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Category: Interesting

10 Popular Foods You Will Find at a Filipino Funeral

Food is the universal remedy for all our worries and troubles. No matter how you feel, whether you’re feeling down and out or just having a bad day, food can make everything seem better.

It depends on where you live, your culture, and your family traditions, there is always food on the table ready to give you comfort. In many cultures, the food served at a funeral reception is often a heavy meal to help people feel better and to give them sustenance. In the United States, common dishes are ham, roast beef, or turkey with all the fixings. In India, they serve rice and lentils. The English serve sandwiches and tea.

Here are the top 10 food you will find at a Filipino funeral:

When you are going to a funeral wake in the Philippines, it is important to remember the purpose of why you are there. Filipino hospitality can go a long way to entertain their guests even at the funeral. However, when you are grieving, it is easy to overlook things. There might have no extravagant meal, but sure there is some comforting food on the table. To show your support to the bereaved family, you are welcome to bring food or some refreshments.

June 25, 2022
How To Keep Track Of Your Digital Legacy
What will happen to your digital assets after you die? Your digital assets include online investing accounts, social media profiles and blogs, and cloud storage among other things. Will it be lost forever?

People only think of the assets that they can touch and see, such as bank accounts, real estate, jewelry, artwork, antiques, and other items of value. With the advanced technology, it allows you to conveniently do so much such as work, invest online, and store important documents and images. However, have you thought about what will happen after your death?

What are digital assets?

Most people think of online investment accounts, bank accounts, cryptocurrency accounts, and other online financial websites and information that have a monetary value. Generally speaking, the resources we’re talking about are the user names and passwords that would allow someone to access those accounts.

But some things people may not think about are storing online files, digital photo albums, music playlists, blogs, email accounts, or social media websites. These kinds of digital resources may contain original creative works or irreplaceable resources with significant sentimental value.

How to safeguard digital assets and transfer them when the time is right.

No matter your age, experience, or financial situation, protecting your online privacy and keeping your electronic information out of the hands of the wrong people is the key. But the more information your family, heirs, trustee or personal representative has about estate planning, the easier way it is to settle your estate if you die or become disabled.

Be wary when sharing your personal information.

Pay attention to the individuals with whom you share your login information. Sadly, identity theft by family members is not uncommon. You also run the risk of a family member misplacing your credentials, which could put them in the wrong hands.

Appoint a ‘digital trustee’

Add a digital trustee to your will or trust and give them specific instructions on how you want your digital assets to be managed when you die. Your “digital trustee” may be the professional fiduciary you appoint as the successor to your trust, the personal representative of your estate, or another person of your choice.

Have an annual credentials inventory

Take an inventory of all your digital assets and provide a copy to your professional trustee/lawyer/trustee. Update information as it develops and is review on an annual basis. Your inventory needs to include account numbers and IDs, but not passwords. It includes your online memberships, payments, investment/bank account, social media credentials, blog site login, photo and sharing sites, etc.

Store your passwords

Document passwords and answers to your account security questions and lock them in a safe immediately (do not leave them where an unauthorized person could see them). They may be used by your trustees to access your accounts if this is not possible. As such, you do not need to share your passwords with a trustee or family member. They will also be more secure here than in a password-storing software application, which could be prone to fraud, bugs, and hacking.

Keep your passwords strong for websites and devices

Many of us connect to several sites on a daily basis and use the automatic browser backup feature for login credentials. Although we do not recommend this practice, it is better than writing passwords on a piece of paper that somebody might find. If you use this method, make sure you have strong passwords not only for the websites you visit but also for your devices, including laptops and cellphones.

