50 1. Holistic Counselling & Psychotherapy 2. Chakra Energy Healing 3. Chakra Yoga 4. Inner Dance 5. Rose Heart healing 6. Transformative Coaching 7. Tarot& Oracle Card Reading Other Services: Chinese & Thai Massage Physiotherapy & Rehabilitation Singing Bowl Sound Bath Tuning Fork Therapy Womb Healing Sarah-Joy Amin Heart Space Creator +60 16-488 9328 [email protected] www.fb.com/collectiveheartspace www.instagram.com/heartspace.holistictherapy http://www.transformwithsarahjoy.life/about-heart-space
Home Living and Health What are the factors that interior design can take into account to construct a healthy living space? Ergonomic, Functional and adequate space provision, Proper and adequate lighting strategy & Suitable Colors, Indoor environmental quality (IEQ). For IEQ at residentials, we will need certain tools like hygrometer that can evaluate the temperature and humidity. What is the easier way for people to have access towards a healthy living environment if they face imitations like inadequate space? I think we need to remember it is always about having less, not more. Because minimalism is the key. We have been taught to declutter all the nonessentials because holding to stuff and material possessions is a sign of mental clutter. In your industry experience, do the health benefits being considered? Yes, but it is not always the main consideration as from my limited practicing experience. There are things like cost, delivery time and aesthetic considerations being prioritized. Post occupancy evolution (POE), will be done during the post design stage to evaluate and improve the design space through its building performance and end users feedback. Do you think a healthy living environment is a privilege or necessity for common people? If you can afford to own an air purifier then you will have a better indoor air quality. It is a privilege. If you are well equipped with the right knowledge in creating a healthy space, you can make better choice. For example, if you want a toxic and contaminant free environment, you will need to choose for low VOC pain. You can also promote healthier indoor environment with the right indoor planting and landscaping, proper ventilation, arrangements of furniture and so on. Money and knowledge is both important. “I can foresee that in the coming future, we will focus more on sustainable building materials for interior design and renovation that can promote better health and wellbeing for the end users. “ - Dr. Firzan Aziz Dr. Firzan Aziz, School of Housing, Building and Planning (HBP), USM 51 Written by: Ruby Toh Yen Yee Photos by: Lau Yu Quan
SOMTONE HOME LIVING Som is derived from the German word ‘Sommer’. In Chinese, it can be translated into ‘Xia Tian’ (summer). Hence, our products are created for a sense of warmth. We carry a wide range of handcrafted rattan & wooden products that are handmade by our skilled artisans as we believe handmade can infuse life and temperature into our products and on to you. Our customers usually treasure their life quality. When they are surrounded by the things they like, they tend to feel happy, as well as feeling physically and mentally healthy. “Bamboo is sustainable as it takes less time to regrow compared to the common timber like merbau, nato. Rattan is sustainable because it is very durable. When you use rattan, you can use the furniture for 10 to 20 years. With this, it reduces the need to consume more of our natural resources.” - Dr. Firzan Aziz - Bryan, founder of Somtone Home Living - “ ” 52
THERE ARE SOME QUESTIONS FOR YOU How long have you been away from your busy schedule? Give Yourself Time To Retreat 55 LOOKING FORWARD THE TIME TO REST? May be we cannot totally escape from the unhealthy lifesytle because of our social responsibility. We need to work, sometimes we rushing from one thing to another thing, from one task to another task. We never really have time to rest, even we thought that we have enough sleep, but how about the quality? We still worry about the uncertainty of tomorrow and the task that we haven’t complete yet. DO YOU KNOW WHAT IS RETREAT ? Retreat is a way for you to temporary away from your unhealthy daily routine. This temporary away is not a type of escapism but let yourself get rest and figure out what is the most important thing and goal that you really want to achieve in your future. You can find a place that close to the nature, away from the things and people that will make you annoyance, try to slow down your step and just aware with every moment. How long have you not take care of your mental and physical health? How long have you not been close to nature? Written by: Lau Yu Quan Photos by: Lau Yu Quan
56 A SHARING BY MR TEOH Teoh Teik Lin, 53, who often going for a retreat tell us the most helpful thing for him while retreat is meditation. He said by just focus and aware your breath with a meditation posture, your mind will become much more sharper and free from worried. Mr Teoh said eat more organic vegetable and healthy routine such as sleep and wake up early will also helping us while meditation. This is because our body will be less burden and can be more focus while meditation. He also share with us that after this retreat, he will back to his work as a philanthropist again. He hope that this retreat can help him to get a fully charge and will be more energetic to face the challenges in his life.
