Stopping MIND MOVEMENT

My Dad sat me down and told me a tale about this one particular family.

Father, Mother, Son & Daughter lived in a remote village and worked the paddy fields for a living. They would wake and leave their humble house before the crack of dawn and make their way to the fields. One day, Mother asked Father if he could pluck 2 mangoes for her as she'd like to eat it after lunch that day. So Father and Son hunted for a long stick, then Son climbed on Father's back and together, spent some time to try to knock the mango off the tree. Soon, they went along their path again. This repeated thrice as Father and Son stopped to catch a plump farm chicken and river frogs for the next day's dinner.

It was already hot midday by the time they arrived at the fields. Many other families were already there working since dawn and there was hardly any more rice to be harvested. They worked under the hot sun and missed their lunch break. While the other families were eating under the shady trees, Father, Mother, Son and Daughter worked the fields - hungry, tired and regretting their earlier morning romp.

I often chide my Dad and tell him that this story is actually about our family. Why do we have so many gazillion ideas between father and daughter? Why is it that our minds just cannot STOP. We are constantly thinking and hatching up ideas. It's like breathing air. Except these days, today in particular, the haze is rather unpleasant. So no ideas today!

Today, I consciously stop my mind from moving and thinking too much. I will just be. In future, it doesn't need the haze to remind me to stop. In future, I will make it a point to STOP before I GO at least once a week. Unnecessary mind movement can be distracting and is motivated usually by survival. The need to survive, to make money, to bide time, to leave a legacy. So stop. It's alright to do so once in awhile.

Intention does NOT equate Execution - whomever said 'It's the thought that counts', you're wrong...

Last night, it hit me. I'm so full of intention. So much desire. So many ideas. All of that outweigh the amount of things I'm able to execute in one day. So I need some trimming here... please help! I need to trim my thoughts, my waist line, my hair! Trim trim trim!

"Dream"

This is Chinese for 'DREAM'. It's good to dream. For when we dream, we free our thoughts from shackles of reality. But at the same time, when we're too full of intention without action, the thought alone cannot free us. I drew a little diagram today and shared it with two persons. They agreed with me. Each day these days, we prepare proposals (intention) and send it via email to prospects. That alone, is insufficient action to warrant positive feedback. So what do we do? We follow up with some phone calls, meetings, research, discussions (action).

I've been thinking and wanting to run a cafe since I graduated from Uni. I can't explain why I have this desire. But for the longest time, I've thought about it. Yet, I haven't done anything towards this dream except dream. I'm the type of person who would ponder on something for a long long time before taking action. And I will take action once I'm certain that it is what I want.

Persistence of Memory by Salvador Dali

It's the thought that counts. 
Is that thought so wrong? 

Last week when I visited my business coach, he ticked me off (finally!!) for being late. I was 10 minutes late! Last month, I would show up 30 minutes late, month before 45 minutes late. He had every right. And I hated the feeling of being late. I vowed never to be late again for him. Or for anyone else. It's hard though, to keep that commitment. The intention was there. I even woke up an hour earlier to ensure I'd get there on time. How come then, was I late? I'm baffled too.


I will not be late. I will see through my intentions.

If I think of someone I care for, and think of buying them a gift. Is that sufficient? I love gifts. Thinking about buying someone a gift and actually doing it, are two different things. Once the thought is acted on, the intention becomes real. And the receiving party is aware of the initial thought.


So give a gift. Call that person you thought of in the morning. Say sorry for being late. Go for that sabbatical you so need. Do things but weigh it out first. Trim your life. Focus. Let's live the best we can!

Visualising data

Picture this. #66000 or #131313. I learnt about these colour codes for html programming in 2000. We live within so MUCH data... Gigas, Terras and now sometimes i wonder how many packets of data lie between me and the front door. Did you know... 1 terabyte (TB) equals 1000,000,000,000bytes. Here's a video to share on how one man has visualised data. Too cool for school!

Sanctum: a holy place within

I watched Sanctum last night, a James Cameron and Andrew Wight collaboration and absolutely loved it. It was a very painful movie to watch. Dramatic. Heroic. Values. That was what came out for me. Values.

Just like Titanic or any other disaster movie, it's when the human being is desperate and has nothing left but just life before him that his values take centrestage. It's the fight or flight theory. When in times of trouble, do you take flight or do you fight for your life? In Titanic, do you remember the scene where women and children were given first priority aboard the life rafts? Then there were a few men who had crept on board, fearful for their lives. Fear cripples us. It turns us into monsters.

