The Daily Mind

Daily Steps To Mindful Living

Kai Magsanoc

Friends, Finally: How My Mom and I Finally Got Along

Asking other women who are also someone’s daughter: Growing up, was your mother your best friend? My mom wasn’t. But I know she tried. As I write this, I am finally friends with mom. In fact, she is my best friend.

It is only now that I am a mother myself that I often look back at situations she and I went through together. I would wonder what thoughts went through her head; what she would tell herself so she could soldier through them.

I would wonder how many times she cried herself to sleep.

[Read more…] about Friends, Finally: How My Mom and I Finally Got Along

How to Begin Exercising When Depression is Weighing You Down

Do you know what it’s like to feel depressed?

If not, let me try to describe it for you (this is my account, though, and it may be different for another person who also goes through it).

You wake up tired. Your body hurts all over, especially your joints and muscles. It’s like the flu but it’s not the flu, and your temperature is normal. Sometimes your head also hurts; sometimes your chest also hurts. This is what I call a double whammy — when anxiety decides to join depression at the party, and they don’t care about what you need to accomplish, how you need to appear, what problems you need to solve, and who relies on you. This is especially true when people are used to you being the carer. [Read more…] about How to Begin Exercising When Depression is Weighing You Down

How to Manage and Get Over Analysis Paralysis

“Progress, not perfection,” I remember hearing this in the Denzel Washington film, “The Equalizer.” It has stuck with me since and, while the thought is comforting, it is actually very hard for me to digest.

You see, I grew up a perfectionist. I’m still a bit of a perfectionist now. I am diagnosed with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) and, for me, things always have to be aligned, uniform, even-numbered or divisible by two, and precise.

Anything less or more is unacceptable. So unacceptable, in fact, that it stresses me out and the stress manifests physically, either as hives or as swelling (sometimes red and itchy) or as an upset stomach or hyperacidity.

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It sometimes feels like my brain is its own enemy, and this is most evident when I go through analysis paralysis. I can only liken the feeling to being petrified as it is demonstrated in “Harry Potter” where one turns into stone, unable to move.

[Read more…] about How to Manage and Get Over Analysis Paralysis

Words Make, Words Break: Why We Should Think Before We Speak (or Post)

“Think before you speak,” I remember my mentor and former boss Ardy Roberto telling me. At the time, I remember feeling hurt, even offended, because he said it in a cross manner when I had come to him in a light and hopeful mood and made a request.

Today, more than a decade later, I can still hear him saying it to me. And it still guides me in what I say, what I post on social media, what I write in my articles, and even the way I receive and digest other people’s words. [Read more…] about Words Make, Words Break: Why We Should Think Before We Speak (or Post)