Category: Health

  • Own your prejudice

    Own your prejudice

    While I can’t take credit for the poster, the message in the poster is 100% on point.

    If you find this offensive, I offer life coaching at very reasonable rates aimed at helping you to own your prejudices.

    We need to support women instead of accommodating wayward men.

    The same applies for boys who think their toys are an entitlement to sexual favours from women.

    That only happens because they have a low self-esteem, go base desires control their behaviour.

    Society’s insensitivity and lack of basic education about the natural processes of the biology of a woman is exactly the ignorance at the heart of the problem.

    And that doesn’t mean sex education.

    It means we need more education that highlights the human behind the biology, for both men and women, or boys and girls.

    In a time when information is so readily available to even the under privileged, ignorance is no longer an excuse.

    We need to change the narrative.

    Now is a great time to start!

  • Kill the label. Kill the stigma.

    Kill the label. Kill the stigma.

    ⚠ Trigger Warning ⚠

    The moment we attach a label to a life experience, we focus on the label and discard the merits of the experience.

    We make people invisible when we deny the reality of their experience by suggesting that there is something clinically wrong with them, despite causality of their emotional upheaval being clearly associated with their experiences in life.

    When we readily embraces such labels, it disempowers us to make sense of, and to rise above that which weighs us down.

    When we create such detachment from the cause of our duress, it denies us a voice in expressing our hurt or pain.

    Instead, it convinces us that we’re defective in some way.

    When the shame of such labels grows to define how we appear to others, we find familiarity and a common cause with others who suffer a similar struggle, resulting in a victim mindset that focuses on claiming their space as struggling humans who are afflicted with mental illness.

    That’s how we break each other down as humans, while building each other up as victims.

    You cannot break the stigma of mental health by undermining the humanness of the ones affected by the stigma.

    We need to see the human behind the labels that we throw at each other.

    Until then, compassion and empathy will continue to be in short supply.

    Kill the label, kill the stigma.

  • Emotional wellbeing, not mental health

    Emotional wellbeing, not mental health

    It is only through our internal wars that we lose sight of reality.

    The culture of labeling people dehumanises the very human that is struggling with their humanness.

    We focus on our demons so intently, that we become defined by them, bearing them patiently in quiet shame, protecting ourselves from being exposed for what we hold within.

    When we judge ourselves with such shame and harshness, we see the world through angry eyes.

    But, protocol and decorum prevents us from raging and venting without restraint, so we choose safe spaces in which to release the venom from within, on those who are incapable of opposing or resisting us.

    In the public space, we create carefully constructed apologies for our inadequacies, latching onto unhealthy concepts like ‘suffering from…’ whatever emotional torment we’re experiencing.

    That’s when we feed the belief that human emotion is an illness, or a disorder, because it’s the only hope we have of making sense of the war within.

    All this because we convinced ourselves that being any less than happy must be weak, or dysfunctional.

    The sway of human emotions, regardless of how crazy that sway may appear or be experienced, is a legitimate response to very real life experiences.

    Labeling the response does nothing to create understanding and healing around that traumatic or overwhelming experience.

    Stop labelling people because of their behaviour, and reconnect with your own empathy and compassion so that you may once more see the human behind the human condition.

    Own Your Life.

  • A simple smile is all it takes

    A simple smile is all it takes

    Discover something amazing about your emotional wellbeing by Googling the science of a smile.

    The obvious part from your research will reveal that it is the choice to smile, and not having a good reason to smile, that releases feel-good hormones into your brain.

    Therefore, a physical smile, even without good reason, raises your mood and overall sense of wellbeing.

    The not-so-obvious part is that this confirms that our thoughts and decisions precede the chemical response from our brain.

    The reason this is critically important is because it confirms that the chemical balance in our brain does not predict our emotional disposition, or our mood. It reflects how we feel.

    Don’t believe me? Research it for yourself, and you’ll discover that there is no science to support the theory of chemical imbalance being the cause of emotional duress.

    Your emotional duress is due to a legitimate experience that weighs you down.

    The moment you blame chemical balances for how you feel, you give up your ability to own your emotions, and to own your life.

    The difference between being a victim of life and being grateful for the life that you have lies in understanding why you feel the way that you do, rather than judging yourself for being inadequate for not having a happy or content disposition.

    Change the way you see yourself, and the way you experience your life will change.

    It always starts with you.

