned about discrimination because of the color of the skin.  I learned also that there were Americans that would like to learn about other countries and make friends with other nations such as my country of origin.

Joseph Scott was the Junior Class Vice President.  He was black among a handful of black students in the school, athletic, and was in my Chorus class.  Very polite and well-groomed, wearing suit and tie to school all the time.  During Christmas time, he brought very nice present of jewelry to the Chorus for me.  Girls in my chorus class all said “Ooh” and “Ahh” because of the way he presented me with the gift after the class.  That was quite dramatic and although I received gifts from other friends as well, that made me feel special.  So when he asked me to be his Junior ball date,  I was hoping to be able to go.   There was some problem, however:  my American parent, especially my American Mom did not want me to go to this party with him, and the matter went all the way to the School’s foreign exchange committee!!  I was surprised that this matter of me going to a party had to go to the committee while another friend of mine who was white could take me to the senior prom without any problem!  I just found out from my American sister that it was her mom who had the problem and did not welcome my friend.  I just found out from Cheryl, my sister that he was standing out side of the house waiting for me instead of being invited into the house.  It was the school that overruled my American mom's wish to deny Joseph from taking me to the junior ball.  This was because the foreign exchange program was to promote international understanding and friendship.  I had a chance to visit Joseph’s home and his dad, who was a professional photographer and took the picture of us before going off to the party.  It was quite a cool picture actually.

Fast-forward to nowadays, the race relations problem in America is not getting better.  Even though we have the first black US President, the discrimination in the mind of a lot of people permeates into law enforcement.  Black youths especially boys and young men are targets of arrest more and often times ended up being dead even when they were not armed.  So I felt for Joseph and friends from the black communities, who are treated differently because of the skin color.  I would like to dedicate this song to him as a symbolic support for my black friends to have hope and dreams for a better world…There will be a time for us, a new world of shining hope for you and me!!

By the way, you can watch my video of me playing “A Time for Us”, imperfectly, on my Facebook fan page: Wanee Bee-Attitude

08/19/2016 MY INSPIRATIONAL SPEECH-DREAM BIG AND DO GOOD

Getting Back to Blogging:

It has been quite a few months since my last post. My goal now is to post at least once a month starting now! 

This is a modified version of my Toastmasters Competent Communicator Speech.  The objective of the speech was to inspire the audience by appealing to noble motives and challenging the audience to achieve a higher level of beliefs or achievement.  The speech is between 8-10 minutes.  I used PowerPoint as visual aid for the speech.

It took me a while to find time to finally complete this task since I just embarked on a new exciting marketing career soon following my retirement from the City services after 27 years in March of 2016.  This speech also reflects why I took on this entrepreneurship venture!

Introduction:

Have you ever dreamed of being financially independent?  Have you ever dreamed of spending more time with your family instead of staying long hours at work making other people rich?  Have you dreamed of having more time doing what you love to do: to travel, take up music, write a book?  Have you dreamed of starting a company and be your own boss?  Have you dreamed of making a life that you feel satisfied because it helps make a difference in other people’s lives?

Well, if you haven’t, or if you have, but don’t know how to start, I want to inspire you today to dream big while doing good to yourself and others!

I. What Is Your Dream In Life?

-Dream of Becoming A Star?

I have many friends who have dreamed of becoming actors, but after struggling for years, their acting career is still getting nowhere.  They are not alone, there are people who faced rejections but persisted and became successful in the end.  Harrison Ford was one of those:

Actor Harrison Ford struggled for twelve years before becoming an overnight sensation in his big role as Han Solo in Star War, a start of a trilogy since 1977.  He now can control what films he wants to participate, and even modify some dialogue lines in the film.

-Dream To Be A Best Seller Author?

This lady did.

She was a single mom on welfare in England, but now become one of the world’s wealthiest women.   She had so many rejections before she made it big with her Harry Potter novel.  She even considered suicide at her lowest when she was jobless and penniless.

