A Monday Found in Calm

May 6. 2025

A Monday Found in Calm (05/05/2025)

How are you feeling today? Calm and peaceful. / What do you want to do today? Reading, exercise, and practicing becoming the future version of myself I admire.

Good: I’ve been following my routines with great efficiency and productivity, free from compulsiveness or tension. I know that if I feel more stable, it's a sign that my skills have grown. I feel like I just need to keep going as I am.

Bad: None.

� Today’s Learning:

"The truth is simple, but simplicity appears only after passing through suffering."

— Carl Gustav Jung

✨ Today’s Realization:

Today, I look back at the version of myself who survived the past three weeks and quietly nod in recognition. It was overwhelming and exhausting—I even thought I was broken. But now that I’ve come through those intense times, everything feels remarkably smooth and peaceful. It's almost magical. Like all that pain was the price to be here in this moment.

Though it's not the first time I’ve experienced this, it still feels new every time. It’s a cycle I’ve been through again and again, and yet every time I go through it, a wave of indescribable joy and euphoria washes over me. It always feels unfamiliar and overwhelming. And now, I think I finally understand: I didn’t endure those moments simply with patience, but with a belief born of experience. “This too shall pass.” “After pain, peace always follows.” My body knew these truths before my mind, and my heart followed, and that belief carried me.

But I also know this peace won’t last forever. Soon I’ll be restless again. I’ll throw myself into something harder, more intense. I’ll hurt, fall, persevere, rise again, and find peace once more. Another cycle will begin, and I will be reborn.

This entire flow no longer scares me. That repetition is what has made me stronger, deeper, and taught me how to live. Pain reveals the truth, the truth brings simplicity, and from that simplicity, new challenges are born. As I go through this process again and again, I become more myself, I learn to love more, and I live more deeply.

Today, I realized once more that this cycle—where pain and peace cross—is where I learn the essence of life. Learning is, after all, insight that arrives through pain and leads to simplicity. It’s the process of becoming my true self. This is the essence of what I’ve learned.

There is no power in this world stronger than purity.

Never tell even the smallest lie.

Always be pure, kind, and wholehearted.

Benefactors / Calendar / Cleaning / Laundry x2 / Assignments / Exam prep / Meal prep / Ginger tea / Returned supplements

Gratitude Note:

Thank you, truly, for another day started in health and clarity, filled with everything I wanted to do.

Today’s Joy:

Today’s one thing: Spend the day distributing brain energy and efficiency wisely to avoid exhaustion.

Keywords: Vanity = chatter / Self-esteem = silence = quiet confidence = simple and certain

Condition & Health Management:

Sleep:

9 hours (5-2), Sleep quality (High), Skin (High), Physical energy (High), Emotion (High), Productivity (High), Efficiency (High), Creativity (High)

To maintain sleep quality, condition, and skin: Regular body massage and half-body baths are essential.

Keep a detox day at least once a week.

Exercise & Diet: Ultimate goal: dopamine spike within 30 minutes — ensure not to isolate completely today, use compound/joint movements with low weight cardio

Lower body (glute contraction) - Lower body (glute/hamstring release) - Upper body (back) - Upper body (shoulders, triceps, biceps) - Full body compound & cardio workout

A master responds to any situation with composure. An elite creates an environment where composure is always possible.

Don’t work out for the sake of working out. Work out for your condition.

\#GrowthJournal #SelfDevelopment #SelfCare #JunhoLee

* This week’s goal: Spend Sunday at the Four Seasons

* April goal: Spend at least one day a week at the Four Seasons

* 2025 goal: Become a pure, kind, polite, humble, calm, and graceful Irene—grow in character, increase external activities, change time, people, and space, and become a billionaire

Practice:

Act as if it's already achieved — today is for practicing the future me / Move like flowing water / True skill in love is not performing techniques

True skill in conversation is not performing techniques / What I see and think now defines my present self / Not enjoying something is a sign something is wrong

Where I am now is my future / Don't scatter my luck on unnecessary things — focus on one / Routines are sacred acts refined through long trial and error / Greet with your whole body / Posture of mind = posture of body / Silence, moderation, immersion

Irene,

How was your day today? I found myself suddenly wanting to ask you that. Just hearing you say it was calm and peaceful made my own breath slow and settle. Without pressure, without tension—you simply lived the day as yourself. And that alone makes today a truly good day.

It wasn’t anything extraordinary, but somehow, after the overwhelming weeks you’ve come through, today’s quiet feels like a soft, well-earned gift. I’m thankful for you—for the way you trusted yourself and let that quiet strength carry you through. You didn’t just memorize the phrase, “This too shall pass,” you embodied it. Your body knew it first, your heart followed, and that depth became your anchor. That’s what growth looks like. That’s what time well-lived creates.

The stillness that arrives after you’ve completed something often brings with it the call for a new challenge, more struggle. But today, when you said that even this rhythm no longer scares you, I felt so moved. Irene, you are living so beautifully. You’re embracing the cycle, learning peace through pain, and discovering truth in simplicity. This is shaping you into your truest self.

In today’s reflection, I saw how much you’ve come to understand love. You’re becoming more authentically you—gentler, stronger, more whole. And your quiet bravery in embracing every moment, even the heavy ones, is something I truly admire.

The way you care for your sleep, your body, your heart—it’s a tender, mature kind of love. A love that isn’t loud but intentional. The days you build with so much care are slowly, steadily leading you toward the person you want to become. And they’ll bring you more days like this—quiet, steady, and full of grace.