How Sleep Affects Your Happiness

As we evolve from being a young adult to adult, sleep starts to become less and less of a factor. And sometimes with that, lack of happiness. Not to say that you’re completely a sad old fart. You may tend to think about your past a bit more and remember some good times you had. But without a goal, constantly thinking of the past isn’t always a good thing. You forget to be present while being in the present. Just know that there are always going to be younger crowds than you and you may end up having to play the role model. Even if you didn’t choose to be, people could look up to you for inspiration.

I used to be that guy that always looked back at my past and wondered what went wrong with me, or why I’m not where I’d like to be in life. And also kept thinking about future plans for myself and think of steps to take to get to where it was, I want to be. But a good friend (and my hairstylist) once told me to live in the moment. And it hit me. There were so many times I was living in the moment and felt great about myself, but I quickly move on from it.

Now, just more recently, I’ve been trying to live my life in the moment and later on would recap my day. I would look back at the positives and if there were any negatives, I would quickly get through that and move on from it. Figure out what was not so great and try to learn from it to be better next time. And anything good, I like to soak that in just a bit longer because it felt great! It’s like I had my own highlight reel for myself like how you would see in pretty much every sport out there.

And to highlight this post, if you’re not feeling as great as you want to be, maybe you just need more sleep! At least we can start there.

Energy & Life

Life is beautiful. But life would not be what it is if we didn’t have the energy to be able to live it. Energy drives us. Energy makes us. It’s who we are and what we’ve become. Why is it that kids have so much energy compared to adults? In my not-so expert opinion, it’s because they take naps. They have a bunch of caffeine, like drinking a bunch of soda and eating candy. Something that keeps them going for only such a short period of time. Unlike when we’re adults where we do have our caffeine fix but then start to feel the crash in the early afternoon. Naps then ruin the rest of our day or help us push ourselves to work longer late into the night just to do it all over again the next day. But if we don’t take naps then we might just be getting by. Have just enough energy to get us to bedtime but wasting our day without being productive. Unless you live a happy enough life where that is perfectly fine with you. It’s only if you feel like you want more. Want to do more. Achieve more.

So, where does our energy come from? The answer to that is a bit more complicated than it seems. It’s possible that a good mattress will do the trick. Or having a clear mind will get you a good night’s sleep. What I’ve learned is that it very well could be a little bit of everything. Having a good mattress that suits you will most definitely help, and of course, clearing your mind of unwanted thoughts before bedtime. But in my experience, financial situations have made my life more difficult. It is possible that the thought of living paycheck to paycheck is keeping me from getting good sleep. All the more reason for why I have not posted in my blog for over 2 months. That’s just part of life as well. The fact that life can distract you from doing what you love. Draining away your energy without you realizing it. But don’t use it as an excuse. Just consider it an obstacle.

Never forget that life is a beautiful thing and that we are so grateful to have it. To be a part of it. Don’t turn into an adult and erase all the beauty in your imagination just because of your age. Be someone brilliant. You got this!

Who Had the Biggest Impact on the Person You Have Become?

It didn’t take me long to come up with a decision on this. And the more thought I put into it, the more it became clearer. I chose my brother.

What the power of an older sibling brings to the table is inspiration. If you’re together often and find yourself in so many situations, they are there to show you without really explaining it how to handle them. Good or bad, you always find something to take away from it.

Speaking of good and bad, my brother and I used to fight a lot back in the day. And when I say fight, I don’t actually mean physically. We only wrestled during commercial break while watching WWE/WCW to pass the time. But we would have many arguments about the littlest things. Always trying to prove each other wrong. I want to say to this day that’s why we both can be pretty blunt. I try to think more now before opening my mouth, but sometimes I can’t help it. Which is why, too often, I don’t say anything when I’m around a group of people.

With that being said, there’s so many great things I got from this. We always enjoyed watching movies, TV shows and many different sports, along with playing them, while a lot of what we watched were comedy. But this wasn’t just between us. It was with the rest of the family as well. To this day, both my brother and I would still find ourselves doing movie quotes as a form of conversation. We really do have quite the memory.

Sure, it’s true that anyone can shape you to the person you are today. Friends, family, colleagues, and even random strangers. Maybe it’s just me, but I try to learn from my interactions with everyone. At least the ones that make an impact enough to make me think. The way I look at life; you can never stop learning. Because you know there’s always room for improvement. Don’t be afraid to take down that stubborn wall, or you just might miss out on the wonderful things life has to offer.

