We live in a world saturated with selection. Not only has the human race been inundated with so many specs, versions and variations; now, it also has assimilated the anxiety of making the wrong choices and thus postponing the decision-making process until a “better” deal comes along.

Which, by the by, renders the poor homo sapien sapiens unhappy, dissatisfied and disgruntled with his lot in life. The truth is that people who have worked hard for their keep and comfort–oppression and unfair class standards notwithstanding–live in a far better time than neanderthals and people in the dark ages. See this article.

I point you to two pieces worth reading: this article and Sonnet 29.

Life is short. Curb your enthusiasm for fire-and-brimstone doom.

Wo finden Sie Die Massage perfekte fur Frauen?

In Hong Kong, one can find a really good deal at the “SpaAsia Crystal Awardee for Best Small Day Spa” found at Central and Discovery Bay. Visit A Sense of Touch to get the most relaxing deep tissue massage in town. Now because I’m easily excitable, a massage that’s too relaxing tends to send my chakra focus from the heart to the base, if you know what I mean. I like keeping my energies purple and pink, not orange and brown. But the sudden take-over, if you will, of a person’s orange chakra facilitates in self-healing. (Oh, Wolverine! Lend me thy adamantium hands!) Unfortunately, the Discovery Bay branch of A Sense of Touch is closer to my place than my other favourite in nearby Citygate Tung Chung.

The Spa MTM was rated Hong Kong’s “Best Spa” from 2005 to 2007. Last year, I was able to get a discount for a 10-visit package which includes the following:

a. one massage of one’s choice: Tui Na and Shiatsu are its best massage types, and all done by women; the Swedish one makes me tense, so I don’t choose it.

b. hydrotherapy - which consists of a (pardon the Nazi reference) half-hour Vichy shower, four different defatiguing shower & stream types, and a hot water foot-bath. A word of caution: the water in the footbath is scalding hot, the way the Japanese like it. The funny thing is that the water is so hot that as soon as you sit still enough, it feels COLD! 

The best spa service I’ve received to date is at the Shangri-La Mactan in Cebu. My husband didn’t quite enjoy the hilot massage there, mainly because it wasn’t relaxing enough–the same reason why I don’t like Swedish massage, in general. But I really enjoyed having the whole place to myself at 10 am to indulge in an “Enchanted Journey” at the CHI Spa.

A miscarriage, or spontaneous abortion, happens during the first trimester of a woman’s pregnancy. Sometimes,  a woman can be so busy or preoccupied with so many things that it would be hard to spot the changes in her body. The way I failed to spot it…

So after one “wild night,” the next day went bloody all over. I was changing pads like an incontinent baby, perhaps, around 16 that day. The blood just kept going from the moment I woke up, having stained my bed linen and dripped all over.

Worst of all, and my own sister would confirm this, is that the pain is the sharpest, most excruciating pain a woman could feel in her abdomen. However, if the woman has a high threshold for pain, the symptom may be presumed dysmenorrhea, or menstrual cramps.

That was what I thought, for I had just stopped going to pilates and yoga classes a week before.

By the time I realised what was happening to me–chills, shivers, sweat and a slight fever included–it was far too late in the night to visit a doctor. Getting the chills and a slight fever is the body’s reaction to any foreign object that may cause an inflammation or infection in the body; the worst kind of infection in the uterus is sepsis. Sepsis occurs when a spontaneous abortion is incomplete; that is, when there are traces of the expended fetus remaining in the uterus.

To ensure that the uterus is free of any sepsis-causing organism, a woman needs to undergo what people call a “D&C,” the acronym of dilation and curettage. The procedure is similar to what women undergo when they have elected to abort a fetus.

It took me a while to realise that the chunk that was expended into the toilet bowl was “it”. It was no bigger than a human fist, just like the heart.

It would have been my second child. Right now, though, I find it hard to talk about it–even with my husband.

Welcome to my water sanctuary. This blog shall feature spas and spa destinations, massage, facial and body treatments, different modes of exercise and other wellness-related practices. Watch out for future posts.

Now it’s time to settle down, close your eyes, relax, breathe. . .sigh.

Every person we meet in this world is accorded a number of hours, sometimes minutes, in which we can be happy with him or her. As the reminder goes, “What’s important is that we be happy during the time we’re together.”

But what if things go awry as the hours drag on? Or what if one cannot stand the other’s company for more than two hours?

The solution, then, is to time your company!

If you know you cannot, for the sake of good company and a cheerful time together, spend more than two hours together without getting into a row, then by all means, take your leave after two hours!

Take charge of your life, woman! Maximise happiness time!

You could not possibly have enough time for every single person you meet; therefore, the people whom you should spend the most time with are those with whom you hardly quarrel, precisely because you mesh well together.

A few months after giving birth to my daughter, I decided to get out of the house for a few hours on Saturday afternoon to attend a bellydancing class here. My back suffered from chronic pain, and I wasn't about to drown myself in painkillers the whole time.

After four sessions, I felt flexible again. Perhaps I should sign up for a new class again.

