Morning Thoughts

Waking up with negative thoughts on a daily basis is my fight. It is often difficult just to toss them away and get up to enjoy life, but when I am able to do this, it usually really works. I have this strong desire to enjoy my own company, which sometimes I do but a lot of times I don't. You have to really accept who you are to do this, and you have to know how to entertain the thoughts that need entertaining and ignore the other unwanted intrusive thoughts that offer no solution. It is just that my current struggle is making the differentiation between my thoughts and my emotions. It is so easy for us to confuse between the two because thoughts often lead us to feel particular emotions, which we think are real ones but are quite simply the product of giving in to these thoughts.

Ya Allah, help us get rid of unwanted thoughts. Help us thank You for every tiny little bliss. Help us see the good in life. Help us maintain healthy relationships with the people we love the most.

Things I am grateful for today:

1. Taha's morning hugs before work.
2. Getting up and fighting every little thought.
3. Having prayed fajr today after a few days of fighting.
4. The beautiful cloudy weather, which will be sunny in a few hours.
5. I am grateful for drinking clean water.
6. Grateful for the new facial wash that feels so refreshing.
7. Grateful for the morning routine that I have.
8. Grateful for how easy it is to shop here, online or physically.
9. Grateful for the books I am reading these days and for the knowledge that gives me the power to fight every negative thought and to remember Allah every step of the way.
10. Grateful for breakfast and the varieties we have in the fridge. Such bliss alhamdulillah!

Things I adore about Taha:

1. His morning hugs which he never ever misses.
2. His energy.
3. How easily he spots my bad moods and understands.
4. His openness to listen to my deepest secrets and thoughts.
5. His kind heart.

On Differentiations.

It's truly important to know how to differentiate between thoughts only being the product of a bad mood, like PMS, and real thoughts, which are by definition helpful ones, so anything otherwise is just a product of bad moods, especially extremely bad moods like during PMS.

The fact that the oldest cliches are the truest makes the cliche of "There is light at the end of the tunnel" just as true as "Time heals." The journey is often tough but there is always a chance for something to cling to on the hope that that light will be visible soon.

Things I am grateful for today:

1. I am grateful for waking up earlier than usual.
2. I am grateful for not sleeping in the middle of saying the morning athkar.
3. I am grateful for Taha's beautiful smile once he opens the door when he's back from work.
4. I am grateful for every single phone call with Takateeko.
5. I am grateful for our beautiful balcony, and the time I spend in it in the day.
6. I am grateful for coffee, when drunk in the balcony especially.
7. I am grateful for the feeling of family that Taha gives me.
8. I am grateful for being smart and intelligent.
9. I am grateful for knowing that everything takes time, even if I feel very impatient sometimes.
10. I am grateful for truly believing that Allah must be teaching me something out of this struggle I face some days.

Things I love about anxiety:

1. It is teaching me how to be truly myself.
2. It is making me strive to be more present.
3. It is making me self-aware.
4. It is developing my self-compassion.
5. It is giving me the time and effort to be kind to myself.
6. It is teaching me that everything negative has an ending.
7. It is teaching me to take deep breaths all the time.
8. It is teaching me that things take time.
9. It is making me more confident to talk about mental health problems.
10. It is making me more aware of what I need to fix and what I actually found that I do like about myself.

More Lists

Every time I get these intrusive, obsessive thoughts, I get to tell myself something which I realise, if I keep repeating, will make things so much easier on me. The intrusive thoughts happen to come during the week before my period, when I am more susceptible to fall into the traps of repetitive thoughts. It appears that I may be experiencing an intense type of PMS for a while down. So I am going to track down how I will be feeling every month before my period, to see if I can associate this with PMS, if it wasn't related to any vitamin deficiency. 

One thing I truly admire in myself is the ability to always look for something new to help me or for a new method or technique to guide me. Books have been helping a lot, though they keep telling me what I am doing is actually wrong and I need to change my habits, which is extremely challenging.

I also keep realising that I am beginning to fall in love with lists; gratitude lists, things I love about myself, things I love about Taha, things anxiety teach me, and recently, maybe another list would be 'helpful phrases to repeat in bad times'.

Things I am grateful for today:

1. Breakfast with Taha, even at 1 PM.
2. The beautiful sun falling on my balcony.
3. Conversations with neighbours, i.e., Jackie.
4. Phone calls with Takateeko.
5. Believing that I am an active, energetic person when it is truly hard to believe it.
6. House chores. The feeling I get after cleaning the kitchen, changing the bedsheets, or doing laundry is amazing. 
7. Grateful for my laptop and how easy it is for me to write on my blog.
8. I am so very grateful for books and how reading is immensely helping me cope.
9. I am grateful for the days I fight and never give up, and for my willpower. 
10. Grateful for the trip we took to Horsham yesterday and the time we spent walking and bathing in the sun in the park there, and for the delicious dinner we had upon returning.