She was by any one’s standard, a failure, but look where she is now, with books, movies, and theme park under the Harry Potter’s franchise.

-Dream To Be a Business Owner and Become a Millionaire?

This lady, Penny Ooi, top income earner of the World Financial Group (WFG) certainly did.   She earned $120 million over the life of the business, and earned over $4 million last year.  She recruited 40,000 people in her organization; her payroll for her organization was $1 million a week in her latest interview!  She and her husband now have more time to enjoy with the family and travel.  She was an immigrant from Malaysia, graduated Finance from University of Illinois but nobody hired her because she had no green card at the time.  English is her second language, but now she could motivate 40,000 attendees in Las Vegas WFGMomentum 2016 National Convention at MGM Grand!

II. What are the qualities that propelled these people to achieve success?

For Ford, qualities that made him successful was “to make yourself useful, be easy to work with, be hard worker, get the job done, and do it with much passion and quality that you can.”

They are common qualities that can be found also with Penny Ooi.  In YouTube WFGTV interview of her and her husband, Ben, Penny attributed the three skills or “games” that she had to her success:

         -Skills for “Inner Game’ desiring continuous and consistent self development and improvement.  In other word, striving to be a better version of you.

         -Skills for “Outer Game” having self-discipline and maintain strong work ethics until they became habits. Loving the game, wanting to contribute, promoting family centered life style, and living richly.

         -Skills to take actions by going out into the field, learning about the history and the culture of the targeted market.

Ben, Penny’s husband, attributed their success to hard work and treating other people right,

For JK Rowling, the fact that she endured rejections after rejection even with thought of suicide in between, she did not give up but persevered and believed in her dreams and stories in Harry Potter book.

III. Dreams Big and Help Others

I have a dream of becoming successful in entrepreneurship in the business that helps families, and I would like to inspire you today to join me:

As some of you know, I have joined WFG, the same company as Penny Ooi’s.  I joined one month right after my retirement from the City.  I would be receiving comfortable retirement check and have 457K savings to supplement the pension, but still I was motivated to join the business.

When my former boss who had retired earlier invited me to the WFG/CruzaderNation Tuesday Business Presentation Meeting, I just went for our old time sake.  But after listening to the presentation, I became a believer of the movements.

WFG has the vision to help the 95% of America to be financially independent.  There are two crusades that we have zeal for:

1.  To help the consumer understand the Evolution of the insurance industry

2.  Starting a business that we can build together.

 Insurance industry is no longer about death benefits, it provides living benefits to the insured as well.

The company preaches savings for retirement, getting protection against loss of income due to sickness or death.   When the head of the household who is the main income earner becomes chronically sick or disable, or need long term care, they can be covered by a single package of life and disability insurance.  With the epidemic of cancer, there is a need for this type of life insurance that provides living benefits as well as death benefits TAX FREE and protected the insured from creditors.

Personal Story:

There was a time in my previous career with City when my late husband suffered from Parkinson disease for a decade.  I was working a full time job as financial manager, and managed to move into a retirement home, which was an assisted living facility, which provided some community, and cooked meals for him while I was at work.  This arrangement was fine until he had complication from Pneumonia while we went back to Thailand for vacation.  He almost didn’t get to come back to the State because he could only be tube fed.  During the last months of his life, if we had insurance for him for custodial care and ability to withdraw a lump sum amount as the type of insurance we have today, I could have retired earlier to take care of him.  May be I could have had more time for the last months of his life or could have seek better care for him.

WFG crusades to tell people about solutions to be protected against loss of income due to sickness resonates with me personally.   The presenter showed statistics of people who had cancer: 1 in 2 male and 1 in 3 females suffer from cancer in America nowadays.  Personally I found the statistics to be real in the circle of friends and acquaintances that I reached out to in the course of this business.

