You are walking down the streets to your workplace. You passed by many people. Most of them slowed down and turned their heads towards you. Looking at you once is not enough!!

How did you do it?

Nothing out of the ordinary. The only difference is you have incorporated the use of essential oils into your daily life.

Now, I am not talking about the kind of good-looking one from the face your parents gave you. You are confident, healthy mentally and physically, which makes you so charming.

So, let's talk about using which essential oils to achieve that heads turning you! 

Skin

Frankincense essential oil. This oil is beneficial to protect the skin and reduce inflammation. Blending this with Geranium, Myrhh, yoghurt, and clay as a base gives you one of the most skin-nourished facial masks you can do at home! Your glowing skin is envious of many people.

Hair

Geranium essential oil. Ahh... the sweet, rosy, and herbaceous Geranium. Sometimes, there is also a hint of minty notes or lemony notes, depending on where the Geranium comes from. This is an invaluable oil for skin and hair care applications. To balance sebum excretion in your hair, add a drop in your shampoo before using it for hair washing. After some time, you noticed that your hair is relieved of excess oiliness or dryness. Wow...

Emotional Health - Uplifting

Sweet orange essential oil. Yeah! A citrus oil. Let's not talk about its antiseptic, anti-inflammatory and astringent qualities this time. Sweet orange is such a bright and uplifting oil; it makes a happy day for you every day. A whiff of it from your personal inhaler starts your day sunny. Taking another sniff when you encounter negative energy during the day. No wonder your friends think you are a positive energy powerhouse! 

Emotional Health - Calming

Sandalwood essential oil. Sandalwood is moisturising. Naturally, it is beneficial for your skin. However, this oil used by humans for centuries helped to quieten the mind and calm the breath. Use this as a blend with Neroli, Chamomile and Lavender in a personal inhaler. Inhale when you feel you are starting an anxiety attack. You looked serene all the time. This is because nothing rattles you with the help of Sandalwood essential oil.

Physical Health

Peppermint essential oil. One of the oils that I used daily! The fresh minty note is refreshing and stimulating for both mental and physical fatigue. You instantly reach out to it when you feel fatigued, creeping up. Emotionally, peppermint essential oil is helpful to stimulate ideas and creativity, boosting self-confidence all the time! No wonder you are confident all the time!

There are definitely more types of essential oil available in the market. The above are a few types that can already make you naturally good-looking without much hassle.

Let's deep dive into the effects of essential oil on skin, hair, mental and physical health in the coming sharings.

Looking forward to seeing you good-looking, naturally!

Hi everyone, Happy Midweek!  `

Do you know that there are a million things that people would associate eczema with? But, do we know which are the correct or validated ones?

Not sure? Don't know? 

Doesn't matter...

Let's explore the common misconception of eczema!

Myth 1 -  Eczema is Contagious

No!! You cant contract eczema by touching a person with it. Vice versa, you can't spread to another person in the same way. 😝

Myth 2. If most family members have it, you will have it too.

No!!! Everyone's habit is different If moisturiser is your BFF and moisturising routine is your habit, the chances of you developing eczema is lower.

Myth 3. Did stress cause eczema?

Stress doesn't cause eczema. However, it does cause skin condition and induces the feeling of itchiness. The distinction is it caused the skin condition but not eczema.

Myth 4. Eczema can be cured. Really?

Unfortunately, there is no cure for eczema. Fortunately, the symptoms can go into remission.

Myth 5. Eczema is an individual issue - Too bad, it's your problem, but is it?

Unfortunately, no again. When one needs to be careful of potential triggers, the whole family is actually on high alert. The effect trickles down and would affect everyone.

Myth 6. Eczema will clear up on its own

The itch-inflammation-infection process does not go away on its own. The only way is to introduce a "Circuit breaker" to it. Once you stop the itch, there is no inflammation-infection process. If you didn't manage to stop the itch and it goes inflamed, stop the inflammation process. Then infection will not result.

