Category Archives: Uncategorized

Last night over dinner with friends, the topic of coping with pushy friends came up. They are your friends that mean well but may come across as a bit aggressive with their advice to you. My suggestions are (I am probably as “guilty” as anyone else on being a pushy friend at times): 1) Stay […]

From the book ‘The Resilience Factor’ by Karen Reivich & Andrew Shatte (p.44): Empathy is the ability to “read other people’s cues to their psychological and emotional states. Some of us are adept at interpreting what psychologists call the non-verbals of others – their facial expressions, their tone of voice, their body language – and […]

Early this week I went to the annual medical check-up. When reviewing my medical test results and figures, the doctor told me according to statistics based on my age, ethnicity and geographic residence, my probability of a heart-attack in the next 10 years is 3.1% vs. the group average of 3.4%. He said he was […]

Last weekend I took the TGV train from Frankfurt to Strasbourg for a visit. My original direct train of 2 hours turned into 4 hours with 3 transfers including a bus ride due to track problem. Despite the delay, I felt grateful to a few good German Samaritans who helped me as I don’t understand […]

I visited Rotterdam last weekend and was very much inspired by the history of the city. Because of its strategic position as the major port in the Netherlands, it was targeted at the second world war and bombed close to the ground. However, when it was time to rebuild the city, they decided to apply […]

Recently a few people have told me about their experience of what we called “a backhand compliment”. In my own words, it means an apparent compliment with a subtle negative connotation/meaning behind it. Take an extreme example, someone “compliments” an American saying “your English is as good as the English.” Well, my advice: 1) Take […]

Last week I watched the new movie American Assassin with high expectation. Unfortunately, I was almost “killed” by disappointment. Without disclosing too much of the plot in case some of my blog readers may see it despite my negative review. (Don’t say I did not warn you!) I will summarize in a few words: Banality […]

From the book ‘The Resilience Factor’ by Karen Reivich & Andrew Shatte (p.41-43) “Casual analysis is a term we use to refer to people’s ability to accurately identify the causes of their problems” “… the most resilient people are those who have cognitive flexibility and can identify all the significant causes of adversities they face, […]

From the book ‘The Resilience Factor’ by Karen Reivich & Andrew Shatte (p.40 & p.56) “Resilient people are optimistic. They believe that things can change for the better. They have hope for the future and believe that they control the direction of their lives.” “Realistic optimism is the ability to maintain a positive outlook without […]

A friend of mine has recently beset with some minor ailments without apparent causes even after consulting his family doctor. That reminded me of a book I read last year called “The body has a mind of its own” by Sandra Blakeslee and Matthew Blakeslee. In a nutshell, the book suggests that our (physical) body […]