About the entrepreneurial enterprise: this is a great organization to build the business while helping other people to earn extra income.  Instead of exchanging hours for dollars, it is now the matter of efforts for dollars.  The compensation structure is by far the best- from Associate, to Senior Associate, to Marketing Director, to Senior Marketing Director, the percentage commission increase progressively.  Like Penny Ooi, her people at the Senior Marketing level can earn not only high commission for personal sales, but also earn override as well.  Hard work and time spent in training the team pays well in the end.

The leadership of the movement has sound value of faith and family. It has a proven business system that can lead you to rise to the top and become a millionaire like Penny Ooi or Jun De la Cruz, the top leader of my group. You will be surrounded by a team with similar value, a team that is supportive and help each other succeed.  You will receive hands on training that makes you competent to help clients that you serve.

Conclusion

I would like to call you today to dream big, do as successful dreamers do, that is to work hard, be persistent, consistent, and love to help other people.  You never know when cancer hits people, or when friends might get a heart attack or stroke.  You want to help them to prevent the financial hardship that may result.  For the efforts, there are financial rewards that afford you to spend more time with family or significant others, afford you to travel or do other things that can enrich your life.  So be proactive and join the movement now to make the big dream come true while making a difference!

2/29/2016 POWER OF MIND, LOVE, AND HEALING

This is the transcript of the speech I presented at Toastmasters Club in Los Angeles last Wednesday, February 24, 2016.  Due to popular demand from staff and friends, I’m posting it here in this blog for the last day of February of a Leap Year…

Introduction: Mind, Stress, and Modern Chronic Diseases

Have you heard of this song, “Photograph” by Ed Sheeran?

“Loving can hurt, loving can hurt sometimes;

And it’s the only thing that I know…”

“Loving can heal, loving can mend your soul:

It’s only thing I know. know…”

Well, before we let the song carry us away as it could very well do, I want to let you know that today I’m going to present the subject that the song mentions: Power of Mind, Love, and healing.

You probably have heard before that health is wealth, but in modern days, people are facing chronic health problems trying to gain more wealth by working hard.  There are pressures of life that cause emotional stress, which together with bad diet and life style, a lot of people develop modern chronic diseases (MCD) such as high blood pressure, diabetes, heart decease, cancer, and so on.

Recently, I attended health seminars, read some articles, and learned that the power of mind could either heal or cause stress.  The mind is actually in our brain, and it’s important to know that humans display five different types of electrical patterns or “brain waves” across the cortex of the brain.   Scientists observed the brain waves through use of EEG or ElectroEncephalograph—a tool that allows researchers to note brain wave patterns.  Each brain wave has a purpose, and helps serve us in optimal mental functioning or coping with various situations.

5 BRAIN WAVES

Picture Taken From Seminar By Dr. Jason Baek

 Although we may have all five brain waves at the same time, but when I talk about a particular brain wave pattern, I’m referring to the dominant brain wave depending on the state of consciousness that you are in.

The brain’s ability to become flexible and transition through various brain wave frequencies plays a large role in how successful we are at managing stress, focus on tasks, and getting a good night’s sleep.  If one of the five types of brain waves is either overproduced and/or under-produced in our brain, it can cause problems.

Let’s look at the Powerpoint slide and look at the brain waves in this order:

·     Gamma Waves (not in the picture)~Extremely high frequency waves.  They are in involved in higher processing tasks and cognitive functioning.  Gammas are important for learning, memory and information processing.  Too much of Gamma means anxiety, high brain arousal, and stress.  Too little may cause depression and learning disabilities.

·     Beta Brain Waves ~ are high frequency low amplitude brain waves that are commonly observed while we are awake.  They are involved in conscious thoughts, logical thinking, and tend to have stimulating effect.  Having the right amount of Beta allows us to focus and complete our tasks easily.  Having too much Beta may lead to excessive stress and/or anxiety.