 Myth 7. Eczema is caused by poor hygiene

No!! In some situations, people who are often in a clean environment are more susceptible to develop eczema than others. That said, no excuse to skip baths!

Myth 8. Dry skin caused eczema

No!! Dry skin does not cause eczema. However, if you have eczema and your skin is dry, it will itch more. Itching is something we do not want at all!

Eczema is a skin condition that needs a lot of care from the individual and people surrounding the person. Let's all be clear of the triggers and debunk the myths!

Hope the above helps de-mystify your understanding of Eczema!!

Till the next Eczema tips sharing, keep moisturised, and stop the itch!

Some time ago, I shared about my daughter's skin condition. We managed to control her condition through more natural methods. Thanking those who shared their concerns, she is getting better!  I will share updates on her conditions soon! 

So I started to get questions from friends and people near me whether what they are experiencing is similar to eczema symptoms and whether the natural spray would work for them.

While I am not a medical professional, let's share what I have found out over the years relating to this skin condition.

Eczema is conditions that result in your skin became inflamed or irritated. This condition can happen to anyone, be it a child, an adult or even an infant!

In Singapore, we are one of the countries in Asia with the highest rates of eczema occurrences. While some of the kids do outgrow their condition, this condition stays with most of them throughout their life.

Many factors are involved in the development of this skin condition. Until now, there is no known and confirmed causes of eczema. The following are usually associated with the occurrences of eczema:

(a) Environmental irritants and allergens - Common allergen in Singapore is dust mites. In addition, being where Singapore is, our weather is humid and hot most of the time. This cause sweat easily. Sweat and the weather condition does cause flare-ups more. 

(b) Contact with intolerable chemicals - We are surrounded by chemical-laced products everywhere daily, notably cleaning materials. Some of these products contained chemicals that would cause intolerance. Prolonged contact with such products may induce an eczema-like reaction.

Do note most of the time effect of intolerance is to a certain kind of chemicals only. Not intolerant to the entire product itself. Furthermore, the intolerable chemical need not be harsh or strong.

(c) Defective skin barrier where the skin is more prone to loss of moisture and less able to defend against irritants and allergens.

(d) autoimmune reaction - where the body's immune system target certain matters that it came into contact with. These matters can be anything, be it food, chemicals, plants.
There is one more common cause cited which is genetics. The reason why genetics was brought up was due to coincidence. I.e. a child/person with eczema most likely have parents or close relatives who had it too. While it would be convenient to blame the genes, we should also be aware that each of us is a mini version of our parents. To this extent, the person that suffered from eczema most often shared the same or similar habits as the parents or the close relatives. ....

Hence, it could be worthy for people with eczema to observe their habits. Whether these habits are those that induced eczema flare-ups too. 

Hope the above helps all of us to be more aware of what could commonly induce eczema flare-ups! Thereby increasing your awareness to decrease the frequency of eczema flare-ups!

Please do share what you found to have cause eczema with me! It will definitely benefit all of us with more awareness! 

With this, let's explore what are the common misconceptions of eczema next time.

Till then, stay moisturised and free from itchiness!! 😊

We are into the 3^rd week of January 2021 today… To those whom I have yet to had the chance to, Happy New Year!

As most people speaks about New Year Resolutions, I am very curious (If you find that I always says this, is because I am naturally curious on things… not to the verge of kaypoh I hoped... haha), what happened to your resolution from last year? Did you achieve all, some or none?

If you had achieved all, congratulations!! Be sure to take time to celebrate your success! 😊

If you had partially achieved your goals, take time to congratulate yourself that you have move nearer to your goals...

So this is where my curiosity sets in. What do you do with those that you had yet to achieve? Do you treat them as a “New” year resolutions or you abandon them, or do you roll them over to 2021 and simply treat them as a work-in-progress that has yet to be completed?

