What I learned living in Malaysia
I really loved the one year living in Malaysia. I originally decided to live in Kuala Lumpur because of the good reputation in the street food scene, but I have another reason that I miss a lot, especially when I live back in Japan.
Today I want to write how I learned to build good habits in KL, Malaysia.
I never felt that “healthy” before
It might sound odd to say I never felt that healthy before, but that was what I was feeling after a few months living there.
This is the number one reason I loved living in Malaysia.
I learned to build good habits that led me to be healthy.
In Japan, I would have some kind of health problems like lack of sleep and concentration levels, hangovers, and body aches here and there.
I thought it was just part of getting old, but when the environment changed, I slept very well. No issue concentrating, did not drink much. The locals around me did not drink neither, and I had close to no stress so I did not have the urge to drink much, instead I started to have soda water or fresh coconut instead.
My body aches that I had in Japan started to fade away. I ate a lot of good food in Malaysia, but lost a good amount of weight, too.
So, I learned that the environment you're in is very important.
Malaysia helped me to reset my habits
When I had the opportunity to work for a year in Malaysia, it changed my habits.
I worked a 9-5pm kind of job, so I will have a good amount of hours to myself.
The locals told me there aren't many things to do, except going to malls. This actually helped. Shopping wasn't for me, so I would spend most of my time in my condo which had everything I needed to build good habits.
The condos in Malaysia usually have a gym and a pool. Having these facilities where I live makes it easy to make it a routine.
Easy to maintain good habits
I worked remote at home, so when I had just a little bit of break time, I would go downstairs to exercise.
Or just a few pull ups, or a swim. I would listen to the waterfall, or pick up a book in the mini library all at the same floor.
The 23rd and the top floor also had some exercise bars and workout goods with a garden, so just spending a few minutes refreshed my mind.
These were all packaged in the place I lived, just for 1800RM which is about 400USD.
So I would be repeating this every day.
I would work, then exercise a little in breaks, and listen to nature, read books, talk to neighbors for a chat.
Street food and food courts were everywhere just outside the condo, and I made friends with welcoming and friendly locals.
Repeating this made me very healthy. And I was in a good mood and felt happy. Before, I thought succeeding and having money, and enjoying life led to happiness.
But I learned that I am happier when I'm healthy and having good habits, and good relationships.
And the best thing is, it's really not that hard to have these habits and relationships. I don't have the kind of facilities I had in Malaysia, but going to the park for a walk, hitting the library, and chatting with neighbors are things I can do anywhere I live.
This led to my life routine
Honestly, it's nice to live in a condo like the one in Kuala Lumpur, but for me it's unnecessary. But I wanted to keep the habits I picked up there.
I'm back in Japan with another purpose now, but what I try to do is to stay close to the good habits that keep me healthy.
- I live close to the park, and go for a walk
- I sleep well. Sleep is a priority.
- Choose things that keep me in a good mood. Stay out of the ones that don't.
- Have good relationships as much as possible
- Go to the library and bookstores when I have free time
I've done the best I could to keep this routine while I stay on a surplus every month. I learned that these simple things do keep me in a good mood, and healthy.
So I learned that good habits make me happy. So I decided to stick to good ones, and stay out of the bad habits that come along the way.
It takes time to build good habits
It took me a few months before I could fully get into exercising.
Before moving into Malaysia, I had piled up so many bad habits that it took me time to get used to exercising.
I couldn't even swim for a minute and stopped.
Tried to workout in the gym and already felt tired without doing anything.
And it's ok. It takes time for good habits to stick.
I will confess that I would go down to the gym and just waste my time the first few times and feel horrible about it.
But that was just part of the transition from my bad habits to the good.
And good habits lead to another.
I learned to have good habits
If I hadn't moved out of Japan and spent the year in Malaysia, I don't think I would've realized that having good habits leads to another.
I would've continued to work long, strive for results and pile up stress.
I learned that choosing the things that keep me in a good mood gets me a lot closer to health and being happy.
Thank you Malaysia! Thank you for helping me to be healthier, I really enjoyed all the human interactions and fabulous food, I hope to visit you again:)
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