I can really relate to this post from one of my favourite Hermes influencers. She is also a doctorate and working as a psychologist.

In her words…

“Long post warning, but I really want to share this today.

A few years ago and again recently got reminded, I learned it is not my concern when people feel intimidated or threatened.

Look here; I don’t live my life trying to make others uncomfortable or demeaned; that would be…just..mean.
Who has time for that?

Know this: I’m never trying to “one-up” ANYONE…EVER!  It’s just that I love to read, work very hard, and have been blessed with a brain that works well (for me). I never attempt to overshadow any other person in any situation.

When people are jealous, they may subconsciously feel like they’re inadequate or that you’re to blame for taking away their spotlight. Get out of here, I say!

Even so, we still have to be kind.

At the end of it all, your feeling threatened will not manipulate me!

At the same time, I don’t live my life to make people feel comfortable around me other than walking in love and kindness.

If I know an answer to a problem – and it’s my place to share it – I will share it.

#lifeisyourstage#letthembethreatened#wiseliving#liveunapologetically”

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A post shared by DR J.W (@bb10lue)

So yeah, to the jealous ones, you can continue to stay jealous. To the haters, you just have to keep on hating because that’s literally all you can do right? I may not love to read but love to learn, work very hard, and have been blessed with a brain that works well for me. Just because you don’t see how hard I work does not diminish the hard work I put in. The amount of time and effort to put in myself to grow and get stronger will show in the results that I achieved. In fact, most of it are not linear because I put way more effort than what I actually achieved. I will need constant reminders to have self compassion in myself.

I guess when you reach the stage/point of life when people are actually jealous of you are even hating you, it means you are already out of the level that you no longer need to stay with such people. You are already out of their league. So the next time someone said something rude and shows jealousy, I’m just going to take the advice from Sara Jane Ho in her Mind Your Manners book and asked “Are you okay?”

Lastly, if being envious or jealous or hatred is all you know, then I don’t think we are at the same level that we should be knowing each other. Bye.

I got the Twilly d’Hermès Eau Ginger Eau de parfum back in 2021 and I hardly use it. Well, I got it at launch and among all the Twilly perfume, I like it the most. It has a nice refreshing scent when I tried it in store. However, after buying it, spraying it on myself and going out with it, I realised I am not a fan of it… So I stopped using it for a really long time. Well, I still try to use it whenever possible – aka hardly use it.

I sprayed it again this morning and hmm, it actually smells nice to me. I know it has a rather strong scent so I am spraying lesser on my clothes as compared to other scents. I usually sprayed about 12 times for my entire outfit but for this perfume, I make sure I only spray 10 times. I’m liking the smell when I first spray it on my outfit while wearing it so let’s see how it feels like at the end of the day. It will be nice if I can finish it somehow haha.

Rui Yun was telling me that it has been trending on Xiaohongshu (Little Red Book – China version of Instagram on social media) that some luxury brands perfume and what luck they bring in. She told me Hermes perfume is supposed to bring wealth luck. Whoa, I sprayed Le Jardin de Monsieur Li Eau de toilette from Hermes on the same day she told me hahaha. I need more wealth luck sia. Haha. 🙂 Other than my Hermessence perfume (which I stopped using now and only use when I travel since it is quite portable), I love their Garden series perfume.

I’m trying to stop myself from buying more perfume because I have been acquiring quite a few bottles of perfume. Now I probably need to plan to store them somewhere… I am also trying to finish my existing perfume too. I finished the Jo Malone English Pear and Freesia 30ml some time ago but I think all other perfumes are still quite full. Okay, maybe my Le Labo Citron 28 perfume is like half gone. It is a 50ml bottle so that means around 25ml is used. I really like that perfume since the start. Pretty sure it is nothing to do with Seoul being one of my favourite cities in the world.

Anyway, I don’t spray perfume directly on my skin as I really do not want to cause eczema or any skin conditions. However, that means it is harder for the perfume to dissipate so I need to spray more on my clothes to get similar effect. The downside? I will end up using more of my perfume and gosh, perfumes are not cheap. Lol.