Please share with me ok…

Now allow me to share mine with you 😊

I had only 1 resolution last year and despite the hectic day job, I worked towards fulfilling that resolution very hard until 3^rd quarter of the year. 1 event happened that totally threw me off course. I didn’t realised I was repelling my decision so much that I basically repel everything else. Of course, come year end, I panicked… for the time lost ☹

So, there is no “New” year resolution for me in 2021. It is the same resolution I had in 2020 and I am all the more determined to complete it with style!! Hehe…

With that clarity, I started my 2021...

Alas! while I am taking baby steps to regain my momentum to realise my resolution, there were so many distractions, or rather, I termed them as distraction and one of them is to tidy up the house. I moved since March 2020 and until now, I had yet to properly organize my house!! (Don’t laugh at me.. please, procrastination at its “best”…)

In the midst of throwing things, tagging the stuffs in the store room and keeping the records of the stuffs in my laptop, I realised, these are not distractions at all!! While decluttering physical things, I am decluttering my mind as well…checking off undone things that could potentially distract me from the course of my ultimate resolution.  Hmmph… so much for throwing things uh!.. Haha…

While I made the Mistake of not understanding this earlier.. the decluttering indeed helped to bring much clarity for me to do Correction and , Clarity Leads to Power!!! 😊

(also more “Power” to continue with the decluttering.. haha)

So, please share with me what happened to your last year’s resolution(s) and what is/are your New Year’s resolution(s). We could all learn together.

Let’s all be very clear with what we want in our lives, designed it and achieved it!!

Happy Sunday!!

#strengthsquotient

#customisedessentialoilblends

Ask you, have you ever had such experience before?

I know someone from work where we hit off very well from start. After some time, for some reasons (unknown to me then), our relationship soured. I had always alluded this to incompatible work chemistry between both of us, as I know this is a good person. But by having this thought in my head, I gave myself the excuse of not working on my relationship with this person. What’s more? Having other people at work with same experience of this person seems to allow me to justify I am “right” and “fault” lies with the other person.

Memories of us having enjoyable lunches kept coming back to me. I cannot stand this kind of relationship. I realised I had a need to find out what went wrong between us.  So, I went to the person and “ask” what went wrong between us. The response was “nothing is wrong, just that she was too tired at work and doesn’t want more conversations” Arghhh, what bullshit! (Exasperating right….hmmph!!)

At work, we both serve the same client on our separate functions. Something happened, which impacted my function greatly, and I reacted to the client directly with the intention to ensure no negative impact to the company I worked at. However, little did I know that my reaction caused some repercussion at this person’s function. And she flared up!

Finally, some reaction from her! But not the kind I wanted and liked though.. I explained my intention (never to be a disservice to her) of my reaction. More importantly, I apologised for what the impact had caused her (more hours needed to clear the situation up at her end!!!) She didn’t tell me nothing was wrong this time. She told me what she didn’t like and also why she flared up. We both work together to clear things up for our mutual client, and for ourselves.

So, what changed between this time and the previous times I “asked” what went wrong?

Was it because I apologized? No no… things didn’t change just because I apologised. What worked for her to open up was I admitted the impact of what I did had negative consequences to her. Hey, admit it, she doesn’t care about the intention, my intention, however good or bad. The realistic part is the impact to her. My acknowledging it allowed the conversation to open up and that gave both of us a chance to clear the air!

I didn’t fully understood the distinction of intention and impact then. Thank you @Douglas Ng @Chun Hoe Tang @Simon Lee. From Crack Your Strengths Quotient to Advance CSQ. All of what we learnt does help us a lot! It is not about work, it us always about us!

Knowing this difference now, I am curious. Had you the experience of “having the best intention” for a person but the person doesn’t appreciate it? And that led you thinking that the person is “ungrateful” Had that yielded the best result that you wanted for that person?

Would you still go about the saying and doing “I have the best intention for you”?

Share with me at the comments below! 😊

#CrackYourStrengthsQuotient

#AdvancedCSQ

On a cold morning this week, we decided to go a for a porridge breakfast. I was on leave from my day job that day so there was some time luxury 😊

Ordered the Signature Porridge I loved without pork liver.

