Healing is IMPORTANT because it allows us to regenerate and transition into the next part of our lives. It gets us ready.
But…to understand “healing” you must understand and acknowledge that healing is a PROCESS. Its not something you just choose to do one day or simply turn on a switch…
As emotional inner healing can’t be seen, its difficult to sometimes comprehend what exactly is going on. Having been through my own healing process, I like to relate Emotional Healing to that of Physical Healing…
Think about when you cut or have an injury, or wound… science tells us that a wound has 4 main stages of healing:
1- Hemostasis phase – this is when you’re bleeding, and the body’s emergency repair system kicks in… EMOTIONAL HEALING: this is like crying… being sad and feeling like you can’t stop the tears.
2- Inflammatory phase – this is where a certain type of white blood cells enter the wound to destroy bacteria and starts repairing the skin. Theres often reddening of the skin, heat and some pain/irritation. EMOTIONAL HEALING: when all the tears have dried up, and you just feel resentment and anger. Always frustrated and questioning of the fact why this happened to you.
3- Proliferative phase – here, the wound is naturally cleaned out and the focus for the skin is to fill and cover the wound. The skin starts to rebuild itself. EMOTIONAL HEALING: this can be compared to when you start to understand and gain clarity of the situation. You see the lessons behind the experience of the breakup. Acknolwegding what happened. Rebuilding the thought process.
4- Maturation Phase – where new tissue gains strength and flexibility. The skin remodel itself. EMOTIONAL HEALING: when you’ve “got over it”. Your thoughts, your responses have gone through a journey of remodelling and is now ready to transition into the next step in life. Here you find that you’ve learnt a lot about yourself.
What has the healing phases been like for you? Can you relate? ❤
International Mother Language Day recognises that languages and multilingualism can advance inclusion.
Multilingual and multicultural societies exist through their languages which transmit and preserve traditional knowledge and cultures in a sustainable way.
My mother language is Urdu. A beautiful sweet indo-persian language with a mix of words from Arabic, persian and Turkish, used a lot in poetry.
For International Mother Language Day, I’m sharing my favourite urdu word… “Qismet” which means fate or destiny. I use this word a lot and it acts as a reminder to me that everything that happens is meant to happen (and is the will of God) and also whatever happens will always have a reason behind it whether we know of it or don’t.
International Mother Language Day is observed every year to promote linguistic and cultural diversity and multilingualism. What is your mother language and what’s your favourite word?
(This post is inspired by @halcyonmaguk who posted some amazing stories today for IMLD )
I don’t know what I was searching for when I found this online. I usually find myself asking google questions as if google has all the answers to LIFE. If only huh? Well it may not have all the answers but it’s nice to see that you aren’t going completely crazy when you come across quotes and posts like this which confirm to you exactly what you are feeling, especially during those moments when you just don’t know yourself!
I never knew what anxiety was until about the age of 19. The whole concept of mental health as we know was something that no one in my family and circle of friends EVER spoke about. Perhaps because no one knew anything about it, or possibly because no one ever spoke enough about what they were truly feeling.
There is a famous Japanese saying that states we all have three faces. The first face, you show to the world. The second face, you show to your close friends, and your family. The third face, you never show anyone. It’s questionable, but do we get anxious and sad because we fail to show anyone our true third face? Is this the answer to coping and dealing with anxiety, or sadness?? Is the answer a mere acceptance of the feelings you are feeling? Sounds so simple…
Whatever it is, it’s quite a lot of pressure and energy to act like everything is always ok. Sometimes it’s really not. There could be days where you are motivated and energised to do everything – you’re planning, creating, brainstorming, being so dynamic. The next day you don’t even want to speak to anyone. You’d rather just text because that way, you don’t have to show yourself. You can just pretend everything is ok. But isn’t that just draining your energy more than it already is?
Over the past few years I have worked hard to build myself back up. It wasn’t easy. At times I felt that the more I climbed the so called “mountain of progress”, I was faced with a avalanches. I would crumble. I would feel lost. I wouldn’t be able to speak. I often felt like crawling into bed and shutting off the world. It’s something that can’t be explained so easily. It takes time to really think about what is happening, the whole process. Heart racing. The confusion.
