Why Self-Belief Is Important?

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Simply put, self-belief synergises our thought and action towards the achievement we want in life.

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It’s a fundamental source of self-consciousness to dictate our life direction. How to navigate our life direction? Change our belief. For example, we’ve got to believe we can get a straight A+ in school before it can really happen. Our belief is the direction for our efforts putting into.

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Belief doesn’t cost us anything other than mental effort and complete trust. While belief is usually referring to religion, which is another great topic we can explore in the future, this article focuses on harnessing this belief power and apply it to any aspect of our life for the manifestation of whatever thing we wish to achieve.

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For many, to believe that is possible is the most difficult thing in their lives.

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“To believe I can make it through hardships, even I was being adopted, broke, bullied, and labeled as useless. Being treated like one of those low-lives. To believe I am the one who can make changes and overcome the difficult steps. To believe the dream and vision I set on my sight is right and that is the path towards my desired destination.”

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What if LeBron James didn’t believe he could make it to State Champion, then National Champion and then playing his way to NBA? And What if Serena Williams didn’t believe the tennis skill could take her onto the tennis world stage and continue thriving even at the very top?

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Everyone has different dreams and desires in this world. Some might realise them sooner and some others might realise their purposes a bit later but that’s not a complete disadvantage. Every experience is meant to grow us.

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The truth is, there are a lot of distractions to wear our energy down, to make us forget what we truly want to accomplish, or the things we once set our vision at. Especially we now live in the modern age where technology is rapidly transforming our lives, making us forget our physical ability to achieve something far greater than the little screen in front of us, and the societies value more on economic interests rather than arts and humanities.

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But so what? We come to earth with nothing but a ticket. If life is meant to be an experienced journey for us, what’s left we’re afraid to lose?

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Imagine a lot of people have to sit at their work daily for salary. We’ve been running a lot, which makes us easily forget where we come from and our passions for something. Too many things going on in ones’ lives, so how can we expect people to mute the noises from the outside world and look into themselves, and find their true purpose, what they passionate about, and believe they can achieve their greatest potential.

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We are easy to talk ourselves out of the impossible, and then we fixed the impossible to unreachable.

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“There isn’t any opportunity you know….”
“Sorry… I don’t have time for that.”
“I’m too busy now.”
“Phew! I’m tired.”
“ Oh god, that’s too much of work…”

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Where and when these occur? To re-experience this kind of voices again, simply take a look back at our new year resolution again in the past three years.

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Some might want to lose weight, some others look for true love. Some crave traveling around the world, and some people wish to have abundant wealth. Some want a painless state of being, while some others want happiness.

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Regardless of how abstract the wishes might be, we can all achieve the end goal because there are steps in-between every wish. (*Note that kids imagination wishes, like magics and sci-fi fastasy, can be translated into artworks like writing and such. So in a sense it’s still possible.)

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Let’s take the abstract element ‘happiness’, as an illustration.
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Step 1) Find a piece of paper and pen to write 5 things down that would make you truly happy
Step 2) How to get/achieve them? Ask yourself this and write down solution(s)
Step 3) Connect the dots
Step 4) Believe it, take action, enjoy the process and embrace the success
Step 5) You’ll be happier than ever before, because that’s what you truly want.

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It’s that simple. Our action is the driving force to take us closer to the end goal, but it’s our belief to give the direction along the way.

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Reviewing our new year resolution from time to time, and visualising the progress bar again, and be appreciated just how far we have accomplished so far, our made-up mind evolves us to become the person we wanted to be. Every step counts, no matter how small.

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Not to mention opportunities are everywhere, it’s the same as happiness. They are infinite. Although we have been planted with the idea that things are finite. For example, from finite seats in a theatre to finite positions in a company, to finite billionaires in the world.

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We can’t blame them, because life does appear this way like everything can be numbered. But in truth, things are infinite; as life is an endless cycle of the present. So they will repeat with variety, ultimately the same. Therefore, if you dare to demand the universe to give you a seat, regardless of the outcome or where it ends up, there will be a seat for you. The same as the opportunity, happiness or abundance, they are always infinite, though it requires one’s efforts and the awareness of infinite amounts in the existence.