Things I love about myself today and yesterday:

1. My willpower to go on and never give up
2. The awareness I feel whenever I realise how much anxiety is teaching me.
3. The acceptance I am in towards growing up, slowly.
4. Knowing deep down inside that this is going to pass.
5. My closeness to Allah. I would love love love to keep having conversations with Him because one way or another I always feel Him answering me. Alhamdulellah.

Things I love about Taha (and our relationship):

1. He's the most empathetic person to strangers.
2. I love the understanding between us.
3. I love how our fights are never about someone proving himself right to the other.
4. I love his openness to the point that I can tell him my deepest secrets.
5. I love the days when we cook together, especially ma7shi days! 
6. I love how considerate he is in the kitchen and how he usually cleans the kitchen during weekends.
7. I love how silly we both can be with each other.
8. I love when he laughs out loud, especially when he's laughing about something I said.

Things to repeat during tough times:

1. You are not alone. You are normal.
2. This has happened before and it will happen again and it is totally OK!
3. This is probably PMS. Just keep an open mind.
4. You don't need proof that you love him.
5. Allah sees so much potential in you.
6. Don't forget to tell Allah everything and cry to Him if you need to.
7. Allah knows.
8. Taha is with you.
9. You can do it. Everyone else has done it and you are no less powerful.
10. You are not lazy. Don't label yourself. Laziness is, after all, a choice.
11. Look how far you've come and look forward to how far you will go!
12. Takateeko is always here to listen.
13. You are going to make it and you are going to wonder how you thought you'd never make it.
14. Trusting in Allah's plan is everything!
15. Having faith is key!
16. This is literally in your head. Everything outside is fine!
17. Remember to take deep breaths. They do magic!
18. Don't forget self-compassion. There is nothing more important than being kind to yourself.
19. Once you wake up, get up. Don't wait for the evil thoughts to hit!
20. Remember, there is always a way out of every negative feeling you have.

Things Anxiety Gifts Us With

Sometimes I ask myself whether my thoughts are a product of my emotions or the other way around. The question may seem easy but it is far from it. I think it could be both ways depending on the situation itself. For example, if I have an intrusive thought, it will trigger a particular emotion. But sometimes a particular emotion will bring some thoughts inside. I am not sure this makes any sense but it is at least how I feel sometimes.

I think one should be grateful to thoughts as much as he should be grateful to emotions, even the wrong or intrusive ones. Intrusive thoughts tell us to pay attention to something that is usually just a result of fear. Intrusive thoughts tell us that we are fearful. Once we realise the emotion of fear, we will work on calming ourselves down and telling her, 'These thoughts are not important, and thus don't beat up yourself because you are afraid. The fear will go when you realise the unimportance of the thought.'

Things anxiety teach me:

1. Intrusive thoughts are not helpful, but they are usually a sign that we are anxious.
2. Emotions are a result of thoughts (at least for me), and if thoughts are a lie, the emotion itself won't define us, so long as we don't let these two drive us to behave in certain ways.
3. I am a sensitive person, and that is a beautiful thing to realise, becuase it makes me see the world differently.
4. This has happened before and it will happen again, and it is OK!
5. Routines are important because they help us create a balance in our days and look forward to something when we wake up
6. I am human, and it is completely ok to be fearful of the future or to want to be OK.
7. Take advantage of every day in which you wake up feeling good.
8. You can do much more than what you think.
9. You are absolutely capable of pushing yourself to do the things you fear the most.
10. Anxiety taught me and still teach me to be more empathetic than ever.

Things I am grateful for today:

1. Conversations with Takateeko.
2. I am grateful for WhatsApp and how easy it is to communicate with the people I love.
3. I am grateful for not being alone in how I am feeling, even if it truly feels so.
4. I am grateful for always thinking of how much I can't live without Taha.
5. I am grateful for how understanding, kind, empathetic, polite, respectful, thankful, and loving Taha is. It is something I remind myself of every day.
6. I am grateful for the beautiful time I spend drinking coffee or tea in our gorgeous balcony.
7. I am grateful for anxiety. I will say this every single day.
8. I am grateful for realising I am capable and strong
9. I am grateful for the daily reminders I put on my phone which do help me remember how this is an ongoing journey of self-compassion and positivity-finding.
10. I am grateful for waking up every morning knowing that I am loved, truly loved, by friends and family, and by Taha. 

I am loved. I am loved. I am loved.

Next to Nothing - On the Beauty of Anxiety

The days are lost between my thoughts. Every morning upon waking I ask myself, what day is it? What's happening in my life? Who am I? I feel a new person. There is someone different inside, someone I am still trying to get to know. Someone who is trying to kill the bad old habits. But that someone is confused about time. When did we grow up? When did we feel alienated from ourselves? When did that new self come and where did it come from? So many questions that are as intriguing as they are exhausting, but I guess the good kind of exhaustion.

