On Saturday, 29 May 2021, the newly-established Veritas Psychology Club launched with their first talk “Languishing, Flourishing & Mental Health”. The talk was given by guest speaker Ms Lee Xiao Shiang, Clinical Psychologist from Pantai Hospital, Penang, and is the first in their Psych-talk Webinar series. The talk was held online over Zoom and was held from 11 a.m. to 12 p.m.

 

The talk covered a few topics: – what mental health is, the family of mental health, what flourishing is, what languishing is, what moderate mental health is, how flourishing is encouraged, flourishing for students, as well as helpful websites to visit. The purpose of the talk given was to raise awareness about the mental health continuum particularly during the pandemic, as well as promote help-seeking behaviours and emotional well-being practices. 

 

 

 

Some of the takeaways from the talk were defining languishing as a state of emotion, failing to make progress, restlessness, and numbness whereas flourishing as experiencing positive emotions, psychological functioning, and social functioning. Some ways to regulate oneself in order to flourish are practice S.E.E.D.S – sleep, exercise, education, diet, and socialise; maintain a productive lifestyle despite uncertainties; and create designated areas at home for the different tasks in your life. 

 

 

 

A total of 51 attendees participated in the talk session that day, some of whom were from BAC KL and Singapore alongside Veritas University College students. The attendees found the talk to be very informative, interesting, and fun. The participants found themselves wanting more of these sessions and for longer periods of time.

 

This talk session was organised by Veritas Psychology Club, a social sciences student organisation with the mission to encourage, promote, and build a greater understanding of the field of psychology throughout the student body, university, and surrounding community. The club was started by student representatives from the Bachelor of Sciences (Honours) in Psychology in partnership with the Head of Program (Psychology) Ms. Vinorra Shaker to fill the need for psychology awareness.