The Department of Student Affairs’ Counselling Guidance Unit organised the Counselling and Wellness Week (CWW) 2019 at UTAR Sungai Long Campus from 11 June 2019 to 13 June 2019.

The theme of this year’s event was ‘Honouring Your Feeling is the Mathematics of Life’. The event aimed to shed light on the importance of feeling gratitude to experience the fullness of life. It also aimed to provide participants with information and knowledge to customise their strengths when facing life challenges.

Brahmmakumari encouraging students to be more confident and positive

UTAR Psychologist lecturer B. Brahmmakumari presented a talk titled “Unlocking First Love” which focused on the meaning of “First Love”. During her talk, she said, “Life is a gift, so is love. The first love comes from loving your own self.” Quoting the Buddha, she said, “You yourself, as much as anybody else in the entire universe, deserve your love and affection.” She then shared the benefits of loving oneself.

She presented the “love wellness model” to guide the participants on how to love themselves and shared the concept called “I AM” which refers to Investigate, Accept and Manifest. She explained, “Investigate who you really are, discover your likes, dislikes, motivation and fears. Accept who you really are and look out for your strengths and weaknesses. As for Manifest, learn to be true to yourself by being the person you truly want to be.” She also shared her personal story, explaining how proud she was to see the changes that took place in her life, from feeling low to being a cheerful person. She added, “You have the power to be confident, but you have to make it real and just be yourself. Be grateful to yourself and take the initiative to understand yourself better.”

Nelson highlighting the importance of happiness

The second talk titled “Pursue happiness as a lifelong learning process” was presented by Counsellor-cum-former UTAR undergraduate Nelson Tan Yan Xun. The purpose of the talk was to make participants understand the essence of lifelong learning and to set a happy lifestyle as a lifelong goal. The talk began with a Q&A session for the participants. The three questions were, “What is happiness?”, “How to achieve it?” and “How to prolong it?”.

“Personal happiness is what matters. Take care of yourself first. It does not matter what other people think,” he said. He taught a simple method on how to prolong happiness, which was through developing habits that could help achieve life goals. He added, “Life is like a marathon, it is about how to prolong happiness.” The talk ended with a group discussion where the participants were taught an effective technique to make positive changes in life, which include changing the way one speaks.

Ma (front row, sixth from right) with the participants

Moreover, professional writer Ma Long was invited to deliver a talk titled “Be the top fans of yourself”. In his talk, Ma encouraged the students to listen to their inner heart and interact with their inner self. In order to assist the participants to recognise their personality traits, he categorised them using several shapes, namely triangle, square, circle and the S shape. These shapes represent different characteristics. They were determined through a personality assessment.

“You should honest with how you feel and what you want,” he said, adding that being honest would allow them to connect with their inner self and other people on a deeper level. He also shared some techniques that help students to better understand their relationship with themselves and others.

Joanne Chin (front row, centre) with participants

Another invited speaker, Counsellor Joanne Chin shared her personal story and highlighted the importance of worldview, the principle of life and values in a relationship. Her talk, “The Happy Relationship Formula” provided some guidelines for successful communication and conflict resolution.

According to her, communication and attitude are important elements to manage a relationship. “To gain a positive outcome from a conversation, you need to understand and express your feelings in a non-judgmental way. Stop blaming your loved ones for minor things,” she said. She also shared some great techniques to improve communication.

The event offered different fun-filled activities

Various game booths were also set up at the event area to attract more participation from the students. The games included woollen heart making, bingo, mix and matching, cup stacking and other exciting activities. The event also held a sharing session called “Life Journey café”. The participants were given the opportunity to discuss matters concerning life and death.

“Life Journey café” provided a platform to express thoughts about death

CWW 2019: Experiencing life to the fullest