The first time I felt like this was back when I was studying at University. It was just after first year of my law degree, and I did an internship at a top city firm. I was so excited! This was the first day of work for me. OMG I was dressed to impress, I looked like a more voluptuous brown Ally McBeal! It was the start of something big for me…
As soon as I stepped into the firm, I was greeted and taken around, met all the lawyers there. Everything was fine for the first three days; I carried out all the admin work, did some research, accompanied staff to court etc. This was the real world! It was like WOW!
However, on the walk to court one afternoon, one of my colleagues asked me a peculiar question which went along the curious lines of “so how comes you don’t wear a hijab if you are muslim”. Something in me felt different. Like for the first time, I felt as if I was not the same as everyone else. I felt different. But I wasn’t. I was the same as everyone else…or so I thought. I didn’t understand why I was being asked this question. Something I have never even thought to ask anyone EVER.
The week that followed was by far the most scariest I have seen in my lifetime at least; the 7/7 bombings. That morning the news was on in the office and I recall the police commissioner at the time announcing that everyone should start to make their way home, as transport was going to be locked down due to red alert and high security. My friend from university was also working not too far away on his internship, and I remember he turned up to my office to ask if we were going home. I wanted nothing more than to make my way home, but instead the senior partner said to him, “it’s not the end of the world”- which basically meant: Saira you have to stay at work. Mind you, I felt safe inside the office, but it took forever for my parents to make contact with me and to find out if I was even alive. Of course, the phone lines were all down. At that time, we didn’t have the facebook feature where you could alert everyone of your safety during a tragic event, in a click of a button. An hour later as the day went on, one of the partners arrived in the office after a session in court, and I asked her: “how is it outside?”, (considering that police and the armed forces had locked down EVERY STREET outside) to which she responded: “SARAH your security is not my concern”. Oh not to mention that getting my name wrong (because SAIRA is too difficult to pronounce clearly…) was followed by an instruction which had me roaming the streets of London, which essentially was “zombie apocalypse” dead silent, looking for a Sainsbury’s or Tescos to buy veggies and fruits so that my colleagues could make pimms – Yes PIMMS. Yep I did get lost- this was before smart phones and google maps so of course my dads handy A to Z rescued me and I managed to find my way through the police blockades.
The days after this I absolutely hated working there, with lever arch files thrown towards me, eye rolling in front of me, talking down to me, and the constant mispronunciation of my name (and at this point, even I was introducing myself to clients as SARAH because I started to believe I was SARAH). This still wasn’t enough to make me leave. I am not a quitter so I of course persevered, until one day, something happened.
I collapsed in front of the station. I couldn’t hear anything. I lost control in my muscles. Tears ran down my face. My stomach felt like it was melting and my brain felt like it was on fire. My heart was racing so much that I felt like I could hear someones music bass. I was in my Ally McBeal suit, on the floor, crying asking for help. Did people witness this, you may ask. Yes they did. But they walked on. I don’t know what was worse; me thinking I’m dying, or the fact that no one wants to help me stay alive?!
I won’t ever forget the one man who helped me up (which trust me isn’t easy as it may look!) but he called an ambulance and I was taken to the hospital. THAT my friends, was the first time I had heard of a panic attack. The feelings, emotions, tears that I faced everyday; taking my lunch breaks in the church so I could just hide and cry, were all this thing called ANXIETY, building up waiting for a release.
I don’t regret having that attack. Never had one after it. But it taught me a huge lesson and made me understand what anxiety felt like so that I knew what to look out for should I experience all those emotions again. My family also started to understand anxiety a bit more.
Fast forward a few years, I get married to a guy who I believed was the love of my life. Fast forward another year, he is no longer in my life. No apology, no explanation, no closure, just another woman. Simple as that. Oh and not to mention the narcissism. Of course, the breakup caused me to feel a lot of those same emotions that I felt when I was 19, but this time, I WAS READY. I was not going to allow someone to have that control over the way I felt. Yes it was sad, yes it hurt me. A lot. But what made me wake up every day was knowing that whilst I can’t control someones stupidity, I can control how I deal with it. Had I not had the panic attack when I was 19, I think I may have been in a much worse condition right now. I knew exactly what certain emotions and symptoms that I felt meant, and what I had to do in order to reduce those symptoms. It took some time, but I manage to get myself out of it now.
