Ramifications Of Our Emotions & Thinking

 

NO sirrrrs, I'm NOT venturing into the medical domain as I could be a medical illiterate as you are.  BUT for today, allow me to delve into our IMMUNE SYSTEM and HOW and WHY it is affected by our very own thoughts and emotions.  Unknown to most of us, there have been multiple extensive researches about this and all such studies share the same END POINT, i.e. that our very own thoughts and emotions directly impact our IMMUNE SYSTEM.  Indeed, those RAMIFICATIONS of our emotions & thinking👇👇👇

Obviously, it becomes imperative for us to recognize our thoughts and emotions and altogether, be aware of the effects they have NOT only on each other BUT also to our immune system.  In the simplest words, experts do warn us that poorly managed NEGATIVE emotions are NOT good for our health. All along, I [wrongly] thought that there is a complex web between our brain and our IMMUNE SYSTEM.  Apparently, that myth has been debunked by studies explaining HOW the latter may directly influence the areas of our brain that regulate emotions and even our social relationships💧💧💧

NOT to shock us all, studies proved HOW our IMMUNE SYSTEM influences specific areas of our brain WHICH are responsible for managing our emotions, e.g. anxiety and stress].  And apparently, that extends to our social behaviors.  Somehow, that paradigm shift opened and led doors to swing out in the open to a different way of treating certain emotional and thinking behaviors, thus unraveling that complex relationship between our nervous and immune systems💥💥💥

These tireless experts went rock bottom to study and figure out as to WHAT influences our moods?  And even as a shock and surprise to their very exclusive community, they admitted that they wrongly believed that the 'control center' is almost exclusively within our brain.  BUT alas, connections with other systems [like our gut] are emerging and frequently that connectivity got extended to our IMMUNE SYSTEM.  In the simplest terms, they opined that if one is an excessive thinker, constantly iterating countless WHAT IF scenarios, that can even directly impact our IMMUNE SYSTEM❎❎❎

Our takeaway:  For the longest time, I [wrongly] believed that for me to reinforce my IMMUNE SYSTEM, I should take care of my health by ensuring I have the required vitamins and with no significant deficiences.  Moreover, I also [wrongly] believed that I'll be good to go if my eating habits and intake are all healthy enough and within the bounds of what is acceptable in our daily lives.  And my BIG MISS?  I never thought that undue thinking and unstable emotions do have those scary ramifications to our IMMUNE SYSTEM😡😡😡

Focus On The Vital Few

 

In our daily lives, there are multifarious variables in every equation we got to grapple with.  Besides finding the fix and doing the balancing act, we are reminded to FOCUS ON THE VITAL FEW and NOT get so embroiled with one too many things as we may end up eating more than we can chew.  At the workplace, we always remember the Pareto Principle WHICH guides us to focus our efforts on the most impactful tasks OR activities💥💥💥

YES, that 80:20 principle is an extremely useful way of thinking about the VITAL FEW things that matter the most.  NOPE, it's NOT a mathematical formula and there is NO hard and fast way to define it.  That Pareto Principle predicts that, in many types of situations, a large majority of effects are due to a small proportion of causes.  YES, the actual numbers vary considerably BUT for now, can we agree on these 80:20 ballparks much as there will always be outliers❎❎❎

YES, sadly, over and over again, I've seen people so overwhelmed with legitimately serious problems that are highly impactful.  BUT WHEN I did dip my fingers in their cookie jar, I learned that the most common reason they got stuck with a major problem is because their sense of priority is so off-tracked, as they were more focused and exerting all their attention on those breadcrumbs, those one too many problems that belong to the list important and sometimes, problems that were serious enough BUT should have been offloaded to someone else, instead of him acting like a SUPERMAN to resolve all problems of all mankind.  Seriously, that's all about setting prirorities and realizing that you CAN'T be SUPERMAN dude!!!