What if I believe a recently deceased loved one had undisclosed assets?
- If you are charged with acting as a fiduciary on behalf of a person who has not provided a complete inventory of their digital assets, here are some steps to take:
- Monitor the mail for records of unknown financial institutions and accounts. They can come monthly or quarterly depending on the account type and can provide you with guidance on where to look for missing assets.
- If you have access to the decedent’s computer, you may search for favorite sites or browsing history that can tell you if they used social media sites, blog sites, or even some financial websites.
- If you are a trustee, you should also have the legal right to request a journal from the deceased’s Internet service provider to check if there are some digital traces that will lead to assets.
Keep in mind, however, that the process of locating an asset, verifying that the original owner is deceased, and granting legally designated heir access can be very complicated and frustrating. It’s best to plan ahead and share information securely with your family or trustee so they can act on your behalf when they need to.
June 5, 2022
Thinking To Donate Your Body To Science?
There is no question that donating your body to science is a very compassionate act that has the potential to advance medical research and impact the quality of medical care and breakthroughs for future generations. Just because you want to give away your body does not mean this will happen.

The basic body donation process
- Contact the school or institution that accepts body donation.
This might not be popular in the Philippines as some medical schools get cadavers from unclaimed bodies from prison and mental institutions. But you can reach out to medical schools if they have such programs.
- Register in advance.
Keep in mind to ask questions like what will happen to your body, who will take care of the fees that might occur, and would your family be allowed to have a funeral service or will they give the cremains to your family if the body is going to be cremated.
- Upon death, your family will contact the school or institution you registered with.
Your family reaches the school. If your body meets the necessary criteria, they will take care of all costs of body pick-up.
- The organization typically uses the body for a maximum of 2 years.
In most cases, they will cremate the body at their own expense and return it to the next of kin when this happens.

The difference between organ donation and body donation

Body donation is not like organ donation. Organ donation is the designation you place on your driver’s license: I want to donate my kidney when I die. I want to donate my cornea or my lungs.” Organ donation doesn’t affect funerals at all. You can still be cremated, have another traditional burial, and still do everything you want to do. Donating your body means giving your whole body to science.

In addition, before you donate your body, you should know what happens to the leftovers once the facility has used them. In certain cases, the remains are cremated and handed over to the family. There are other cases where nothing is returned. If you and your family are concerned about this, you should do so well before you make your decision.

Cons in donating your remains to science

The biggest downside to donating your body is that your family may not have a service with the body present. You may have a funeral service without a viewing. In certain cases, the funeral home will allow the immediate family to have a closed viewing, a bit like to identify the body. Your family might have to pay for a service, a death certificate, and a memorial if they wish.

What’s not true is that people think they’re getting paid for the donation. This is not the case. However, medical schools generally help to cover some or all of the transport costs to the campus. The things they don’t pay for are obituaries, death certificates, memorial services, and other aspects of funeral planning. It’s up to your family.

Donating one’s body is a very noble act and one of the ways we can help advance medical research and help train future physicians. There are factors to take into account when deciding whether or not to give your body, including your last wishes, financial considerations, and purpose. Before you think about giving your body, you should discuss your wishes with your family and perhaps also your lawyer.
May 30, 2022
How Can Yoga Help You With Your Emotional Healing?

In dealing with emotional pain, a purely mental or intellectual approach is generally not enough. While our minds may try to find their way out of pain, they may quickly become confused or trapped in repetitive thought patterns that actually intensify our emotional restlessness. But when we invite our body and mind to participate in the healing process, the transformation can happen.

The ancient tradition of yoga wisdom provides practices that unite the mind, body, and spirit, allowing us to experience profound emotional well-being and restorative consciousness. And, as your physical, intellectual, and spiritual self works together, your life becomes more balanced and you become more flexible, both physically and emotionally.

How yoga unleashes emotional blockages.

Each experience in the mind comes with changes in the chemistry of the body.

When you say “I am anxious” (or angry, depressed, disappointed, etc.), you recognize that your body generates disturbing sensations. Feelings are named like this because you feel them in your body. These feelings are caused by changes in hormone levels and patterns of nerve swelling in your nervous system. These physiological changes can persist well after the emotional overwhelming experience that triggered them. As time goes by, your body-mind system reflects your emotional story.

With yoga, you can free the emotional toxins stored in the body.

Just as the alteration of thought patterns can influence the body, the alteration of body position can influence the mind and facilitate emotional liberation. By stretching your muscles and broadening your range of movement, you alter the body patterns that trap emotional pain. Yoga poses, breathing practices, and meditation release constriction and release the flow of life energy called Prana.