This is priced at SGD5 per bowl and for the pork liver that I requested to excluded, the stall owner had kindly replaced it with more lean pork today (sometimes is more fish, some times more meat balls. I guess really is to the stall owner’s preference for that day).

This came to me very hot and on a cold cold morning, the warmth it created when it goes into my tummy is full of bliss 😊. It is a bowl full of natural goodness from slice lean pork, fish, cuttlefish, mince pork, meat ball.. garnished with shallots and spring onion with some sesame oil sprinkled.

Ordered take away for my family as well. However, the stall owner did not cook it immediately together with the bowl that I was having. He observed till I was nearly finished with my bowl of porridge before he cooked the take away order and it came just right before I was ready to go. Not only was the dined in porridge good, the level of attentiveness he took to make sure my take away was just as good as dine in is exemplary.

How many of us had took this level of attentiveness for granted in everything we do or did? The stall uncle does not need to do it at all and truth is, he actually needed more attention and work to make this happened. (His customers are coming more and more when I was taking my porridge there ..) But it is the pride to what he has created and the warmth that he can bring to people that added value to that bowl of porridge.

All essential oil users would know that what intrigued them in using essential oils in their life is the natural goodness. While most users would be able to derive basic benefit from the essential oils that they use (correctly), it is the level of attentiveness that you have in what you would create for yourselves or anybody that needed the help from this natural goodness that brings the additional value in using essential oils.

And of course, the smile on the user’s face when they told you how the customised blend had worked for them.

#naturalgoodnessfromessentialoils

#customisedblendbyyou&foryou

#customisedessentialoilblends

PS: If you are interested in tasting the delicious porridge, it is located at Block 122, Ang Mo Kio Ave 3, S560122.

Recently, a friend shared that she has a problem keeping awake during the day. Her energy level was very low every day and often needed lots of coffee for her to go through the day with focus.

Now, this is unexpected. This person I know, is a person full of energy all the time! Her energy level was so high, it was contagious, allowing people near her to be full of energy too!

Now, using essential oil to help a person perk up is no issue at all. In fact, relatively straightforward too! However, for a person with such a high energy level to be with such a need… curiosity got the better of me….

After a short chat (and some “poking” 😊), I realised “keeping awake” is not the real issue. Her issue was she was unable to sleep well at night. Even though she had sufficient hours of sleeping, she always had the feeling of “not enough” when she woke up. Because of this, she must drink coffee in the morning and many more cups during the day. Otherwise, using her words “my whole day is gone”.

After knowing the actual cause, helping her to sleep well is more important as that is the root of her issue. She will have lesser issues keeping awake after she had a good sleep.

Determining suitable essential oils to help her to sleep is important as well. Usually, Lavender is a go-to when people needed to calm down and sleep well. However, Lavender only is not sufficient for her. In the end, I decided on woodsy oils with a specific distinct floral aroma.

She picked up the blend the next morning and was very very happy to share with me the one more morning later that she can finally sleep well the night before. Yeah!!!

Helping a friend makes me very happy! Having the ability to help makes me even happier!! 😊 😊

#customisedessentialoilsblends

Hey, it’s Sunday!

I have cravings for Niang Tou Fu, so we walked to the Food Centre near our house for it.

The stall that sold the Niang Tou Fu I craved a lot for was not open today. It’s ok, so, we went to another stall nearby.

My son face changed when he saw the Niang Tou Fu bought for him. It is a combination of Niang Tou Fu with dry noodles. He didn’t prefer the dry noodles at that stall and he raised this.

I told him, “this is food you wanted, while all of us went to queue up and get our own food, you sat there and wait. Now when food comes, you said you don’t like it and you didn’t want it.” I gave him 2 choices, he either finished the food or he will not have food for the whole day.

I told him, you can make it easier by taking the noodles with the Niang Tou Fu, it will make it taste better (he does not prefer the noodles only). While he nodded, he continued taking the Niang Tou Fu only, barely touching the noodles.