I have never really told anyone about my experience at the firm, and some people don’t even know that I went through a breakup. I felt that if people knew all this, it would make me look weak, and unable to cope at life. But guess what, none of us really know how to “cope” at life. When you’re in a culture where any form of mental health, be it minor or severe, is looked at as a taboo, you don’t ever feel like you can talk about what you are experiencing. You’re often told to “just get over it” or “have some hot chai, it will be alright”. It’s NOT a weakness people – it’s a part of LIFE. What is a weakness is NOT being open and transparent about the way we all feel. Imagine how amazing it would be if everyone opened up truly and showed the world that “third face”! There would be no barriers or boundaries. We would all be so healthy. I mean how messed up is it when I can ask friends and family to raise their hands if they went to the dentist in the past 6 months… or to raise their hands if they had a opticians appointment in the past year. Everyone would have no problem raising their hand at these questions, but the minute I ask to raise their hand if they had therapy in the past year, or if they saw a professional about their feelings, NO ONE would come forward. WHY do we not talk about our feelings?
There is absolutely nothing to be ashamed of when anxiety kicks in. Sometimes people around you can often mistake you for being rude or not wanting to socialise. But what they fail to realise, is that anyone going through anxiety or this state of mental darkness, just need time to go through it and come out into the light themselves- like me. I often tell people I am busy. But most likely I am just trying my best to cope, and once I have had that time, I will be absolutely fine!
So like this post says, I am busy. But not in a way most people understand.
It’s Thursday 7th February- and it’s Time to Talk.
Mental health problems affect one in four of us, yet people are still afraid to talk about it. Time to Talk Day encourages everyone to talk about mental health.
Growing up in an African and South Asian family, having a somewhat mixed heritage, I’ve always paid close attention to the different situations occurring in those particular regions. Having been born and brought up in Great Britain, a western and somewhat civilised society, I am fortunate enough to never have experienced some of the world’s injustices that occur everyday for many around the world. Injustices which have caused death, war, and destruction. One of the biggest forms of injustice occurring around the world is this sense of discrimination against particular groups; whether it be gender, religion, ethnicity, or sexuality related. Discrimination against women and children, however, has been an occurrence for MANY years and is shockingly still seen today in the developing world alike. What some may consider a private matter or a socio-cultural tradition is often a deprivation of an individual’s freedom and a direct violation of international human rights.
I grew up listening to some great stories of my mother’s country of birth, Pakistan. I often visited as a child too enjoying the family, culture, food, fashion and historical sites. I enjoyed playing with the children I met in the public park only to overhear bystanders make fun of me for playing with what they called “Churay”. At first I never understood what this meant, but quickly picked up that it was the term given to those seen to be “unclean”. You can imagine my reaction – unclean? What they didn’t get around to washing their hands today? No. It was the term given to those who often were paid to clean toilets and do all the dirty work around the house. I was horrified. Absolutely disheartened that others didn’t treat those kids the same as they treated me because of the jobs they did! It went against EVERYTHING I believed in and what I was taught by my parents: That we are ALL equal; NO-ONE is above or beneath you; We all bleed red; We are all one under God.
This whole thing of isolating a group of people because of the type of job they do, and calling them names like ‘churay’ or ‘chura’ is outdated, retrogressive, and one of the evils of the feudalistic society which plagues not only certain parts of Pakistan, but many developing countries for that matter. Because of this, women and young girls are usually the ones who are on the receiving end of abuse, exploitation and neglect.
Take Pakistan’s “Heera Mandi” (“Diamond Market”) as an other example; a red-light district associated with traditional dancing and singing, home and workplace to a large proportion of female sex workers including their children and other run-away children alike. Women are often led down the road to prostitution as unemployment and inflation cause a rise in poverty. However, sadly it seems that often family members reluctantly have to resort to forcing loved ones into prostitution to pay off personal debts.
Children of commercial sex workers are being ostracised by society by DEFAULT even before they are ever given the chance to develop their personality and status in the world. Where is the justice and equality that we are all given as a birth right here? Sadly, no where to be seen. Society begins to differentiate between children of sex workers and so called mainstream “normal” children. Unfortunately this leads to children being seen as illegitimate and are further stigmatised and therefore separated from mainstream schools and establishments. They are treated like minorities within their own country and are therefore often subject to terrible violence and denial of their rights; most importantly in my books: THE RIGHT TO AN EDUCATION.