  • Emotional health before physical wellbeing

    Emotional health before physical wellbeing

    As well-intentioned as this is, it is not true.

    Our body does not have a mind of its own.

    And laziness is not about the amount of rest that we need.

    As is clearly experienced by many, getting enough rest most certainly does not guarantee productivity. Nor does it remedy procrastination.

    So what is laziness about? And does it actually exist?

    Laziness is how we describe the behaviour that we observe or experience when someone lacks the inclination to complete a task or project.

    The question we should therefore be asking is not why are we lazy? Or why our body supposedly needs rest. We should be questioning why we’re not committed to the task at hand.

    When we don’t believe in the value of the outcome relative to the effort that we need to put into something, chances are good that we’ll avoid it until we can’t avoid it any longer.

    Otherwise we’ll do it only if there is a threat of negative consequences for not doing it.

    Don’t detach your emotional space from your physical experience. Your body responds to your emotional disposition, it doesn’t define it.

    When we lose sight of this, we eee illness or dis-ease taking hold in our body, and we feel emotionally burdened because of it, rather than focusing on our emotional duress that we may be experiencing up to that point, and understanding that our body is simply responding to that duress.

    It sounds more complicated than it is. The important take-away from this is that when you experience lethargy or ailments in your body, it’s a sign that you’ve been under emotional duress for an extended period.

    Medication may provide temporary relief. But it won’t address the emotional duress, leaving you susceptible to more ailments taking hold in your body.

    Do you need help to reverse the physical impact of the emotional upheaval that you’ve experienced in life? Reach out via my website at zaidismail.com or on WhatsApp at +27836599183 to discover how we can reverse the effects of chronic illnesses without medication, while simultaneously improving the quality of your life and your relationships with significant others.

  • Naturally you…only more beautiful

    Naturally you…only more beautiful

    Sometimes, we grow so fixated on our appearance that we forget that it’s that very fixation that causes blemishes.

    Our bodies are most at balance and ease when our emotional balance is optimal.

    There is no single definition of what optional means because we’re all unique in what we take from life, and what we aspire to create within it.

    The moment we focus on our aesthetics, we lose sight of what makes us unique, and risk losing ourselves to the validation of our appearance from others.

    This starts a vicious cycle of our physical form requiring more maintenance and nurturing than it would naturally need, convincing us that our focus on our physical state is reflective of how we care for our spiritual or emotional state.

    Simply stated, balance of beauty comes from within, whereas imbalance of spirit comes from without.

    OK, perhaps that wasn’t so simple, so here’s one more attempt to explain this simply.

    When you focus on your appearance, you will lose sight of your essence. Of the substance of who you are.

    Focus on your substance and your appearance will become a natural and beautifully balanced expression of who you are that will require no extended beauty regiments, and instead will leave you glowing without the need for synthetic products.

    It’s a while lit lies effort and much cheaper to maintain as well, with sustainable results.

    Struggling to find that balance? Reach out via my website at zaidismail.com or on WhatsApp at +27836599183, and let’s get you on track to creating the life that you’ve always dreamed of.

    Photo credit : Adobe Stock

  • Saving my insanity

    Saving my insanity

    Sometimes I write to share my insanity, but sometimes I write to save it.

    When everything about the world feels unnatural, sanity offers no relief.

    Besides, like Vonnegut said, “A sane person, when compared to an insane society, will appear insane.”

    I have often considered myself that lone voice of sanity, and in that assumption, I found myself to be insane.

    Fulfilment lies in finding one who will embrace such insanity with me.

    Despite the search being over, the insanity remains unfulfilled.

  • Don’t just stay home – introspect

    Don’t just stay home – introspect

    It’s a time to rediscover what we lost when we were taking ourselves for granted.

    This might sound weird, but consider for a second that it’s in taking ourselves for granted that we find reason to take others for granted.

    In doing so, we take things around us for granted and end up committing excesses that harm us, and the environment around us.

    And then we look everywhere else but within ourselves to understand what went wrong.

    Let your lock down period be time to reconnect with what you once appreciated about yourself, and then use that as a reminder to appreciate what you once loved about others around you.

    The world is struggling because of the harshness that exists between us, long before it is impacted by how that harshness plays out in what we take without giving back.

    Start here. Treat yourself kindly, but with good reason. You’ll only discover that good reason when you seek to understand before you judge. Yourself, and others.

    #stayhome #healtheworld