The Stronger Momin
This section of the blog will have 2 sub-categories.
The Mental Strength: will be written by our Psychologists.
The Physical Strength: will be written by our Nutritional Experts.
The blog will be good for teens, twenties, and adults all together.
So, welcome to become a more stronger and resilient Momin which will lead to a stronger Ummah, in sha ALLAH.
Self-Awareness Part ‘3’ - It’s Good to Ask “Myself”
In this series on Self-Awareness, we covered the way to talk to myself and now finally we will discuss what and why to ask myself, specific questions.
This is an interesting journey of knowing the self. It has steps that are easy to understand and take some time to practice but the benefit is much bigger than the efforts involved.
We covered in the last part how to friendly talk to “Myself”. I want to thank you for the feedback I personally received for this series. Much Obliged.
While going forward, the most essential thing to know is what is fruitful to ask myself and why. Let us see these simple questions to understand them stepwise.
So, the first important thing is to know “What actually my feeling is”. The human brain is not straightforward and emotions are combined in the form of ‘a mesh’. It is not easy to separate them and name them on many occasions but this exercise in Step One makes things much simpler and much clearer to go ahead with. So, “Name the emotion”? What it is.
Once it is known that “what”- the next query is “why”.
While asking myself why I am feeling like this, I may also get more than one answer, but the door to go ahead is focusing on the most vital “why” and eliminating others that are not that important. That is so very critical to know. I cannot insist on this one enough. This is the key to solving the riddle just after simplifying the mesh of emotions that were tied together.
ALLAH Subhanahu wa Ta’ala asked us in the Quran “Do they not concentrate and think about themselves?” The prime part of ourselves is our brain, the brain power that no one can ignore. At Step Two Let us practice these questions in our daily lives to make them part of our routines.
The first dealing with any given matter at any given time should be done “inside me” before it goes outside, either through my expression, body language or by my words.
This third step is as essential as the previous two. It is done by asking myself the most appropriate plan of action “How I am going to deal with it”
The plan of action deal that I made with myself will be important in the long term. This Step Three wholly depends upon my wishes and my way to take over the matter, until it is aligned with the rules ALLAH has set for me. It should not hurt myself or anyone else in the short term or long term as far as I can take care, I need to do my best.
To agree with Myself will save time and energy. If I am consistent and clear about steps 1,2, and 3, then my new step is just a matter of putting together all of them. The Fourth Step is to keep a check on my satisfaction and agreement with my dealing plan.
Before we go to the final step, in the final part of our series, we need to take time and practice. Let us start doing it daily to learn the process. Only initially starting it and making it a part of the routine will be a bit difficult but then it becomes easier with time, patience, and practice. The significance of this practice is many fold but the best thing to happen is a very practical, clear, and focused approach to our lives and decisions. We hope it will ultimately make lives simpler, by the grace of ALLAH - may He be praised and exalted.
Self Awareness Part ‘2’ Being Kind to Myself
Part 2 in the series gives a brief but enough insight into the “Self Kindness” concept and explains the two elements related to it. The first brick of kindness is the respect and the second is the realization of my importance.
It is very important to know why I am important and how much is the limitation to self-importance.
Self-compassion and consistency in polite conversation with myself are important steps toward a more compassionate and kinder personality for me and others in the future.
Let us reconnect the story of “My Dear Self” and the quest of knowing myself for bigger benefits which we considered in part one of this series. The last thing we concluded was “Knowing ALLAH more, remembering Him, and going closer to Him will make us closer to our own selves. That will make us more aware of ourselves.”
Being a star creature in ALLAH’s created beautiful world, it is important to know how I deal with myself. How good my relationship with myself, broadly depends upon :
How much do I respect myself?
How much and Why I am Important?
ALLAH has honored us by simply making us humans. He took careful care of us throughout and no harm reached us until He allowed and decided. He blessed us and gave us a brain that can work wonders when focused on the right way. This respect is for every single human as a baseline, without any addition in it for any differences we have in our lives. So I am respected in this universe of ALLAH.
This does not mean that we are respected when we don’t respect anything. Our conduct is important and every respect comes with responsibility. This respect comes with the weighted responsibility of understanding ourselves, our Rab, the secrets of this life, and that we need to secure our good place in the next life by using this life-duration with care.
