#What Makes Me Happy (4)

To repay all of laziness in writing these months, let me write the fourth post for my personal project, today. This thing that I will write, might be the common answer for people if asked "What makes you happy?" It's simple, yet everyone knows it works. It's music.

Listening to music is a good way to spend the time, everyone knows that. It could be relaxing, it could be fun. Whatever your choice of music is, whether it's the classic opera or Taylor Swift's old country song or Beyonce's pop song or Muse or Oasis or Greenday, music could save you from boredom.

Music is the way people communicate and connect with each other, some even say that it is the way for human to synchronize. That is why, when you are feeling down, it's good to listen to music about 'feeling-down' as well. For us human, it is good to know that someone, some other people in this world feel the same way that you do and can understand what you feel. But don't let sappy music drag you down, listen to the upbeat ones and dance to it to help you up.

Sometimes when I feel tired, I listen to Cave In by Owl City (which is my favorite musician) until I feel better, than after that I will turn the more 'positive' and upbeat ones, like Beautiful Times. I like other songs from other musicians as well, but Owl City is still my all-time favorite. I can't even choose which song or album is my favorite, because I love all (ok not all, but almost all) of them. His music is so magical (I can't find a better way to put it into words) and the lirics are deep yet funny. Even if I got a bit pessimistic about his latest album before, The Mobile Orchestra, I still put Can't Live Without You on repeat and I still dance to Thunderstruck now haha.

So now, make your own playlist for both your sad and happy times. Remember, use music to lift you up, not to drag you down.

#What Makes Me Happy (3)

Oh God... finally I could write in this blog again. So, I'm not going to give excuse or anything about this-super-late post. I was busy, but most of all, I just don't feel like writing. But now I do. So this third installment will be about... drinks.

I don't know if it sounds weird, but sipping my favorite drinks always help to calm me down. The top three list of my favorite beverages are Delfi's hot chocolate, Pickweek's forestberry tea, and Max tea's lemon tea. I've always loved chocolate, especially Delfi's so there should be no question why I pick it as my first choice of beverage. I could talk about how beneficial chocolate is to our health, but I'm afraid it would be biased, so I'd rather not.

The Pickweek tea, I've known just recently. It's an English brand if I'm not mistaken, and I 'found' it during my visit in Denmark. We were in the Indonesian embassy and the ambassador served us tea of various choices. My friends chose to pick forest berry, and after that they told me that it was really good. So we searched through supermarkets in Denmark for the tea, and after I tried it, well, it was really good. I really like the smell, it's kind of sweet. It's a good way to relax in Sunday morning I think.

Talking about tea, I also like Indonesian tea, especially the traditional ones. I grew up with tea for breakfast, and though it's not a hard habit to break, it's always nice to be able to drink one in the morning. It feels like home somehow. And beside forestberry and traditional tea, the lemon tea is my favorite for both hot and cold beverage. It could be refreshing and relaxing all at once. I like Nestea as well as Max Tea, but Nestea is not really good to be served hot.

What about coffee? Well, sometimes I have some craving for caffeine, but grabing a can at minimarket is enough. I enjoy coffee, but I'm not addicted to it.

Well, whatever drink of your choice is, grab one when you're feeling down. Trust me, some hot beverages could help you relaxed and make you feel better. They might not help you with your problems, but relaxing can help to clear things out, and who knows what great ideas might come out of your relaxed head after that? So grab a cup now, see the world, and relax...