Anyway, I am not sure if the perfume has changed its smell or I have a change in preferences. One thing for sure is that I will be using the Twilly perfume more often in future…

Update: The perfume smell lasted the whole day. It’s similar performance as my Le Labo Citron 28 perfume…

Satyadev was sharing how money can help you go into any store and get the stuff you want without asking how much is it before paying for it. That’s quite true and a privilege to have. I am already doing that for food and also jewellery – both fine and costume ones.

It’s the little things that I need to start to learn to appreciate and have more compassion in myself. I’m actually doing really well in many aspects in life – probably getting better as the time goes by.

I finally figured out the best barely makeup makeup look too! It’s actually full makeup minus contouring and eye shadow. I guess I am getting better at my makeup skills and choosing the suitable makeup for myself. Hermes is indeed a brand that suits me in many ways. Hahaha. 🙂

I feel like recently I am blossoming more into a flower. Especially with my new Pleats Mama cherry blossom bag. Sakura is carrying her new sakura bag and dressed in sakura colours today. 😀 Well, I wore my cream pleats blouse from Uniqlo with my pink linen shorts from Muji today. Oh I picked my black merino wool cardigan from Sezane as well. So it definitely matches the bag colours that I got. You can see a photo of the bag in here. I matched it with my VCA Sweet Alhambra necklace in rose gold and it is a perfect addition to the entire outfit. 🙂 I’m definitely blossoming well and beautifully! I took a selfie of my outfit of the day and all of my friends (probably biased haha) praised my outfit choice. Whee!

Okay, except for Alex who commented that I look like an auntie who is going to wet market to buy vegetables (all in Chinese). Rude! -.-

I used to be a dehydrated flower but now that I am refocusing everything on myself, I’m definitely blossoming well. A flower needs water to grow well. The same for grass too. I should always focus on myself and direct the water to myself to grow well.

That reminded me of something that a friend told me. My real Chinese name can be translated to Japanese name “Reika”. I just checked and whoa, Google translate did translate it accurately.

YJ*: Sakura actually fits you well because hua means flower
Me: yessssssss
Me: not bad, you are smart
Me: your PhD has come in handy hahahahaha
YJ: also btw your Chinese name can pass as a Japanese name
Me: eh is it???
YJ: yes
YJ: rei ka

* Not going to put the name of my friend because he is listed as a public figure on Google and I don’t want my blog to appear when his students googled for his name…

It was an old conversation but as I am blogging about blossoming more into a flower, I decided to google about “rei ka”. Apparently it means “beautiful, lovely, flower, petal”.

Perfecto lah. All these glowing up is actually inline with my name. *acts out a pretty pose* I’m vain and I’m not even going to deny it. Hahaha. 😀 If I knew my Chinese name can be translated to such a beautiful Japanese name, I would have called myself Reika instead of Sakura. Lol…

No idea why no one ever told me about “Reika” name… Not even my friends, who knew both Chinese and Japanese. I am not exactly sure how to write it in Japanese characters though and my friend didn’t type it for me. Luckily I got a Japanese mentor and I have my 1-1 meeting with him tomorrow so I will definitely ask him about it. Otherwise, I have to ask my Japanese violin teacher this Sunday during my violin class. If I like how the characters looks like, then I might add it into my online name. Haha.

On a side note, will I recommend anyone to buy Pleats Mama bag? Probably no. I already see some design and quality issues on my first day of use. To be honest, I haven’t had a bag brand which I do not complain, except Hermes. LOL. I also have complaints about my Hermes bags but Hermes after sales is always able to address every single concern I have. So no complaints about it. No wonder I have the most number of bags from this brand so far. I don’t think I ever bought so many bags from a single brand/shop before in my life…

I recently watched this podcast on YouTube which explained pretty well about gaslighting. I highly recommend everyone to watch this podcast as it really explains really well about gaslighting.

DARVO – Deny, Attack, Reverse Victim and Offender. I realised it happened to me as I was in my healing phase. Sylvia’s example was really classic and I can relate to it really well. Like the gaslighter will deny what he did, then attack you back before proclaiming himself as the victim and put you as the offender. If only I did my self-work and understand all these way earlier, I would not have wasted so many years. Oh well. At least I realised it much later.

Real narcissist will not heal. You are not in public service and you are not a social worker, so just run. Anger is a self-protection mechanism from danger, indeed.

This is a call for you ladies to understand the basics of gaslighting and be able to identify when you are in such situations. Don’t just walk away, run away immediately!