Yoga: 28th of May '14

Today I did the same routine as I usually did on the other weeks. I did meditation, sun greeting, moon greeting, chakravakasana, cobra pose, child pose and many other poses. I think that today was a bit boring because there was nothing different during the lesson. However, I feel that the lesson is getting harder every week. I was sweating a lot before. Maybe it was also because of the room that was hot, but I think that I feel like the lesson is getting harder because my expectation to improve also gets higher.

Looking from the beginning of this lesson, I realised that I have actually improved. I have become more flexible. At first I could not reach the tip of my toes but now I can, although only for a while.

HFH Project: 26th of May '14

Today I continued working on the proposal for Bu Harum. It is finally finished so I sent it to Bu Helmy first for her to double-check. I just hope that she will agree to the proposal so that my group and I can start fundraising next week.

HFH Project: 23rd of May '14

Today I worked on the proposal that Bu Helmy, my CAS coordinator, asks my group and I to make for Bu Harumdah, the school's principal. I worked on the introduction, objectives, schedule run-down, details of the event and conclusion. The proposal is saved in a google doc so all of my group members can look at it and edit it. However, the ones in charge of making the proposal are only Mandy, Chika and me. For today, only Chika and I though worked on it. We only get to finish some parts of the proposal. We still need Mandy to work on her part and then we can finish up our parts.

HFH Project: 21st of May '14

Some representatives from Habitat For Humanity came to my school today. They held a meeting to present about their mission and vision and I was called to the meeting as the representative of my group. 

During the meeting, the representatives of HFH talked about the Ripple Effect that they hope to achieve from their project of building houses for the poor. They said sure the poor need people to give them education, food and clothes, but all of these actually starts from if they have a house. If they don't have a comfortable house to live in, where are they going to study? How are they going to have a decent rest to be able to work to their fullest? The Ripple Effect talks about how with our act of helping them build a house we can help their whole life, starting from their physiological needs to their emotional needs.

After the meeting, one of the representatives then shared about their experiences in the organization. She said that a lot of youths are so eager in helping with this project. One of the schools in Jakarta even has a club dedicated for HFH and only selected students are able to enter the club. I was surprised that many teenagers these days are excited to do social works. Thus this motivates me further to carry on with this project. It also made me want to have my group members be excited about the project too.

Yoga: 21st of May '14

Today's was just like any other lesson before, just that today I was alone in class. All of my "classmates" could not join the lesson today, which has its own strength and weakness. I can go through the lesson pretty quickly because I am alone and do not have to wait for my "classmates" but I felt pretty lonely being the only one in class.

Today I did the usual routine: meditate, did the sun greeting, moon greeting, cat and many more poses. I realised that I have actually been doing many poses in the wrong way. When doing the tree pose, I should have raised my chin. When doing several other poses, I also should have closed my eyes but I did not.

I also realised that closing my eyes makes the pose hard to do. My yoga instructor said that it is because people tend to be worried about things when they close their eyes and so they tend to lose their focus easily when they close their eyes.

After several times going through this lesson, I learned that yoga actually helps me both physically and mentally. Yoga helps me to stretch the muscles I usually don't use. For example, I usually work and sit in front of a computer all day. I do not really move my shoulders, but thanks to yoga class I put to use my shoulder muscles and reduce the risk of getting my muscles stiff. Besides that, yoga also helps me forget about my worries at school for a while. During the meditation, my yoga instructor said to only focus on the air that I breathe in and out. This actually helps me to forget about my anxiety and burden for a while, which I think is healthy.

HFH Project: Service Proposal

Together with my friends, I am aiming to fundraise a sum of money to help build houses for the poor through the organization called Habitat for Humanity. My friends and I are planning on selling food and drinks during lunchtime at school every Thursday and Friday, and if we have to prepare in advance, we will do this on Wednesday and Thursday afterschool. After raising some money, we will donate them to Habitat for Humanity in October to support its program called 28uild in which we will have the opportunity to actually help build the houses that we have helped fund.

Through this activity, my friends and I can obtain an experience on how to run an “organization”, but above all, we are able to help others through our own efforts.

Learning Outcomes:

• I will increase my awareness of my strengths and areas for growth

This CAS activity is more of a project that includes various activities such as cooking, communicating effectively and selling. So, through this CAS activity, I will be able to increase my awareness on where my strengths and areas for growth are.

• Undertaken new challenges

I am the person in charge for this CAS project. I have 7 people in my team and I have never led a group this big before. So undertaking this responsibility must be a new challenge for me.

• Planned and initiated activities

This activity is a small student led activity. My friends and I started and planned it.

• Worked collaboratively with others

Since I am doing this activity together with my friends, this CAS activity will require me to collaborate with others.

• Shown perseverance and commitment in my activities

To work together will be very hard. We will have problems along the way but we will show perseverance and commitment in order to finish this CAS activity.

• Engaged with issues of global importance

Through this activity, my friends and I will help poor families, financially and physically, to build decent houses for them to live in. We try to engage with the global issue of poverty, even though our actions will only affect our community. However, we think that it will be more worth it to start small than to never start at all.

• Considered the ethical implications of my actions

By undertaking this activity, I will be forced to contemplate on whether or not my actions are morally correct. Not only to the poor families my friends and I will be helping, but also to my friends.

• Developed new skills

Through this activity, I will increase my expertise on a lot of areas, including communication, persuasion, organization, and planning.

Yoga: 14th of May '14

Yesterday was a tiresome yoga practice. My right arm was aching and so I could not do some of the poses that I usually do in class. Yesterday my classmates and I did a new activity to practice our focus. We were told to focus on 'breathing for a specific part of our body'. So we held our breath and focus on strengthening a part of our body (e.g. our hearts) and let our breath go after a while. I find this activity a bit weird though. I don't understand how focusing on a part of my body will help strengthen it and help improve my focus. But anyway, it was quite an interesting activity to do.

Yoga: 7th of May '14

For two hours, my "classmates" and I did the same thing we usually do in yoga class. We first meditate, then did several poses like cat and child pose, and finally finished by cooling down. Today's class time was really boring and unchallenging. One of my "classmates" kept on postponing the practices by either chatting or eating. The class could not move on to the next pose because we have to wait for her. This makes us have a lot of break times in between each pose, which is why today's class time may feel unchallenging for me. 

Next time, I should just keep her in focus to the lesson so that the class can be effective and time efficient. When she tries to procrastinate by chatting or eating, I should slip into the conversation something about the lesson so that she will unconsciously realise that we have to move on to the next pose.