The Mind Bell

Basic & General

I first heard about this mind bell app when I was attending a talk by Dr Phang Cheng Kar, and installed it on my phone the next day, I’ve since been using it for about 6 weeks.

This is basically an app, which makes the sound of a bell every 15 mins (you get to adjust the intervals based on your preference, I left it by default), and generally people might do a few of mindful breathing when they hear it along the day. When you silent your phone the bell will be muted too. And you can set a schedule – when it starts and ends every day (so if it’s until 9pm, you are allowed to stop being mindful after 9pm. Haha).

We do not want to live in our brains, ruminating about the past or worrying about the future. We want to live in the present, the here and now. And that’s mindfulness, and you might notice how the bell stops some people who worry too much from doing so, by reminding them to breath mindfully and focus on the present, on what they are doing, instead of living in the brain.

I did not use the bell sound as a reminder to perform the breathing, I might just take a deep breath once, or continue to focus on what I’m doing, knowing that I’m focusing on the here and now. One thing that works quite well for me, is actually reminding me of valued living. Sometimes I might be scrolling facebook, and the mindbell showed up (when the screen is on there’s a golden ‘bowl’ showing up with the sound), I might realize that I’ve been spending enough time on FB and this really isn’t the kind of thing I want to spend much time of my life doing. And so I stopped wherever I was.

Though, most of the times, I find the bell distracting. Like when I am reading, replying to emails, running, I was concentrating enough, and it stopped me and got my attention, wanting me to be mindful(?), but it could somehow be the thing that makes me not mindful on the here and now. I believe this is because I’m quite mindful and focus as a person normally, I do not live in my brain much, or spend much time worrying unnecessarily.

However, I believe this app can be very useful for those who worry endlessly. Do try it out to see if it helps and/or suits you.

The Benson Relaxation Method

Basic & General, ,

The essential factors:

  1. Repetition of a word, sound, phrase, prayer or muscular activity.
  2. Passively disregarding everyday thoughts (which inevitably come to mind) and patiently returning to your repetition.

The method summarised:

  1. Pick a focus word, short phrase, or prayer that is firmly rooted in your belief system
  2. Sit quietly in a comfortable position
  3. Close your eyes
  4. Relax your muscles, progressively from your feet to your calves, thighs, abdomen, shoulders, head and neck
  5. Relax slowly and naturally, and as you do, say your focus word, sound, phrase or prayer silently to yourself as you exhale
  6. Assume a passive attitude. Don’t worry about how well you’re doing. When other thoughts come to mind, simply say to yourself “oh well,” and gently return to your repetition.
  7. Continue for ten to twenty minutes.
  8. Do not stand immediately. Continue sitting quietly for a minute or so, allowing other thoughts to return. Then open your eyes and sit for another minute before rising
  9. Practice the technique once or twice daily. Good times to do so are before breakfast and before dinner.

You can also elicit the Relaxation Response while exercising. If you are jogging or walking, pay attention to the cadence of your feet on the ground – “left, right, left, right” – and when other thoughts come into your mind, say “Oh, well,” and return to “left, right, left, right.” Of course, keep your eyes open! Similarly, swimmers can pay attention to the tempo of their strokes, cyclists to the whir of the wheels, dancers to the beat of the music, others to the rhythm of their breathing.

(Adapted from the AHPC Training Manual by Don Robertson)

Words can change everything

Basic & General,

Try this simple exercise below:

  1. Firstly, think about a snack that you love eating. Write it down. Make sure the words that you use do describe the taste and scent of the snack.
  2. Spend some time to imagine how it feels like when you are salivating, pay attention to how the saliva tastes like, the smoothness at the back of the teeth. Now, think about what happens to the saliva when you eat this snack and digest it. Please write down your feelings and thoughts during salivating.
  3. Now, imagine there is a clean drinking glass in front of you, you split the saliva into the glass. Now, imagine you are drinking the saliva. Please write down your thoughts and feelings.
  4. Finally, imagine your favourite snack is right in front of you now, you are ready to eat it. But before you eat it, you spit some saliva on the snack. Do you still want to eat the snack? When you imagine eating this snack (with saliva spat), please write down your thoughts and feelings.

This is one of the famous ACT exercises, most people get the “effects” when they did this for the first time. Do you realize how words and language can change your feelings? And at any time, most of your thoughts are constructed by words, how often our experience are affected and changed by those words in our daily lives? Can you imagine if there isn’t languages? What happens to our thoughts and our struggle with thoughts if there weren’t any words and languages? Can you see a way of gaining some distance from your thoughts (from those words) instead of being fused in them, believing them 100%?

