Befrienders Johor Bahru

21/08/2026

19/08/2026

Healing doesn’t mean becoming someone else. Sometimes, it means finding your way back to yourself, gently and at your own pace. 🌱

mentalhealthawareness

19/08/2026

Years ago, an extraordinary story was told on Swedish television.

During the program, a man began talking about something that had troubled his conscience since childhood.

“When I was a boy, a friend and I had a terrible idea,” he admitted. “We decided to send a hamster off a high-rise balcony with a homemade parachute.”

The boys built a tiny basket, attached it to a makeshift parachute, carefully placed the hamster inside, and let it go.

But things did not happen the way they expected.

A strong gust of wind caught the parachute and carried it far away between the buildings until the boys could no longer see it.

“For years I’ve thought about that hamster,” the man said. “I still feel guilty. I keep wondering what happened to it and how I could have done something so foolish.”

Then, unexpectedly, the phone rang in the television studio.

A woman was calling.

“Did this happen around this particular year?” she asked.

“Yes,” the man replied.

“And was it during the summer, around the time Stockholm was having a big city celebration?”

The man suddenly became alert.

“Yes! Exactly!”

There was a short pause.

Then the woman said something he never expected to hear:

“I think I know what happened to your hamster.”

The man stared in disbelief.

“What happened to him?”

The caller began telling her own story.

“My daughter had been begging me for a hamster for a long time. She asked over and over, and eventually I got tired of saying no. One day I told her, ‘Sweetheart, stop asking. The only way you’re getting a hamster is if God Himself sends you one.’”

The little girl took her mother completely seriously.

She lifted her hands toward the sky and said, “God, please send me a hamster.”

Later that day, mother and daughter went downtown to enjoy the festivities.

While they were outside, the little girl suddenly looked up.

“Mom!” she shouted. “I think God answered my prayer! Look!”

Her mother raised her eyes toward the sky.

Floating slowly down toward them was a tiny parachute.

And hanging beneath it was a little basket.

Inside the basket sat a hamster.

According to the woman, the parachute drifted down so gently that the little animal practically landed right in front of the astonished child.

For one boy, that day had remained a memory of guilt for years.

For one little girl, it became the day she believed her prayer had fallen straight from heaven.

Sometimes life connects two completely different stories in ways no one could possibly plan.

What one person remembers as a mistake may, somewhere else, become an unexpected answer to someone’s prayer.

Author unknown

16/08/2026

The Chair by the Window

My grandmother had a chair that seemed to have no purpose.

It sat beside the window.

She wasn't reading there. She wasn't watching television. She wasn't working.

She just sat.

As a child, I thought she was doing nothing.

I understand that chair differently now.

From that window, she knew when the neighbour left for work. She noticed when someone had a visitor. She knew which children were walking home from school. She could tell when rain was coming.

Sometimes someone passing outside would see her and stop.

A few words through the window. A wave. A small piece of news.

Then they carried on.

Nothing important seemed to happen.

That was probably the point.

My grandmother's chair produced nothing.

There were no steps to count. No messages to answer. No reason to photograph the afternoon.

But she noticed things.

The neighbour who usually passed at the same time.

The first rain after a run of hot days.

The child who had started walking home from school alone.

The person who hadn't passed the window for a few days.

Small things.

The sort of things you only notice when you have nowhere else to be.

A quiet minute rarely stays quiet for long.

There is always something within reach to read, watch, answer or scroll.

It is easy to forget that there was once another way to spend an empty moment:

to leave it empty.

Not everything about the past was better. Much of it wasn't.

But people had moments when nothing demanded their attention.

A chair.

A window.

An afternoon.

Perhaps boredom wasn't always something to escape.

Perhaps occasionally it was simply enough time to notice that the light had moved across the room, someone familiar was walking down the road, and another ordinary day was passing.

As a child, I thought my grandmother was doing nothing.

Maybe she was.

I am just no longer convinced that doing nothing and wasting time are the same thing.

14/08/2026

🌹I am a su***de attempt survivor. There are a few things I wish people understood about people like us.
1. We are not weak—we were overwhelmed by pain that felt unbearable at the time.
2. Surviving does not mean the struggles automatically disappear. Healing is a journey.
3. Many of us carry guilt or shame about what happened, even when we are trying to move forward.
4. Judgment, criticism, or being told to “just be strong” can make things harder, not better.
5. Sometimes we need patience more than advice.
6. Being listened to without interruption or dismissal means more than you can imagine.
7. Recovery is not always linear—some days are strong, some days are fragile.
8. We may smile and function well on the outside while still fighting quiet battles inside.
9. What helps most is compassion, not assumptions.
10. Small acts of kindness and checking in can make a big difference.
11. Our experiences can also become a source of strength and purpose.
12. We don’t want to be defined only by our darkest moment.
13. Support systems—friends, family, and professionals—can play a life-saving role.
14. Many of us are still learning how to live, heal, and rebuild hope.
And to anyone struggling right now:
Please remember that you don’t have to face everything alone. There are people who care, people who will listen, and help is available. Your life still matters, even when it doesn’t feel that way.

13/08/2026

Daily runs to raise funds for Befrienders Mental health has always played a huge role in my life. From being diagnosed with ADHD as an adult to dealing with several bouts of depres...