To stay Healthy is to be Happy

To stay healthy, the message is: Be happy
Smoke less, exercise more, eat more fruits and vegetables... and now, be happy.
This year's National Healthy Lifestyle campaign, after years of pitching physical well-being, focuses on mental wellness.
The Health Promotion Board (HPB) wants people to learn to love themselves, make friends and be happy.
This is in line with the trend in developing countries to stress mental well-being.
The World Health Organisation, as far back as 1948, had defined health as 'a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being, and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity'.
Briefing the media on this year's campaign, HPB's chief executive officer Lam Pin Woon said people here are now smoking less, exercising more and eating more fruits and vegetables.
Now, he hopes to see more happy people.
Five pavilions built around five themes - love yourself, be active, make friends, just relax, and be happy - will be set up at the Singapore Botanic Gardens on Sept 22 and will feature activities like face painting, calligraphy and line dancing.
There is now no way of knowing how mentally well people here are, although Scotland, New Zealand and Hong Kong already have their own ways of measuring this.
What makes people happy varies according to cultural background, said Dr Koh Yang Huang, HPB's senior deputy director for mental health education. In the West, for example, individuality is highly valued, but Asians prefer to be linked to the community. So, Singapore plans to develop its own measurement of well-being, which should be ready in a year or two.
Dr Lynette Tay, a National University of Singapore assistant professor in psychology, said people here are likely to be as stressed as their counterparts in other developed countries. She added that a study in the United States found that poorer people tended to be less happy.
People who are happy are also less likely to become physically ill, she said.
Dr Koh said that many studies have shown that poor mental health can result in poor physical health. She added that companies with a happy workforce have fewer people taking sick leave and have lower health-care costs.
This is why one of the campaign messages is: No health without mental health.
The other is: Everyone can learn to look after their mental well-being.
Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong will launch this year's campaign, called Healthy Mind, Happy Life, at the Botanic Gardens on Sept 22. There will be activities throughout the day, from 7.30am onwards. Free shuttle buses will ferry visitors from the Orchard and Newton MRT stations