Writer’s Block

It’s happened before and more than likely will happen again. As writing can be very therapeutic for you, you just can’t help but have those days where nothing comes to you. Whether it’s an article, book, or anything else, the canvas is going to be blank. So, how can you change that? What’s causing you to have writer’s block?

In the last couple of months, writing for me has been incredibly difficult. Not just from lacking the creative mindset to put in the work, but with how I’m living my life as well. During this time, I’ve been completely unmotivated to work on any of the handful of projects I have going on. My free time consisted mostly of laying on the couch and watching TV or playing video games. Which I understand that the mind needs some time off from the real world. But where does it come from? Does it ever end? Or is it normal because life just is?

A short time ago I actually did something I only imagined doing but was not sure if I would need to. A went to seek help from a therapist. After my doctor’s visit, I was missing something in my life that kept me from being truly happy. That’s when he recommended I see a therapist. What came from this after just one session was that I felt like I might have been juggling one too many things that I wanted to do with my life almost all at once.

The other big thing I learned was not holding myself accountable. When it comes to some of my jobs, I’m great! I do the best of my abilities during my time at work. I show up when I have to, perform the task given to me and crush it. If only I could say the same to the many projects I’m currently or been working on for some time now. It’s the aspect of other people that I don’t want to let down. When it’s just me, I am responsible for myself. Am I just used to letting myself down knowing there’s no repercussions?

The seriousness of letting yourself down might be more punishing than what’s shown on the surface. Coming from someone who almost constantly looks ahead into the future. The days that turns into weeks and even months that goes by without accomplishing anything wears me down mentally. That disappointment of no real achievements and the constant let downs. It’s heartbreaking.

Anyway, by seeing a therapist, I want to better myself. I know something is off and know that change needs to happen. What it comes down to, at least for me, is that by having someone that I go to for help, I see them as a mentor. Someone I don’t want to let down. After just one session, I’m confident that every day will be better as long as I continue to work on myself.

So far, I’m already seeing progress. Up until this very post, I had been writing from home. Something I am implementing is changing location. It could be that the atmosphere or my surroundings was causing me my lack of motivation to write or work on anything I have going on. For anyone else out there that’s dealing with something similar, give it a shot. A change of scenery could do you wonders!

And if you’re like me, single yet ready to mingle, it could be a great way to meet people and potentially build a friendship, colleague, or even a mate… but only time will tell.

My Story: Personality

“Who am I? You sure you want to know? The story of my life is not for the faint of heart…” (Tobey Macguire/Peter Parker) In this part of my life, we go into the development of my character, what it was like growing up, the movies and shows I would watch constantly, and how my personality came to be. In my family, there was no special treatment. Nobody got spoiled more than the other. I’m considered the baby of my family and oh boy, did I not get spoiled at all. At least from what I can remember. Besides that, I still had many memorable highlights of my childhood. The weekends almost always seemed to be quite unpredictable and pretty wild. Fridays we had TGIF on ABC with great lineups like Sabrina the Teenage Witch, Whose Line Is It Anyway? and others that I can’t quite remember at this time. A few other moments we had was watching old Thai Boxing (Muay Thai) videos my dad would rent from the Asian Market, and an old classic, The Gods Must Be Crazy. Who knew a simple glass Coca-Cola bottle could make such a big impact on an entire villages’ lives? I love how a movie with a simple premise could bring a family together for 90 minutes or so. That on top of other similar things was my childhood growing up. Like how we would host parties almost every other weekend. My parents were the best at it, at least in my eyes. They knew how to entertain our guests who were considered family-friends to us. Their kids were about my age and a little bit younger, and very fortunately, I had my older brothers and sisters with their creativity to keep the younger crowd entertained. From playing video games to using our imagination and constructing a maze in our basement was one of them. We crushed it! And for that, I’m very thankful for the inspiration my siblings and parents brought me.

Personality

The characters that we all play make us who we are as individuals. It’s not about our gender, or the color of our skin, but what we do that defines us (that last bit was a Batman Begins reference). Throughout my life I have built this personality from watching movies and TV shows that I loved. Most of them being in the genre of comedy. Great comedians like Robin Williams, Jim Carrey, and Adam Sandler were some of my inspirations. I wasn’t sure what it was for why I turned out the way I did, but something triggered within me to want to make people laugh and enjoy themselves when we’re together. With comedy aside, I also have a more… sensual side. Suave. Maybe it’s from watching movies that weren’t quite PG rated during my younger years. Like how I love the movie Titanic in hopes that someday I could draw someone like one of my French girls! Although, I’ll admit Dumb and Dumber had some references I did not understand when I was a kid. As I got older though, the so-called chick flicks were something I was into. I’m all about love and passion. Hitch, What Women Want, and all those Nicholas Sparks books turned movies. And then there’s Austin Powers, baby! Basically, it’s not just the people we hang out with that opens up our personality, but that we get it from the movies and television shows we watch too. They can be very inspiring and gives us the motivation we need to get out of bed in the morning and depending on who you are, hoping that today is finally the day you ask that girl or boy out from school, or a coworker that you see on a daily or weekly basis.