Simply put, let us take a hard look at WHERE we are spending our time each day.  BTW, in my case, as I never committed on the frequency of my blog posts, my frequency has been changing over time, depending on my priorities.  Recently, the frequency of my blog posts has gone down from twice-a-day to a daily posts, all because I had to do a balancing act in view of my professional engagements with my EMEA clients which obviously has impacted my bandwidth.  BUT IF and WHEN I get hit with a problem, it is always imperative that I will revisit my priorities, that's going back to the drawing board😡😡😡

Our takeaway:  In almost any scenario, this 80/20 rule is very much relevant and applicable.  The key realization I have had through the years is that, IF EVER you get off-tracked and end up [wrongly] focused on a priority that should slide down in the pecking order, that's a recipe for a potential failure, OR worst, an imminent 'disaster'.  YES dude, let us FOCUS ON THE VITAL FIEW😀😀😀

Ditching Some Communications Habits

 

NOT to nitpick but WHEN the calendar year flips, ISN'T it about time that we take a pause as well and figure out if we've got any  COMMUNICATIONs HABITS we can possibly ditch? Allow me to share here a Tagalog one-liner "BATO-BATO SA LANGIT, ANG TAMAAN HUWAG MAGAGALIT" [translated DON'T FEEL OFFENDED WHEN YOU HEAR IT] because I'll rattle some of our most common communication habits WHICH I encourage [SHOULD I say plead OR beg] you to consider DITCHING some of these COMMUNICATION HABITS😡😡😡

• Leaving people "ON READ" - YES YES yowww you'd know WHEN you send someone an SMS and you can tell they READ it BUT they NEVER respond for 12 anxiety-filled hours.  Sounds familiar? YES, that is NOT a legislative ACT but a "DISAPPEARING ACT".  Ditch it!  
• BREADCRUMBING - That buzzy term describes the slow drip of attention that never quite develops into anything meaningful.  LIKE suggesting get-togethers that NEVER happen, with nary even a token follow-through

• MINIMIZING others' concerns - LIKE you DON'T want to get dragged into a conflict and you end up with MINIMIZATION with reactions LIKE "IT'S NOT AS BAD AS YOU THINK" or "IT'S NOT LIKE A BIG DEAL"
• Video calls IN PUBLIC!@#$%? - I've seen this a zillion times.  Those are personal calls and IF you're seated next to a stranger, surely that stranger does NOT does NOT want to become that unwitting background in your video call

• TEXT-TRAPPING friends - Here's a NOT so funny exchange I witnessed:  DO YOU HAVE PLANS FOR TONIGHT?  Then the SMS recipient assumes that you want to have dinner or something and WHEN your friend responds LIKE No I'm free, you retort LIKE "I need a ride to the airport tonight".  WHAT?  Holy cow!
• GUNNYSACKING - Heard someone's litany, spewing a long list of frustrations, grievances and hurt feelings [either to your partner/spouse, close friends or people you interact closely].  Studies show that this can a toll on relationships!

Our takeaway:  All these may seem petty stuff BUT it's NOT dude.  If we simply ignore these communications habits, eventually, this can take its toll on you, on people close to you [both at home, at work OR even in business].  At the end of the day, the consequences and/or ramifications will end up impacting our various levels of relationships with loved ones, with close friends, business and work colleagues.  YES dude, please do SERIOUSLY consider DITCHING SOME COMMUNICATIONS HABITS, pronto please😉😉😉

Someone's TRASH Could Be Your TREASURE

 

Our latest world population as of 2025 has hit 8.23 billion [and counting].  YET, we share a lot of commonalities across cultures, countries and even religion.  In fact, things have evolved significantly.  WHILE before, Christmas seemed to be an exclusive for Christians, these days, even other religions [YES, even athiest] have embraced it as a season to celebrate [without embracing [BUT of course] the Christian rituals].  YET, we are also different from each other.  NOT only do we look, think and act differently BUT we also like different things.  BTW, even identical twins may look the same BUT are very different individuals.  And that realization led me today to dissect the given that SOMEONE'S TRASH COULD BE YOUR TREASURE [OR the other way]📗📙📘

There are tons and tons of scenarios WHERE SOMEONE'S TRASH COULD BE YOUR TREASURE [OR the other way].  Let's rattle off randomly.  LIKE an artist's painting may look like a team of monkeys painted BUT to the artist, that's a masterpiece.  WHEN someone plays kind of 'hard rock' music, it could be an eerie noise to some BUT to someone else, that's MUSIC TO HIS EARS [and he TREASURES it]❗❗❗