·     Alpha Brain Waves ~ This frequency range bridges the gap between our conscious thinking and subconscious mind.  It helps us calm down when necessary and promotes feelings of deep relaxation.  If we have too much Alpha wave, we will be daydreaming, too relaxed and will be unable to focus.  Too little means there is anxiety, high stress, and insomnia.

·     Theta Waves ~ This particular frequency is involved in daydreaming and sleep.  Theta waves result from us experiencing and feeling deep emotions.  Too much theta activity may make people prone to bouts of depression and may make them fall into a deeply relaxed, semi-hypnotic state.  Theta has its benefits of helping us improve our intuition, creativity, and makes us feel more natural.  It is also involved in restorative sleep.  As long as Theta isn’t produced in our waking hours, it is very helpful brain wave range.

·     Delta Waves ~ These are the slowest brain waves in human beings.  They are found most often in infants and young children.  As we age, we tend to produce less Delta even during deep sleep.  They are associated with the deepest levels of relaxation and restorative, healing sleep.  Adequate production of Delta waves helps us feel completely rejuvenated after we wake up from a good night’s sleep. Too much or abnormal Delta activity may result in learning disabilities or have difficulties maintaining conscious awareness such as in case of brain injuries.  If the brain is dead, the wave looks flat.

What’s Love Got to Do With This?

The brainwaves that love can help increase in activities are Alpha type.  People who have love in the heart can help create morphine-like endorphins, which is the healing hormone of the brain.  So it is important to be forgiving and love others like brotherly love, love for God, service for others, because the love we have in our heart helps heal us from many diseases.  With proper diet and lifestyles, they can even heal people from cancer.

 The Benefits of Love

Romantic love has another level of brain hormones-it produces substances that are responsible for making cheeks flush, palms sweat and our heart races.  These substances are dopamine, adrenaline, and norepinephrine.  In contrast with brotherly or motherly love, romantic love has an added element of imagery in the brain that makes one feels euphoric.
The benefits of love are explicit and measurable: 

• Protects your heart A University of Pittsburgh study found that women in good marriages have a much lower risk of cardiovascular disease than those in high-stress relationships. 

• Leads to a longer life The National Longitudinal Mortality Study, which has been tracking more than a million subjects since 1979, shows that married people live longer. Plus, they have fewer heart attacks and lower cancer rates, and even get pneumonia less frequently than singles.

• Helps beat cancer University of Iowa researchers found that ovarian cancer patients with a strong sense of connection to others and satisfying relationships had more vigorous "natural killer" cell activity at the site of the tumor than those who didn't have those social ties. (These desirable white blood cells kill cancerous cells as part of the body's immune system.)  

What Happen to You If You Are Heartbroken?

Not good at all if you are heartbroken.  According to Sara Sirna MD in Sciencedaily.com, people who undergo divorces, have spouse cheating on them, or spouse pass away may experience a condition similar to heart attack.  According to experts, the underlying cause is unknown but is thought to work an opposite way to the release of adrenalin and other stress hormones that have destructive effect on the heart.

Conclusion

In conclusion, state of the mind and love can affect your brain waves and your health, both positive and negative.  As you learn about the five types of brain waves, learn how to regulate them, be in control of your own emotion so that you are not stressed out and become ill.  Maintain an attitude of love towards others, willing to take risk and fall in love when the right one comes along, and when heartbroken, get over it with other activities and interests such as exercise, read a book, and so on, then move on....

Note:

I'm not an expert in this field, but speaking and writing from the perspective of some one who is very interested in healthy lifestyle.  The speech was just my exercise in doing research, and using visual aids to enhance the speech.  Apart from knowledge gained from Dr. Jason Baek's seminar, these are a couple of references used in the speech: 

1) http://mentalhealthdaily.com/2014/04/15/5-types-of-brain-waves-frequencies-gamma-beta-alpha-theta-delta/

2) American Psychological Association’s https://www.apa.org/helpcenter/chronic-pain.aspx