Being Human

We tend to go through ups and downs, daily struggles or have sudden setbacks in our lives. These moments can make you or break you, if you don’t manage yourself. I’ve been through my fair share of upsets and stresses and the way I’ve dealt with it is by simply taking time out of the day to reflect and enjoy my own company.

It’s often therapeutic spending time on your own and just simply thinking about things. It gives you a chance to almost pause your life and think about where you’re at, or where you want to be, or what you’d want to do differently. I find that once I do that, I’m able to process the situation I’m in better and gain more benefit from sharing it with a friend or family member as I’m going into that convo with a good sense of where I am.

Often our stresses come from us simply taking too much on or at times trying to be the same person all the time. As a doctor, I’m a doctor at work but once I’m home, I strip myself of that role and go back to the natural roles Allah has given me which is of a son, a brother, a friend.

We really have to learn how to park our roles and make time for ourselves; look after ourselves. Often making time by going back to just being a son and nothing more helps us go back to letting ourselves do what it does best; being human. Our soul needs replenishing and refreshing; and it’s often human relations that do that – well it for sure does for me!

I go back to the simple things in life to get that replenishment – which is doing something for someone else. That might be cooking a meal or doing someone a favour when they least expect it, or buying someone a bar of chocolate when they’re having a tough day. It doesn’t have to be grand at all, but something very little. It’s seeing a smile on someone else’s face that reminds one of the bigger picture, and really does make our souls smile too.