Described as 

"A must-read for parents, educators, social workers, and anyone interested in the mental well-being of young people" 

 

Dr Daniel Fung, CEO of Singapore's Institute of Mental Health

 

you might just want to get "Take Heart".

It's not just because I wrote it.

But it's more that in tackling this big issue of mental health, we wanted there to be a different narrative to the traditional story.

That mental health wasn't just an illness to be tackled, but could also be a gift.

Yup, that's right - a gift. If you could just ask your clients,

Yes, I do hear alot about the bad that comes from your mental illness, but what do you think has been some good that has come out of it?

And perhaps more importantly, it’s recognising that today, we desperately chase experience, without recognising that what we truly need is relationship.

Recently a date wrote “I’m also human”, after I ghosted her. I know, no excuses there for my behavior, but it belied a wider point.

That today, we live in a world where we’ve objectified how we relate to others, and how we relate to ourselves. This world tells us that we can have clean tidy experiences, and take away the painful and discomforting ones.

Our emotions can be put in a neat and tidy box we label ‘positive thinking’.

Or we can archive and ghost mildly discomforting people, because they are just a profile picture or name we can swipe away.

We trade the messy, in-person relationships for those we can pick up and put down, in the comfort of a chat.

What do we gain when we blunt the edges of our emotions and reduce the risk of relating better to others? I think we gain time and space and convenience.

But what do we lose?

We lose what makes us human, and what makes us whole.

This book tries to tackle two big questions:

• How can we be happier?
• How can we relate better?

Here’s the first two chapters of it.

Have a read, I think you will like it.

Get it here at SG$25.

John