Merry Christmas

Long ago, about 2000 years, when King Herod ruled Judea (now part of Israel), God sent the angel Gabriel to a young women who lived in the northern town of Nazareth. The girl's name was Mary and she was engaged to marry Joseph.

The angel Gabriel said to Mary: 'Peace be with you! God has blessed you and is pleased with you.' Mary was very surprised by this and wondered what the angel meant. The angel said to her 'Don't be afraid, God has been very kind to you. You will become pregnant by the Holy Spirit and give birth to a baby boy and you will call him Jesus. He will be God's own Son and his kingdom will never end.' Mary was very afraid but she trusted God. 'Let it happen as God chooses.' She replied to the angel. Gabriel also told Mary that her cousin, Elizabeth who everyone thought was too old to have children, would have a baby boy whom God had chosen to prepare the way for Jesus.

Mary said goodbye to her family and friends and went to visit her cousin Elizabeth and her husband Zechariah. Elizabeth was very happy to see Mary. She knew that Mary had been chosen by God to be the mother of his Son. An angel had already told Zechariah that Elizabeth's baby would prepare people to welcome Jesus. He was to be called John. Mary stayed with Elizabeth about three months and then returned home to Nazareth.

Joseph was worried when he found out that Mary was expecting a baby before their marriage had taken place. He wondered if he should put off the wedding altogether. Then an angel appeared to Joseph in a dream and said: 'Don't be afraid to have Mary as your wife.' The angel explained that Mary had been chosen by God to be the mother of his Son and told Joseph that the baby would be named Jesus which means 'Saviour' because he would save people. When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel had told him to do and took Mary as his wife.

At this time, the land where Mary and Joseph lived was part of the Roman Empire. The Roman Emperor Augustus wanted to have a list of all the people in the empire, to make sure they paid their taxes. He ordered everyone to return to the town where their families originally came from, and enter their names in a register (or census) there. Mary and Joseph travelled a long way (about 70 miles) from Nazareth to Bethlehem, because that is where Joseph's family came from. Most people walked but some lucky people had a donkey to help carry the goods needed for the journey. Joseph and Mary travelled very slowly because Mary's baby was due to be born soon.

When they reached Bethlehem they had problems finding somewhere to stay. So many people had come to register their names in the census, that every house was full and every bed was taken in all of the Inns. The only shelter that they could was a stable or cave with the animals. In this poor place Mary gave birth to Jesus, the Son of God. In those days it was the custom to wrap newborn babies tightly in a long cloth called 'swaddling clothes'. Jesus' bed was the manger that the animals ate their hay from.

In the hills and fields outside Bethlehem, shepherds looked after their sheep through the long night. As the new day began, suddenly an angel appeared before them and the glory of God shone around them. The shepherds were very, very scared, but the angel said, 'Don't be afraid. I have good news for you and everyone. Today in Bethlehem a Saviour has been born for you. You will find the baby lying in a manger.

Then many more angels appeared, lighting up the sky. The shepherds heard them praising God singing: 'Glory to God in highest, and peace to everyone on earth.' When the angels had gone the shepherds said to one another, 'Let's go to Bethlehem to see what has happened.' So the shepherds went to Bethlehem and found Mary and Joseph. The baby Jesus was lying in a manger as they had been told. When they saw him, they told everyone what the angel had said and everyone who heard the story were astonished. Then the shepherds returned to their sheep, praising God for sending his Son to be their Saviour.

When Jesus was born, a brand new bright star appeared in sky. Some Wise Men in faraway countries saw the star and guessed what it meant. They were very clever men that studied the stars and had read in very old writings that a new star would appear when a great king was born. They set out to find the new king and bring him gifts.

The Wise Men followed the star towards the country of Judea and when they got to the capital called Jerusalem they began to ask people: 'Where is the child who is born to be king of the Jews?' Herod, the king of Judea, heard this and it made him very angry to think that someone might be going to take his place as king. Herod sent for the Wise Men to come to him. He told them to go on following the star until they had found the baby king. He said: 'When you have found him, let me know where he is, so that I can go and worship him.'. But Herod did not tell them that he really had an evil plan in mind to kill the new king.

