Excerpts from REALITY IS BROKEN,pg99 by Jane McGonigal.

Awe is a unique emotion. According to many positive psychologists, it’s the single most overwhelming and gratifying positive emotion we can feel. In fact, neuropsychologist Paul Peasall calls awe “the orgasm of positive emotions.”

Awe is what we feel when we recognize that we’re in the presence of something bigger than ourselves. It’s closely linked with feelings of spirituality, love, and gratitude – and more importantly, a desire to serve.
…"The experience of awe is about finding your place in the larger scheme of things. It’s about quieting the press of self-interest. It’s about folding into social collectives. It’s about feeling reverential towards participating in some expansive process that unites us all and that ennobles our life’s endeavours.”

In other words, awe doesn’t just feel good; it inspires us to do good.

Mentally ill man remanded over double murder

The above story really got me thinking.

He said: “Mama, sorry, I'm wrong, you take care of yourself and papa well”.

He also said he would donate his organs if he was sentenced to death.

No doubt, he will still have to pay for his hideous crime but I feel his admittance of his wrong doing and wanting to help others with his death still speaks substance of this man.

Wonderful quotes from the movie Flight of the Phoenix
Frank Towns: Why give people false hope?

Liddle: Come on man.Most people spend their whole lives hanging on to hopes and dreams that are never going to come true but they hold on to them. Why are you going to give up on them now when you need them most?

Frank Towns: You are assuming I'm one of those people who has hopes and dreams.

Liddle: I find it hard to believe that a man who learns to fly never had a dream.

Frank Towns: Look, how can I let those people build that plane when I don't believe it will work? And, every day they waste trying to build it brings them one day closer to dying.

Liddle: I think a man only needs one thing in life. He just needs someone to love. If you can't give him that, then give him something to hope for. And if you can't give him that, just give him something to do.

[James tosses the water bottle back to Frank and walks away] 

Frank Towns: James, you'll never make it.

Liddle: Then I'll die trying. There are people counting on me.

I was badly shaken on Monday.

Real bad.

The -Woke up in the middle of the night, couldn't sleep well - level of bad.

The following night, I had a very unusual dream.

The type of dream that you'd remember though you have long awaken.

I was walking in the dark, searching for familiarity.

Suddenly, I was at the food stalls of the neighbourhood I grew up in.

But there was no one I knew around.

Then, I saw the elderly professor whom I quite fond of at work.

She was preoccupied.

I began to tell her my troubles, desperate to pour out my grief to her.

She listened attentively, but she kept pulling my arm to walk with her.

I shook my head, "No, I'm too tired, listen..."

"I am listening, but you must walk while you tell me. Come on.."

I was exhausted both physically, emotionally and mentally.

But she wouldn't have any of that.

I had to walk.

That dream was days ago.

Yet, I strongly feel the message.

I'm glad my subconscious mind had work its way to make the better of me.

Excerpts from REALITY IS BROKEN, by Jane McGonigal.

Fiero is the Italian word for “pride,” – (we don’t have a good word for in English)and it’s been adopted by game designers to describe an emotional high. Fiero is what we feel after we triumph over adversity. You know it when you feel it – and when you see it. That’s because we almost all express fiero in exactly the same way: we throw our arms over our head and yell.
… it’s a craving for challenges that we can overcome, battles we can win, and dangers we can vanquish. Scientists have documented that fiero is one of the most powerful neurochemical highs we can experience. It involves 3 different structures of the reward circuitry of the brain, including the mesocorticolimbic center, which is most typically associated with reward and addiction. It is a rush, unlike any other, and the more challenging the obstacle we overcome, the more intense the fiero.

When we try to find happiness outside of ourselves, we’re focused on what positive psychologists call “extrinsic” rewards – money, material goods, status, or praise. When we get what we want, we feel good. Unfortunately, the pleasures of found happiness don’t last very long. We build up a tolerance for our favourite things and start to want more. This process ‘hedonic adaptation,’- is one of the biggest hindrances to long-term life satisfaction.

On the other hand, when we set out to make our own happiness, we’re focused on activity that generates intrinsic rewards – the positive emotions, personal strengths, and social connections that we build by engaging intensely with the world around us. We’re not looking for praise or payouts. The very act of what we’re doing, the enjoyment of being fully engaged, is enough.
The scientific term for this kind of self-motivated, self-rewarding activity is autotelic (from the Greek words for ‘self,’ auto, and ‘goal, telos). We do autotelic work because it engages us completely, and because intense engagement is the most pleasurable, satisfying, and meaningful emotional state we can experience.

As de Botton writes, "Long before we ever earned any money, we were aware of the necessity of keeping busy: we knew the satisfaction of stacking bricks, pouring water into and out of containers and moving sand from one pit to another, untroubled by the greater purpose of our actions." In casual games, there is no greater purpose to our actions - we are simply enjoying our ability to make something happen.

I was browsing trendy household items with sis.
They were all so pretty to look at.
Things you'd wish you can bring home with.
I remembered that I used to believe that I could own these things.
I really did.
Perhaps 10 years ago.
But since I got sick, everything came tumbling down.
I have never dared to dream again.

Earlier this month, I had submitted my application to further my studies - after much encouragement from superiors.
The FEAR remains very real.
To be honest, I won't be dissappointed at all if my application was rejected. (a statement I kept repeating to all friends)
So why bother applying right?