Learnings from Sanctum the movie? Never let fear take over. Never give up. Be level headed in whatever situation and know that you'll get through it. Once we fear doom, we ARE doomed. And I'm able to share this because I've gone through it and still climbing out of that doom hole. It's easier to just let go and let that black hole suck you in. It's harder to fight. But when you fight and WIN, every single moment becomes real and that, if LIVING. So this post is dedicated to those of you fighting yourselves. We're our own worst enemies. Get over that moment and fight. And that's when you start living life. Hugs!

Here are some of my favourite and most inspirational movies about living LIFE. Enjoy...

LE GRAND BLEU 1988 by Luc Besson: A movie about a free diver who followed his instincts and his heart. Inspired by true life stories of free divers in the world - French Jacques Mayol and Italian Enzo.


SANCTUM 2011: To me, this movie is about being true to yourself. And nothing's more beautiful than father son communication and love. View Trailer:

Reading words as opposed to reading from the heart

I write. And sometimes I read. Some call it poetry. I call it fact laced with fiction, delivered with emotion... from the heart. Mine. Today, I'd like to share with you something, which touched me deeply.

Flight 1116 to Amsterdam

Flight 1116 to Amsterdam

Unpublished / unperformed
Written November 2010
by Jasmine Low

Where does it all go?

Memories, experiences, 

information a human like you or I

learnt, paid for, embraced 

for the duration of our lives

Where does it all go?

What a waste it is, I feel

That my passion for Escher's art

Appreciation of Jeff Buckley

A knowing of intimate No Black Tie gigs by Ady Suwardy

Or the beauty in curt prose spoken by Tshiung Han See

Would diminish the moment I depart

Thoughts must be retained, stored as energy

The greater the resistance, the greater the Inertia 

So it doesn’t crash through to the generations

Unless I sit them around me and tell the story

Where does it all go?

Thoughts.

White clouds.

Black rain.

Acid.

Soap down the tubular canals.

Into the deep blue sea.

Transformed to red.

Pollutants.

Fire up my dreams.

I write these unprocessed thoughts.

These raw ideas.

From above clouds.

On Flight 1116 to Amsterdam.

Do we all just die with such rich thoughts

Only to return as a better informed being?

- end - 

Shanghai, underground

Here's the UK Pavillion at the World Expo 2010, Shanghai. I entered without queuing hours as I was a participant at the Malaysia Pavillion. Just one simple idea, to carry through the entire country and their representation to the Chinese.

These seedlings were encased in acrylic rods that jutted out of the square central room. From the outset, it looked so phenomenal. Inside, you could then see how simple the idea was. Kudos to the curator. We get your message, Britain.

So it was 29 August when we arrived at the hotel. Me and an entourage of about 15 others indie singer songwriters and band members. The tour would bring us to music livehouses in Shanghai, as well as the main stage at the Malaysia Pavillion. How exciting!

More...

Living in a gated & guarded community

http://www.elvispresleymusic.com.au/pictures/1957_april_22.html

I guess it depends which side of the gate you're at. Are you on the IN- or OUT side the gate? And if it were Elvis guarding it, would we all be a whole lot happier? I wrote a piece of advert copy for a housing developer recently, and offered it swash-buckling words to bring together hope for a safe and loving environment. The truth is, WHAT are we guarding ourselves from besides other fellow humans.

Each day, I hear stories of friends with handbags on their passenger seat, only to be surprised and shocked out of their guts when a snatch thief smashes through the car window to steal the handbag. And we feel fear. And we lock our doors when we enter our metal commodes.

And we consider living and raising our children in gated communities because you NEVER KNOW what's out there. The horrors. The people who are so desperate. The snatch thieves.

I always thought I was invincible. Until I fell flat on my face, lost my own handbag and belongings to a snatch thief on a motorbike. The nerve of him! I would have run after him. I would have slapped him across his face. I would! Because he stole my belongings. Because he stole things from ME. Because he dared! The nerve of him! He dared to break my stance!

And that's what it's about. A perpetrator. A bully. A stronger human being. A more desperate individual with less value for his life. A poor sod. A psychopath. A crazy man. A hungry man. A greedy woman. A stealer. Stealer! You thief! You stealer! You copycat! You took the words right out of my mouth. You copied my copywriting! I wrote it last week! And it's appeared on your advert in this weekend's newspaper spread! You thief!

Freedom Girl Sculpture by Kirk Hogben

 Aren't we all?

Thieves of time.
Thieves of days.
Thieves of youth.
Thieves of silence.
Thieves, we are.
Take.
Here, take it.

I give to you.
My gates are open to you.
I let my guard down.
I let you in.
Unguarded.
Uncompromised.
It's called love.
It's called love.

Written Thursday, 14 July 2010 (C) Jasmine Low.

