امرأة أمريكية مسلمة: كنت في قاع الاكتئاب… وهذا ما أنقذني

Allah does not change the condition of a people until they change what is within themselves. And this is our biggest sign that to some extent and to some degree we have a level of control over our lives on the decisions that we make on the things that we tolerate and the things that we don't tolerate. This is your call to action to change what needs to be changed.

Nothing will change if you repeat the same habits, if you repeat the same thought patterns, if you do the same things day in day out and you expect to see a different result. That is just not how things work. And you can't expect Allah to change your state either if you are not doing the work to change your state so that you can welcome the new state that requires the effort that requires the change.

You need to remember that no problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it. You need to rewire the way you think and rewire the way you perceive situations in order for you to start taking different actions. And one thing that I noticed from my own experience with anxiety and overthinking is that when we are in a state of anxiety and when we are overthinking something or ruminating, we tend to be quite stagnant.

We are just still. We're not changing much. We're not doing much.

And I noticed with myself, especially when I was going through my anxiety, when I was really like at rock bottom, I felt like I lost touch of everything that made me me. I stopped doing the things that generally brought me joy. I stopped doing the things that I used to enjoy and the things that made me who I am.

I stopped going out for my walks. I stopped eating healthy. I stopped listening to podcasts.

I stopped reading. I stopped socializing. And this made me feel worse.

And what this is is this is a state of stagnation. And this is not good at all. This for me was like the biggest wakeup call because it made me realize that, okay, I'm clearly not going to see different results if I'm just rotting on my sofa or rotting in bed and not doing anything.

I have to at least take that one small micro step that will eventually tip over the dominoes for all the other steps to follow. And to shift those negative thought patterns, you physically have to shift something. Whether that is getting up and shifting and moving your body.

Whether it's you exchanging those negative thoughts and replacing them with vicid. Whether it's you getting up, moving off the sofa to go and bend down in prayer. Whether it's you getting up and stop stopping with the junk food and going to eat something healthy.

Like you need to feed those good positive things in order for them to grow. You can't expect for anything to be different if you are repeating the same patterns day in day out. And unfortunately that's what happens to a lot of people when they are in the state of anxiety and that is the time when you most have to force yourself to take a different action to see a different stance.

One of the best examples I can use for this is gratitude. How many people are actually grateful for their abundance and the blessings that they have in their life already? How many people actually operate from an abundance mindset rather than a lack mindset?

And we have this repeated to us as Muslims day in day out. Allah tells us that if we are grateful he will give us more. Allah tells us I am as my servant thinks of me.

Allah tells us take one step to him and he'll come closer to us. There is constantly this kind of shift happening but it requires you to take that action. You have to be the one to reach out to make that dua to ask.

How are you going to receive if you don't ask? You have to express gratitude and show thanks in order to receive more. You have to get up and pray to see the benefits of that.

You have to do your to be protected. You cannot expect for things to just fall into place when you are not operating from this place of desire or this place of wanting to change something. And this is the thing with energy.

Energy constantly has to flow. It has to move. If you like bottle your energy up and if you are in a state of stagnation, absolutely nothing will change.

This is coming from my own experience because I remember at the time when I was at my absolute rock bottom, I used to just think I'm just waiting for something to change. I'm just waiting for something to change. But I had to be that change.

I had to be the one to actually initiate that change. I had to be the catalyst to that change. Once I decided that I wasn't going to stay like this anymore and that I was going to change something, I fully turned to Allah and I trusted that with my effort and with my trust in him that the rest would fall to him.

But my initial responsibility was to be the catalyst for the change that I wanted to see. And subhan Allah in Islam with our practices there is so much wisdom behind every single thing that we do. there is a change essentially that it has tried to bring within us.

So for example, Ramadan, 30 days of fasting. Towards the end of Ramadan, the action that you took which was fasting from a lot of things as well as food should bring about the change that should bring good into your life. And that's the same thing with prayer.

You have to pray. You have to focus in prayer in order to see the change. Some people pray, they finish their prayer and they're like, "Oh, I don't feel the benefit.

" Or, "Oh, Allah's not answering my dua. " But where you focused in that prayer? Are you doing the prerequisites necessary that require that is required for you to ultimately see that big change?

So be the change that you want to see. If you want to get closer to Allah, you start taking that steps towards him and watch him come to you. If you want to experience more abundance in your life, show gratitude for what you already have.

If you're feeling anxious, if you're feeling down, if you're feeling sad, if you're feeling like you're overthinking things, get out of that space. Go out, go spend some time in the sun, put on a podcast, get up, move your body, watch some Pilates, do some yoga, and see the change happen. But you have to start something.

You cannot keep sitting in the same state that you are and expect Allah to change anything for you. Be the catalyst to that change, guys.