“Dream big”
“Work hard, girl!”
“Go after it with all your heart”
“Chase your dreams… make it happen!”
All. my. life. I’ve been bombarded with the messages above. I’m sure you have to. As a little girl I was always pushed and expected to do the best in school, through college, alimiyyah and anything else that’d I’d possibly get my hands into – being the best was expected from me. As I grew up and set more and more beautiful, heart warming goals, I noticed a new energy creeping in – desperation.
Woah.
I become O.B.S.E.S.S.E.D with achieving the dream body. (To the point of puking whilst exercising and forcing myself to gulp down my vomit – eek!) All my social media feeds were filled with weight-loss motivation, food tips and fitness inspo – all in disguise of positivity and health. My obsession wasn’t healthy. I thought by surrounding myself with health inspiration, I’d be supporting myself. But it was having the opposite effect on me.
Reading up on nutritional books and health articles was triggering my inner mean girl. Every time I’d eat, my inner mean girl would be ranging on a volume 10: “If you want to slim down, put down the rye bread (carbs!)” or ” Your plate doesn’t have enough greens on it” or “You’re eating too much – stop now!”. This obsession – all in the name of hard work, body love and health was driving me crazy. That’s when I sought out the help of a health coach and read up on healing my relationship with food. (A blog post for later!).
Notice how desperation creeps up on you. In my case, it was in disguise of seeking greater health and body positivity. By themselves these goals are wonderful aspirations. But my mindset towards these goals was embedded in fear and lack. The difference between coming from a place of desperation versus abundance is mindset. The way I thought about these goals was crippling my chances of success.
What does desperation look like?
+ Thinking about it all day – it consumes your thoughts
+ Obsessing over every choice that may hinder your chances of attaining the goal
+ Your energy is constricted and tight when you think about it
+ You’re on the fence – every little thing can set you into extreme joy or sadness
+ You feel an emptiness and darkness within
+ This obsession determines your daily choices i.e. you avoid going out with friends in fear of eating unhealthy food
+ You feel threatened by anybody else whose achieved the same goal
Where does desperation come from?
1) Fear of not attaining it
2) Fear of losing it (if you’ve already attained it)
Fear. Fear. Fear. I’ve written a whole post about overcoming fear, which you can read here.
For this post, I want to shed light on a few home truths about desperation. This is about changing your mindset. It’s about challenging the way you think. Here goes…
+ With EVERYTHING in life, you’ve got to be okay with not having it. You’ve got to embrace whatever Allah brings your way. You’ve got to accept that your life may turn out completely opposite to how you want it. And that’s okay. Perhaps Allah will give you everything except for that which you bawled your eyes out for – and that’s okay too.
+ Desperation doesn’t give you what you want. It’s an illusion. It doesn’t change anything. In fact the more desperate you are, the greater your chances of pushing it away.
+ Have you ever had a needy friend? That one friend that overcompensates for everything? I.e she says sorry a hundred times, easily gets jealous over good things that happen to you and places hundreds of unrealistic expectations on you. It’s emotionally draining and becomes too much for a person to bare. Isn’t it your natural reaction to back off? It doesn’t how much you love your friend/spouse/family member, desperation pushes people away.
+ Find that confidence from within. Do you know why as women we (sometimes) centre our lives around our families/marriages/ friends/ careers/ hobbies? It’s because we never found that strength and foundation from within. And until you do, you’ll constantly be peeping into the big, wide world constantly looking for the next thing to seek that strength and inner validation.
+ When you let go of desperation, you become a magnet for what you’re seeking. Opposites attract. Painfully holding on and wanting something desperately only prolongs your pain. If you keep holding onto pain, you’re only going to attract more pain. What you focus on grow. So if your focusing on the pain of letting go and desperately trying to hold on… you’re only going to get more of that. We have this false dream that once we achieve our goals, all the pain, frustration and worry will suddenly drop – uh uh!
+ Look at all those girls who’ve lost weight yet still feel lonely, desperately craving attention. Look at all those couples, who believed that finding their dream spouse will end their loneliness – yet despite meeting their dream partner, they still feel empty. You cannot take the path of desperation and expect that once you arrive at your destination, all your issues will magically disappear. Because it won’t. The feeling of attainment from reaching your goals might cloud your mind for a few months, but sooner or later the same feelings of desperation will slowly creep back in.
+ What are you afraid of losing? We’re all leaving. We all have our own departure dates. When you get caught up in attachment and desperation, remember that you’re not here forever. We’re all leaving – there’s nothing to get attached to.
