Editor’s note: This article was written in conjunction with Breast Cancer Awareness Month. We know that we’re towards the end of the month but we also believe that this piece will be a timeless advice. We hope you enjoy the read and do share them with your loved ones! 

What if the most impactful method of curing breast cancer was out of the hospital? We are not doctors but what we know for sure is that the ultimate solution to breast cancer starts not from the hospital but from our society. Try this, initiate a conversation with a colleague and have an open discussion on breast cancer. The initial reaction is more often than not anything between the lines of awkward or shyness, yes? Breast cancer is the most common cancer in the world and also in Malaysia, but why is it not widely discussed and what can we do about it?

To start things off on a positive note, despite it being the most common cancer, breast cancer is highly treatable and survivable in the early stages (Stage 0 and 1). Of course, that has to be accompanied by early detection measures namely, mammography and clinical breast examination. With the prevalence of the coronavirus, many people would have been financially impacted or concerned about heading to the hospital for check-ups. Thus, while we still very much recommend seeking professional assistance, self-examination is most definitely a viable option on its own. Upon detection, it will ensure the most ideal opportunity for an effective treatment.

However, what is most concerning is that breast cancer is usually asymptomatic at the beginning, where it starts off being a small and painless lump, which may then lead to delayed diagnosis. On following stages, evident symptoms may begin to appear, such as change in the shape and/or size of the breast, a lump in the breast or underarm area, pain and swollen in the breast area, and more severe symptoms would be discharge from the nipple (could be blood), which does not include breast milk. While most breast lumps are not cancerous, it is advised for women to visit a doctor for an examination should they notice a lump on the breast.

Many women also shy away from thinking about breast cancer as the thought of it alone is enough to frighten them. There is also the prevalence of taboo which discourages public discussion on the said topic. To add on, there are even misconceptions that there is currently no effective treatment for breast cancer. All of these are bad practices that will cause one to miss out and delay the best timing for treatment. Overthinking without making any form of resounding action, is in this case a very costly decision. We may lack the knowledge in this aspect but we must never for a moment lack the courage. At this very moment, there is nothing better that one can do than to steel oneself and reach out to someone you can trust and/or experience and seek immediate medical advice.

Equal attention needs to be given to post-breast cancer patients too. This is because, for those who have recovered, more than two-thirds of respondents felt a drop in the confidence of their bodies after a breast cancer diagnosis as well as treatment. Many felt that it had decreased their self-esteem where they experienced a loss of identity as compared to before breast cancer. We must acknowledge the impact that breast cancer diagnosis can bring upon one’s psychological well-being. From not being able to accept the post-cancer version of themselves or the inability to break the news to their partner or children, all of these can ultimately lead to depression and anxiety, which can, in turn, decrease the survival rate of a patient or even lead to recurrence of the cancer. Therefore, psychological treatment is just as crucial when it comes to the effective treatment of breast cancer.

As much as we are house builders, we also believe that a house can only be a home when we have our loved ones with us. To readers battling with breast cancer, like all other forms of cancer, breast cancer is a serious health diagnosis and is deeply personal. While some can be open and expressive about their condition, the rest may choose to keep it a hush-hush, and that’s okay so long that he/she has reached out for help! For readers with loved ones battling cancer, it is not easy on your end too and your unconditional support means the world to them and a strong support system is the foundation for a successful road to recovery. Whichever the approach may be, one must embrace the change in reality but know for a fact that they still have the ability to transform their cancer journey. Breast cancer should be a topic that is widely discussed, be it in October or all year round. Most importantly, don’t delay and keep breast cancer at bay!

#LetsBeSafe

“Nobody said it was easy, It’s such a shame for us to part.

 Nobody said it was easy, No one ever said it would be this hard.”

Is the rhythm of the song titled “The Scientist” by Coldplay in your mind now? Or perhaps you might be singing along with this song.

As mentioned in the lyrics “Nobody Said It Was Easy”, we face challenges, and stress is unavoidable but a normal part of life. While everyone experiences stress, what stresses someone out varies from person to person, might be because of work, studies, family and relationship matters.

Yes, challenges to some extent might break down our barriers, push our limits. When you’re facing your limits and you feel that resistance, it can seem hard to overcome. But just by pushing yourself a little harder, you can really accomplish some great things.

Anyway, stress is inevitable, life goes on, and we need to face the reality of life. Here are some tips to help manage and reduce stress:

1. Eat healthily

The proverbial saying ‘You are what you eat’ is the notion that to be fit and healthy you need to eat good food.

2. Exercise

Almost any form of exercise can increase your fitness level while decreasing your stress. The most important thing is to pick an activity that you enjoy. Examples include jogging, dancing, cycling, Yoga, Tai Chi and Zumba.

