Posts

Asking AI: Beating Monday Blues

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 This morning I woke up feeling really upset. I did not have a good night's sleep and this may be in part to some anxiety rolling around in my head.   So, in view of the recent craze we all seem to have with AI and AI-generated text, I asked ChatGPT to generate an article on beating Monday Blues.  Here it is with some (a lot!)  of my personalised adaptations and suggestions. Beating Monday blues involves adopting strategies to start the week on a positive note and alleviate any feelings of stress or reluctance. Here are some tips to help you overcome Monday blues: Plan Ahead on Friday: Ensure that you wrap up your tasks on Friday and create a to-do list for Monday. This helps you have a clear plan when you start the week. It's easy to lose track when picking up some 3 days later! Positive Mindset: Approach Monday with a positive attitude. Instead of focusing on the beginning of the workweek, think of it as an opportunity for a fresh start. Create your own mindset: if you foc

Happy International Cat Day

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 Everyone knows that I love cats. This, especially since I brought home first two, and then a third cat. Their names are Tiggy and Luna, and Tuxy. At the time of writing, the older two are two and a half, while Tux is one and a half years old. Today is international cat day! So to all cat-lovers around the world - happy international cat day!  Here are my 3 cats. Luna - cheeky, sassy female, calico and affectionate: AKA Looney Luna Piggy Tiggy - a cutey with a baby voice. Tuxy, Tuxedo, Adolf. Shy and scared but very loving. Probably crazy about me.

Piano Lessons Again

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 I thought of starting piano lessons again. It has been a while.  And, I thought - the lady upstairs from my office is a well-known piano teacher in Malta.  I hear the piano all day on a Tuesday - I could not miss out. So here I am, of a Tuesday at 6 p.m., starting again. Still having difficulty with self-discipline and all the things I thought of committing to.  This piano business has been the replacement for the love of ballet, seeing as the pain in my knees has often forced me to stop dancing. Piano lessons are not just for children, but are also great for adults who have always wanted to learn how to play the piano or who wish to continue their musical education. Taking piano lessons as an adult can be a rewarding and enriching experience. It can help to reduce stress, improve cognitive function, and provide a creative outlet. Moreover, with technology and the availability of online lessons, it has become even more accessible and convenient to learn the piano from the comfort of y

Dinner For One

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Embarking on a solo work-related journey led me to the captivating destination of Jersey. As the weekend unfolded before me, the inevitable question arose: where to dine? While the allure of retreating to the comfort of my room tugged at me—enveloped in its cold embrace, the prospect of a lackluster and solitary evening loomed. However, I chose to seize the moment differently. I envisioned this dining experience as an date with myself. With a touch of finesse, I carefully applied some makeup and wore elegant cosmetic jewelry—initially, I wasn't too sure I wanted to dress up so fancily. A couple of times, on the way to the restaurant, I resisted the temptation to buy my food from a grocery or take-away: would I have done that if I were dating someone? Or let someone do that to me? I thought, not. I thought of myself holding my own hand and must confess I almost felt shy. It was as though my lonely spirit was afraid to take the hand of my lively spirit. I came to this cute Thai resta

A Metaphorical Death

  I am dying. Not a physical death - I mean, we're all moving towards death, physically, but that's beside the point. They say that the seed must die in order that the plant, the flower, grows. These platitudes might mean a lot, might serve as encouragement.   But nobody tells you how painful that death might be.  And how hard it is to see the end of the tunnel, even if you know it's in there somewhere. The current government's exposed corruption have led the country to take draconian measures against small enterprises and businesses (for fear of repatriation by the larger ones) in an attempt to placate the international community at fears of tax evasion and corruption taking place in this Mediterranean gem.  This has entailed the dismantling of my practice, the end of my freelance work and the entry into full time employment, with the stresses that it brings for persons with my current stance. It's taking it's toll, and I'm always tired. This has also entai

True Love and Spiritualism

  Whatever nature it takes, love requires management - of one's own way of being first.  To love another, you have to know how to care for yourself first. The old cliche, that you cannot fill from an empty jug, comes to mind, but it is, of course true. So, based on a recent experience that threw me, I delved into Thich Nhat Than's book, True Love, a veritable manual of how to deal with human relationships, the Buddhist way. I was brought up the Catholic way and I cannot say I've ever been given such an easy-to-follow and helpful 'manual' to human relationships. All I got, from my Catholic background, is a mountain of (sometimes-unwarranted) expectations from others, that have sometimes placed my relationships into question. Naturally, the ones that give the most trouble are the ones where one is most invested. That's a true and painful admission. But the lessons you learn for 'romantic' love, can easily be translated into other forms of relationships. Th

