Awareness campaign

An awareness campaign was organised by the Department of Student Affairs (DSA) Counselling and Guidance Unit at Sungai Long Campus from 22 to 23 January 2018.

The theme of the campaign was “In-motion: Walk with Emotion”. It was held with the objectives of promoting the importance of emotional health among students as well as helping them to manage their emotions properly.

The campaign saw a series of talks which was presented by invited speakers Lily Wong, Liang Yaw Wen, Ma Long and Lee Shae Nee. The topics covered during the talk were “Anger Management for Students”, “Hypnosis: Managing Emotion at the Subconscious Level”, “Good Thought, Good Feeling” and “Emotional Blackmail”.

Wong (centre) guiding the participants to play a mini game

During the talk, Wong shared some tips to the audience on how to control their emotions. She urged the participants to recognise the reasons behind anger and figure out some healthy ways to manage it. She advised the audience not to suppress the feelings of anger but rather to de-escalate the emotions by diverting the negative energy through certain activities.

Liang explaining the definition of hypnosis

In Liang's talk, he spoke on topics such as the concepts and myths of hypnosis, alpha and beta state of mind, and managing emotions through hypnosis. “Through hypnosis, we are able to calm ourselves down to realise and understand the current situation and solve issues in a rational way,” he said. He also provided some experiential learning for the participants to experience hypnosis and learn how to perform it individually. 

Ma pointing out that different people see things in different way

On the other hand, Ma said, “Our thoughts will determine our feeling, and our feeling will influence our judgments and decisions, which in turn, influence our destiny.” He mentioned that negative thoughts could lead people to experience the negative emotions of sadness and depression. This leads to further negative thinking and suicidal mindset. Therefore, he encouraged the audience to maintain a good thinking and good emotion in their daily life. 

Lee pointing out the signs of emotional blackmail

With her talk titled “Emotional Blackmail”, Lee gave a comprehensive definition to make the audience understand on this novel type of emotional abuse. She taught the audience to understand the different type of emotional blackmails and guided them to recognise the signs of emotional blackmail as well as to understand what to do in the event of a given circumstance.  

“In order for emotional blackmail to work, there has to be a willing victim. Knowing what emotional blackmail looks like and understanding how to deal with them, will prevent you or someone you know to fall victim to an abusive or manipulative person,” said Lee.

Meanwhile, several activities such as interactive games, psychological test and awareness exhibition booths were offered to assist participants in managing and expressing their emotions in a healthy way. Bearing the theme of five basic emotions, namely 'Happy', 'Fear', 'Sad', 'Disgust' and 'Angry', the booths aimed to provide an opportunity for the participants to reflect upon their emotions, verbalise their concerns and express their innermost feelings. During the event, the participants were also given a chance to make "emotion ball" as a memorable gift for them to remember what they have benefitted from the campaign. One of the highlighted activities was tarot card reading which enabled the participants to express and clarify their feelings on a particular issue, as well as to find answers to their most important questions, besides providing an in-depth guidance.  

Participants having fun in making handmade emotion ball

Tarot readings

Participants having emotional experience through different activities