S2E8 – How Writing And Speaking Improves Self Awareness – Keep It Simple – A Doctor Explains

Tarek Kareem Harris

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Channel: Tarek Kareem Harris

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When you have a bath or a shower, you are cleaning yourself of the day's dirt. It's funny how little we think about how to clean our minds from a day's work. Think of your mind as a desk, you should be able to empty the things that are not required on any given day.

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It's hard to know how to do that for many people, because it's not obviously intuitive. You'll be very surprised how powerful it is to just write something down the list of things you need to do.

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If you feel there are too many things to think about. Spend a few minutes just writing people who do this find that the mind feels a lot freer. It's as if you've gotten rid of that excess stuff. Without just throwing it away. You've put it on paper. A couple of lines in the diary is all it takes. You might want to write about how your last day went and what your plans are for tomorrow. You might want to make a voice memo on your phone.

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When you can look at yourself, you can apply wisdom. And you can be a stronger person because things are clearer. Just one note on writing things down. If you do use any means electronic or otherwise, make sure you keep these things very private.

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Talking with another person is also very useful. There are some things that you just can't see about yourself, your blind spots, which other people can. Talking to others is helpful because you can ask them about the things that they see in you that perhaps you don't.

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They can give us a more independent view can help to work out where your blind spots are, and can help you to understand yourself better and give you more options about how to do things differently. choose carefully, who you reflect on personal things with in your private life away from work, like a lifelong close friend or your spouse. bonds of blood are stronger. grandparents, siblings, parents, even aunts and uncles can be just the right sounding board for your reflections provided you believe that the right person to confide it.

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Some people find it easier to confide anonymously to someone who's not connected to their life in any way.

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The modern world has things like helplines, confidential counselors and various other agencies. The important thing is not to confide in your acquaintance or work people, if you can possibly avoid that. People at work are friendly, but they may not necessarily be your friends. Such people are not in a position to truly have your best interests at heart. And they may find themselves conflicted or uneasy hearing about personal issues.

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Finally, talk to Allah. as Muslims, we have the greatest of all companions, God Himself, you never truly alone. Remember, something nifty makes it if you are alone, it's because Allah has sent everyone away. So it's just you and God.

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Being consciously attentive to yourself, your thoughts, your plans, and your reflections is a basis for having a strong mind. Because self awareness is repeatedly named as the most powerful quality that a person can gain going forward in life. You can never hope to be 100% self aware. And it's not a goal as such. It's just an ongoing effort that we make. One final thing. It's about reflecting not ruminating. ruminating is when you think about yourself, but you can't help doing it. And thoughts go round and round in your head without your control. That might make you self conscious, but not self aware. There's a difference between the two. If you find yourself ruminating over things. In

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another session, we'll talk about ways in which we can overcome that kind of issue. Or it may be that you need to find someone who can help you. A kindly Imam or a professional such as a doctor or counselor can help to deal with the issue.

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ruminations especially of the religious kind can be very troublesome for a lot of people, because they play on your insecurity about faith, that you're not doing this right or you're not close enough to God or you're full of sin.

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have dealt with these other issues in much greater detail in my two books. Have a look at them. Have a look at the blog online, and remember if you can support us then do buy the books or make a donation and get people to subscribe to this channel because I can carry on making effective videos the more subscribers we get.

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Most rumination thoughts are not facts, their feelings. ruminations come from the nuts, reflections come from the heart and the intellect. We'll talk more about when thoughts go wrong in another series, but for now

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This wraps up the building a strong mind series. If you have comments or questions, make them in the comments below. Or DM me through my Instagram. I'll be happy to create episodes which are in tune with what people like.

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