It's All in Your Mind

Growing up, I had my share of "lecture sessions" courtesy of my beloved Abah. I still get them once a while, but these days instead of just listening, I almost always successfully turn them to a discussion session. He he he...

Anyway, during those dark times, where tears were shed, and hearts were bleeding (cheeewaaahh), Abah's never old statement would be "it's all in your mind". This would apply to absolutely anything you can think of; study, peer pressure, sickness, wants and desires, etc. Absolutely everything under the sun.

Last night, while waiting for Adik to come back from buying dinner, the three of us, Mak, Abah and I sat in front of the TV whilst talking about a friend of my brother. Let us call him W.

W is BIG in size. He is one of my brother's closest friends, thus almost always while they were studying he'd be around the house. His boots, big and smelly (I kid you not) always grace our front door.

Anyway, coming back to last night's talk, I was asking Mak whether W is still as huge as he used to be. Mak said, "... and some more". I immediately started to talk about this medical procedure, reserved for absolutely huge people with uncontrollable appetite, which decreased the size of the intestines and sometimes stomach. I can't recall the name of the procedure at the moment. I do not know the statistic in Malaysia, but in the US this seems to be one of the effective solution for obesity and over-weight people.

Abah then said how the more we read the more we get to know about new procedures and medical advice. These will in turn be obsolete or discouraged after some time. He then relayed an email that he received through his group of friends where researchers from John Hopkins University sent out information on cancer. It is said that cancer comes from within the body and external substance acts as agent to make it worse. Thus, they concluded that the best way to combat the disease is through the mind.

I immediately laughed and exclaimed to Abah how his never-old statement now has the backing of John Hopkins. Being Abah, he'll rub it in till u can only have smile frozen into place. He he he...

Growing up, having "sessions" with Abah was excruciatingly exhausting and painful emotionally. He was very strict, some of my friends even thought him to be an army general or police commissioner! Mak would always had to remind her kids how Abah actually love us very much and only wanted the best for us. She always wanted us to understand that Abah did not really know how to deal with us in a different way because he lost his father while grandma was still pregnant with him. We were taught to be understand ingand empathic at very young ages.

These days Abah and Mak are more laid back. Occasionally we still get it, which of course for the better, since if no one reminds us, we would forget, right? Just imagine, how can we not love our parents? Good or bad. Black or white. They are ours.

Having said that, we've always been told that our mind is our prison. We limit ourselves because we THINK we cannot do. Instead we should always set our mind that we CAN DO. It IS all in our minds.

NOTE: Reference to cancer was not meant to be a laughing matter. The author realises the severity of the disease. She, herself, has lost an aunt to the disease.