While you can experience the healing effects of yoga after only one session, regular practice is required if you want to experience the full benefits of yoga. Practice yoga poses regularly, and your mind and emotions will shift.

If yoga does not work for you, joining an art club or expressing yourself through art might help you heal from grief. You can read more about how art helps us with grief here. It might also be helpful to reach out to local support groups or when it is necessary to consult professionals when the pain caused by grief is too much already. Remember, you don’t have to go through all the processes alone. Yoga and other activities might help, but reaching out to friends and family for support is also equally very helpful for your recovery.

March 15, 2022
Seven Tips To Deal With Valentine’s Day Mourning

Just as you do through the sorrow of the winter holiday season, Valentine’s Day throws everything around again. Whether it’s the first Valentine’s Day after the death of a spouse or decades, it’s perfectly natural for you to miss them in your life.

Even if you don’t know, you’ll make it through Valentine’s Day. It may not look good, and it doesn’t matter. Grieving is messy, so let yourself be carried by patience and grace. Rather, let yourself feel how you feel about February 14.

Seven tips to deal with Valentine’s Day mourning:

Pay homage to your loved one.

Love is not lost, and we never forget. And neither would we. If you decide to visit their graves, write them a love letter in your diary, or paint if it’s your thing, remembering your loved one with an intention on this day is a way of continuing the bond you share.

Enjoy an at-home retreat.

Hide underneath the blankets with a cup of chamomile tea and a good book. Immerse yourself in one day of yoga, meditation, and diary. Take a day off, take your mourning journal, order a nice meal, and pour your heart out. There’s nothing wrong with it, and it’s all about, you getting the care you deserve.

Reach out to your local widow, widower, or partner group.

Search online or call your local support groups to see if one exists in your area or can be accessed online. Before the pandemic, many of those groups hosted Valentine’s Day dinner in a local restaurant. Some of them hold online gatherings in February. 14.

Get in touch with your friends and family.

Having alone time is good, but if you withdraw from those who support you, Valentine’s Day is probably the time to reach out. Plan a video call to share photos and memorabilia of your special person with others who share your grief. If you don’t want to connect with other people, that’s totally alright, make sure it’s a choice rather than a habit.

Order a delightful meal.

Many of us already eat at home, but if you eat outside regularly, know that during the month of February, restaurants are full of mourning triggers, mainly in the shape of hearts and flowers. On Valentine’s Day, you will see couples celebrate, which can be a distressing reminder. If you think this will just cause you pain, do yourself a favor and either order your favorite meal delivered, or, if you enjoy cooking, prepare it yourself.

Plan “as usual”.

It’s all right not to celebrate Valentine’s Day. Of course, it’s highly unlikely that you could argue that it doesn’t exist. Even if you treat it like another day, don’t be surprised if you still have a mourning reaction. Know in advance what you can do to take care of your feelings when they occur. What adaptation skills do you find most useful? Hold on to these practices and use them as often as you need!

Be good and compassionate.

You are likely to be bombarded with images and sound bites from Valentine’s Day in February. 14. Make up for the suffering you experience by doing self-compensation as self-care. Give yourselves words of compassion and mercy: “It’s rough, but I’m doing my best,” “To be free of my suffering and surrounded with love,” or “I feel that sadness because I love so much. I wouldn’t trade it for anything. ” “My mindfulness meditation for grief and sorrow is a useful tool for healing difficult emotions.”

Regardless of how you end up spending Valentine’s Day, please be gentle with yourself. Your grieving heart deserves it.

February 11, 2022
Five Facts You Need To Know About Embalming

Embalming is the process used to inhibit decomposition temporarily. It is the process in which body fluid and gases are removed. Formaldehyde is a commonly used chemical to preserve the body and can be harmful to the environment. But there is a less harmful alternative that has been used in other countries and some funeral homes in the Philippines; however, it is not yet cost-efficient for the ordinary Filipino.

Is embalming necessary? Not necessarily! But with the culture in the Philippines, embalming allows you to hold a wake while waiting for some family members or relatives to arrive and pay their last respect to the deceased.