The Wise Men followed the star towards Bethlehem (where it said that the king would be born in the old writings). It seemed to stop and shine directly down upon the place where Jesus was.

The Wise Men entered the house where they now lived and found Jesus with Mary, they bowed down and worshipped him. The Wise Men spread the the gifts they had brought before Jesus. The gifts were gold, frankincense and myrrh. The Wise Men were warned in a dream, by God, not to go back to Herod. So they returned home to their countries in the East by a different way.

When the Wise Men had gone, an angel appeared to Joseph in a dream. 'Get up,' the angel said, 'take Jesus and Mary and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for Jesus to kill him.' So Joseph got up, took Jesus and Mary during the night they left for Egypt, where he stayed until Herod died.

When Herod realized that he had been tricked by the Wise Men, he was furious and he gave orders to kill all the boys aged two or younger in Bethlehem and the surrounding area. This was to try and kill the new King, as his plan to find the location of the new king from the Wise Men had failed.

After Herod had died, Joseph had another dream in which an angel appeared to him. The angel said, 'Get up, take Jesus and Mary and go back to Israel, for those who were trying kill Jesus are dead.

So Joseph got up, took Jesus and Mary and they went back to Israel. But when he heard that Herod's son was now king of Judea, he was afraid to go there. So instead they went to Galilee, and lived in their old town of Nazareth.

5 Steps to Begin a Positive Change in Your Stressful Life

Life became a complicated affair. There are too much clutter and commotion that brought about the anxiety, stress and dissatisfaction for many. A lot of us are being caught up by our own time schedule that having 24-hours in a day is not enough to fulfil all the things we need to accomplish, may it be at work, at home, for our personal and social self or our finances.

This information age and productive generation is the reason for this stressful lifestyle that most of us lived in. Now, you can do anything in an instant and be wherever you want to be in just a few click of the button. That’s thanks to the marvel of technological advancement. But isn’t technology was supposed to eliminate the work and stress for humans? Technological advancement have created a more stressful environment and busy lifestyle because of your own mindset and choices. Instead of seeing these technology as tools to make your life much easier, you’ve used it to accept more obligations beyond your own ability. And that’s what most of us are unaware of. We become too attracted to have self-fulfilment and prestige in accepting a busy and fully-loaded responsibility, but then we complain on how stressful and unhappy our life is. Like time for relaxation and inner peace is too far from reality.

The question now is how can you stop surviving the cycle of your stressful and busy lifestyle to achieve a more balanced and stress-free lifestyle? How can you achieve a life that’s lived to the fullest?

This post will give you a five quick steps for you to start changing the stressful life you have now to change in a more positive way of life that can eventually lead you to find your inner piece, happiness and success in life.

1. TODAY IS YOURS, LIVE IT FULLY

One of the most tragic things I know about human nature is that all of us tend to put off living. We are all dreaming of some magical rose garden over the horizon – instead of enjoying the roses that are blooming outside our windows today. – Dale Carnegie

It’s time you stop running too fast to get ahead. Life is not about the past or the future, it’s about today. In a busy and cluttered world, we tend to be too much preoccupied with the material things and demands that we forget that life is temporary and short. The only guaranteed day that you are alive is today, so live it.

2. UNDERSTAND WHAT COMPRISES A BALANCED LIFE

Everyone is a house with four rooms: Physical, mental, emotional and spiritual. Unless we go into every room every day, even if only to keep it aired, we are not a complete person.

For most, life became a routine of a long list of similar tedious tasks to be done over and over again like it will never end. Life became only about work or one aspect of life. We do not know how ever that stress and unhappiness is mostly blamed to lack of balance in life. When we tend to focus only on one aspects of our life, such as work, we tend to neglect all the other aspect and when it happens, damages occur. To change this and prevent future damages, make a renewal and try your best to meet with the four areas of your life.