Goodbye Life, Hello Social Marketing Disorder

Cliche but true. This year is the prelude to an amazing decade and we prepare to start a brand new one in another 13 months. The next decade begins in 2011. As I stare at my toes and post another picture up onto facebook, I wonder what my life would have been like without facebook, twitter and myspace. And I think, honestly, it would have had more time to do the things i like.

The peer pressure mounts online these days. Are you fb? You're NOT on twitter? Have you flickr'd our photo yet? Nuke 'em all! That's the plan anyway when I put to practise my 4-hour week (snigger). For now, every single brand is looking into it. And if they haven't, they had better, so say the experts. My prediction is that it already is a part of marketing practices worldwide. Humans flock to whichever communication tool that works best for them. Remember a time when SMS was new? How many people embraced that? Some countries are still aversed to it. How about when the CD Rom was first introduced? I still remember setting appointments for my boss to introduce the concept of CD Rom in 1993/4. Boy were they dubious!

So now social marketing... for those who use it as a marketing tool, they're the most effective thinkers. For those who are immersed in it, beware... how much time are YOU really spending on it. Yes, we hear the excuses everyday. That you need to go on fb to chat with others. But how about just going lo-tech and just picking up the phone? Seriously... just do it. It's nice to sometimes just hear the voice on the other side. It's personal. Life's personal.

Happy 2010!

YOUR DEEPEST FEAR by Nelson Mandela

Our deepest fear is not that we are
inadequate, our deepest fear is that we
are powerful beyond measure.

It is our light, not our darkness that
most frightens us. We ask ourselves,

“Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous,
talented and fabulous?” Actually, who
are you NOT to be?

You are a child of God. Your playing
small does NOT serve the world. There
is nothing enlightened about shrinking
so that other people won’t feel insecure
around you.

We were born to manifest the glory
that is within us. And as we let our
light shine we unconsciously give other
people permission to do the same.

As we are liberated from our own
fear, our presence automatically
liberates others.

Spoken by Nelson Mandela
1994 Inaugural Speech
Written by Marianne Williamson

Stand up for the sounds of the djembe...

Cast of Stand Up! where I co-emceed with Jojo

I first heard Jojo Struys recite her poetry by accident. She did it with flair! And so I asked her a few times if she would consider performing at one of our events. After many years of inviting Jojo, I finally receive a call from her to ask if I'd be interested to help out in a charity fundraiser. And here we are. Last night, we raised RM40,000!!!! Here is the team, cast and crew of Stand Up! a charity fundraiser for Creative Mentoring programme called Shambala for Kids. Once a week, the kids from Chow Kit are invited to Bandar Utama for sessions which inspired their 'right brain'. The good people behind this independently run non-profit is led by founder, Lina Sutton - email her if you'd like to volunteer - shambalaforkids@gmail.com and an impressive line-up of VERY CAPABLE WOMEN - Jojo Struys, Hannah Lo, Linda Aljoffrey, Virginia Kennedy, Muna the Princess, Angeline and the many others behind the scenes including Michael Lim. And thanks to the performers: The Ramanados, Andrew Netto, Papi Zak, Ash Nair, Yuri Wong, Dennis Lau, Harith Iskandar. And to the good people who attended the show and put their bids in for the auction items. We rawked NBT!

It felt good. And it was an affirmation of what I do. And I do things well when I FEEL IT. Here's another amazing magical thing that happened at the end of the night... just when all the waiters had gone home, and in No Black Tie were just a smattering of souls...

DJEMBE JAM

I spent last night watching, appreciating, listening to two very fine gentlemen 'jam' on the sacred 'Djembe'. At first, I didn't even know the name of one of the gentlemen. Sometimes, you don't need to know names or to know what a person does for a living. Sometimes it's just magic to realise that some people you will only have the privilege to meet for one time only. To not expect more. To just enjoy their company even if it was just for one night.

Valtinho Anastacio & Jothi with Evelyn Hii of No Black Tie watching

Valtinho Anastacio - a Brazilian Djembe Master who happened to be in KL, taught us to have 'conversations'... to listen, challenge and just open up our minds and not be restricted to notes we're familiar to. To not just answer a question, but to question the question. To listen, challenge, and answer the call in your OWN way. Next time I need answers in life, I think I'll just reminisc on the deep bass vocas of the Brazilian Djembe man... just let the resonance talk to your heart.

hini pini mini mino mo

Do i look sick? Do i look sick? After receiving a call from a business counterpart informing me that he had got it, i quickly dashed to the nearest hospital. private. And got turned away. I walked in and before I could get no further than the car porch, they screened me. I owned up. Yes, I'm a suspected case of hini. Yes, H1N1. Leetspeak is in. Immediately I was whisked away to the back end of the hospital. A nurse and a tourist cooped inside a 20' x 20' aircon tent looked up and out towards me and both shook their heads. "No, we can't treat you here. Go to HKL. Go to HKL". And I did.