He raised twice again he cannot finish the food (noodles) and he needed help. We helped him on condition that he finished up the whole bowl. Else he will not have food for the whole day.

When it came for that all of us (even the youngest) finished our food, he still had the whole bowl of noodles there, still barely touched. Sensing I did not intend to wait for him, he just plainly said, “I cannot finish the food”. Expecting to leave the food and go with us.

Now, I do not accept this. I gave my options at the start and I helped. When he still cannot do it, he expected me to  “let go” which means either we helped him eat up the noodles or let it go to waste! Not even trying to think what to do!

I repeated the options to him, finished up or no food for the day. He started crying and crying so loudly people turn their heads and watched us.

How did I feel then? Ashamed? Embarrassed?  No, I stood there with him and waited for him to continue and finished crying. (Ok, you can say I have thick skin, I don’t mind)

Then I asked him again. “you can finish a 200g beef steak (which I can’t!) and just because you think the noodles today is not to your liking, you refuse to eat it. If you do not respect food, you will not get food”. He quietened down. I told him, to make taking the noodles easier, split into smaller portions, taking each portion up, you will see it is getting lesser, and in no time, you will finish the whole bowl (of noodles)”

He finished that bowl of noodles in lesser than 5 mins but reminded me not to get dry style noodles from that stall again. In turn, I reminded him, even if you do not need to pay for your own food (for now), go queue up and get your own food. You definitely get the food you like!

Here I am sitting down, reflecting this event at breakfast just now:

(a)    While we were at a standoff when he was crying, I heard people said “just let it (the noodles and the matter) go, why allow the boy to cry so badly.” While this would be an easy way out for me, I am afraid I will be raising a child where he will not be responsible for his words. Since he promised to finish the noodles after I helped to share some with him, he needs to honour his words.

(b)   If I had allowed him to waste the noodles, he will not learn to respect and treasure food given to him. There is nothing that he is born entitled to, and he needs to understand that. Life will not be beef steak everyday. Sometimes, plain noodles is hard to come by and he needs to treasure what he is given and have at any point in time!

(c)    Everything that is difficult (or unpalatable, in this case), break it down into smaller portions. The matter will not become easier, it just allowed you to feel more achievable.

(d)   When I was a new mother, I dreaded so much if my child cry or throw tantrums in public. I always felt all eyes on me. My only objective then was to stop my child from the racket he/she is causing and stopping the “all eyes on me”. With that, I lost many chances to allow my kids to learn/see what could be done better. Today, my intention is only on my kid. Even if all eyes were on me, waiting for anything to happen, it will only be a matter of concern to me and my kid. The chance was not wasted.   

Once you allowed people (younger or elder) to see that they can get away with things through some manipulation (crying, perhaps), they too learn immediately that they are able to get away with things that do not want in a certain way that we are vulnerable to. Hence, it is never too young to learn. Which action we take; they will learn, what works for them and what do not. So, it is definitely your choice, which is the part from the above event that they learn of.

Hence, CHOICE = OUTCOME.

So, what would be your choice of reaction in a situation similar to this? How do you feel?

Please share them with me!

Happy Sunday!

#strengthsquotient

#customisedessentialoilblends 

Chinese have the tradition of welcoming good fortune and Abundance to the household every Chinese New Year. It is believed that with good fortune at the start of the year, one will be blessed for the entire year!

With these beliefs, people hung new year paintings such as the God of Wealth to welcome Wealth to the house. Or placed auspicious green plants such as Lucky bamboo, money tree, Kumquat tree to symbolise Wealth and good fortune; pasted red paper cuttings to attract luck and happiness, so on and so forth.

The origins of such practices are mostly involved divine beings helping mortals in times of needs, translating to a practice of good luck such as the tradition of having sugar cane during the 9th day of CNY. This came about when the Hokkien ancestors were advised by a divine being to hid themselves in the sugar cane plantation to escape from the local warlord's suppression. The divine being then cast an invisibility spell so that the minions of the warlord couldn't see the Hokkien villagers. The villages are thus being spared from the wrath of war.