The hope of an education, which is a birth given right in many developed countries, is almost dream-like in Pakistan for the children of Heera Mandi. It seems that the early years in which children go through school and get an education, is replaced in Pakistan’s Heera Mandi by constant discrimination, violence, rape, and torture and no education and awareness. The present state of these children is unacceptable and if nothing is done about it, then the children of sex workers in Pakistan will forever be victimised by their own country.
Saying this, I am so glad to see that Pakistan as a country has been an early international leader in the protection of the rights of children around the world. They ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1990 and began their commitment to defending rights of children. It was only until fairly recently when Pakistan became the 144th country to ratify the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography. When it comes to Women, Pakistan, particularly Punjab, has made it very clear that:
Women’s rights mean privileges and freedoms equal to those of men. Women rights refer to the fundamental rights in the political, economic, civil, social and cultural spheres.
The Constitution of Pakistan even provides equal rights to women, and the chapter on Principles of Policy underlines the principle of equal rights and equal treatment to ALL citizens/ persons, without any distinction including on the basis of SEX.
Despite all of this, women and children in certain parts of Pakistan, are still being exploited, denied rights, and excluded from mainstream society. Why though? Why is this still happening when even the law of the land protects women against such practices? It seems that the cultural norms that lie at the heart of Pakistani society have been exploited to oppress and discriminate against women. The so-called protectors of cultural practices are, in reality, the oppressors. This, then seems to generate these social biases which are most often to the detriment of women.
Men in Pakistan have retained, through the colonial legacy, a public role and relegated women to domestic chores. Even within the household, men are the managers. Thus women owe allegiance to men who not only control public and political affairs but also the household. The public/private dichotomy has undeniably resulted in the subjugation of women. They are the victims of social and cultural malpractices in the name of tradition and customs. – Criterion Quarterly
Pakistan has also put special measures in place to protect women against any form of discrimination by ratifying the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). Article 5 of CEDAW aims to modify social and cultural practices with a view to achieving the elimination of prejudices and discriminatory customary practices. It’s exactly that – CULTURAL practices which of course lie at the heart of Pakistani society. Many of these practices (now only practiced in remote areas of Pakistan) deprive women of their basic rights of life, freedom and dignity. They are implemented in the name of religion half the time, and the patriarchal system prevalent in the country. Honour killings and acid attacks of women even in my own country of Great Britain have become alarmingly frequent and need to be dealt with.
One woman is raped every six hours and one woman is a victim of domestic violence every two hours.- Human Rights Commission Pakistan
Despite the provisions of the various articles in the Constitution of Pakistan that uphold human dignity and equality, we see women shy away from reporting any abuse or crime they have been victim to because of the social bias authorities have towards men. Women suffer in spite of recognised ratified laws. In order to bring about a change in the way women and children are treated, we must transform the mindset of the people. Only then will we restore RESPECT for women; a direction towards respecting the female child of the family. Giving equal treatment to male and female children will inspire women with the dignity that has been denied to them. The three things that will play a big role in all of this is the home, the family and the school. If these values and this change of mindset are introduced in the education system, a cultural revolution that pushes away all the negative tradition-based biases against women can be achieved. A change in attitude has to come from within so that collectively there is a willingness to prevent any form of discrimination and inequality against women or children.
In celebration of International Women’s Day (8th March), I write this blog as an Advocate of women’s rights and victims of domestic abuse, and more so an issue that deeply affects me. In no way am I criticising Pakistan as a country. Rather, I am highlighting that even though there are laws in place that may guarantee human rights and protection, all are meaningless unless they are faithfully implemented.
Last week I was on the London Underground listening to Super Soul Conversations on Spotify with the inspiring Ms Oprah Winfrey. Her special guest was one of the all time happiness guru’s, Gretchen Rubin, who spoke about her happiness project.
Having listened to this, I asked myself a question which I don’t feel we get time to ask ourselves often: “What makes you happy?”
I wanted to challenge myself and create my own Happy Life Commandments and in turn challenge YOU, the reader, into doing the same and sharing this movement to create a ripple effect of positivity.
