A Cleansing for the Soul
There is an abundance of social behaviours and factors that influence our every day lives and practices. From the way in which we talk, walk, dress and behave down to the way that our temperament impacts our actions on both a positive and negative scale, depending upon the circumstances that we encounter. Both types of behaviours are heavily impacted by what we store in our hearts and minds. Those individuals that we communicate with on a daily basis, whether it is as we buy coffee in the morning, interact with them in our offices, or continuously mentor and empower them as they enter our classrooms; all become the primal subjects of our daily routines. There is a natural tendency for us to inadvertently (re)produce a system that we instinctively designate to become our schedule — our internal clock becomes refabricated to reflect what we want to do/have to do, externally. Whether we find these tasks to be mundane or exciting, we are consistently working towards attaining “something”. This “something” continuously exerts strength upon our bodies and minds. Whether this “something” is for our personal means, or to assist others; we work extra hard to achieve our goals that we set for ourselves or for the ones that are set upon us. Thus very quickly, the desire to seek relaxation increases, as we are in dire need of replenishing and rejuvenating our energy so that we can produce better outsources… because face it, although at times we may act as mechanical beings that are engineered to do rigorous work on a daily, we are not robots that can continue to provide and create without seeking a positive outcome somewhere down the line…
Commonly, the escape that we tend to seek is taking time off of our “daily schedule” to travel to a far away land — a escapade filled with astonishing and surreal scenic views; a place to provide our bodies with the rest it desperately needs and begs for us to provide it with. Yet, as species that have been made to easily forget and become easily manipulated, we forget that the “break” and “peace” we yearn for can undoubtedly be found without even having to step outside of our home, town, city or country. This peace is deep within our own bodies.
By being mindful in locating those peaceful places within our own selves, we can help nourish what we tend to lack in the 11 months that we do not fast on the regular…
Remembering
Allah
Morning,
All
Day
And
Night
Out of the 11 months that we feed our bodies and minds, this is the month purely dedicated to becoming self-reflective individuals. Through the essence of seeking what our soul is longing for, there is a shift from literally feeding our bodies to instead providing nourishment to our souls.
Sana Ashfaq is an English, Social Science and Special Education Secondary School Teacher with the Halton District School Board. She is currently pursuing her Masters in Social Justice Education at University of Toronto. She is passionate about empowering people to make a difference in all aspects of their lives, and enjoys promoting and taking part in humanitarian work.