Soul of an Artist

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 I often ask myself why I used to feel the need to numb my feelings. Did I always need to numb them, or was it a compulsion that drove me to do so. Whether highs, or lows. There are 2 schools of thought. Some say that you turn to substances because of your propensity to become an addict, something inherent in your physiology. Other schools of thought are proponents of the underlying issues being the cause for a person to turn towards substances of any sort, ranging from alcohol, to mood-altering medication, to drugs. It makes little difference what your poison is, once you are on the merry-go-round, really - you're stuck there until you find the will to get off. I have always had deeply intense emotions - the artist in me always prevailed, even if I performed brilliantly in academia. As powerful as is my brain, so is my capacity to be subject to very intense emotions, that has not always been easy to deal with. Indeed it was very, very hard. 'Was' not being exactly correct.

I'm not a Joiner!

 A couple of weeks I was having a  chat with a friend of mine, who's an NLP Trainer. Incidentally she was my trainer but this was a chat over a meal, as friends. As we do. The subject came up, of myself participating in some voluntary activities. I mentioned that as I've grown older it's become much. much harder to commit to anything.  I'll explain. Years ago I used to sign up for things - ballet classes, voluntary groups and other activities that required time and commitment, usually on a weekly basis and sometimes more. As the years rolled by, I found that this became increasingly difficult. No matter how much I loved the activity, the intention, the idea behind it, I just could not come up with the grit. I would join for a few weeks, a few sessions, a few events but then feel unable to commit.   This made me very unhappy and gave me a sense of dissatisfaction, because I kept comparing myself with others, seeing them gain achievements through commitments and sacrifice

Resilience

 Many have mused on the ability of humanity to recover, to get out of this global pandemic that has just simply changed the way we live. Not just the way we work, or the way we socialise, or the way we treat our families. Just everything we do. I don't think I have yet emerged completely from the shell I have built around myself during the time when Malta stood still, for about three months. I wasn't ready to crawl back out into the sunlight and I wanted introversion to go on. I think I felt this even after I'd found love. 2021 has been much easier on me and I welcomed the closures again in March, preferring to stay within the cocoon I'd built around myself.  Of course, it was an entirely new way of being and I still am finding my feet. Being in a loving relationship is nothing like it used to be. It used to be so simple when we were younger - if you wished to meet up you would just say so.  To express a thought was free - nowadays one is more easily led astray by conce

Creation and Self

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They say creation comes when you are at your most emotional. But, really ? Does it ever? Many have written about writer's block, too. And that muse abandons them when they are going through difficult times. The pendulum swings either way, it seems. The last few months have been far from easy. I have swung from being crazily busy to being rendered inactive after falling off my bicycle, just before the pandemic had us in semi-lock-down. I spent all of my time during this period wearing a knee-brace, and a good chunk of that having to use crutches. I would have thought this was something that would throw me - as would being confined and forced to stay away from socialising. In reality I was healing, healing from a huge gaping hole that was caused by living with someone who had addiction and bestowing on him different kinds of love. What started off as love among equals soon turned to be, for me, a love that provided support and resolved itself, perhaps, into the son I should have ha

Life after addiction

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And so you move on. It is not some 'namaste' revelation, nor is it some hopeful journey. Or at least, not right away. Succumbing to addiction creates victims, not only in the addict themselves but in the sufferers who have to reap the damage sowed by the loved one who is an addict. Relationships are burned away - indeed, trust is burned away and depending on how bad the damage done, the harm might be irreparable.  There could very well be trauma involved - has there been violence of sorts? fraud? Violation of trust, of one's safe haven, of one's home ? These are all considerations that the community remains comfortably unaware of. It is considered that now that the addict has recognised his or her wrongs and, or gone into rehab, things will look up but this is most often not the case. And so society moves on, unaware of the underworld that is in recovery. It could be argued that even the support services are unaware: there is much weeping and gnashing of teeth

My Cycling Adventures

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I remember my first tricycle, when I was three years old, and not only would I chase up and down the garden path we had (was paved) but we used to go down to Raffles ground and spend hours running around with it. When I was about 4 or 5, my parents got me a lovely black and yellow bicycle and my red tricycle went to my sister (although I still secretly liked it). At first we had side-wheels, and then they were gradually taken off. A few years later, we got a red Tomahawk, which I still winder the fate of today. We graduated to using the bikes not only in Luxol but other areas where they could be taken for a good old spin. This was most Sundays. At some point, we also used to cycle in the small street / alleyway next door and go round and round the block. Since I lived (still do) on a main road, commuting here and there was not much of an option and I was into windsurfing with my dad and his best friend. and ballet more than anything else. Eventually I moved on the