Awe (noun) – a feeling of reverential respect mixed with fear or wonder.

We all have experienced moments of awe, when you see or feel something which creates a feeling of overwhelm mixed with excitement and surprise all in the one moment. Physiologically your eyes may water, you feel goosebumps and your jaw drops. Whether these moments happen at the tops of mountains, whilst peeling some pomegranate or deep reflection through Qur’anic verses, awe moments are remembered and can at times be life changing. 

Even when we are feeling low, moments like these can be a pickup, and create a shift in your mood.  Awe moments can create shifts as discovered in recent scientific analysis we understand that these awe moments actually have a deeper intercellular movement going on which is good for our health, ‘awe experiences may bring with them a host of physiological, psychological and social effect, for example studies have found that feelings of awe...

HISTORY AND BACKGROUND

The kiwifruit is a large berry that grows on a species of woody vine in the genus Actinidia. Kiwis have been famously cultivated in New Zealand, but it actually originated in eastern China. 

The kiwi fruit typically grows in an oval shape and is roughly  the size of an egg. Its skin is camel in color, fibrous, and coated in a light fuzz. Despite its fuzzy covering, the kiwi’s skin is edible and tart. The kiwi’s flesh is bright green with rows of distinctive tiny black seeds, which can also be eaten. Kiwis have a sweet, tart, and bold taste — making them a popular addition to a healthy breakfast or lunch. 

IMPRESSIVE HEALTH BENEFITS 

Kiwi fruits are high in Vitamin C and dietary fiber and provide a variety of health benefits. Kiwi fruit stands number one in nutrient content compared to 27 other fruits. It is packed with twice the amount of Vitamin C — compared to oranges (per 100 mg) — and has twice the amount...

 What defines you?

Is it the car that you drive, the clothes that you wear, the location that you stay? Let's strip that back…Is it your marital status? How many children you have, or who your parents are? Let’s strip that back too.

At times these labels and identities can take us away from the core of who we are, stripping back, without our environmental factors can help us identify how we see ourselves – not as how others see us.

Through this process we may become critical with mistakes that we’ve made, our visual flaws and limitations that we have, our negative self-talk kicks in also known as limiting beliefs.  Messages that we say to ourselves ‘I’ve struggled all my life', or ‘I can’t get anything right’ or ‘I’m worthless’ sabotage our growth, these mental scars last far longer than physical scars. We continue to kick ourselves until we're down.  These limiting beliefs become our identity...

A few days before the blessed month of Rajab entered, I attended a talk about returning to Allah in Rajab. The shaykh beautifully explained that the door to thoba was open to everyone. It was a wonderful reminder as forgiveness requires one to turn to Allah but also to forgive oneself. Often we are our own greatest enemies and we judge ourselves for our mistakes yet they very same mistakes that may be a means of becoming closer to Allah. And truth be told, we would have so much more compassion for a loved one than we do towards ourselves.

The thing I loved the most about the talk was he explained that thoba did not compensate for healing. The door to repentance was open but trauma would not always disappear because you have repented. Sure, miracles can happen, but as Muslims, we can spiritually bypass them. This leads to more physical manifestations of illness connecting to deep-rooted hidden trauma because we have not dealt with the root cause. This talk was a powerful reminder...

‘You make it look so easy.’

The observation came from a client who was in the process of introducing her children to her future husband.  The conflict was from her eldest daughter not agreeing to the marriage which caused much stress to the home environment.

I was caught off guard with the comment because I did not think -and never have done – that anything has come easy to me.  As a former divorcee with three very young children, marriage had been out of the question.  When Allah swt destined me to meet with my now husband, I was absolutely on a rollercoaster of the unknown.  Everyone warned me; why would a man want to marry a woman with three children? Etc etc.  However his interactions with my children were sincere and reassuring and now, six years later, we tend to swim collectively through the pool of situations that arise from having a blended family.

A blended family is the term given to a family consisting of a couple, the children...