Here are the five facts you need to know about embalming:

Embalmers are licensed professionals: Like other professions, you need to have a license to be an embalmer. Philippine Center For Advanced Studies (PCAS), Department of Health (DOH) accredited school offers an embalming review to help and guide aspirants to get the license. Also, they offer continuing education seminars to already licensed embalmers. By attending such seminars, the embalmer can then earn some credits that they can use to renew their license every three years.

Organs are not removed when embalmed: Removing the internal organs may be true in ancient embalming, but it is no longer practiced in modern embalming, which is less invasive. Only the body fluids and gases are removed during the embalming process. Afterwhich, a chemical is injected into the dead body to stall the decomposition.

The dead body is massaged before embalming: Rigor mortis is the postmortem change of the body muscles due. It is a chemical process wherein the muscles and limbs become stiff. Embalmers will have to massage the dead body to extract body fluids and gases easily and help the flow of the embalming solution into the body.

Embalming does not stop decomposition: Embalming is necessary to allow public viewing and when the dead body needs to be transported to inhibit decomposition while in transit. The alternative is refrigeration; however, it is more expensive than embalming.

Makeup is used to make the deceased look natural: Cosmetology and facial reconstruction are things that embalmers need to learn. It is to help the dead look as natural as possible. Regular makeup products are fine to use, but special mortuary cosmetics are recommended to restore the natural appearance of the deceased.

The embalmers of our funeral home partners are all licensed and professionally trained by one of the highly-acclaimed mortuary schools in the Philippines. Moreover, the funeral service package offered on Funerallink includes pick up of the dead body, embalming, hearse, casket, and more. You can check out the funeral service package here.

November 17, 2021
Everything You Should Know About the Delta Variant

The pandemic is seemingly worsening as another virus mutation comes to light. A new strain of the coronavirus is causing panic and chaos to the peace and health strategies of the local government units and the constituents as well. The delta variant, originally traced from India, is a more severe and more contagious variant than the previous ones.

So, what have the experts discovered from this new strain? Let’s read below.

The Delta Variant Carries a More Aggressive Set of Symptoms

While it is discovered that the delta variant does have the same symptoms as the original strain, the effects are not the same. In fact, it can infect people at a more rapid rate, even making younger people sick (when compared to the original strain where people with co-morbidities and the elderly are most vulnerable). The Delta Variant grows rapidly and attacks the respiratory tract to a greater level than the original strain.

The Delta Variant Affects More and More Unvaccinated People

As the new strain infects more and more people, the number of unvaccinated people getting admitted into hospitals continue to rise as well. When compared to fully-vaccinated individuals, unvaccinated people are likely to be infected because they don’t have a primary source of protection.

Breakthrough Cases Do Happen, But It Isn’t as Severe as For Those Who are Unvaccinated

Vaccinated individuals who get infected with the Delta variant usually are asymptomatic or displays mild symptoms alone. The symptoms they display can be cured with proper medication, enough rest and isolation from other members of the family. These people do not need to be hospitalized.

Health Experts Urge People to be Vaccinated as New Strains May Emerge

Medical professionals and health experts urge the masses to be vaccinated as there are new strains likely to emerge may develop if the majority of population isn’t. As of this writing, the Delta variant is said to be the most prominent strain. However, a Lambda variant is now being assessed that is said to emerge from South America.

How Can We Protect Ourselves from the Delta Strain?

Practice Social Distancing

As much as possible, everyone is encouraged to stay indoors and if you really need to go outside, always minimize interactions with people. Keep yourself at least 6 feet away from individuals to minimize the risk of virus transmission.

Wash Your Hands

Practicing good hygiene is one way of minimizing viral transmissions. Be wary of touching your eyes, nose and mouth with unwashed hands. These are entryways for the virus to infect the body. If a handwashing station is not readily available, bringing a hand sanitizer or an alcohol is ideal.

Wear Your Mask

Health experts, especially with the recent outbreak of the Delta variant, urges everyone to wear their masks despite being fully-vaccinated. By wearing a mask, you will minimize the risk of being exposed to droplets that may enter through your airways.