Remember that desperation is an illusion from you ego (and we all have one). No matter how hard and impossible it feels, remember that love is your truth. Love, freedom and ease is your birthright. Especially as the majority of those reading this blog post are women. Our feminine energy thrives on freedom, going with flow, letting go of rigid plans and dancing in the present moment. And that’s why we agonise over the future so much.
So now it’s over to you Beautiful. I know it’s really tough to admit to yourself that you’re feeling needy or desperate for whatever you seek. I hope this post gives you the courage and support to open that conversation with yourself. To really dig deep and not be afraid of your reality – because that can change. You can go from being a desperately needy woman to a radiantly glowing and fiercely gorgeous woman who isn’t afraid.
Ps. If you want to chat a little bit more about overcoming fear and you inner mean girl talk, contact me here for a free 20 min life coaching session.
24 Responses
Subhan’Allah this is an amazing post. As I read it, I couldn’t help but think that it’s the same with everything in life. desperately wanting something until it consumes your life. I need to save this man!
Awwww I can completely relate, hope this post helped… it takes practise but you can absolutely get there ?
What is the Islamic solution. I don’t see any reminders from Quran and Sunnah.
This was a really beautiful post! It’s so true sometimes we get so caught up in what we want that we go to unhealthy, desperate measures to try and reach it. It’s great to have goals but we should work towards them modestly and know in the back of our minds that there is a chance this is not Allah’s plan for us. Thank you for this beautiful article. It was very insightful <3
Absolutely agree with you 🙂 Thank you for your beautiful comment x
Your honesty is refreshing! I had no idea you were a life coach mashaAllah!
Awww thank you!
I don’t know why but this post made me cry. Your are right. It is okay if you don’t get what you wanted with all your heart and it is okay if you lost something you loved the most because even we are not going to stay here forever. I LOVED THIS SO MUCH! Thankyou for writing this.
Reading your comment made me swell up in tears… I hope this was of service to you. I’m here for you if you ever need any support, Much love x
Such a great reflection, thank you xo
Thank you for stopping by x
I love how you started off your post. Such encouraging thoughts! 🙂
“Dream big”
“Work hard, girl!”
“Go after it with all your heart”
“Chase your dreams… make it happen!”
Thank you ?
I wanted to be thin once.. then I wanted to get married…then I wanted a baby..now I want a job… this desperation for everything hasn’t solved my inner turmoil..neither attaining those goals.
Now that I am looking for a job I am thinking once I attain it my current worry and anxiety will go away. So untrue!
Thank you for this post. It helped put a reset to my thoughts lately.
I’m so happy it helped 🙂 It’s so true that no matter how much you attain, your mind will constantly jump to the next thing unless you bring yourself into the present moment and live here and now (whilst striving better life in this world and the hereafter).
Wow this was a really interesting post, I love how honest you are with what you went through.
Jazakillah for stopping by. I hope this of service to you inshaAllah x
Nice post.Every woman have these kind of feelings and want to get rid of these thoughts.
Yep :))
As I was reading through what desperation look like, I just realised how desperate I am about some things I am trying to change in my life. And now I know much clearly why things don’t work out as expected. It was a convincing read Fab!!(I couldn’t see your name 🙂 ..) And I know it is not that easy to change the mindset of desperation to mindset of love and freedom. Hoping to find more on the “how” in future posts…
With mindset posts, it really is about changing your mindset – so like tackling old beliefs, challenging thinking habits, changing your perception towards things, developing new ways of thinking (that go on to effect the way you behave).
I can understand why it doesn’t feel like much of a ‘how’ post but with dealing with desperation, letting go and not doing much is the remedy. Desperation happens because you mind is already obsessing and doing too much. The pointers in the blog post will allow you to not over think, over worry and not think about how to stop this but rather to drop it and let it be.
Hope that helps x
check out the book beauty fee Sabililah by lina ahmed.it talks about how to get this freedom mindset through spiritual practices.I think you would really enjoy it! Xo
This article is so relatable. I am a short height girl and have always been judged as someone who eats a lot due to having a chubby figure. Sometimes I used to skip eating meals because I was compared to my tall friends who despite eating just like me look slimmer. But later on I was able to get rid of this feeling of wanting to show people that I’m not fat. I exercise and eat what I want because I have realized that no matter what people will never stop judging you.
Oh I hear you! No matter what you do, people will always stare/comment/pick on something and that’s why it’s so important to make changes for your happiness not others.