3. Take time out

You may have experienced frustration on some matters, try to stop thinking about it, listen to music, gardening, play some games, chat with family or BFF, temporarily escape from stress.

4. Green Environments

Exposure to green spaces help to relieve stress, and generally enhances psychological recovery. Exposure to urban green spaces can generate cognitive, affective, and psychophysiological benefits that reduce stress.

5. Snack / Cheat time

Have a break and have a KitKat. Oh! This is not an advertisement session! In fact, you can have any snack, preferably a healthier snack, for example, low carb snack, almonds that contain several beneficial nutrients, pistachios that are high in fibre. Of course, some snacks are acceptable but do limit your snack intake, as it might increase calorie, weight gain.

6. Get Some Restful Sleep

Stressful times can cause insomnia. You can take nuts like almonds, walnuts, pistachios, and cashews which are often considered to be good food for sleep.

Have a warm bath, listen to calm and relaxing music, do some gentle yoga and meditation to relax your mind and body. Exercising regularly, cutting down on caffeine does help beat insomnia.

Write away your worries. If you tend to lie in bed thinking about everything you must do tomorrow, set a to-do list before bedtime, it helps for a night of quality sleep.

If you cannot sleep, do not lie there worrying about it. Get up and do something you find relaxing until you feel sleepy again, then go back to bed.

Do consider consulting a doctor if lack of sleep is persistent and it’s affecting your daily life.

7. Seek Help

It’s OK to not be OK, we’re human, in life we go through a lot of ups and downs. Don’t be afraid to ask for help, go for counselling sessions and consult a psychologist. Remember, You Are Not Alone. Take care.

Now that everyone is completing their second dose of COVID-19 vaccine, are you mentally ready to go back to normal? To how everything was before? Admittedly, it is a big step stepping out of the pandemic and going back to our previous routine, but eventually it must be done whether we like it or not.

We understand this might be a little stressful, especially with the number of daily cases being what it is, but remember how stressed out we all were having to sit at home for months, wishing everything would go back to normal? How working from home in a mostly non-conducive environment was taking a toll on our mental health?

When we are fully vaccinated, it becomes our responsibility to slowly start returning to our obligations. Meetings need to be done face to face for better clarification, things can be done more efficiently in a timely manner, and on top of performance improvement, it will also benefit our social and mental needs. We will finally get to breathe in some fresh air daily and we get to mingle and laugh with our colleagues.

As to how we understand your concerns, we hope you understand ours too. We must keep operating if we want to keep providing for everyone. Unfortunately, the harsh reality is we can only sustain when we are fully operational, and we know this is a bitter pill to swallow. As we embark on this journey of embracing the new normal at work, we need to learn to be interdependent. Relying on each other and helping each other out will ensure that we will be able to swiftly get back into our previous work routine safely and efficiently.

We promise we will be there with you every step of the way. Experiencing back-to-work anxiety is completely normal and together, we will manage the issue. Remember that you are not the only one who is facing this – we are too. There are plenty of ways for us to address this issue and one of it is identifying our causes for concern.

At any given time, you are allowed to voice out your concerns and together we will find the best solution. Let’s normalise openly talking about our mental health and to always be inclusive and attentive of one another. This will foster a mentally healthy workspace, and given the current climate, we are each other’s resources, so we must have each other’s back.

Two years ago, we could only dream of being here, unable to see the light at the end of the tunnel. This is a breakthrough, and we must seize this opportunity now more than ever to help our society return to what it was. We must turn over a new leaf and although it is still a little tricky, there are SOPs put in place to guide us through. We are not saying we are ready to go back to a mask-less society, but we are heading in the right direction. It is a scary step but a necessary one. If you want things to go back to the way they were, you have got to be your own hero.

Two years ago, we could only dream of being here. Being cooped up in our homes with the number of cases only getting higher and higher, it did not seem like there was a way out. Being vaccinated is far from our imagination. We could not see the light at the end of the tunnel. Our spirit was low, we did not have the motivation to do anything, we missed our family and friends, we missed dining out, and we were worried we or any of our loved ones would get infected by COVID-19 – we had a hard time adjusting to the new normal.

On top of all the stress of going through a pandemic, we were still expected to live our lives as normal as possible, meeting work deadlines with a pay cut, and some even lost their job. We were living in uncertainties, and it was hard. We also had to go through a crash course on particle filtration, alcohol level to effectively sanitise, room ventilation, and a whole lot more things that we wish we knew a whole lot less about.