More on the art of belly dancing. Here's an article enumerating its health benefits per muscle group. Here's another article that discusses a study conducted at the University of Worcester about its health benefits.

I would like to post an article illustrating how belly dancing prevents sciatica, as soon as I find it online. 

My Aunt Lydia makes the best cakes and pastries in our neighborhood. Hers are the fruitcakes circulated around the Scout area a week before Christmas Eve. Hers are the pancakes on Sunday afternoon; oatmeal cookies in the summer; puto and kutsinta on Saturdays; and maja blanca on special occasions.

My Aunt Lydia must have inherited my grandmother's marvelous cooking skills, and because she makes such great sweets, especially the processed ones, her nieces and nephews used to tease her for having a big belly.

Uh-huh. On with the belly series. For now, yes. I'm on a roll.  

It turns out that Aunt Lydia had uterine fibroids, or myoma, in her abdomen, which rendered her unable to bear children, even when she still had a few good years to go before reaching menopause. Caution: If you must see a photo, here's one.

She had married at 41, having devoted her energy to caring for my grandparents and all six of us cousins, while my parents and another aunt were at work.

Because she had lost the ability to bear children, her husband decided to leave her. An annulment is in progress, but I am glad to hear that she's been travelling and meeting new people. Alternatively, if a woman's husband has abandoned her for a minimum of seven years, the marriage shall be considered void by court order. Let me look for a link to that. Here are some sample annulment proceedings in the Philippines.

At 60 but looking 20 years younger, she welcomes the idea of dating other people with partial excitement. More on dating over sixty here. But she needs to have worked out her annulment, otherwise there's the adultery law which stipulates that women can be jailed for a maximum of six years when charged by their husbands. But some groups are working towards the eradication of the adultery law.

Recent reports have traced the cause of myoma-growth to foreign estrogens, or xenoestrogens, introduced into our bodies by way of insecticides and shampoo. Here's another new development: Xenoestrogens are also found in chickens and other greens (possibly from the insecticides). Many girls not quite in their teens, are beginning to experience puberty at, say, age 8. An article here and another here.

There is also the possibility that these same children whose body parts are growing faster than their emotions and experiences can handle shall also be prone to the same myomas.

"Gimme spots on my apples, but leave me the birds and the bees – please!
 Don't it always seem to go that you don't know what you've got till it's gone."

– Joni Mitchell, "Big Yellow Taxi"

It's not uncommon for some women to gain weight after childbirth, especially in the abdominal area. What I find interesting, however, is how the rest of my body seems to have shrunk (3 1/2 years after childbirth) while my stomach has remained the same.

All this time, I have attributed my swollen belly to a laparoscopy performed on me in 2003. The operation was meant to remove my gallbladder and a gall stone that was trapped right at its entrance. Now I'm beginning to re-think the cause.

Perhaps it might be endometriosis, in which some uterine tissue may be growing in the wrong places. But my previous x-ray of a year ago shows no sign of tissue growth. What's more: women who have given birth are less likely to develop it.

Perhaps it might be a case of female hernia, in which fat and other intestinal parts may be pushing their way out of a punctured abdominal wall.

Perhaps, and this may be the likeliest one, it might be intestinal obstruction, in which food is partially or not at all digested by the intestines, especially if one is lactose intolerant.

Colon cleansing would be in order. What an awful thought.

Women who have undergone multiple births are prone to miscarriage. When a woman loses her child by spontaneous abortion, most doctors prescribe a routine procedure called dilation and curettage, or D&C.

The purpose of a D&C is to remove all remaining foetal tissue in the womb so that infections may not occur.

A D&C is also the same procedure used to perform a *real* abortion.

Some women take too long in getting this procedure done when they've lost their child during the first trimester. Others insist on keeping the foetus in a jar filled with formaldehyde when the body has expelled it.

Women have many options these days to avoid miscarrying, or the unwanted pregnancy in the first place. Here is the list.

If you're on the pill, please don't forget to follow the instructions to the letter.

One can save the life of a potential child in two ways: by having it, or by not conceiving in the first place.

Pardon the didacticism here, but this part is for my sister.

Some first-time mothers have chosen to give birth via Caesarean method, instead of vaginal delivery. Besides the comfort of not having to feel pain, there is also the added comfort of being able to return to one's sexual relations without the problems of a wider vagina–which, to some men, won't be a good development.

My birth plan, in a nutshell: vaginal delivery, with an epidural, while fully conscious. I trusted my Kegs; not beer kegs, by the way. The advantage of having the walls tear naturally is that they heal faster and regain elasticity. (My source: an Annerley Midwives' seminar during my antenatal class at the Matilda)

So how do you strengthen your pelvic muscles? Throug Kegel exercises. A definition here. A further explanation of the exercises is here. You can always attend a yoga, pilates or stretching class in your neighborhood as well. Where I live, this particular pilates class is the most effective, I am told.

And what if your beau still can't find your "hot spots," and not with his wireless broadband connection, okay? Read this excerpt from Desmond Morris' book.

I'll try to look for a source by a woman. Stay tuned.