Fast forward today. Instead of spells and magic, it is probably optical illusion from the sugar cane in the plantation that helped the Hokkien ancestors instead of any divine being! However, that is just my guess, no offence to the Hokkiens!

After I decluttered my house last week, I would also like to attract Abundance to my house.

Instead of the traditional auspicious plants and flowers or paintings, I chose to enhance my Abundance by using essential oils by diffusing through a diffuser and topical application. Or wear it as perfume! Easy and convenient.

So how does the blend help with attracting Abundance?

Just a small drop, it assists with the following:

Ø  unblocking and circulating stagnant energy,

Ø  to counteract disjointed and spacey feelings,

Ø  brings peace,

Ø  foster confidence,

Ø  supports focus attention,

Ø  stimulates willpower,

Ø  supports reflection and introspection,

Ø  warms and encourages energy

Wow! There is so much packed in this little bottle!

If you find that you want something in your life but lacks the energy to push forward, often overthinks, distracted, feeling burnout, this might be the blend for you!

There are at least 9 different types of essential oils included in the blend. From Myrrh, Patchouli, Clove, Cinnamon, Orange, Ginger, Spruce and depending on your needs, this blend can be customised.

Bearing in mind what was mentioned last week, "Abundance is not how much you have. It is the quality of what you have that counts!" Hence, the blend assists focus on the right mindset to achieve the objective of your life. No matter what is your want, a positive mindset helps to propel your success.

How has it helped me?

Instead of burying myself in office work, I have decided to have a good breakfast with my love. Together, we are going to spend the rest of the day preparing for Chinese New Year!

Mindset refocuses to prioritise me, attracting an abundance of together time.

Thanks to 豐 Fülle, my abundance blend.

If you think that diffusing or applying this blend will increase your chances of winning Toto, hmm, I am not sure about that though… 😊

Happy Lunar New Year! May the Year of Ox be abundant with goodness, prosperity, health and positivity!

#strengthsquotient

#customisedessentialoilblends

Hey everyone! In 11 more days, we are ushering in the Chinese New Year. How are you doing with the preparations? Busy with making cookies? Tidying up the house? Shopping or busy with work?

Due to COVID-19, this is the first CNY I am not returning to my home country for celebration. Weird feeling… but this prompted my first ever Spring cleaning!

For those who knew me, I just shifted to the current place last year; and had not the chance to tidy up the house properly.  (ya, kidding myself only... the truth is I procrastinated…  very "not embarrassed" to say this to everyone). When I was going through the boxes, I realised there are just so many things I have never unbox before, since the first place we were staying at. Thoughts came running through my mind. Why have I been keeping these all this while? Quite immediately, it was due to the scarcity mindset.  Questions like "what if I needed this next time?" came up so often before. So, I kept accumulating things, preparing for the "what if" that mostly didn't materialise for the past 10 years!

Zoomed past all the decluttering. Wow, I suddenly realised I have a "much bigger" space than I knew before!

Anything changed? Nothing. The physical space is still the same size.

What changed was my willingness to let go and create more possibilities for myself. Letting go of the scarcity mindset.

Hey, I even carved out space for the kids to play!

Now, if you akin a physical space to our mental thoughts, do you sometimes feel that we are holding on to too much that doesn't serve us? My physical "what ifs" could be some of the 10-ish water bottles that came from everywhere. Mentally this could be a sense of unfairness, unfulfilled wants, teachings from anybody that are no longer applicable to our lives that cluttered up our emotions and thoughts. So often, we held on to these dearly as if our lives depended on them. When you finally threw them away,  these are actually the weight that sinks us instead of the lifebuoy we thought they were.

In a nutshell, Abundance is not how much you have. It is the quality of what you have that counts! 😊

My good friend Winnie is Happy Bettering herself. And now, I am heading her advice to better myself through physical and mental decluttering.

So, how is your CNY preparation? Other than a clean and tidy house (which is a feat performed!) Any reflections?

Please share them with me!! 😊