YES, different strokes for different folks means that people live in dfferent ways and value different things in fact.  And one of the extreme comparison of course are those stuff WHERE one treasures, love and adores it BUT to me and you, it's akin to something that's 'throwable', NOT worth to even glance [OR worse keep] for a second.  BUT that's a fact of life we need to unconditionally embrace💚💛💜

So, WHAT does this mean to us?  Simple.  Let's NOT, by default, shun off OR shrug off something OR any stuff for the sheer fact that it's NOT our own 'cup of tea'.  Surely, there is a level of value [OR at least, usefulness] on most stuff WHICH even from your perspective you CAN'T reach that level of least appreciation.  WHO knows, today you even treat it as trash because you CAN'T ever imagine owning or needing it [BUT that's for today]. You and me would NEVER know WHAT's in store come next day, NOT in the distant future.  I've witnessed first hand people WHO ended up eating their own words because at one point, they treated something as trash BUT one day, they treasured it✅✅✅

Our takeaway:  Before I get bashed for unnecessarrily spending time on petty stuff, through the years, I've witnessed storied pursuits that was at the precipice of SUCCESS but only to end up as a FAILURE because the people at the front line tagged something as TRASH WHEN it was something he should have appreciated at lease at a level of acceptance because at some point, he could have leveraged on it.  Another scary sharing here. I have seen relationships fail, all because there was a disconnect between partners/spouses simply because SOMEONE'S TREASURE was tagged outright as TRASH😡😡😡

WHAT Is the 'UNHURRIED' Pace Of Life?

 

Bonus question folks.  WHAT is the UNHURRIED pace of life?  Quick one.  There is NO answer to that question because simply put, there are NO hard numbers to be pegged to that.  NOT even if we do an apples-to-apples by comparing Elon Musk and Paul Zuckerberg.  WHY?  Because there are one too many variables that are too [constantly] fluid☝☝☝

Let's face it.  WHEN life is fast paced, we DON'T even have the time to take in much more than WHAT is immediate in that very moment, WHICH is, the task at hand.  Oh yes yes yes, I was in that kind of predicament a zillion times before even as I thought that I had an 'inner voice' telling me to PACE myself.  True, we must move through life at various paces [because there is NO ONE SIZE THAT FITS ALL].  True, sometimes we're able to take a slow pace and other times we must pick that pace up😡😡😡

WHAT's our FIX?  Ultimately, we would need to search for that 'balance' because WHEN we become 'unbalanced' in the PACE of our life, it's very clear as our systems either started to deplete due to a PACE that may be too fast OR at the other end of the spectrum, WHEN we get that sort of lethargic feeling because our PACE has slowed down way too long.  YES, that's our time to take action!!!

Most of the time, we're likely being productive, we DON'T often have that time to even reflect on the current situation.  Those are the times WHEN the small details may get forgotten [OR at least at times overlooked] and in the end, we commit some silly mistakes.  Thing is, WHEN life is slow-paced way too long, it can become a challenge to sit with ourselves and that can cause that unexpected anxiety OR simply just that kind of lethargic feeling of NOT being useful.  We may begin to put too much focus on things that have very little impact in life OR focus too much even on the lives of others.  At this point, we have NOT even discussed that moderate PACE, that kind of PACE which should make us comfortable😌😌😌

Our takeaway:  At times, the PACE in our life moves around in a way that can push us in one direction OR the other.  LIKE if your close friend is in a highly PACED life, likely OR not, they might [unwittingly] pull you to their much faster PACE.  So, WHILE we we have set our own PACE, the influence of others can change that as well.  At the end of the day, we should mitigate that risk of external factors impacting our very self-dictated PACE just right for us!!!

If We Were A Pollywog, WHY Dream To Be A Lion?