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Do you believe in yourself you can do it? Like absolute belief? How much do you believe in it?

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Now, here is the solution when we don’t believe in ourselves we can actually accomplish. It’s very simple:

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The action reaffirms our belief.

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The reason why somebody achieves what they have today is their actions are aligned with their belief every single day.

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LeBron James plays basketball resolutely. In the eyes of many, he is practicing. But without a doubt, he is reaffirming his belief that he is the greatest player of all time. He moves and sharpening his skill every day to make himself believe he is capable. He doesn’t just let the fantasy goes over his head, he puts it into work, and now we see the result from his hard work.

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By going through the process of taking action to our passionated area(s) every time, we can strengthen our belief and reaffirming ourselves that, yes we can do it too. We’re capable. How simple is that?

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We’re unstoppable. Remember our energy is abundant even after we leave this world (Our Legacy). There is nothing too late and nothing we cannot do it. it’s just about redistributing our energy and focus again. No regret, have faith, let’s make a new beginning.

 

So, what do you want to achieve this year? What is your dream? Tell me once again how to reaffirm your belief?

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Thanks for reading this article. I hope it helps you in any way. What are your thoughts? I would love to hear them, so let me know in the comments :) And as always, Stay safe stay healthy.

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Photos by Katrina Wright, Shane, Alysha Rosly, Lorenzo Lamonica, Marvin Meyer, Emma Matthews from Unsplash

How to progress?

In our heads, we can think of thousands after thousands of things. Ideas can turn into a rollercoaster and take us for a ride. But as you now probably realise, putting things into practice; the action that progresses all wonderful ideas takes time. Let’s take a look at the chart:

It looks easy, but even for the idea itself needs time to sediment before it can move to the Progress line.  

If you’re like me, for a question who’ll get to the bottom of something otherwise in the dream will be a nightmare of the question quest adventure, to answer ” How to progress”, I’d think and ask these questions, “What is progress? Why things have to progress in whatever I do? Can’t things go backward even if I progress them?”

And then I’ve learnt:

Progress needs action to move, and taking action requires my energy for the exchange. As physics explains energy is never really destroyed, it’s just transferred from one form to another, so when I roll my sleeve up and put myself into work, the mental and physical energy are transferred to the subject I’m doing. And with the law of entropy, which states that the arrow of ‘time’ can only goes forward because of the increase entropy, it explains why the progression will only be going one direction, with every action I take.

To illustrate this, imagine you grab a jar of marbles and purposefully drop all the marbles on the floor to test your professor temperament, in which it should be a bad day for you! But not for the energies of those tiny balls perhaps, they are eagerly to get dissipated into something else. After a rain of pinging sounds bouncing on and off the room, the disordered marbles spread across the floor and have you ever seen the marbles pick themselves up? The law of entropy explains it’s impossible to have these shining marbles to tidy themselves up as it requires energy to put back into ordered state. If the marbles could go back to the jar themselves somehow, time travel machine would be on our way. But for now…. you might need to clean the mess quickly before the professor makes your weekend plan becomes disorder.

Fine, we now come back to talk about progress; we need action to complete a task, so the progress bar will improve. This leads us to look into the functionality of action. The more you understand what your action can affect something, the easier you can manage your energy to improve your overall progression of a project.

When it comes to action, which I like to define into four options down to the fundamentals for an easier interpretation:

• Build
• Remain
• Destroy
• Exit

These four words, like symbols, most of the time they’ll represent metaphorically because of the board variations of circumstances.

But wait, what if I simply throw a stick for my dog to chase? Well, you’re building a relationship with your dog, but you also changing the course of the stick whether it’s leaning to good or bad for the stick itself. Not to mention the energies are being used here, and the environment or the action you’re taken might affect people around you. So there are lots of variables you can think about if you want.

When you take an action, you’re naturally progressing something and they’ll be permanent. The action is the bridge to bring the idea alive; a fantastic bridge between your brain, and the physical realm. Therefore, never underestimate any of your action, it’s significant in every step.

