You’ve lost your zeal for life.

You’ve gone from waking up with a determined heart, starting your day after Fajr to wanting to sleep all day. With a dream for the future and a plan for the day, you thought you were armed to take on anything that came your way. You were that girl with a hundred sparkly wishes, determined to make them true but now you can barely get through the day without being accompanied by constant tiredness and fogginess. You really have no idea what’s happening.

In fact, what went wrong?

Those infectious laughs with your friends, those deep, soulful conversations with your sisters and that infinite desire to wonderfully serve the world has been replaced with this need to shut yourself from the world. This need to hide in your bedroom and feel weighed down by everything.

A few months back, I found myself in a very similar situation. Constantly feeling agitated, tired (no matter what I did) and snapping at the people around me. That last one was the deal breaker. When I’m snapping at the people I love, I know for sure that something is missing inside. No matter how much I deny it at first, if I’m taking my frustration out on people, there is definitely some inner work to be done.

I kept thinking ‘What’s really happening to me?’ I couldn’t understand why I was feeling this way. It was a mixture of constant tiredness, no zeal whatsoever, no purpose or direction and feeling incredibly down. Everything felt like a chore – even the most basic of errands felt like a burden that I had to force myself to complete. And nothing seemed to go right. It was a constant struggle. I was seriously questioning whether to give up on this project and what to do with myself.  

After reading up on this issue, it was during that time I realized that I was turning off my light with so many low energy thoughts. No wonder I was feeling overburdened and ready to shut down. All these thoughts and feelings of regret, worry and sadness were weighing me down – to point where literally my body couldn’t physically take it any more. My mind was way overtaxed with so many self berating thoughts. And slowly the zest I had for living a beautiful life had slowly diminished. The cravings that would ignite my soul were flickering away.

And here I was DEPLETED of life force.

When your soul becomes heavy you loose your feminine ability to laugh, relax and cherish the moment. You lose the feminine spark that radiates zest and joy. It’s apart of you – that inner wild girl who wants to conquer the world one day, gently rock her baby to sleep that night and look gorgeous in doing it all!

That evening, I promised myself that I will gently get out of this low period. By stopping the low energy thoughts that’s weighing me down and letting my light shine. I’m suggesting that if you could relate to the incident above, that you do the same. Let go of all those depressing, critical thoughts that do absolutely no good for you and lift the burden off your soul.

Free your soul.

Following the 4 points listed below was what helped get out of that fogginess and darkness. Whenever I feel down for a long period of time, I come back to the list below.

1. Stop with the regret.

You’ve done something you genuinely regret. Now leave it. Forget about it. Don’t punish yourself for eternity because you momentarily made a mistake. Don’t relive the mistake/sin in your mind, all over again.

2. Consider the opinion of others but don’t take it to heart.

Your self worth does not rest on the opinion of one person. And why should it? Don’t let one person’s opinion define you.

3. Does superman exist? No. And neither does superwoman :))

On a weekly basis, write down your 3-4 most important priorities and focus on them. Each week, it might change. But invest your time in the most important people and values to you. It’s more important to spend time on your relationship than it is to clean to your house. Let your house be a mess but not your relationship.

4. Only you know how much effort you put in…

If you do less than your able to, you will feel it. When you don’t work as hard as you can and fluff around all day, it does weaken your soul. It dampens that flame inside of you. You get back what you put in. So if you don’t make the sacrifices to work hard, stress and worry will come about.