 

YES YES yow, if you're a pollywog, DON'T ever dream to be a lion!  The thing is, in life, sometimes we tend to overlook WHAT we are, WHERE we came from and HOW's our capabilities and potentials.  That misguided confidence could probably explain WHY even in my own country, in all presidential elections, there are nusisance candidates WHO are actually nuisance candidates.  Of course, the government's Election Commission crafted laws to manage those nuisance candidates BUT again, WHEN executed, those laws had more holes and pitfalls than well-tightened execution parameters.  In our life, we often hear that we need to be aggressive and assertive as we plot out our goals and ambitions in life.  And I'll admit that I am one of its firm believers.  And I'll humbly admit that I did reap a number of modest successes in life, no thanks to being aggressive enough.  BUT lest I be doubted as taking back my words, I'll openly admit that as a pollywog, I never dreamt to be a lion, huhuhu❎❎❎

The thing is, much as ambitions in life are more often deemed positive and encouraging, let's face it, NOT every Tom, Dick and Harry is best to aspire to be a lion if he's a pollywog.  I myself, much as I am an ardent student and follower of geo-politics, never in my life have I dreamt to even come approximately close to someone with the vast geo-politics power of Donald Trump OR Vladimir Putin.  NOT even in my dreams.  WHY?  Simple dude.  I know that as a pollywog, I CAN'T dream to be a lion👌👌👌

Dude, you can always retort that everyone is entitled to be a dreamer.  Ja.  Oo, Shi Die.  Si.  BUT my blunt unsolicited advice, that's just fine to be nursing even the biggest dreams ever BUT let's leave it at that.  Hoping you DON'T unnecessarily spend so much resources for a lost cause.  Hoping you DON'T exert unncessary efforts for an exercise in futility💥💥💥

Instead, let us funnel the biggest chunk of our attention, efforts, priorities and resources on endeavors and initiatives that are realistic enough, doable and achievable.  WHY waste your resources, energy and time on something that is, hands down, deemed as a LOST CAUSE?  WHAT gains will you reap off then?  True, it could boost one's confidence BUT from a benefits-cost analysis, WHEN we're in a lost cause, WHAT is left for us to justify the unneccessary spend of efforts and resources, NOT counting the undue pressures and stress one has to endure, NO thanks for thinking that a pollywog can be a lion, ouch❌❌❌

Our takeaway:  This is as crystal clear as the pristine waters of Maldives.  You should know yourself INSIDE OUT, with NO unknowns, NO IFs, NO BUTs.  It's never a crime to dream BIG BUT if we were to dream things way beyond WHAT we are capable of, does the end justify that 'BIGTIME' dream itself?  At the end of the day, dreams are meant to help us visualize and crystallize all the ambiguities into concreteness.  From thereon, we wil draft our 'blueprint' WHICH will become the basis for us to execute our gameplan[s].  Indeed, If We Were A Pollywog, WHY Dream To Be A Lion?  Think about it dude.  Dreams that remain dreams on paper needs us to rethink things over and over again dude😡😡😡

Iron Out Those WRINKLES!

 

WRINKLES WRINKLES WRINKLES.  NO sirrrrrs.  We WON'T meddle into anyone's household and domestic concerns. And NOT even to your beauty and aesthetics.  BUT rather, let's peek into the WRINKLES in life because I'm confident and cocksure enough that there is NO single life with NO WRINKLES at all!@#$%?  We can randomly pick any facet in our daily lives and I guarantee you that there are existing WRINKLES here and there.  Worst of all, some of our WRINKLES in life would be [negatively] impactful to the extent that it creates a domino-effect down even into our relationships [even with partners/spouses and your loved ones].  BTW, I learned this long time back and very recently, I heard it from my sister-in-law:  YOU WON'T [really] KNOW A PERSON WELL ENOUGH NOT UNTIL YOU LIVE UNDER ONE ROOF.  Oh Oh Oh, well said📗📙📘

Even in the rough-and-tumble world of NBA basketball where in each ballclub there are one too many movable pieces [those are players leaving the team, joining the team OR even being strategized by coaches to take on role-specific tasks [e.g. Center, Forward, Guard]], the onus is on each of the team's strategists and coaches to identify and recognize those WRINKLES within the team and iron it out.  In the NBA where 82 games covers one full season, coaches are expected to have IRONED THE WRINKLES latest-latest sometime/around the halfway mark of the season, i.e. after around 40-42 games.  Otherwise, that team may be likely in deep '_____' the remainder of the season😡😡😡

