Why I Wake Up In The Morning?

Have you ever heard about The Blue Zones? The Blue Zones refer to places where people tend to live longer, healthier and happier. David Buettner wrote a book about it. Why Theory, a popular youtube channel also started to go to places written by David Buettner in order to look for the reason why these people live longer in The Blue Zones area.

Okinawa and Nicoya are two of the blue zones. Okinawans believe in Ikigai, while Nicoyans believe in Plan de Vida. Both of these philosophy refer to the same point of view of life: Why I Wake Up In The Morning?

Meet Our Team at TumbuhSehat 

on different occasion while doing photoshoot for our client 

For me, the more I try to understand my self, to force my self to live life according to what makes me happy, to pursue a job that makes me happy, the more stubborn I am to stand in my believe, the more I ignore the standard of life that society try to picture, the more content I am. 

Nowadays, I find my Ikigai in doing several things:

- My work as a nerve and restorative specialist (endodontist) makes me happy because I could meet a lot of people from different background, could try to understand their personalities, their stories, and their habit that makes them who they are and how it could affect their overall and dental health.

- My work in TumbuhSehat, a marketing & branding consultant company for healthcare providers I founded with my husband, makes me happy and very very excited to work everyday, because here I could meet a lot of new people (that is much more experienced than I am in ther expertise), I could make these strangers turn into friends, I could fullfil my passion in the creative world when we do photoshoot or videomaking, I could fullfil my passion in writing and science while we do storytelling and education for each of the brand (our clients).

- Me as a wife, a daughter, a sister, and a friend who always try to be available for every journey and story my loved ones are going through. 

- Me as my own company who loves to walk, experience new places, new foods, loves to read and write, swim, doing yoga, enjoying art exhibition, watching art performance each and everyday.

I always wake up feeling excited, content, peaceful, full of hope and love, and ready for any surprises the world might bring. 

For now, this is my Ikigai.

What is your Ikigai? What is your Plan de Vida? Why do you wake up in the morning?

Life and Reality

Hello blogging world! The world I have abandoned for so long, yet I always miss the most. I still read my blog and another blog I love from time to time. Yet, it always, always feel so hard to start to write here, when you can write on Instagram caption. 

2022 is coming to an end. How has your 2022 so far? Mine is... so enjoyable and...

epic. 

Well, though life is not always rainbows and butterflies. Don't tell me about those storm. I know it like the back of my hand. For so many years, storms had came to my life like I was in the middle of the ocean, uncertain and hard to see where it was all going. But, as time goes by I realised that it was not always about the storms, either. Sometimes you can still see the light. Sometimes you can still feel happy. 

During those hard times I learnt that happiness does not have to wait. 

You don't have to wait until life is not hard anymore to be happy.

Life can always be enjoyable. Does not mean you have to be happy all the time. But, you can enjoy the hard time, as well. 

a little recap of my 2022 ♡

Sometimes I wonder, when people complaining about their life, saying they want to escape their life and want to fly somewhere far away. Or when someone just came back from their holiday and say "welcome back to reality"...

Does your life feel so unbearable you want to always escape from it? If it is so, what's the point of living? What's the point of living if you only crave one short moment that only happen once in a while like end year holiday? Doesn't life should always be enjoyable? If it is not, maybe it's time to reconsider what to change about it, or what solutions could make your life enjoyable, isn't it?

Maybe a change of routines? Maybe more self care in the middle of our chaotic schedule? Maybe a good yoga in the morning? Maybe a good quality cup of coffee to start our day? Maybe meeting more friends? Maybe turning more ideas into reality? Maybe learning those skill we always longing to learn? Maybe read those books that we want to read instead one that we should read? Maybe a date to those art gallery after work with our lover? Maybe a little Jazz on a Friday night? Maybe saying no to a job we don't enjoy? Maybe saying yes to a job we always wanted to do?

Most of our life consist of what people say, mundane routines. Instead of hopping on into our private jet flying to Aman resort all the time. 

So, doesn't it mean we have to work on our each and everyday, fight for it, to be worth living, instead of craving to always escape reality?

And so, to close this writing. I want to ask:

Does your days feel like reality you enjoy so much you don't want to escape from? I really hope, it is ♡

To Write or Not To Write?

Since the rise of social media and micro blogging, it's getting harder and harder for us, blogger, to have the  urge to open our computer and write the long words. People don't read blogs anymore, they open their TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Youtube and another social media platform which are easily found in their phone. But, what was the reason I started writing this blog? Is it merely to please the audience, is it to get brand endorsement, is it to get as many viewers as possible? 

No.

I started to write this blog because I wanted to put my scattered thoughts in order, to reflect again the way I think and any possible ideas I have in mind by re-reading my writings to find meanings in it, to have memories forever written as clearly as possible here in this blog so I will be able to cherish them forever, whenever I want to. 

So, no. I do not want to stop writing in this blog. Whether a lot of people read my writings or nobody even know this blog even existed, I will keep writing :) 

And now I want to write things I miss the most, what happens right before Covid-19 happened back then at early 2020. My last solo journey to Istanbul, just because I missed the city so much and lucky me, there was also an endodontic conference there and my paper got accepted. And just like that, I flew to Istanbul!

I stayed at a budget hotel, Taksim Alya Suites and I loveee the place so much. Click here for the hotel page at Trip Advisor. The room was only cost USD 27 or IDR 400.000. 

The room comes with a bright window, overlooking little alleys at Taksim

My face after 14 hours flight journey from Lombok, Indonesia to Istanbul

Me peeking in the mirror

The view from my window

Neighborhood around The Hotel

Although it was a budget hotel, the room is quite comfortable, it has heater (really important because I visited at early Spring and the temperature was around 9 to 13 degree Celsius) and the amenities is quite complete. There was no cafeteria in the hotel but it provides sharing kitchen with free coffee, milk, and egg! The staff was also really helpful. I needed a metro card back then, and the hotel's staff lend his metro card to me so I did not need to buy a new one! :D

And the most important thing, the hotel is located at the heart of Taksim. Five minutes walking to Metro and Istiklal Street! Beside the hotel itself, I miss walking around the neighbourhood as well. Located at the heart of Istanbul, you could just walking aimlessly and will always ended up somewhere interesting, there are a lot of little comfortable cafes and beautiful little shops. A lot of people walking just to buy coffee or fruits, Turkish delights, walking their dogs, or just enjoying Istanbul. Just look at how beautiful the little alleys are, how could you not miss something like that? <3