We also had to learn about interdependence to ensure the survival of our species. We learned about forming quarantine bubbles, donning protective gears just to go get groceries, and having only essential physical interactions. The days were suffocating, and the nights were long. We look forward to the day when we can breathe easier again, although the future seemed bleak.

And it seems like we are finally having a major breakthrough. COVID-19 vaccines have successfully been developed and distributed worldwide after months of research by healthcare experts. Vaccine rolls out in Malaysia kicked off on February 24 with Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin receiving the first of the two-dose Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine as mass inoculation campaign started.

Life has been full of uncertainties for us lately. Every two weeks we wait in front of our televisions, our mobile phones, to find out what is next? Where do we go from here? What is the news we will be receiving today? What will the prime minister tell us? Will the MCO be extended? Are the number of cases going down? Are we in the clear now? Can we, finally, go back to normal? Hundreds if not thousands of questions go through our heads and most of the time, we do not like the answers to it.

As much as we hate to admit it, and as in denial as we want to be, life will never go back to normal for us, those days are over – until a vaccine for the COVID-19 virus has been developed at least. Even so, it is unlikely for our lives to go back 100% to the way it was – we are all traumatised now. We will always involuntarily be extra conscious among strangers. Having a person sneezing near us will make us anxious, and when we start sneezing the next day, even for a completely different reason, our anxieties will shoot up through the roof.

Whether we like it or not, we must start adapting to the new normal. Wearing a mask when we go out even for just a short while, is vital – it is literal life or death. Having to be alert of your distance to a stranger at all times may feel odd in the beginning, and will feel taxing after a while, but this is our reality now, this is our new normal. We have to do it!

Recently we have been requested to go back to work as per normal to restart our economy. We were taking in major losses every day and our country could no longer afford it. It was a tough decision but one that had to be made. From small businesses to companies with substantial revenue, many Malaysians are losing and have lost their jobs. According to BNM Annual Report, the unemployment rate is expected to hit 4% this year due to the outbreak – that is over 2 million citizens, and the livelihood of even more will be affected.

It is understandable for us to feel fear of having to go back to work in the middle of a pandemic, and to deal with the anxiety that tags along with it, it is important for us to have knowledge on how to stay safe. It is crucial for us to abide by the rules of the new normal. Wash your hands for at least 20 seconds, wear a mask when going out, practice social distancing for at least 1 metre from the next person in the office, and always carry a hand sanitiser with you, just in case. Do not gather for lunch, and do not eat others’ food. These may all seem tedious, but it could be lifesaving.

Will this new normal change us? Hopefully, for the better. In a way, it trains us to have self-discipline and be aware of our environment. This new normal will push us to become more cooperative, and to listen to the authorities better, because our lives depend on them.

When we cooperate with the guidelines given by the Ministry of Health, we are also helping the frontliners. In fact, there is a saying that we are actually the frontliners. We are the ones who are capable of putting a stop to this pandemic. When we apply these guidelines in our daily lives, we are the one who get to decide on whether we are going to infect our society or not. The doctors and nurses are the last line of defence, when we are infected, they will be our last hope. Naturally, it is our duty to help lessen their burden.

Just the other day, we were informed that Raya gathering is permissible, provided the house contains a maximum number of 20 people, no crossing your residential state, and they must all be family members only. Although we have been blessed with this leeway by the government, we must use our own discretion and not abuse the privilege.

It is best to exercise our own judgement on whether this Raya gathering needs to be done within our families or not. Do we have many elderlies in our family? Will we be asymptomatic and unknowingly infect them? As we already know, the elders are more prone to be infected and they are unlikely to recover or survive from it. The best way to show our love for them is by staying away and using technology to keep in touch with them.

Wanting to be with our loved ones during Raya is normal, but we all must pull ourselves together so we can win this fight. We must put aside the desire to have a normal Raya gathering with our family and friends, so we can ensure we will still be able to celebrate Raya with them for many more years to come.

As much as we find this new normal to be suffocating and limiting to our normal routine, we have no other choice but to buck up and just do it. It is for the literal survival of ourselves, our loved ones, and our species as a whole. If we stay disciplined and apply the guidelines provided into our daily lives, we will get through this pandemic alive.

We’re treading through uncharted waters. Unless you’ve lived through the Spanish flu, the deadliest pandemic in history, we’re facing an unprecedented event. It’s been a little over a decade since the world experienced the last pandemic – the 2009 H1N1 swine flu. 1.4 billion people across the globe were infected and over half a million did not make it. Therefore, it seems reasonable to expect stringent measures by the authorities.

But that’s not the case.

The world is in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic caused by a novel coronavirus called SARS-CoV-2, a virus that has no precedent hence no vaccine yet. By all serious estimates, it is going to be a major killer. Our government has taken all the necessary measures to curb it from spreading further and as socially responsible citizens, it is our duty to follow orders.