But questions arise when you choose to remain. it might be implied for not progressing. Yes and no, depending on what is subjected to. If you’re fixing your computer and a phone call suddenly rings that you have to pick it up, then ‘fixing your computer’ has to be remained, which is now interpreted as “on hold”. Because there is an ounce of mental energy you’re giving it to unless you “exit”.

Nevertheless, choosing remain sometimes means you let the event naturally unfolds itself. It’s still progressing in a way. Like the dynamics I’ve talked about here. An example will be a five people conversation you’re in. You can choose not to intervene and witness the conversation evolves when people giving out their opinions. But as you haven’t exited from the conversation, you’re still ‘remained’ in.

Although it’s now easy to understand what action is, when the basics start to multiply though, you’ll see even the most simplistic things get their complications fast. For example, a businessman had brought a small land from the government, in which it was supposed to be built as a residential place. The owner had indirectly destroyed the roofs of many when he built warehouses instead. The large warehouses were then used for a stop-over for many flowing in and out items.

In this sense, the owner had built a sustainable system for the community of his customers and other business owners to compete. Moreover, it was sustainable for society. So the government turned a blind eye. But as the places were running 24/7, it gave rise to constant noises to the neighborhood ( In this sense the noise can be applied to ‘build’ metaphorically).

With other issues clashed with the nearby residents, the neighborhood teamed up and sued the business owner. They were about to ‘destroy’ the warehouses. The lawsuit went on and on, till finally, the owner decided to abandon the place, but refused to sell out. Some thought it’s disappointing and wasteful. But several decades later the once-controversial then abandoned warehouses had given life to plants and small insects. With rains and other weather changes, the warehouses were then contained structured micro-ecosystems living under the broken clay roofs.

With the story above, you understand the four words are not labeled as defining good or bad, but simply, the empty values for whatever you’re assigned into, depending on the points of view.

The option of exit should also be used more often. In the literal sense,”Exit” is simple, yet a lot of us afraid to take. You can walk out of anything if you want to. Of course, there will be something on the other side of the exit you need to sacrifice, which you should consider well before taking the action, but you can still walk away from it if you want. Trust your gut if you think being rational is making things complicated.

Build, Remain, Destroy and Exit as the basic defining options for your action taken will help you improve the workflow of a progression, because now you have something to measure with. And keep in mind that sometimes they’re just empty value with words as display in metaphorical sense for analysis. So dropping your phone in the water you probably ‘destroy’ the phone but might help to ‘build’ the income of the technician who can get your phone fixed. 

Last words:
We’re problem-solving creatures all in all. We naturally want things to progress because we have a brain. Many of us get bored quickly, as the development is too slow. Well, while being entertained during the progress is another topic for the discussion, knowing your action can make differences will help you keep things on track. I hope this article can help you progress some of your difficult tasks as you understand how action and progression work.

photos by Aaron Burden, James Graham, John Torcasio, Veronica Benavides from Unsplash.

More concepts on grooving.

Despite the common directional grooving techniques like up, down or bounce, you can control the body better in grooving with the below concepts that stem from my own experiences in dancing.

Concept one – Grooving can happen in any part of your body
Instead of tilting your head and chest, perhaps your back as well to groove, you can literally use one of your fingers to groove for one song. Break the limitation of grooving in your head as an art form can never be limited.

Concept two – Grooving is all about breathing.
Try to think of a situation where you are drowned in the sea after the falling from a boat. To survive, you have to retain your oxygen as much as possible before your body can reach back to the sea surface. Within a minute or two, it may as well be the last moments of your life. At this point, The only way to ensure you will see the sun and your family again is to relax your body regardless of the outcome, while concentrating on swimming it up until you can see the blue sky. When you dance, your body energy is limited. Knowing how to save up your energy by consolidating the grooving and breathing into one single unit, you are more powerful and resourceful.

Concept three – Thinking of grooving is like swaying
Imagine you stand after the swing as a pusher and you have to push the swing for your niece to keep her happy. You push the swing lightly to estimate how much momentum would be. Same thing as grooving that you would test the duration of the groove from one point to another slowly when you warm up. You are the one to decide how much power should be given. Do not be afraid to enlarge or curtail your form of grooving. Do not be afraid to change your form of grooving just because others tell you not to. You can groove like a beaten table tennis ball on the blue net table or like the notion of a floating astronaut.