I arrived at HKL queued up and man.... was I nervous. Everyone was coughing. It felt quite unnerving actually. But the efficiency of our Malaysian public hospital still leaves a positive impression in my mind. Within 2 hours, I had already seen the doctor, gotten a blood test and had the results! I was cleared. Back to work :)

Lips curl down, panic

Have you ever faced a camera or been interviewed and thought that you were speaking normal only to find out that your mouth curls a certain way... uncontrollably? Well, this happened to me years ago when Ady Suwardy and I headed for a casting for news anchors... hehehe. To think that after all these years, the lips still curl... it's called panic in control.

Fate of river veins

Is it really possible
to twist fate
when it's clear
that rivers only flow
in one direction?

Far above the ground
at approximately 15,000 ft above
you look down from
Seat 22C and notice
the brown river veins flow

High from a spate of anger
emancipated a woman she is
she chooses to be right
and makes the stride towards the door
and doesn't look back

Yet she knows she will regret
when she sits alone
in the dining room gloom
Staring at pots potted last Deepavali
Dead.

Keeping up the pretense

Do you sometimes feel that this online life is taking over your offline persona? What will happen when you become so well known online but it's totally restricted to the www / web2.0 and doesn't exist beyond those borders? Is someone else watching us and gaining the big picture view like Truman show? How many tweets did you log today?

MILK MAID

I watched MILK. And cried. And thought how I, at the age of 39 have yet to fulfill what I'm here to do. But I know I will. Soon...

We're all here to do something great - passively or actively. And I believe that wholeheartedly. That brings a question to mind. I returned from a decade in Australia an emancipated sexual being, and naturally brought home with me freedom of expression, sexuality and speech (some).

Btw, it sickens me sometimes when I break into the, "When I was in Sydney...". Almost puke-able. Pretentious. But truth of the matter is, I did 'grow' up there, formed most of my beliefs there. But I chose to return home to KL when the haze formed, when the market crashed, when the city was buzzing with the sounds of closets being opened back in 1998. And I returned 'home' thinking I was still enveloped by anti-vilification laws. But there are none. None to protect me nor my sisters and brothers who live in the pink triangle, from the name calling, verbal bashing or even in some cases, physical violence. So how do we live?

Ironically, beneath the blanket of confirmity lies a thin thread. This is called the thread of hope and faith. The thread is pulled ever so lightly once in awhile and we watch the blanket gather, bunch up, only to be pulled and straigtened in no time. We, are the people who live beneath the blanket. And it's rather snug. I pull here. And there. And sometimes poke my head up and yell for attention. But most times, I can be silenced by the comfort of living under the blanket. It's comfortable. They are tolerant until they're not. And when they're not, I have a plan. And we'll have the largest party of our lives!

Twit her

So you may now follow me on TWITTER @ gojasminelow...
if you like :)


For your entertainment. Here's something from PINK.FM hahahaha! Way to go Air New Zealand!

Enviro rock chick

Rockin' for the Environment was a pretty cool event. I offered to help out by raising my hands and getting it dirty with the guys from Benchmarx. Even Rina Omar, previous host of 8TV Quickie got her hands dirty and came to the party! Good one guys! What the band set out to do has caught on... can't wait til next year!

Greenwashing. Like grey water, it's a little murky when companies start to use those catch words like 'green collar jobs' or when CNN changes the colour of its logo to green. Jumping on the band wagon? Well, your new enviro rock chick will tell you, at the end of the day, if it's an indie run project, it'll always come from the heart. Hard for corporates, which ARE ABOUT MAKING MONEY and at the same time, paying its dues from its CSR coffers to not appear to be greenwashing. Then again... think about it. If a cigarette giant is suddenly pumping millions to fund an environmental project, how much of a greenwash is that?

So there's even the Carbon Emissions Index. http://www.carbonfootprint.com/ Gosh! More to come.... i need to go away as am turning green

2009 - The Year for Friends

This year
I dedicate to my friends
The people who offer reflections of myself
My mirrors

Without friends
I would fail to evolve
fail to resolve
The best there is in me

Greets from Sydney - the city where I spent my formative 20s

Can a person live in two cities? Can a lover have enough for two? Are there two soul mates for every person? Or does it exist our Doppelgangers? Life in duality exist in mirrors. Reflections of us as individuals and us as a part of a couple can sometimes show stark differences. Some live it well. Some hide it well.

I? I just want it all. Maintaining my individuality. And I usually do this. 1 part Jaz + 3 parts Jasmine Low = A Balanced Girl.

But I'm re-adjusting my recipe for life this year. It'll have to be 2 parts of Jaz + 2 parts of JLow.