More life lessons and reminders

The music entitled "Remiomoren", the soundtrack of the Japanese series, "1 Litre of Tears" is still playing in my head as I am typing this post. I started watching them yesterday and I finally finished all 11 hour-long episodes today. It was so captivating, touching, and tear inducing (if I use it correctly). Most of all, it was based on the real story of a girl who was diagnosed with an incurable disease (I checked on wikipedia and there is still no known cure for this) called Spinocerebella Atrophy, a progressive disease in which one's brain degenerates and the brain isn't able to send the neuronal signals to the motor receptors. It has something to do with the spinal cord and the cerebellum. The symptoms get worse as the disease progresses. First, the person loses the ability to walk and has to use a wheelchair. Next the person loses the ability to speak. Soon, the person will have difficulty swallowing the food he/she eats. The cause is unknown and the worst thing about this disease is that the person's mental ability is completely fine but the person can no longer control his/her body movements.

There are so many life lessons and reminders that I learned while watching the movie:
1. At times, things happen out of will. Your freedom to do a lot of stuffs can be taken away but the freedom to choose your attitude will never be taken away.
Aya, the main character chose to continue to live her life optimistically although she was in great pain. She smiled and ignored the insensitive glances people gave her. She remained strong although she can't do what her friends can do. She pushed hard while in the rehabilitation center. It made me wonder what I would choose to do if I were in her situation.

2. We should appreciate our lives more and don't complain.
There is no reason for us to complain about our difficulties. Aya went through a tremendous deal of hardship. Whatever mini problems that we have are nothing compared to what she had to deal with. It really made me feel guilty for complaining, brooding, and worrying about small stuffs. There is a solution to every problem. There is no point regretting and crying over spilled milk. All we can do is to think of what we can do from that point onwards.

3. We should live life in the present.
As Erving Polster said, "the power is in the present". What he means is that when you dwell on the past mistakes or ruminate and worry too much about what is going to happen in the future, you lose focus on what you can do now. In the beginning Aya didn't accept her condition. She was distraught because she was attached to her ambitions for the future and compare how she was in her past to how she was in her present disabled state. That contributed a lot to her pain. But, when she finally learned to just live her life and accepted how she was at that moment, she became joyful and spread her happiness to the people around her. It's easier said than done but it's certainly worth the shot to be aware of our actions and live that way.

4. Smile always.
There can never be too many "smile always" reminder. So keep smiling and your pain will fade away. =)

1 litre of tears. I think I cried that amount throughout the show too. Hehe.

On a closely related note, Oprah did her thing again when she interviewed some famous people who practiced "The Secret". That reminded me to work on my vision board which I have always thought of doing but never actually got to it. Argh!