Are Malaysians Happy?

I recently had the pleasure of speaking to Sharmilla & Lynn on BFM about Malaysia's Happiness Index that was done by the Department of Statistics. Their study revealed that "Malaysians are generally happy" with a score of 6.48. I spoke with BFM about the survey and on how to maintain happiness and thought I'd share a couple of main points here!

1. Happiness vs. Wellbeing.

First we need to define what it means to be happy. To me happiness is being able to connect to things that bring meaning to our lives. Happiness is in those moments of pleasure or satisfaction of completing a difficult task, making breakfast for your family on a peaceful Saturday morning, or enjoying quiet time alone. Happiness is sometimes used interchangeably with wellbeing, which to me is not the same thing.

Wellbeing / wellness tends to be a bit more complicated as it includes many different areas in our life: career, health, relationships. I might be happy and excited right now sitting here sharing a bit of what I know with you, but I may not consider myself “well” if i am struggling with my health, or if i’m struggling to make a living. To put it simply; the more I am able to experience happiness in different areas in my life, the greater my wellbeing.

2. Mental Health and the Pandemic

I was also asked about my observation on people's mental health now that we have moved into this new phase of the pandemic. From what I see, people in general have been excited to move forward from the last 2 (three?) years. Malls are full, hotels fully booked, social media seems to be filled with people going on vacation. But at the same time, the waitlist at mental health clinics remain long, employers continue to struggle trying to get their employees back to work. As we move through different stages of the pandemic we are forced to adapt (yet again) to change. With any kind of change (even if it is seemingly positive) we will struggle to adapt, especially in the initial stages. We’ve built routines and comfort zones around the pandemic over the past couple of years, and naturally those things will be disrupted, so I generally do see people feeling more stressed and anxious about this — while also being hopeful and excited. Those feelings co-exist and it's perfectly normal.

3. Bad news & 'Languishing'

Languishing is a (Western) term that I heard about during the pandemic. I say Western because I'd say the local term for it is 'SIEN'. It's that stagnant, empty feeling that many felt during the pandemic, and many still continue to feel until now. I think what has been happening is that a lot of us entered the 'new phase' brimming with hope, and unfortunately it seems that since then bad things kept happening whether locally or around the globe -- virus's like HFMD and Influenza has been on the rise, countries are at war, the economy is crashing. And these things can often appear to be like barriers to happiness. How can I be happy / move forward if we are headed towards a recession?! It's easy to get overwhelmed by these things that we have limited control over. So as cliche as it sounds, sometimes we need to stop zooming out so much, and instead zoom into our own lives and the things that we do have control over. And that's not to say to live a lah-dee-daa, all is well kind of life, but rather to invest time and energy into things that are meaningful to you both big and small. On a personal level you could zoom into your hobbies, things that help you to de-stress, but on another level you could also speak up more in your local community group, write to your Member of Parliament or ADUN when you are not happy about something -- basically take small steps within your power about things that are important to you.

4. Lessons from the pandemic

When we properly unpack the survey that was done -- the domains that people were 'happy' about were the family and spirituality domain. So although the results were generally surprising, this part was not surprising to me. Because of the pandemic, families spent more time together, people were looking for more ways to connect to one another whether it was via food/gift deliveries or catching up virtually. It made some of us more connected to their loved ones, and lead to a better since of appreciation. (Disclaimer: of course this does not apply to everyone / all families). The pandemic had also forced us to look for something to hold on to: this can be spirituality in any kind of sense whether it is connecting to your religion, or nature, or a form of higher power. These aspects were very much reflected on the survey and I think highlights an important message about 'happiness' -- that it's in the little things that we do daily, rather than those 'big' things we are always striving to accomplish. We often put these rules on ourselves where we decide we "can only be happy if..." -- I get a raise, have a partner, have children, am more attractive, and so on that we miss out on what's already there in front of us. The pandemic forced a lot of people to appreciate what's in front of them and I think this is something valuable to continue doing. Being mindful every day of "what went well" even if it's something as simple as making a good batch of scrambled eggs, or appreciating the blue sky outside.

5. So are we really happy or not?

Yes, we still experience happiness.

But does this reflect on Malaysians' wellbeing? IMHO, no.

Some important factors were not addressed in the survey like political stability, public infrastructure, and we often undermine how much these things (traffic jams!!) influence our mental health.

In fact, a quick search on the statistics of Malaysian's Mental Health over the past couple of years will tell us that this score of 6.48 may not reflect on our wellbeing at all. It is obvious that more needs to be done -- people's livelihood needs to be improved, working conditions could be better, and we need to do more to help the public get access to mental health care. It's not enough to be able to have a good laugh every now and then , people need to flourish, our nation needs to thrive.

Listen to the full recording here: https://www.bfm.my/podcast/evening-edition/inside-story/happiness-index-malaysia