--

There is something funny about anxiety. Something that makes all other normal 'down' moods feel OK. The intensity of an anxiety attack makes us brave to face all other daily down moods. When we experience a bad day or a tough day at work, we say, "well, at least it is not an anxiety attack" or something along the lines of "I have seen so much worse with anxiety that I absolutely don't mind these feelings I have now." Anxiety makes us accept all other minor depressive states, all the other fears, and all the other worries that come and go. These are just there to remind us that, a year or two years ago before we experienced the intensity of anxiety, they truly were bliss without us realising.

I am so grateful for how anxiety made me trivialise every other emotion I have, not in the negative sense but in the sense that I have been through so much worse to actually feel bad about those emotions. Outside anxiety attacks, everything becomes so small in comparison. 

I keep wondering, when did I start to feel the beauty of anxiety? I believe when I started accepting it is there for a reason. My mind has chosen anxiety because it is fucking smart it has a dramatic tendency to protect me. And only smart minds have anxieties, because vain people don't think about the deeper purposes of life. They don't ask the big questions: Why am I here? What is my life purpose? Who am I good for? Am I even good enough? What if I just never were here? What difference would that make to the people around me? They don't ask these questions because their minds are so sure, but ours aren't. We wonder if we are good enough, if what we are doing is enough, what we are feeling is enough, and if our purpose (if we found one) is enough. 

Anxious minds are inside smart people. This is why, during therapy, Sophie used to tell me that I am so very smart whenever I said anything about how to deal with my anxiety. She said that anxiety doesn't happen to dumb people. It happens to smart people. And this is when I realised how smart I was.

Dear anxiety, I am so grateful to have you. We have this love-hate relationship, but I do accept you in my life and I believe you have given me the gift of being a meticulous person because of how anxious I can be. Thank you. Alhamdulellah for having you.

Things I am grateful for today:

1. I am grateful for the sun.
2. I am grateful for the rain.
3. I am grateful for having sisters I can talk to for hours.
4. I am grateful for how smart I realise I am every day.
5. I am grateful for every change that happens within me.
6. I am grateful for being in the UK. It is so easy to try new things here and to travel everywhere.
7. I am grateful for coffee.
8. I am grateful for always trying new things and never giving up even when I feel I am tempted to (and by giving up I mean giving up to the boring routines that life sometimes gives us)
9. I am grateful for all the lessons I learned from anxiety and how I am slowly learning to embrace it rather than running away from the thoughts it brings.
10. I am grateful for thinking of Allah in every good mood I am in and thinking of how much He is the one who has helped me all throughout and how I believe I wouldn't have made it without Him. Alhamdulellah.
11. I am grateful for the growth I am feeling these days towards some of my friendships and for trying so hard to understand that it is ok to grow out of a friendship because of the need to protect yourself.

Time Heals...

The oldest cliches are often the truest, even if it takes us so much time to realise how true they are. I keep realising one of them more every day these days. 

Time heals. It's true, and it couldn't be truer for me than now. I can sense time making every hardship just a tiny bit easier on me. I can feel it within the healing journey I have been taking for over a year now. Time heals. It stretches the pain and loosens the grip of anxieties and fears which hold us captive for long periods of time. It is proof that we will make it, because we have made it through before. Time heals. It is a coping mechanism that makes us willing to be patient, as long as the pain will slowly fade with it (time). It is all about hope and faith, the hope that tomorrow will be better and the faith to keep going because the people around us love and cherish us. Time heals, and if it doesn't heal, it makes us get used to the pain.

But it does heal, one way or another.

I haven't got enough time to ponder the things I love about myself today, so I will first write the things I am grateful for:

1. I am grateful for empathy.
2. I am grateful for my good health. Nothing ever beats being healthy!
3. I am grateful for my wisdom to know that I have been through hardships before and I can get through these too.
4. I am grateful for the personality shift in me. It is teaching me millions of things.
5. I am grateful for Mama and her beautiful spirit and amazing humour.
6. I am grateful for the in-depth conversations with Taha.
7. I am grateful for the desire to have kids, which I thought I would never ever have in my life.
8. I am grateful for being closer to Allah, even though I am still so flawed but I try.
9. I am grateful for the sunshine, as well as the rainy days, and the beautiful weather of the UK
10. I am grateful for slowly learning how to get myself out of the selective memory and the nostalgia to go back to Egypt

Resolutions and Gratitude

Resolutions are a fantastic opportunity for us to start over, not on New Years' Eve, but on any eve. They give us second chances. Endless chances, to be precise.

Things to be grateful for:

1. The breath. That deep, deep breath.
2. Being able to stand in the kitchen and make breakfast and lunch and desserts.
3. Grateful for being present.
4. Grateful for anxiety. Without anxiety I would've never known who I truly am and strived to be the best version of mysef.
5. Grateful for technology during times like this.
6. Grateful for being healthy.
7. Grateful for thoughts, whether real ones or intrusive ones. They teach me so much through pain.
8. Grateful for love. The healing power of love. For having people around me who love me.
9. Grateful for water and especially clean water.
10. Grateful for the clean air we breathe.