August 16, 2021
What Makes Insurance Different From Savings

Financial freedom is different to different people. For some, this can only mean not being able to work their entire lives. For some, this means having to buy all of their heart’s desire. While for some, this means having to enjoy life to the fullest through the comfort’s provided by stable finances.

While financial freedom is approached differently by different-minded people, at a practical level, most people rely on two financial movers to achieve financial freedom, these are savings and life insurance.

But, any of these options are really the answer? What makes these two different? Let’s find out.

Both are Must-Have

Let’s face it. Insurance protects you in the long run. While savings, on the other hand provides you a financial blanket for immediate and long-term financial woes. Their functions differ as savings is more liquid while the other requires regulatory processes and documents that you must comply with. But, there is no doubt that you’ll need both to progress in your dreams of financial freedom.

Benefits of Saving

As mentioned earlier, saving money provides you with immediate and long-term financial blanket in cases of emergencies or impulse purchases. Your savings are all yours to control. Whatever you put into your account remains the same.

Your savings can protect you against unexpected losses (in cases of business operations). Your savings can help you purchase a new luxury item. Your savings can fund your next out-of-the-country trip and more. With your savings, you can pretty much do anything without having to worry about your next inflow.

Benefits of Insurance

There are insurances that are mandatory to your lifestyle, business or properties. For example, your newly-built house must be paired with a comprehensive insurance in the instance of unforeseen natural disasters. If your house requires massive repairs, your savings won’t cover for the expenses. Your insurance will.

For a newly-bought car, purchasing an automobile insurance will help you from the overwhelming expenses of repairs and maintenance should the need arise. Also, one insurance policy that you must purchase is a life insurance. You can protect yourself against the hefty amount of expenditures you’ll incur from life-threatening diseases, disabilities, and even untimely death.

Benefits of Combined Approach

Most financial experts would agree that saving and purchasing an insurance would provide you the best financial protection from unexpected expenditures and provide you the best quality of life you desire. Make sure to speak with an insurance agent to avail the best possible policy you’ll need to suit your lifestyle and choose the best saving instruments that will give you most convenient access in times of need.

Photos: Pexels.com

July 12, 2021
Savings Tips You Need to Try Now
Saving money is one of the most detrimental life skills that you must master especially now that we’re facing financial difficulties brought by the pandemic. If you’re new to the art of saving money, the first day can come by as a breeze. However, you’ll be tempted to take these savings out for a shopping spree, a day out with friends or splurging yourself with some good food.

When this happens, you’ll realize how saving money takes discipline and you must build the habit of saving, no matter how small the amount is. If you want to prepare for unexpected expenditures and cushion financial impacts that will inevitably happen down the road, here are some saving tips you need to try now.
1. Prioritize Savings
Make it a habit to set aside at least 10% of your paycheck as soon as you receive it. If possible, set the amount to a savings account you can’t easily access. Try opening a savings account that doesn’t include an ATM card so you can’t readily withdraw money from it. This will make you think twice about getting money since you need to line up to banks and talk about major inconvenience right there.
1. Write Down Expenses
You can use a writing pad for this or better yet, use your phone’s notepad. This should allow you to get a glimpse of how you’re spending and what items are you most likely to spend on. Whenever you reach out for your wallet or your card to pay, list everything down.
1. Pay with Cash Only
There are individuals who treat their debit cards like credit cards. Or worse, use their credit cards for a daily shopping spree. While it can be easier to pay using the flashy plastic cards, you’ll only find yourself spending than what’s necessary because cash is invisible to you. As much as possible, use only allotted cash for transactions and avoid withdrawing your savings.
1. Use Cash Envelopes
An extension of paying only with available cash is using the envelope method to limit expenditures. The excess cash you have (net of savings) will be divided into categories. In this manner, you can stay true to your budget without going over the limit.
1. No-Spend Days
This tip is probably the most difficult but you’ll discover that you are spending on items that aren’t really beneficial or necessary to your life. This allows you to be mindful of where you are throwing your money. To avoid overwhelming yourself, start with two days of no-spend days a week.

Photos: Pexels.com
June 20, 2021