ANXIETY can become debilitating where it stops you from progressing in the areas of your life that you want to progress in the most. Islam has some clear ways of treating this problem. Islam treats anxiety as a fear induced reaction of the mind and the body. It’s a psychological problem, a problem of the mind. People don’t have anxiety about the past, they regret the past and the anxiety is often about the present or the future, where they fear that the past will repeat itself. The number one solution that Islam offers for anxiety, stress and worry, which are all interconnected, is to connect to Allah and change your fear inducing thoughts. Connecting to Allah eradicates the feeling that you can’t handle something. It puts your reliance for a solution on Allah and not yourself. By taking control of your mind you are able to take control of the emotional and physical reactions that we call anxiety.
There are a number of practical ways that you can deal with your anxiety without letting it take over your life or become your biggest obstacle, as it has done for so many people. In the following list of ways to treat anxiety you may find that one of them is sufficient to overcome the feelings of anxiety and if that is the case then I would suggest practice it as much as possible. The most effective treatment for anxiety is to remember the Almighty, The most powerful. You see, there is nothing that you feel anxiety about except that some fear that you have, has induced that feeling of anxiety. There is something that you fear that may have occurred previously or something you are expecting to happen that is causing these feelings of fear. The closer you come to that fear, the more anxiety you feel.
Feelings of anxiety often occur because we expect things to happen, or expect things to be a certain way. And when we see that the reality doesn’t conform to our expectations, we become fearful of failure, fearful of not getting what we expect. You see your mind knows that you have these expectations and it’s looking for signs that your expectations are going to be met. When your expectations are not going to be met, you begin to fear because the mind releases cortisol, the stress hormone, and you begin to feel stressed.
The easiest way to manage your stress levels is to change your expectations that actually induces your fear, or creates that sense of fear in your life. It can be controlled or dispelled simply by changing your thoughts about your expectation. So change your expectations and your thoughts about it and things will begin to look less stressful. The solution is not in the fact that your fear is not real, the solution for you is to talk to yourself in a positive way that empowers you. The Almighty tells us to seek refuge from the constant whispers or the repeated saying of the same negative thing because your mind has the most powerful effect on you.
If you tell yourself over and over again that you can truly achieve something, your mind will believe it and act in accordance with your beliefs. However, if you keep telling yourself that you’re a failure and can’t do anything right repeatedly, your mind will also believe that, and you’ll act in accordance with those negative beliefs. Practice this positive self-talk until it becomes second nature, allowing you to perform without conscious effort. When you reach a point where you can do something without even thinking, your fears will gradually lose their grip on you. Whatever you fear, if you allow it to take hold, it will indeed terrify you. So, the sooner you take action, the quicker you will dispel your fears and anxieties.
If you don’t allow yourself time to think and instead jump straight into dealing with the things you fear, you’ll often find that before you know it, the situation is already resolved, and your fear hasn’t had time to create that anxiety. It’s important that you understand that anxiety typically revolves around future events or impending situations. The quicker you take action, the sooner you’ll realize your capability to handle it.
One of the reasons we experience anxiety is that we often frighten ourselves by comparing ourselves to others. We constantly observe others and convince ourselves that they are doing better than us which leads us to feel the need to compete with them. It’s essential to accept yourself for who you are and where you currently stand. You can overcome anxiety by confronting your fears and embracing them. The challenges that induce fear are often the ones that promote personal growth and help you overcome obstacles, making you a better version of yourself. However, many times that fear is so strong in our mind only because we’ve given it oxygen to breathe and become bigger than it really is, we didn’t take action. Above all, place your trust in the Almighty, the most powerful, to deliver the results. So, get active, face your fears, and take on the challenges.
—The writer is contributing columnist, based in Islamabad.
Email: ghulamyaseen15@gmail.com
views expressed are writer’s own.