HISTORY AND BACKGROUND

They were first cultivated in Ancient Rome and are now considered as one of the most popular berry fruits in the world.

Strawberries aren’t really a fruit or a berry, but actually the enlarged receptacle of the a flower that is part of the rose family. They carry their seeds on the outside and develop runners, which produce roots which then create more plants. Once picked they don’t ripen further.

IMPRESSIVE HEALTH BENEFITS 

Strawberries are good for your whole body. They naturally deliver vitamins, fiber, and particularly high levels of antioxidants known as polyphenols -- without any sodium, fat, or cholesterol. They are among the top 20 fruits in antioxidant capacity and are a good source of manganese and potassium. Just one serving can provide more vitamin C than an orange.

Benefits from the nutrients obtained from strawberries 

1.   Helps prevent cold and flu as its Rich in Vitamin C
2.   help maintain healthy vision and prevent...

The new buzzwords in healing are Mindful Meditation. Everyone is talking about this and reaping the benefits!

But Mindful Meditation requires free time……what do you do when you have free time?
Do you pick up your phone and start scrolling, or turn on the TV, and listen to a podcast – although this can help switch off from daily stressors – what is even better for your health is Silence and Solitude which can also be labelled as Mindful Meditation.

Silence can bring higher consciousness to intuition, a greater sense of calm, listening to that voice within, what’s it saying? Are you ready to listen? Connecting to your deeper self to grow! These moments of Mindful Meditation give clarity help to make big decisions, stimulate brain growth and relieve tension which helps to feel more relaxed generally.

Science shows that silence itself can rewire the brain to make you more intelligent! One of the most amazing facts I’ve learnt, Studies show that after...

By Abdul Aziz Suraqah 

A while back I stumbled on the strange case of Kyle Odom. In his manifesto, Odom writes, “My life was ruined. Ruined by an intelligent species of amphibian-humanoid from Mars. I wish I was joking.” 

He says the amphibian-humanoids were “here long before we ever existed” and their technology is way more advanced than ours. “They take control of ‘wild’ human beings and use them as sex slaves. Don’t believe me? Ask President Obama to take a lie detector test on this one,” Odom wrote. 

He goes on to say that Martians tried to take him but were unable to control his mind and they have been following him ever since. He said this has taken over his life and has done everything to get it back. The document says he tried to commit suicide twice but was stopped by the Martians. He said his last resort was to take actions to bring this to the public’s attention.

Next, the...

I recently, against my better judgement, became embroiled in a family conflict and it took a toll on my mental wellbeing. I started feeling anxious, I became withdrawn, I struggled to eat and I wanted to cut off. Unfortunately it’s not an option amidst immediate family.

It got me thinking about the emotional impact conflicts have within the family unit and how it can, if we are not more grounded, affect our wellbeing and also damage us going forward.

My work as an Aafiyah Practitioner, running a wellbeing clinic, has people from all walks of life come for various reasons. But most of the trauma, the hurt, the damaging patterns, comes from family conflict.

Whether minor or major, it is still a cause for concern within our community, especially as Muslims, how many families are breaking or no longer living together in peace. In the next few articles I am, InshaAllah, looking to explore the family dynamics and how dysfunction, conflict and...

A friend and I were speaking and she noticed that before I left my boy with her, I made sure my name was the first dial on his phone, that he had enough credit to ring me, that the tracking was running on his phone as a precaution and that he knew which postcode he was staying at and our address off by heart.

She looked at me knowingly. We’ve known each other for the duration of two children attending school in the same years. She smiled at me with understanding and no judgement. ‘I read somewhere, that a mum who protects too much, was never protected enough when she was growing up.’

This ran so true for me that I went home and dug out the newspaper clipping that had brought me closure 25 years after my brush with sexual abuse. It was an article that highlighted how a man in our tight knit community had been arrested for over a dozen counts of sexual abuse and grooming. When I was ten, I had come forward about it and not one...