Reflection. Introspection. All that jazz. The question was posed how do I look after myself and it made me stop and think about how do I actually look after myself or indeed DO I look after myself. Upon some thought I broke it down in to two, the overall concept I use for looking after myself and one practical act within that concept.
Reflection. I have worked in Mental Health and by default we were trained to reflect, reflect on our work, our clients, our feelings and our policies. I entered this field also at the same time that I started actively practicing and by Allah’s kind guidance these reflective skills translated to my Islamic practice. So every so often I stop, take time out and ask if what I’m doing is of benefit to me, is it of benefit to my deen, am I being a first world woe laden ingrate… And those bouts of time out have also stopped me becoming burnt out, because contrary to popular belief a busy body is not always a productive or healthy body.
One practical thing I do within this concept on a daily basis, is read through my bookmarked duas in my handy lil Muslim Pro app. Each of these duas have meant something significant during different times of need and I read them daily with translation to ground me, to remember Allah (SWT) has got me and even if at times when I can’t, He will look after me.