Book Review: Wellbeing — The Five Essential Elements, Twenties Girl | Malay Mail Online

Title: Wellbeing - The Five Essential Elements

Author: Tom Rath & Jim Harter

Publisher: Gallup Press

Year of publication: 2010

Rating: 8/10

This is not your regular straighten-me-up self-help book.

Wellbeing - The Five Essential Elements is a conversational guide to holistic wellness that deals with the bigger picture first, before getting to the finer details in life.

Authors Rath and Harter present five ele­ments crucial to the wellness of each individual - career, social, financial, physical and commu­nity wellbeing.

After explaining each aspect in breezy detail, they finish off with the art of mea­suring what makes life worthwhile.

In addition, there are tools and resources - including statistics on wellbeing across the United States and 150 countries, conducted by Gallup to find out how the five elements shape their lives.

Interesting to note is that Malaysia is ranked 52 in the wellness survey, with Denmark and Togo coming in first and last respectively.

Among several interesting points raised in the book is the fact that wellbeing is not just about being happy. Nor is it about wealth, career suc­cess or physical health, but it is a combination of the five elements mentioned.

While most of the content isn't something new, this reviewer found the authors' personal presentation of the five elements refreshing and learnt many small but insightful lessons about the art of being well.

Another interesting aspect of the book is it comes with a unique code that can be used to measure one's wellbeing online and proceed to track your wellbeing over time.

An easy read that will make you re-define one's perception of happiness and wellness. - By Anu Venugopal

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Koh Phangan Pictures

Suzhen and I just after landing at Koh Samui airport.

Dom and I in the van before we got scolding from the immigration ladies.

Suzhen and I happily drinking our beers.

The yummylicious banana chocolate (nutella) pancake.

Trying to finish off the pancake ourselves before Dom gets to them.

Just after getting wet in the rain......;P

This is what too much alcohol can do to u - a few 'happy' guys trying to jump the fire rope.

Dom in red dress and Suzhen in yellow top dancing away on the table. ;)

Get your plastic buckets with alcohol here! Unfortunately nothing worked on me! :P

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Koh Phangan Jun 25-28

Beautiful unicorns and rainbows -was what I was hoping to see as I had my first ever Mushroom Shake - in the island of Koh Phangan (KP).

Instead what did I see? Absolutely nothing! I didn't even feel the familiar buzzy alcohol effect. After careful and long delibrations with my colleagues-friends and KP roomates Dom and Suzhen, we decided that we were cheated! Cheated by the Thai's at Mountain Bar at Haad Rin Beach out of 500 baht (almost RM50)!

After all that talk from Sharky and Dom's cousin about only drinking a quarter of a glass, it was extremely disappointing that neither of us felt even a tad high after drinking that so-called Happy Shake. We were soooo not happy!

However, luckily for us we still had a good time at KP. How could we not?

First there was the glorious food. Tom yam, green curry chicken, pad thai, banana chocolate pancake (yummylicious!). And many bottles of Chang beer. Then there was the Full Moon Party, where hundreds of party goers gathered to party from dusk to dawn. The cool girlfriends gyrated on the table while yours truly went around taking photos of the scenes. Unfortunately, the same official photographer also did a boo-boo when 'she' decided to go ahead and dunk into the cool KP sea and forgetting there was a camera in the bag. How stupid! (I'm so sorry Dom!).

But the good news is, Dom got to save the pictures.

Anyways, despite the accident and the rain that got the party wet (but didn't dampen the party spirit of party-goers), we did actually have a good time. There was plenty of eye candy to look at, the atmosphere was so happening. There were times when I felt I was in a music video - with everyone dancing around me and me walking through them.

I don't think I'll ever forget the time when Dom and I went back to our 'bangalow' for more money and ended up sitting in front of a hair dresser waiting for the rain to subside. The visions of topless young men walking past us is not something I can forget easily. ;)

For those who haven't gone to the island before, the main issue is communication - the Thai's don't speak much English and we seemed to be getting a lot of wrong information. Also, be ready for minor upsets as there are bound to happen. At the last leg of the trip, we took the taxi to pier for a boat ride back to Koh Samui...and when we were checking in to get tickets, we found out our boat was at the pier adjecent to the one we were at. So we had to run, Amazing Race style to catch our boat back. I tell u - what a run it was!

Best of all was the time spent with my lovely colleagues-friend Dom and Suzhen - priceless moments, for sure. I'm so glad we did this trip together.

Pictures coming up very very soon.

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;)

This time next week at Koh Phangan, this will be me.

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Quickie No 3

I gotta admit I have been the lazy blogger recently. The truth is nothing big has happened for me to blog about. Nothing spectacular and nothing too boring. Life goes on. Work keeps me busy, most of the time. There are good days and bad. There was a blues-y episode couple of weeks back, but that has passed and it's all good now.

Oh yes 19 days before I leave for the sandy shores of Koh Phangan. Very excited about that - my first trip to Thailand. And to prepare for the trip I am on my protein diet. No carbs until Jun 25 plus my usual morning walk. That seems to be one of those good habits I've picked up this year.

Life is peachy. No complaints.

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To new experiences

When my friend Sharky told me that the mind expands after every new experience, I only half believed him (He's a joker, that one.)

But what he said really intrigued me and I had to find out if he was indeed telling the truth.

So I took my question online and what I found out is that it's true. And no, expanding the mind doesn't mean your skull is going to become larger or that your brain will grow. Scientifically, the brain becomes denser with neuronal connections which facilitates more memory and speed of retrival.

"A mind that is stretched by a new experience can never go back to its old dimensions" said Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., an American jurist from 1902-1903.

Last week, I was assigned to go to Singapore to cover Andrea Bocelli's concert at the Botanical Gardens. Not a fan of classical music, I wasn't too happy about being assigned to it, but I knew I didn't have much choice over it.

Then I remembered about expanding minds with new experience and decided that I would make the best out of it.

Now I know why people rave about the amazing tenor. He was brilliant. And I don't even like classical music! Accompanied by the Singapore Philharmonic Orchestra, it was an evening I've will never forget.

It was also a chance for me to debut my purple dress, that I bought six months ago. I must admit that I looked lovely in it (perasans) and am very glad I bought that dress, despite being RM150 poorer. It was worth every cent.

Although I didn't manage to get a one-to-one photo with Bocelli, I did manage to get a blurry picture of him with my Blackberry.


And I also got a chance to chat with Delta Goodrem, who was the guest singer at the concert (she sang beautifully and looked gorgeous!). And here's me in my purple dress.


Here's to many more new experiences!

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