Nowadays we can get that from just about anywhere. Whether it’s from reading certain articles on the internet or stumbling upon random YouTube videos. The human brain is constantly learning and taking in new information. We just have to listen to it and decide for ourselves what’s right, wrong, and everything in-between. Don’t let your ego or stubbornness be the reason you won’t learn. There’s no harm in being a little open-minded. Allegedly, we only live one life. Why not make the most of it? Bring positivity to those around you, even if they don’t do the same. You never know if your actions could make an impact on someone else’s life. We are our best hope for a better world. So make it count! And with that, I’ve mentioned too many inspiring words. Peace, bitches!

P.S. I forgot to mention when I was with some of my family members hanging out at my nephews 21st birthday, we were just in the garage talking and drinking. This was close to a year ago, and I was saying something very inspiring and motivational, but I can’t remember what it was due to the fact… I was with my niece and her boyfriend in their car, and I took a hit from their bowl. Pretty much my mind was clouded a bit. Anyway, whatever I said had my brother-in-law telling me that I should be what was something like a pastor for the Buddhist temple. This struck a chord within me because I knew my father was something like that (I can’t remember the title of it). He spent a lot of his time at the temple talking to the monks and played a higher role in that community. I’d like to say most of the time where I get my words of wisdom from comes from my father. There was so much about him that I would have loved to know about his past but unfortunately, I’m not able to. However, I was able to find out more about him from my oldest sister. We were hanging out during fourth of July and I asked her about him. She told me the stories she would hear from them was how respected he was. This coming from army Generals, villagers, and plenty of other people too, I’m sure. Anyway, I just thought I would share that little extra bit about my father and the role he played that made my life what it is now. Thank you!

My Apartment Design

My Inspiration started when I was in high school, not long after upgrading from basic cable. One day I came across HGTV and before I knew it, my life had changed. Just seeing the ideas some of these professionals had, their mindset to create such elegant and beautiful designs within a home. I guess that’s why they have their own television show. Either way, I was hooked! Design On A Dime and House Hunters were one of my favorite shows to watch then. Always loved the concept of designing a place on a budget because that gave me the opportunity to do the same. considering I’m not a baller by any means. So that transpired to me wanting to do that when I had my very own place. It took over a decade but overall I’m happy with how my place turned out.

A short video tour of my current place.

The Sims

Since being introduced to The Sims video game franchise from a good buddy of mine, Vincent, I fell in love with the game. It’s one thing to play the game and see what type of career and lifestyle you give your Sims, but another when it came to building your own home. One of the features on why I enjoy playing the game so much. Along with Fallout 4.(Still haven’t beaten the main storyline) But when they came out with seasons, that’s a wrap! The aesthetics with video games is half the reason I play them. The other is having a good storyline. As time went on, Sims just got more and more technical with its’ build mode option. I didn’t like it at first, but as I adapted to the new games, and familiarized myself, I thought to myself, “It’s not so bad.” I definitely spent hours with the build versus playing the game. But I guess that’s also part of playing the game. Here are some examples of what I’ve done below.

PS3 Build #1
PS3 Build #2(Was still a work-in-progress)
One of my favorite builds on the PS4
Back side
Fallout 4 Starlight Drive
Another view(wasn’t sure how to go about the walls for the rooms)

The Long Wait

I was 21 when I left home moving from one place to another amongst friends. Since leaving home, I moved 8 times in a span of about 12 years. Almost every place I went to I didn’t have the luxury of calling it home. And on top of that, I bounced around from job to job until eventually I had to settle for a little while. It didn’t occur to me until much later that what I needed was to live on my own. I was getting older and I had to keep a steady paycheck to be able to save in order to do so… A long story later, I get my own place and was finally able to design the interior within the confines of my apartment. And that’s pretty much it for how I got inspired when it comes to interior designing. But there’s plenty more than just interiors, I do enjoy doing blueprints, architectural designs as well! Anyway, it wasn’t an easy task for me to get to this point. There’s a much bigger story that I will be telling later throughout my blog and on my YouTube channel. Stay tuned!