Zaid Ismail
@zaidie@zaidismail.com
Author, life coach, and mental health activist. We need to change the narrative from disorders, illnesses, and survival to accountability, understanding, and thriving.
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Gratitude before regret
It’s impossible to be grateful for a blessing that you don’t acknowledge. Like believing that we’re entitled to certain outcomes because of our effort or contribution. Or believing that we’re entitled to be treated a certain way because we believe we’re a good person. Whether those entitlements are true is not the issue. The issue…
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Gratitude is not the first step
Gratitude is all that matters, because gratitude is not possible without everything that matters coming before it. Gratitude escapes us when we don’t respect the effort needed to achieve anything worth achieving. It escapes us when we assume that we’re entitled to an outcome, without considering our contribution that is needed towards that outcome. It…
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The absent parent
Even an absent parent is still parenting. It’s then on the shoulders of the present one to compensate for that. Sometimes, the absence of someone has a greater impact on us than the presence of others. This is especially true for parenting. The absent parent leaves the child with feelings of abandonment, insignificance, and a…
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Empathise
Empathy is expressed when we desire for others what we wish to have for ourselves. Sometimes, it’s something we have, and we hope that others will be able to enjoy the same value and benefit that we enjoy from it. Sometimes, it’s what we don’t have, yet we hope that we may be able to…
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Invest purposefully in your life
Invest in creating the life that you want, rather than escaping the life that you don’t want. It might sound obvious, but take a breather and consider what drives your choices. Are you driven by the need to avoid unpleasant encounters in your life? Or are you driven by the need to create encounters that…
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A Brain Dump
The short posts don’t allow for a meaningful purge of what rumbles inside my head. And there’s a lot of rumbling this morning. Having finally published my novel, the reactions I’ve noted along with the assumptions that people make about my reasons for doing so, are entertaining. I’ve always taken a morbid pleasure from watching…
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The understanding seeker
Seek to understand, so that you may be able to accept the events of your life with peace, rather than feeling compelled to let go with bitterness. It’s the inclination to want to be heard that denies us peace when we’re not heard. Or to want to be acknowledged when we are dismissed. Rather than…
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To be loved…
Love, without understanding, is mere infatuation. To love, is to see the strength that created such beauty, not just to admire the beauty. To love, is to caress the scar with a gentleness that honours the pain that caused it. To love, is to see the pain that sometimes distorts the beauty, without devaluing the…