57 Readers feedback “Great group of people, great project. The attitude of doing everything well should continue, keep up the good work.” “A great magazine that even shares health information via several media platforms! It’s cool as I am able to access all this information anywhere just using my smartphone!” “Health is always the critical topic to be discussed after the pandemic. I gained lots of health knowledge and definitely will recommend it to my friends and family members!” “I have been following the HealthBeat Instagram account since the date it’s created. Looking forward to the printed magazine!” “I am one of the interviewers of the street interview that posted on Instagram! Never know that there’s such a project ongoing in our school, it reminds me to take care of my health in this hectic lifestyle.” “I always wanted to be healthy but I am so lazy. Heard that there is going to reveal some healthy tips on their physical magazine and I can’t wait for it!” Thoughts from members “It has been a journey of ups and down planning and producing HealthBeat. From thinking of our magazine concept till printing, my teammates have put on so much effort and dedication. I was so lucky to have found mental health professionals who are helpful and willing to be interviewed. Special thanks too to Adrea, a wonderful and patient counsellor who has helped me through three counselling sessions before and has helped me again as an interviewee in HealthBeat. Planning a magazine has helped me to improve my creative writing, layout, social media content creating and interviewing skills. Words are not enough for me to express my gratitude to my teammates, interviewees, Dr and many others who have helped me throughout this journey.” Shirlene Shee Jing Herng “Planning and producing HealthBeat is a challenge, and I have grown and learnt so much. I have improved on my time management as I had to juggle academics with my part time job and small business. However, I am grateful because through my part time job, I got to know some of my interviewees including Xin Tong and Sebastián who are happy to help us with face-to-face interviews and video shooting for our social media content. I am also thankful for my teammates who are understanding and discuss all problems regarding our magazine together. I also want to thank Dr for providing suggestions for us and various activities that enable us to understand more on the planning of a magazine.” Pang Wai En
“Through HealthBeat, I found out that there are so many different aspects that we have to consider during our planning. At first, we have faced some obstacles in determining our magazine’s name who can match our concept of modern healthy living. However, I am happy we have pulled through and successfully completed this magazine. I am so grateful too for my interviewees, including my ex classmate, Yi Li and also personal training manager, Yans. Yi Li has taken her time off to accept our interview via Google Meet, while Yans is also helpful by providing us with a camera stand during our interview and introducing us to some energetic ladies who did Zumba dancing. It has been a wonderful journey not only in planning our magazine, but also getting to know people from various walks of life. A big thank you too to my teammates and lecturers who helped a lot.” Wong Jia Yee “The process of planning and producing HealthBeat has been an eye-opening experience for me. Initially, our team proposed to plan a magazine regarding community service but had later changed our minds to plan a health magazine. I am glad that we have chosen this magazine theme as there are a lot of issues that we can focus on. Through this magazine, I have gained knowledge on how to design a better logo too. I have gained so much new experiences and learnt a lot from our interviewees, like James and Nix. I am so thankful that they are willing to accept our interview and share their thoughts and experiences. I am grateful too for my interviewees, teammates and Dr who has been with me throughout the process of planning HealthBeat.” Ruby Toh Yen Yee “Firstly, I would like to express my gratitude to my interviewees, including honoured Venerables, who I have known through Persatuan Pelajar Buddhist USM and also my friend and fellow musician, Georgen. During our interview with Venerables, they are very kind to accept our interview and show us around beautiful and calming nature. We also learnt so much about life during the interview. Georgen, on the other hand, has been so helpful in helping us to create our social media content by video shooting and a podcast session. By planning HealthBeat, I have gained a lot of knowledge about health and a good way of living. Finally, I am thankful for all the people who have helped us, including liking and sharing our social media content.” Lau Yu Quan 58
Follow us for more! Facebook @HealthBeat Instagram @healthbeat22
Our sincerest appreciation to Advisor, Dr. Nik Norma Nik Hasan Dean of School of Communication, Profesor Madya Dr. Bahiyah binti Omar Publisher, School of Communication USM Interviewees/Venue Sponsors Adrea Tan Huan Seen - Licensed and registered counsellor Bryan - Founder of Somtone Home Living Carole Chung Mei Choo - Licensed and registered counsellor Dr. Firzan Aziz - School of Housing, Building and Planning, USM Elain Wong Ee Lin - USA Certified Zentangle Teacher (CZT) Georgen- Dietitian and Musician James Tan - Co-founder of Therapedic Medical Center Nix Ng - Osteopath Poppu Cafe Sebastián Varela - Professional Juggler street performer Tan Yi Li - Nutritionist cum Operation Executive Usmile Fitness USM Utopia Studio Xin Tong - Womb lifting & Mandala flower
37