Paint Your Happiness, Be Your Own Picasso

“Happiness Week 2019 - Paint Your Happiness, Be Your Own Picasso” was organised by the Department of Student Affairs (DSA) Counselling and Guidance Unit Peer Helping Programme at Heritage Hall, Kampar Campus from 28 to 31 January 2019.

Happiness Week 2019

The four-day event aimed to raise awareness of students toward self-actualisation, develop better-coping skills and increase resilience among students, and encourage students to fully utilise the counselling and guidance services in UTAR.

The soft launch of the exhibition was held on the first day and DSA Counsellors Ng Kai Yean, Goh Lay Theng, Ong Sweet Ling and Organising Chairperson Wong Khai Wen were invited to officiate the ceremony.

Ng (from left), Goh, Ong and Wong during the soft launch of Happiness Week 2019 

Wong (left) and Ng delivering their welcome remarks

In his welcome remarks, Wong said, “I thank and welcome all the participants to Happiness Week 2019. We hope all the participants will enjoy what we have prepared, and learn something from the exhibition.”

As the coordinate officer, Ng thanked the organising committee members for their hard work and preparation for the exhibition. She said, “This is an annual event for our Counselling and Guidance Unit and this year we named the event ‘Happiness Week’ because we found that many students have lost their happiness. So we came together to create some ideas with the aim to help our students explore their happiness in their daily lives through the exhibition.”

There were 10 stations in the exhibition that included various interesting mini-games such as MindFUL vs MindFULL, Accept vs Resist, Expressive heArt, Think like “ABC”, Thank God Vision (Mini cinema), Count your Blessing, A letter to MYSELF, WHO-5well-being index, Big 5 Personality Test, and Hunt your Treasure.  

One of the works done by many hearts in the “Expressive heArt station”

Participant will receive the letter written by themselves one year later in the “A letter to MYSELF station”

Hunt your Treasure station

Mini cinema “Thank God Vision” screening meaningful movies during the exhibition

Talk on “Meet a Happier Self”

Yew Ling Lee, one of the recipients of the Ten Outstanding Young Malaysian 2016, was invited to present a talk titled “Meet a Happier Self” (遇见更快乐的自己) at UTAR Kampar Campus on 22 January 2019 in conjunction with the “Happiness Week 2019”.

Life fighter Yew Ling Lee              

Aimed to inspire the audience to love life and positively face life challenges, the inspiring talk successfully attracted a crowd of more than 150 visitors, including staff, students and members of the public.

Yew with the participants

Yew, from Kedah, was diagnosed with Muscular Dystrophy since she was born. She has served various positions, namely CEO of Shuangfu (Double Blessing) Disabled Independent Living Association (Dual Blessing Bhd), tutor of the Disabled Computer Vocational Training Institute, columnist, host, advertisement copywriter and many more. She has always been enthusiastic about life education and hence currently serves as the head of publicity for a non-profit organisation. She is also actively involved in planning and participating in life education, sharing and volunteer training camps.

 She has published a book titled “A 3 Feet Tall Journey” (《三尺高的旅行》), a combination of her travel and life experience through the eight most important things in her life. The book was typed using three fingers, and it recorded the persistence and perseverance that spans various physical and psychological barriers, hoping to influence life with (her) life and together find a better oneself.

She said, “My childhood was occupied with all kinds of treatment and folk remedies, and because I am different from others, I would often feel scared, insecure and would not be able to face or deal with those inner negative emotions most of the time. Later on, I left home and continued my secondary school in Penang. I stayed in the Eden Handicap Service Centre. During that time, I would cry every day. Simple things like holding a glass of water, taking bath, changing clothes and moving my body at night would require a great effort and I cannot do it myself. The helpless feeling made me hate myself.”

When referring to “accepting imperfect self”, she mentioned, “I will only have the ability to love myself when I am able to face myself and accept my imperfection, and that includes my own disability. Because I love myself, I realised that I deserved a better life, and I was more than willing to work hard to create a better future. Since we cannot change the scenery, why not we change our mentality when watching the scenery?” Her life was never easy until she found a way to cope with the difficulties.

She revealed, “My idols are Nick Vujicic, an Australian motivational speaker, and Jay Chou, a Taiwanese artist. They are my model for learning. Their spirit and perseverance have always motivated me during my hard time. I have attended Nick’s motivational talk. His physical deficiencies are far hidden compared to his speaking ability and stage charm. His existence seems to announce to the world that life is a wonderful miracle.” Most importantly, Yew also believes that it is necessary to learn and improve oneself by action. 

She also shared about her “iron clothes”, one that she wears all the time. She said, “In order to support my lateral bending body, I need to wear a cloth bracket that is interspersed with several pieces of iron. So, I suffer from pain due to skin abrasion and stab wounds. No one will know that I am in pain because I am laughing during the conversations. We cannot voice out every pain but what we should do is allow sadness and pain to stay together because sadness will help to provide a way to release the pain.”

She concluded, “The negative emotions are present in our lives to remind us to cherish what we have. I am grateful to all my family members and nobles that have appeared in my life. Because of gratitude, I feel warm, and because of warmth, I have the courage to go on.” The talk ended with an autograph session.

Ng (right) presenting a token of appreciation to Yew

Yew with the committee members