Not only I am respected but I am important in this universe of ALLAH as well.
I am important as I have an assigned role. I am not created and sent here without purpose. That purpose I carry makes me important.
If I don’t bother in my life about why ALLAH made me and what is my purpose, instead I am busy in PlayStation, filling my wallet with credit cards, or overloading my wardrobes with dresses and shoes, I am the defaulter tool of this universe. ALLAH will still tolerate me being my Loving Rab and He keeps on giving me chances and signs to make me realize my importance. But think about someone sitting on an assigned task role to complete it in a limited period, and he is not doing that, instead, he is only doing haphazard things around the actual task, will this be something likable for any honest and responsible person? We would say this is corruption.
So, when I take my respect and give myself the right importance for the right reason then it is much needed to be kind to myself. I deserve softness and I deserve polite words before I give them to others.
Usually, many of us don’t give ourselves time and space which is equal to building up an invisible bundle of heavy rocks over our heads. That burden will keep on increasing in weight.
I will be patient with myself and will talk in friendly words.
How do I talk to my dear friend with love?
Yes, we don’t say fancy words to each other when we are longtime dear friends but our tone is friendly and infused with an essence of love naturally.
I need to use the exactly same tone for myself, with a lighter mood, space, and flexibility instead of rudeness, stiffness, and cruelty.
Let us practice from today onward a friendly quiet “talk to myself”.
Let it be brief and charming. How our brains get enlightened and feel lighter when we talk to a beloved friend.
Likewise, ask yourself softly “Hey! How was the day” and say some words of encouragement to your sweet self.
Until we get back to you with the next part :)
In sha ALLAH.
Self Awareness Part ‘1’ (Raising our EQ Series)
A new series within the psychology part of “The Stronger Momin” is starting which is called “ Raising Our EQ series”.
This is about becoming a better person by bringing improvement in our emotional intelligence and the first thing to know is “Me” and “myself”.
Self-awareness is gaining awareness about myself. Let’s begin this amazing journey of meeting with myself with ﷽
A new topic within the psychology side of “The Stronger Momin” is starting called
“ Raising Our EQ series”.
In this series of articles, we will discuss the basics of emotional intelligence in a friendly and easy-to-understand way.
We will know how raising EQ is important to make our lives easier, more comfortable, and more successful.
We are going to find out how it is defined in our sources of guidance ie The Quran and The Sunnah of Muhammad ﷺ.
Self-awareness is gaining awareness about myself. Let’s begin this amazing journey of meeting myself with ﷽
Self-awareness is the first step in understanding emotional intelligence and all smart dealings in life.
What is that: knowing myself,
being aware of who I am?
what I feel at any specific time and matter.
How I feel around certain people and certain conditions.
Knowledge of how I react to certain circumstances and peoples’ behaviors.
And how to be better?
The positive effects of knowing myself are not limited to myself. This is the simple answer to the thought that comes to mind that self-awareness may be something leading to self-centredness or self-obsession. That is not true for sure. Self-awareness is a journey of knowledge full of satisfaction, leading to a contented person, further into a happy and contented society in a longer go.
So the story of my dear self is not starting here but coming from My Creator, My always present Rab. Every beautiful creation is recognized and known by the creator.
Who knows better about the creation than who has created? We often underestimate how deeply ALLAH knows us. ALLAH said in the Quran about His knowledge of what is even more hidden than a secret. Did we notice? How deep? It is absolutely the same for ALLAH subhanahu wa ta’ala: we are loud in the talk, we are whispering, or we just think it deeper in our mind’s corner. How close He is with us. and why not it will be? The soul our body carries belongs purely to ALLAH, He knows us more clearly, without confusion, than we know ourselves.
Knowing that ALLAH knows everything about us in depth is important in the journey of knowing the self. How it is related? The matter is totally relatable. Once again our beloved book helps us in understanding this equation.
So, forgetting ALLAH will make us forget ourselves. (May ALLAH never make us among those, aameen)
Going far from ALLAH will make us distant from our own souls.
Knowing ALLAH more, remembering Him, and going closer to Him will make us ……
closer to our own selves. That will make us more aware of ourselves.
Is it not the same we are looking for?
