Mental Health

Music

“Everything will be just fine, tomorrow or someday”: Singer-songwriter Mersie’s “Lullaby” for those who worry

I still remember the warm feeling and comfort of being coaxed to sleep as a young child. The soothing humming of my motherโ€™s voice and the gentle patting of her hand on my side. As a songwriter, I...

Work

Do you work to rest, or rest to work?

I think all of us are familiar with the question: โ€œDo you live to eat, or eat to live?โ€ The answer reveals our true philosophy โ€“ what defines us. If we eat to live, then survival is our...

Mental Health

Living with survivor’s guilt and other lessons from my friends’ suicides

I was 17 that year. One night, my mum came rushing into my room and said my art teacher needed to speak with me urgently on the phone. The next words I heard on the phone were not what I expected at...

Mental Health

When suffering doesn’t make sense

In July, I received some bad news from relatives in Taiwan about my cousin. Her cancer had returned and, this time, it was terminal. I was shocked to hear the news, since I had just recently seen her...

Mental Health

It’s okay to wrestle with pain

Several years ago, I found myself lying in pain on the hospital bed, recuperating from a slipped disc. My former cell group leader was about to pray for me โ€“ but he said something which I did not...

Mental Health

When it looks like world’s end, the best defence is taking heart

It’s been every kind of storm. A biomedical storm. A media storm. Now even a supermarket storm. But in the eye of the global frenzy stirred up by COVID-19, I’ve recently found myself...

Mental Health

Ask for help? I’d rather suffer silently

I’ve always had trouble identifying and vocalising my needs. From a young age, whenever I needed something, I’d always feel too paiseh (embarrased) to ask for help as I didn’t want...

Mental Health

2020, a time to begin again

Monday, December 30, 2019. The 9pm overcast night sky is cool, hinting the possibility of showers in the evening ahead. There is a somberness in the air around me. Church Street’s pavements are...

Christmas

Itโ€™s the most… awful time of the year?

Seasonal depression, also known as seasonal affective disorder (SAD), is real. It’s the most wonderful time of the year There’ll be much mistletoeing And hearts will be glowing When loved...