So, here's a giveaway question:  Do we expect to have WRINKLE-free lives?  NO sirrrrs, NOT at all.  WHILE in our childhood, many of us learned that we need to be perfect, that we need to look in a particular way, act a particular way, and meet other people's expectations even at the expense of our very own well-being, those impossibly high standards are unrealistic to say the least.  NO one can just approximate being near-perfect✅✅✅

Circumstances, relationships and engagements are NEVER and will NEVER be perfect.  WRINKLES will be there, left-right-front-rear, trust me.  So WHAT's our fix?  Tweak and fine-tune as far and as much as it is feasible.  NOTE that we're saying AS MUCH AS FEASIBLE.  WHY do we highlight FEASIBLE?  It's because some of us tend to either give up OR simply ignore the need to adapt OR at the very least, to tweak and fine-tune stuff✅✅✅

Our takeaway:  Let's run some WHAT IFs here.  WHAT IF you ignore those WRINKLES either in your engagements, relationships OR interactions?  Sadly, I cam frankly tell you that you will MISS the boat, MISS that chance to right the wrongs OR at the very least, to smoothen any rough edges, trim stuff that seem to protrude and miss that sage advice that WHEN we're in a standoff, an impasse, consider MEETING HALFWAY, that give-and-take kind of thing?  YES, let's endeavor to IRON OUT THOSE WRINKLES [in life]👍👍👍

LESS IS MORE! Is it?

 

LESS IS MORE!  NO sirrrrrrs.  Before I get suspected of infringing into IP [Intellectual Property] rights, I'm NOT referring to a home services in New Zealand which has expanded significantly.  LESS IS MORE embodies that idea that simplicity leads to much better clarity and ultimately, to a more profound form of beauty.  To the many believers of being a MINIMALIST, LESS IS MORE can infer to multiple stuff LIKE owning LESS stuff, focusing on FEWER tasks OR having LESS in the way if only to give us more time, more freedom, more bandwidth and more resources we can tap for much more meaningful purposes.  In communications, it speaks volumes WHEN we hear LESS IS MORE as it seems to buttress the argument that saying OR spewing LESS words can, in fact, be more effective than spewing out MORE words in fact💜💛💚

From a literary perspective, LESS IS MORE means that simplicity is many folds better than any kind of elaborate embellishment and sometimes, something SIMPLE will likely look better than something complicated OR even elaborate in its look and feel.  Tracing back [to give WHERE credit is due], LESS IS MORE was first heard in 1855 from a poem by English poet and playwright Robert Browning.  Till to date, millions of folks have embraced this expression more than just as a philosophy OR inspiration BUT more impressively, even manifesting this the way we live our daily lives💧💧💧

The very essence of this expression can be deduced to the fact that, at times, we can end up overdoing something.  LIKE for movies, having one too many dialogues in an action movie could disappoint the viewers because they expected fight scenes BUT instead, viewers found lots of sitting around and talking scenes.  In that situation, LESS dialogue is MORE effective for an action movie.  And this idea is so much applicable to many different facets in our daily lives💥💥💥

Looking back through my life experiences, I did learn [sometimes the HARD way] that having MORE will potentially help trigger OR cause a disconnect that can worsen into a conflict [especially WHEN that heavy barrage of exchanges of words will transpire].  And before we know it, our frail and vulnerable emotions would join the fray until the situation becomes a full-blown conflict❌❌❌

Our takeaway:  We can even dissect into the field of arts WHERE LESS IS MORE is much embraced both by artists and art lovers.  Add in the threads veering into aesthetics and beauty, then LESS IS MORE becomes the more compelling message that resonates day-in day-out.  As we live our daily lives, let's consider LESS IS MORE as a guiding light more than anything else😊😊😊

2 Million Views and Counting....

 

2 Million Views and Counting.  YES I was watching Netflix's RUN AWAY starring James Nesbitt.  As he faces uncontrollable challenges managing his daughter, he ends up mauling a homeless thug.  And as much as he expected compassion and understanding from everyone for having a huge problem in her maverick and activist-minded daughter, that DOESN'T happen💚💛💜