What was initially a two-week Movement Control Order (MCO) has now become a month, with expectations of an extension. Although it feels a little suffocating to be cooped up in your house for a month, this decision was made after a thorough analysation by the authorities and considering the curve we were heading towards, this measure is not extreme at all but highly necessary. Based on global data collected, so far, COVID-19 is most deadly for people over 60 who have underlying health conditions. If you’re a student who’s feeling stuck at your university during this period, missing your parents and family and dreading not being able to go home, change your perspective. You are not stuck, you are safe and sheltered, a privilege that plenty are unable to enjoy during this pandemic.

You’re potentially saving their lives, too. Many healthy young adults are asymptomatic and silent carriers; you might infect other people especially the elders like your parents. Therefore, the MCO is highly important and must be obeyed 100%, which means no hanging out with your best friends too. Limit the number of physical interactions to only the people you’re living with, that’s how you help flatten the curve.

We understand working adults are also restless about not being able to go back to your hometown and be with your parents, too. Basically, every Malaysian right now would want to be with their family and loved ones. Don’t worry too much if you’re unable to physically be with your loved ones in this duration. It is normal to miss the sense of your mother’s touch, your father’s smell, your sister’s infectious laughter. You need to try your level best to pull it together and you will come out of this stronger. Your emotional bond, your connection with them, would also become undeniably stronger.

Now that we are home-bound, it is also a good time for us to take the time to reflect on the importance of love in our lives and how we must learn to appreciate things as they can be taken away from us in a split second. Who would have thought going out to restaurants with family and friends would become illegal, or even going to the park to do some light exercises? These are among the things that we have all enjoyed throughout our lives and somehow took for granted; because we never thought we would lose our freedom to do these basic things.

We are lucky we are living in the 21^st century, where we have modern technology that is sophisticated enough to allow us to communicate with anyone we like 24/7. Besides that, not only do we get to hear their voice, we also get to see their face and see their gestures. In this pandemic, that is enough to feed and warm our soul, and to temporarily cure our longing for the natural human experience.

To date, the Ministry of Health has announced that the current MCO is working in flattening the curve. The number of new cases is lower than it was initially projected to be, which is great news for us Malaysians. This is a good example of why we must strictly adhere to the “Stay-at-Home” order accordingly. As long as we cooperate and work as one, the sooner we will be able to end this and start going back to our normal lives. Until then we all must stay strong, stay put, keep ourselves updated, take care of our health both mentally and physically, and wash our hands frequently. Stay safe, everyone. Together, we will get through this.

– Corporate Liaison and Digital Media Department

This month has been a challenging month for us Malaysians what with the recent new strain virus outbreak known as COVID-19. To date, there has been more than 1,500 positive cases in Malaysia. Good news is, so far 139 patients have recovered and been discharged.

Now that Malaysia is under Restricted Movement Order (RMO), we at LBS hope everyone is quarantining themselves at home to help flatten the curve. Go out only when it is absolutely necessary and practice social distancing at all times. It is up to each one of us to help stop the spread of the virus. Only with our collective effort, we will be able to end this and stop the nightmare.

During this RMO period, let’s take the time to really dig deep and reflect on every little aspect of our lives, do a little soul searching. Look at the things we have been taking for granted for years, and how important it is for us to start being grateful for every blessing that comes our way, be it big or small. You don’t have to be picky, there is nothing too small for you to be thankful for. It can be as simple as appreciating the clear weather or how quickly your online shopping parcel arrived despite the current restriction.

Find gratitude in your challenges. Sometimes, thinking about negative or difficult situations can help to really nail down what you have to be thankful for. Dig a little deeper into some of your own past experiences and try to figure out how they have helped shape you into the person you are today. How those experiences have matured you and strengthen you, and how they’ve prepared you for future obstacles.

Take this time to cultivate better health habits. Eat more nutritious food to help boost your immunity, do some home exercise to keep fit, and avoid risky behaviours such as going out unnecessarily. Our health is one of the things we tend to subconsciously take for granted, and this will stop us from having optimistic and healing attitudes. When we take better care of our physical health, our mental state will be better too.

We know by now a lot of people are starting to get restless. A sudden halt from the hustle and bustle of life, and we understand completely. In times like these, you must learn how to slow down and take things one day at a time. Don’t think about two weeks, but rather focus on today. Do some breathing exercises. Count your blessings. Say it out loud if you have to! Make small goals for the day that you would like to achieve. This is a reset, and a chance for you to look at life from a different perspective.

Until then, stay safe, follow the orders, and wash your hands frequently!