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“All the things that truly matter, beauty, love, creativity, joy and inner peace arise from beyond the mind.”

~Eckhart Tolle

Remember to put the glass down!

A psychologist walked around a room while teaching stress management to an audience. As she raised a glass of water, everyone expected they’d be asked the “half empty or half full” question. Instead, with a smile on her face, she inquired: “ How heavy is this glass of water?”

Answers called out ranged from 8 oz. to 20 oz.

She replied, “The absolute weight doesn't matter. It depends on how long you hold it. If I hold it for a minute, its not a problem. If I hold it for an hour, I’ll have an ache in my arm . If I hold it for a day, my arm will feel numb and paralyzed. In each case, the weight of the glass doesn't change, but the longer I hold it, the heavier it becomes.”

She continued, “ The stresses and worries in life are like that glass of water. Think about them for a while and nothing happens. Think about them a bit longer, and they begin to hurt. And if you think about them all day long, you will feel paralyzed, unable to do anything. “

~Remember to put the glass down.

So what is stress basically? Wikipedia describes stress as:

“Physiological or biological stress is an organism's response to  a stressor such as an environmental condition or a stimulus. Stress is a body's method of reacting to a challenge. According to the stressful event, the body's way to respond to stress is by sympathetic nervous system activation which results in the fight-or-flight response. Because the body cannot keep this state for long periods of time, the parasympathetic system returns the body's physiological conditions to normal (homeostasis). In humans, stress typically describes a negative condition or a positive condition that can have an impact on a person's mental and physical well-being.”

Stress: We've all felt it. Sometimes stress can be a positive force, motivating you to perform well at your piano recital or job interview. But often — like when you're stuck in traffic — it's a negative force. If you experience stress over a prolonged period of time, it could become chronic — unless you take action. Some ways to deal with stress are as follows:

1.  Avoid Caffeine, Alcohol, and Nicotine:  Avoid, or at least reduce your consumption of, nicotine and all drinks containing caffeine and alcohol.

2. Indulge in Physical Activity: Work off stress with physical activities  like jogging, tennis, gardening.

3. Get More Sleep: Lack of rest just aggravates stress.

4.Try Relaxation Techniques: Include rest and relaxation in your daily schedule. Don’t allow other obligations to encroach. This is your time to take a break from all responsibilities and recharge your batteries.

5. Finding pleasure:  Do something that makes you feel good like starting an art project, taking a nature walk, watch an old movie, etc.

6. Talk to Someone: If something or someone is bothering you, try to communicate your concerns in an open and respectful way.

7. Keep a Stress Diary:  Each time you feel stressed, keep track of it in your journal. As you keep a daily log, you will begin to see patterns and common themes.

8.Take Control:  If the evening news makes you anxious, turn the TV off. If traffic’s got you tense, take a longer but less-traveled route. If going to the market is an unpleasant chore, do your grocery shopping online.

9.  Accept the things you can’t change: Some sources of stress are unavoidable. You can’t prevent or change stressors such as the death of a loved one, a serious illness, or a national recession. In such cases, the best way to cope with stress is to accept things as they are. Acceptance may be difficult, but in the long run, it’s easier than railing against a situation you can’t change.

10.       And most importantly, don’t sweat the small stuff ...and its all small stuff…

“Your death and your meeting with the Creator are approaching, and your greatest worry is what to wear tomorrow.”
-Yasmin Mogahed

If only our eyes say souls instead of bodies, how very different our ideals of beauty would be?

Disney Quote

“Some people are worth melting for…”

-Olaf from Frozen

Its not too Late

You sleep through your alarm,

You rush through zuhr,

Then you’re too busy for Asr,

Maghrib passes without you realizing it,

Then you stay on your laptop conveniently forgetting Isha.

You have wasted one whole day.

When you wake up the next day, purify your intentions.

Ask forgiveness from Allah; 

  ۗ وَاللَّهُ غَفُورٌ رَحِيمٌ

"And Allah is Forgiving and Merciful."

(Surah Nur- 22)

Start again. Its not too late.  And Pray to Allah that He may guide you.

All the World's a Stage - William Shekespeare

All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances,
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages. At first, the infant,
Mewling and puking in the nurse's arms.
Then the whining schoolboy, with his satchel
And shining morning face, creeping like snail
Unwillingly to school. And then the lover,
Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad
Made to his mistress' eyebrow. Then a soldier,
Full of strange oaths and bearded like the pard,
Jealous in honor, sudden and quick in quarrel,
Seeking the bubble reputation
Even in the cannon's mouth. 

And then the justice,
In fair round belly with good capon lined,
With eyes severe and beard of formal cut,
Full of wise saws and modern instances;
And so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts
Into the lean and slippered pantaloon,
With spectacles on nose and pouch on side;
His youthful hose, well saved, a world too wide
For his shrunk shank, and his big manly voice,
Turning again toward childish treble, pipes
And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all,
That ends this strange eventful history,
Is second childishness and mere oblivion,
Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.

(William Shakespeare)

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Life is too short to stress yourself with people who don’t deserve to be an issue in  your life. 