Below are my very own Happy Life Commandments:
1 – Just let it go.
When our life is already filled with too much business, rush, stress, and worries…just for a moment, let go of all that.
Everyday of our lives we are glued to machines vying for our attention; rings, beeps, vibrations, flags, likes, double taps, selfies…Sometimes you need to take a moment out for yourself when it gets a bit much, and let it go.
The noise you may hear from people trying to dictate your life to you, causing you unnecessary stress and concern… who cares right? RIGHT. Your life is YOURS not theirs, so let them make all the noise they want. Let it go.
2018 is definitely the year to stop troubling yourself over the smallest things. There are other bigger and better things you can shift that energy onto: YOURSELF. Learn more about yourself, create, innovate, love and just let it go.
2- Be Saira
It’s usually after a tragic incident that you start to really learn about yourself. Self exploration I call it. But If you’re lucky, you will have someone to teach you all this on your journey of self exploration.
Before the new year started, I made a pact with myself to own my God given gifts and my flaws, because it is THIS that makes me unique. My individuality comes from accepting and owning all that is me.
To all the girls who got told they were big and risk not being married- you are STRONG and BEAUTIFUL just the way you are and any man who doesn’t see that isn’t worth having. Love yourself first, because no one can make you happy unless you are happy with yourself first.
To all the girls who were made fun of for having fuller lips- isn’t it just fascinating and ironic to see the same people paying £££££ for them now?!
To all the girls who are pressured into straightening and damaging their natural hair with harsh products and heat because your natural hair is “too big” – Absolutely stupid…[Also SORRY but I can’t hear that noise over the volume of my own hair!!! LOL]
I love my curls and will rock them forever. Join me curlies in my #NoHeat2018 mission!
3- Think before you speak
T- is it True?
H- is it Helpful?
I – is it Inspiring?
N- is it Necessary?
K- is it Kind?
4- Keep dreaming
I’ve realised that dreams don’t have an expiration date, so we never have to stop…dream all you want and dream big!
5- Count your blessings
It is so quick to count ALL the problems we have in life, but we never count our blessings. I’ve really struggled at this but I have noticed that by counting my blessings, even the smallest ones, the problems don’t seem as big and concerning anymore. I can live with that.
6- Don’t worry about the future
Ok honestly, how many times has worrying about the future made you upset? It always bugs me because I am a natural born worrier! I have realised however that there is no point in worrying about the future, if I can’t take care of my present! So I have started to stop worrying and living in the moment, letting the future take care of it self for now.
7- Pay attention to the mind-body-soul connection
We all know that synchronicity and alignment of these three things is what ultimately brings PEACE. Being aware of YOU, and feed yourself nothing but truth, hope, love, harmony, joy and peace.
8 – LOVE
Love all you can… you will only get it back in abundance. I truly believe this. There is no room for judgement or any kind of negativity towards others in my books. Love one another and we can all live happily ever after! Our world needs more of this.
9- Listen to your heart
The most useful asset of a person is not a head full of knowledge, but instead a heart full of love and hands to help. You aren’t ever going to escape that feeling you get in your heart every time something happens, so you may as well listen to what it has to say. Your heart may be on your left, but it’s ALWAYS right!
10- Never stop questioning
I was once told off by a teacher during primary school for asking too many questions in class. In fact the teacher told my parents at the parents evening that “Saira tends to disrupt the class by asking too many questions”. Well, I still didn’t listen clearly, because asking questions is what has saved me from a lot of things that could have gone horribly wrong.
Even Einstein himself said that “the important thing is to never stop questioning. Never lose a holy curiosity”.
Take that Sir!
11- Trust the process
I have accepted and learnt that life won’t change in a day, week or month. You have to be patient. I also believe that we always end up right where we are meant to be right when we are meant to be there. Nothing in life will ever be random. I used to think it was, but my gosh was I wrong. Trust the process. I finally do.
So there you have it, my 11 Happy Life Commandments that I aim to stick by this year. It’s a great exercise worth doing for yourself and if you’d like to share them with me, then please do so! I would love to know what happy life commandments you have listed for yourself! Make sure you tag me on instagram and use the hashtag #HappySai11 to get this trending!
I Am Saira. 