3. ACCEPT CHANGE AS PART OF LIFE

The only constant in life is change. Do not be scared for change to happen. Anticipate and accept change.

One of the biggest trap that unhappy people are faced in is change. Because we are too busy and too preoccupied we neglect to see what’s happening around us and what are the things that change or about to change. And when change happens, we are hit big time and become paralyzed. Once you start doing the first two steps above, I’m sure it will be easier for you to observe change before it begins/happens. When you learned to live today and understand how balance life works, it is much easier for you to smell a change to happen and faster for you to accept it.

4. LEARN TO FORGIVE, FORGET AND MOVE FORWARD

We keep moving forward, opening new doors, and doing new things, because we’re curious and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths. – Walt Disney

Failures, pains and disappointment happens either caused by our own decisions and actions or by someone else. When ‘caused by our own decisions and actions, be kind to yourself, take it as a learning process for you to do better in the future. And when it caused by someone else, do not push it hard and blame the other person, you cannot control other’s decision/action, you can only accept them and move forward in your life.

5. KEEP EXPANDING YOUR COMFORT ZONE

Never be afraid to try something new. Remember, amateurs built the ark. Professionals built the Titanic.

The problem with our busy lifestyle and doing the same things over and over again is we get to comfortable with things and let ourselves become ordinary. We settle for less and accept that what we currently are is the best we can become. Most of us stop learning after graduating college. However, if we want to achieve success and happiness in what we do in our day to day life, our learning should start after graduation and ends only when we die. Start learning things other than what you do. Learn ways on how to improve yourself in other areas of your life, who knows you will be able to discover a hidden talent that you can be the best of. Don’t be surprised to discover that you can more than the profession/career/course you’ve took in college.

Life is neither hard or complicated, it’s imperfect, but you too can make a big positive change in your life despite life’s imperfection. Remember, like attracts like.

Happy journey to your Life!

5 Tips for Working Nightshift and Leading a Normal Life

If you work in a business process outsourcing (BPO) industry, chances are that you have to adapt to the business hours of another country. This may leave you working night shifts in a call center more often than not. Working nights can be difficult for BPO employees, but there are ways to make it an enjoyable experience. Here are five tips for working nightshift in the BPO industry and leading a normal life:

1. Don’t forget to eat and drink.

When you are working in the outsourcing industry, it’s easy to forget to pay attention to the essential fuels that your body needs. Carry healthy snacks to work with you during your night shifts at the call center.

2. If you rotate shifts, rotate forward.

In the event that your call center allows you to rotate shifts, always rotate forward. Move from nights to day shift and finally afternoons if at all possible. This will help to keep your body and mind more in synch through the shift change.

3. Plan time to spend with friends and family.

Relationships with others are also an important part of your physical and mental health. You might be missing out on nightlife because of your work schedule, but that does not mean you cannot build and maintain personal relationships. During your time off, you can certainly find time to meet a friend for breakfast or lunch or even take a vacation. If you make a set plan with friends and family, it is easier to make sure that you get enough quality time with them. Planning ahead will also ease your feelings of isolation and give you fun things to look forward to enjoying.

4. Set a sleep schedule and stick to it.

When you are away from your outsourcing job, you need to follow a set schedule just like you would if you were working the day shift. Choose a time of day that you want to sleep and stick to it. If you go right to sleep when you get off, there will still be time to take care of errands during business hours when you wake up. Likewise, if you stay awake when you get off, you can run errands and take care of business before you go to sleep in the afternoon. The important thing is to be consistent. Consistency will help you get a full eight hours of sleep before you return to the call center.

5. Be conscious about fitness.

Working night shift tends can take a toll on BPO employees’ physical and mental wellbeing – unless you take measures to incorporate healthy living into your lifestyle. Just because you are working nights in a call center does not mean that your physical and mental wellbeing should be neglected. There are many 24-hour fitness centers that will allow you to exercise and stay in shape.