Instead, as he was hitting that homeless thug that looked more like he was the mauler and the latter was the victim, people were taking their videos of that fight that happened in the middle of a public park.  Even as he was released by the police with no charges, by the time he went home, he was so drained and down by then.  And expectedly, he thought he could feel the compassion and sympathy at least from his wife as he's the purported victim in those circumstances💦💦💦

Quick lesson here.  These days, WHETHER you are on the correct side OR you are on the wrong side, our unseen nemesis here is social media WHEREIN once it captures something, before you know it, you were in the center of a video with 2 million views and counting.  And the harsh reality there is that today's video can distort the real truth of a situation BUT instead, people [running in the millions [and still counting]] will continue to unfairly FEAST UPON YOU in circumstances WHERE you are totally unable to defend yourself?  WHY?  Because those people sort of 'throwing stones on you' are faceless.  HOW can you defend your hapless self then???

That's the harsh reality of social media.  Once things get viral and you happen to be in the middle of a storm, HOW can you protect your name and honor if you happen to be one of the COLLATERAL DAMAGES of an incident you DIDN'T least expected to just pop-up in the most unlikely timings?  Indeed, the harshness of a so called informal 'grand jury' WHEN you are caught in the middle of a sandstorm❎❎❎

Our takeaway:  NOT to unduly cause a scare across because I myself I continue to embrace social media everyday, the obvious takeaway here is to CHOOSE YOUR BATTLES and if you are in the middle of a disconnect that turns into a raging conflict, be very mindful if one of the protagonists will leverage on social media.  Even IF not done in bad faith, once the damage is done on you, that CAN'T be UNDONE dude.  Remember WHEN there are 2 million views and counting😡😡😡

Quote 'WHERE THE RUBBER MEETS THE ROAD'

 

Before we get suspected of plagiarism, allow me to piggy-back on that "WHERE THE RUBBER MEETS THE ROAD" as a spin-off from the Firestone Tires ad campaigns in the 1950s [as per AI].  WHICH reminds me during my stint with Goodyear, another global tire player, much as we wanted to hitch on that one-liner, we CAN'T as it happens to emanate from another market player.  BUT allow me to ride on that to draw its parallelism to our daily lives💚💛💜

Simply put, "WHERE THE RUBBER MEETS THE ROAD" refers to the moments in our life WHERE we need to put to test anything that has been discussed, deliberated and plotted on paper and in theory.  It's jumping from the drawing board straight into the frying pan [and NOT the fire yet anyways].  Almost all of us went through years of education and post-graduation, we get rolled-in for on-the-job trainings and all sorts of entry-level workplace programmes!!!

And IF you ask me WHAT's the failure rate post "WHERE THE RUBBER MEETS THE ROAD" phases, I DON'T have the validated statistics.  Even AI confirms that thee are NO universal failure statistics.  So, allow me to speculate that FAILURE RATES post "WHERE THE RUBBER MEETS THE ROAD" could go anywhere between 30 to 60% [+/- 10% as its error of margin].  YES, that's how it can go up💥💥💥

The thing is, almost everyone fails and flops especially in one's first foray[s] into a domain that was totally foreign to him prior to plunging into that new field.  WHEN I got introduced into IBM's mainframe computing, I DIDN'T have either the heads OR tails of computing.  Admittedly, I had to exert more than the mean efforts for me to reach and achieve the acceptable absorption level that aligns with the industry norms and thresholds.  WHAT we're harping now is that IF and WHEN THE RUBBER MEETS THE ROAD, it's very fine to fail, flop and flounder✅✅✅

Our takeaway:  Allow me to repeat that IF and WHEN THE RUBBER MEETS THE ROAD, it's very fine to fail, flop and flounder.  I did fail, did flop and did flounder zillion times over BUT if there's one thing I refused to succumb, I DIDN'T want to flip over, surrendering and abandoning my plans and its execution simply because I hit a road hump OR worse, I hit my head on a concrete wall.  Instead, I told myself, this and that failure means I am a step closer to realizing my goals and achieving the very success I crystallized for myself.  YES dude, WHERE THE RUBBER MEETS THE ROAD, carry on, never give up and abandon things.  CARRY ON dude😀😀😀