Stress Relievers

Every now and then, we all come face to face with stress. It is inevitable. Of course, stress, like ants, do not appear by the armies out of the blue. First, an ant spots a sugar cube. The ant approaches the cube, tastes it, likes its sweet melting moments, and brings the second ant. The second ant comes, tastes it, likes it, feels like flying high up into the air and he calls the third ant. Soon an army of ants are nibbling at the giant sugar cube.

The sugar cube is gigantic compared to a an ant which is about 5 million times larger than an ant. So, when the ant comes nibbling at it, the sugar cube doesn't feel a thing. It only feels that it'll be gone and dissentigrated in 5 minutes, mobbed by an army of ants, trapped with no escape route, that the sugar cube realizes that it has no way out.

Stress occurs the same way too. When our bosses notice that we can handle the given work, they pile more work on us. When they see us working on weekends, and throughout the night , they take it for granted that we will work on weekends for the rest of our lives. So, they keep on piling the work on our desks, because they believe whole-heartedly that we will finish our job assignments.

People always say that working hard is the only surest way that leads us to the road of success. Nevertheless, they fail to mention that different individuals have varying definitions of 'working hard'. The definition varies according to the personality and interests of an individual. To an entrepeneur, working in the office until 3 or 4 am is the norm, as he draws up plans and organizes events and staff movement as such around the clock. To a socialite, managing to stay in the office until 5pm is a major achievement by itself.

For me, I used to think that working hard was the sole and only way to climb up the corporate ladder. Yet, as the scene of reality unfolds in front of me, I am beginning to see that aside from the willingness to work hard, sacrificing our time with families, friends and reconnecting with our spiritual needs, we need to possess great persuasion, negotiation and listening skills as well. Yet, how can we listen to somebody else's problems and issues, when we have our own issues to settle? No wonder they have the 'Befrienders' organization in the city. Because everybody is too busy with their own lives, thinking that they are the centre of the world, the issues of others' is less important when compared to their own 'issues. Most of the days, we are bogged down by our own work, so much so that we don't smile at people when we're in the train or elevators; we hunch, like the hunchback of Notre Dame.

One day, I just decided that I 've had enough. I just want to discard everything fo rthe moment and be lost in our own own personal lives. Langkawi, I must say is a truly high stress reliever. It has all these breath-taking places that lifts off the worry and creases across our foreheads.

The schools of pink, blue and yellow striped fishes happily swimming in the deep blue sea reminds me that simple pleasures in life are supposed to be shared with our loved ones. The gigantic Mat Chincang mountain where the cable car station was built, serves as a reminder that despite our best to control the decisions and actions made daily in our lives, nothing can be greater than the power of God. I also learnt how to listen to the waves as they hit upon the shores of the beach. Getting in tune with its steady rhythm, my heart begins to synchronize its own beat with that of the gentle waves. I learn how to be calm and tranquil again.

Looking at the eagles soaring proudly among the skies, singing the song of freedom that we are born to enjoy, revelation strikes. It is just not worth it to stay in the office for 14 hours at the risk of being tied to the desk for the rest of our lives and lose out on the opportunity to meet millions of interesting people who might turn out to be our soul mates. Beauty is omnipresent. To be an admirer, we just got to be alive.

Yes. Langkawi encompasses all of these, stress relievers first of all, then teacher of life's simple lessons that we seem to have forgotten as we get caught up in the web of our complicated lives that we have spun. Visiting Langkawi has a therapeutic effect. It untangles every knot and rekindles our spirits for living. Reminding us that life is worth living, irregardless of what happens, because we are champions who create our own inspirational stories, to be passed down from one generation to another, surviving the tests of time.