Through these concepts, you would understand how to swift your grooving from one form to another while dancing. Changing your grooving accordingly when you dance, it brings out the flavour of yours in feeling and presenting the music.

Photo by Hossam M. Omar, Blaque X, Pille Kirsi from Pexels.

How to find your own groove?

Everybody has their own groove.

Although in dancing, some dance forms like hiphop or jazz, define it as repetitive movements, grooving can be a lifestyle. You can groove with or without music depending on your mood. It is the relaxed state of your body involves repetitive motions like bobbing your head or swinging your hip. I cannot stress this enough, you do not have to be a dancer or musician to groove! Everybody can do it and it is fun. Down below, there are steps that would help you feel your own groove if you have not discovered it yet.

Let it loose.
To feel the groove you have to let your body relax. A stiff body cannot saturate into the music thoroughly. Imagine a wet towel is used repeatedly without crumpling it up. Nothing can be absorbed as the towel is fully soaked with water. Only if you dry up the towel it can then be used again. Letting your body relax so it can naturally move with the rhythm.

Listen to the music.
When you are able to groove naturally, try to feel the music rather than starting to dance immediately. The layers of the song can change your groove according to your interpretation of the music. For instance, you can switch the groove from synchronising with the tempo to instruments like xylophone or piano. It is up to you to present the emotions hidden inside the instruments of the song through grooving.

Enlarge the size of your groove.
Now that you know how to groove in a relaxed manner you can amplify it. Up groove, where you shrug your shoulders and upper body upward slightly with the groove instantaneously. When you do this, your hip and legs naturally swing side by side a little. It happens as you are truly relaxing yourself. If not, please go back to the step one – let it loose.

Varieties of grooving.
Instead of doing the UP groove that I provided above, there are other options like Down groove, and Bounce groove. Down groove is where your grooving is gravitating to the ground. It should be natural and comfortable. Bounce groove is anything that leaves your feet from the ground, as if Running man or Spongebob dance.

Grooving is a way for you to feel the music with rhythms like whether you decide to drink a coffee to start a day or not. While it is absolutely fine of not drinking that cup of coffee, some people are rooted in the delicate flavor of bitterness. To them, it is not only the coffee beans, but also the entire coffee culture. Same as coffee lovers, grooving gives you an insight into how and why some musical enthusiasts devote their lifetime to the music. You now have a new topic to talk to them. You might learn something new afterwards, who knows? Just remember, grooving is and will always be natural and relaxed.

What is grooving and why the hell do I need it anyway?

Your grooving is the natural essence of your perception to music. It is a repetitive motion that is arguably the first thing you do when you are in a club, or any musical venue anyway. The movements of tilting your head back and forth happen as you listen to your favorite music. It is because of the bass and drum interweaving each other in sections and the counting beats in the grouping. You need not be a dancer to groove although you are certainly welcome to the dance community.

Knowing grooving gains you a new perspective on how dancers interconnect with the music. You might not be seeing the best performance from them as they might be swifting the song’s layers when presenting with moves. Grooving helps you to swing into the music and be connected with the performer.

You also dive into the music easily. Grooving is an effective way allows you to hear more clearly with the song. Simply put, why does every dancer have to groove? They have to feel the music. There are many elements vibrating in a song, like a melody changing, harmony sliding in, different scale in notes and such. Letting your body to feel the music is easier for you to hear how the music composes, and more importantly, you can feel the story that hidden in the song by the musician.

And we all have been there – whether you are waiting for a bus or sitting on a sandy beach with the headphone on, you might be attached to the song and you want to express yourself in some ways.  You know what to do, right? Yes! Groove it out!  As cliché as it sounds, top musicians like Michael Jackson or Elvis Presley would groove before singing.

At the end of the day, music is a form of entertainment to humans since its first drum was made by our ancestor. We should use our body to feel the vibe of the music rather than plain listening. What is more, grooving makes you into the music deeper like Theodore stirs when she listens to the music in Alvin and the Chipmunk movie! How fun is that?