Disney Quote

The flower that blooms in adversity is the most rare and beautiful of all.

-Mulan

Education

“Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.”

-Nelson Mandela

Do You Not See the Birds?

أَلَمْ يَرَوْا إِلَى الطَّيْرِ مُسَخَّرَاتٍ فِي جَوِّ السَّمَاءِ مَا يُمْسِكُهُنَّ إِلَّا اللَّهُ ۗ إِنَّ فِي ذَٰلِكَ لَآيَاتٍ لِقَوْمٍ يُؤْمِنُونَ 

“Do they not see the birds controlled in the atmosphere of the sky? None holds them up except Allah . Indeed in that are signs for a people who believe.”

(16:79)

أَوَلَمْ يَرَوْا إِلَى الطَّيْرِ فَوْقَهُمْ صَافَّاتٍ وَيَقْبِضْنَ ۚ مَا يُمْسِكُهُنَّ إِلَّا الرَّحْمَٰنُ ۚ إِنَّهُ بِكُلِّ شَيْءٍ بَصِيرٌ

“Do they not see the birds above them with wings outspread and [sometimes] folded in? None holds them [aloft] except the Most Merciful. Indeed He is, of all things, Seeing.”

(67:19)

The Muslimah

When she is a daughter, she opens a door of Jannah for her father.

When she is a wife, she completes half of deen of her husband.

When she is a mother, Jannah lies under her feet.

The Lazy people

“I always choose a lazy person to do a hard job because a lazy person will find an easy way to do it.”

-Bill Gates

The Dead Heart

"Do you think the heart is dead? Is it too broken this time? Every winter the flowers crumble and the trees die. And every spring, He gives them life again. Can not the One who gives life to the dead land, give life to your dead heart?"

Yasmin Mogahed

Jummah- The day of Congregation

يَاأَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ ءَامَنُوا إِذَا نُودِيَ لِلصَّلَاةِ مِنْ يَوْمِ الْجُمُعَةِ فَاسْعَوْا إِلَى ذِكْرِ اللَّهِ وَذَرُوا الْبَيْعَ 

ذَلِكُمْ خَيْرٌ لَكُمْ إِنْ كُنْتُمْ تَعْلَمُونَ

“O you who have believed, when [the adhan] is called for the prayer on the day of Jumu'ah [Friday], then proceed to the remembrance of Allah and leave trade. That is better for you, if you only knew.”

(Surah Al-Jumu’ah- Ayat 9)

 "On every Friday the angels take their stand at every gate of the mosques to write the names of the people chronologically (i.e. according to the time of their arrival for the Friday prayer) and when the Imam sits (on the pulpit) they fold up their scrolls and get ready to listen to the sermon."

—Collected by Muhammad al-Bukhari, Sahih al-Bukhari.

Success isn’t measured by money or power or social rank. Success is measured by your discipline and inner peace.

-Mike Ditka

(American Football Player)

So keep your head high, keep your chin up, and most importantly, keep smiling, because life's a beautiful thing and there is so much to smile about.

-Marilyn Monroe (1926-1962)

Always Ask Yourself

And, before behaving in any way, ask yourself: "Is this the best I can do?"
And if not, do something better.

"Do not be people without minds of your own, saying that if others treat you well you will treat them well and that if they do wrong you will do wrong. But (instead) accustom yourselves to do good if people do good and not to do wrong if they do evil."

(Al Tirmidhi- Hadith 1325)

When Mountains Crumble

In Surah Al-Haqqah, ayat 13 and 14, the Quran says:

فَإِذَا نُفِخَ فِي الصُّورِ نَفْخَةٌ وَاحِدَةٌ

"Then, when one blast is sounded on the Trumpet,

وَحُمِلَتِ الْأَرْضُ وَالْجِبَالُ فَدُكَّتَا دَكَّةً وَاحِدَةً

 And the earth is moved, and its mountains, and they are crushed to powder at one stroke,-"

Lets talk scientifically. We know there are inter-molecular forces present between the molecules in all states of matter i.e. solids, liquids and gases.

In the case of liquids, there are three types of inter-molecular forces :

•     Dipole-Dipole Forces
• London Dispersion Force
•  Hydrogen Bonding

               

             

Among these three types of forces, Hydrogen Bonding is the strongest. It is the attraction between the lone pairs of a highly electronegative atom such as that of O, N or F and a H atom like in Water.

Recent studies have shown that if Water is subjected to a particular frequency, the Hydrogen Bonding present between its molecules break. Hence there is no intermolecular forces to hold the particles together and water changes to gaseous form.

Mountainous rocks consisting of silicates of Mg, Ca and Al are made up of about fifty percent water.  At a particular frequency, the Hydrogen Bonding of water molecules may break and water will change to gaseous form.

So the rocks will lose their structure as water evaporates and hence, as The Quran says the mountains will be crushed to powder at one stroke! On that day will the Event of Qiyamat take place.

May Allah guide us towards the Right path.  Ameen.

Remember me in your prayers.

Mahnoor Javed.