Introducing “David & Goliath” (2013)

Review - books movies series

“We would like to know who the person or persons [who killed our daughter] are, so we could share, hopefully, a love that seems to be missing in these people’s lives”

The full story about this quote is in the non-fiction, “David & Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits and the Art of Battling Giants” by Malcolm Gladwell. This is the second time I’m reading his book (the first was “Outliers: The story of Success“), which was also a Christmas present from the UK.

Of course it’s not just about one true story, but this one mentioned above in particular strikes me a little more. His book is again, thought-provoking, counter-intuitive, entertaining, intriguing, based on scientific evidence and real stories. I can’t say better words for it. Do get a copy and read it. (I happen to have two copies as my friend sent it to me two years in a row, so if you’d like a free copy just get it from me).

By Malcolm Gladwell
By Malcolm Gladwell

Statistics: Mental Health in Malaysia

Basic & General
  • Every 3 in 10 adults aged 16 years and above have some sorts of mental health problems (29.2%).
  • The prevalence of mental health problems among adults increased from 10.7% in 1996, to 11.2% in 2006, to 29.2% in 2015.
  • The prevalence in Kuala Lumpur is 39.8%!
  • The prevalence in females was slightly higher than in males but the difference was not significant (30.8% vs 27.6%).
  • Risk factors (adults): females, younger adults, other Bumiputras, and adults from low income families.
  • By occupation, the prevalence was lowest among government/semi-government employees (2.6%) (?!).
  • The overall prevalence of mental health problem among children was 12.1% (children = 5 to 15 years old).
  • Risk factors (children): boys, younger age group and from rural areas.
  • Prevalence of mental health problems in children:  peer problem (32.5%), conduct problems (16.7%), emotional problems (e.g. anxiety, depression, 15.7%), pro-social skill (11.2%) and hyperactivity (4.6%).
  • There are 360 registered psychiatrists registered in the public and private sectors. The ratio of psychiatrists to the Malaysian population is 1:200,000 (1:10,000 is recommended by WHO).
  • Mental illness is expected to be the second biggest health problem affecting Malaysians after heart diseases by 2020.

Retrieved from the National Health and Morbidity Survey 2015 (available here) or here.

泛自闭症障碍 (Autism Spectrum Disorder)

Basic & General, Developmental Disorder

一个蛮常出现的情况，就是大人要是有些什么心理问题，就会被说成“抑郁症”（或“忧郁”），不管他的症状是闷闷不乐，竭斯底里，情绪高昂，自杀念头，出现幻觉，嫉妒心强，时好时坏…… 所以很多时候问当事人或其家属他有什么问题的时候，最常出现的答案，就是“抑郁症”（往往仔细问过症状后，其与“抑郁症”风马牛不相及！）

而孩子呢？这种情况也是有的，只是一般他们会被标签的是“自闭”（或“过动”，其次），不管他的症状是安静，闷闷不乐，不爱社交，过动，不听话，无法沟通，爱说谎，智力偏低，生活无法自理… 情况不严重的时候，就被称为“有点自闭”…

根据DSM-V (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorder, 美国精神协会的精神障碍与统计手册，第五版），自闭症（现在已改称Autism Spectrum Disorder, 泛自闭症障碍*，本文继续简称自闭症）从孩提早期，与他人的接触在一定程度上影响了患者几乎每个方面的功能。 社会关系从轻度损害到几乎完全缺乏互动。 有些可能只是减少分享，而一些患者则完全不能主动接触他人或回应他人。 他们说话的时候，倾向于不用一些大多数人常用的身体信号，比如 眼神接触，手势，微笑和点头。 自闭症患者难以在各种不同的社交情景中调整他们的行为; 他们可能缺乏对其他人的兴趣，并且几乎没有朋友。

重复和狭小的专注点是他们的活动和兴趣的特征。 他们不喜欢/抵抗日常微小的变化（比如每天午饭点一样的菜，或不停地重复已经回答的问题。）他们可能被一些动态（如旋转）或微小物体所着迷。 对刺激（疼痛，巨响，极端温度）的反应可能过于微弱或过度。 一些非常专注于感官体验：他们对特定的视觉动态或特定气味着迷，有些或者恐惧或拒绝特定的声音或特定物体表面的触觉。 他们可能使用怪异的言语或表现出刻板的行为，例如拍手，身体摇摆或像回音般重复他人的话（echolalia）。

自闭症最主要是从沟通、社交、机体行为这三方面来判断，有可能伴随或不伴随智力缺陷，伴随或不伴随语言缺陷。

*Autism Spectrum Disorder, 泛自闭症障碍，或自闭症系列障碍，表达了自闭症的多元性。

马来西亚自闭障碍的干预训练中心