Beyond Prayer: Ten Tips to Achieving Mental Health and Wellness

By Saud Inam

May is Mental Health Month. We many not think about mental health and wellness goals as part of our physical, emotional and spiritual well-being, but we should. If you are a person of faith, your iman can be a large part of how we achieve and maintain good mental health in addition to other non-spiritual practices. Here are a couple of tips to help you achieve good mental health and wellness this May (and for the rest of the year):

Build an Introspective Routine

As a part of our faith, we are taught to reflect upon Allah’s signs and to cleanse our souls and spiritual hearts. Deep introspection and reflection upon their spiritual, emotional and psychological conditions on a constant basis is important maintain balance in our lives. Many of us may live our lives without taking time out for self-care and assessing where we are in life. We may live lives where we are constantly under pressure from internal and external forces, and we may or may not know how that is impacting our mental, physical and emotional health.

Create a Self-Care Routine

In addition to an introspective routine, it’s also important to create a self-care routine where you address all levels of your being: Spiritual, physical, emotional and mental. This means allotting time to address each aspect. Each part of our being needs nourishment. Perhaps create a spiritual routine, like memorizing new surahs (completed verses) of the Quran, memorizing short du’as (prayers) or doing dhikr throughout the day. It also may mean creating a workout routine, even if its 30 minutes a day.

For psychological, emotional and mental well-being, find time in your schedule to simply sit and reflect in peace and quiet. Find a space (or create the space) where you can clear your mind — this may be somewhere in your home, a park, beach or even your desk at work where you simply sit for 10-15 minutes before work and clear your mind.

Forgive Yourself

Many times we may put undue pressure on ourselves because of internal feelings of insecurity, fear and anxiety. We also may have overwhelming regret about the past or anxiety for the future.

No amount of worrying can change the future. Go easy on yourself, for the outcome of all affairs is determined by God’s decree. If something is meant to go elsewhere, it will never come your way, but if it is yours by destiny, from you it cannot flee. ― Umar ibn Al-Khattab

Be sure to forgive yourself for your weaknesses and pray for Allah to grant you strength to become a stronger person. We will make mistakes, and Allah will (inshallah) forgive us:

O son of Adam, as long as you call on Me, I shall forgive you of what you have done, and think nothing of it. O son of Adam, even if your sins were to reach up to the clouds in the sky, and then you were to ask for My forgiveness, I would forgive you and think nothing of it. O son of Adam, even if you were to come to Me with sins nearly as great as the earth, and then you were to meet Me after death, not worshipping anything besides Me, I would bring you forgiveness nearly as great as the earth.’ [Tirmidhi]

Tune Out Negativity

We all have negativity in our lives at one level or another. It may be a friend who may always be complaining or may just in general be a bad influence. It may be a family member who tells you that you are nothing and haven’t accomplished anything, or is constantly comparing you to others. It’s important to tune all of these negative forces in your life.

Tuning out negativity means tuning out all external negative forces that may be impacting your spiritual, emotional and mental health and well-being. This means if you have friends or family members who may be giving you negative energy then reduce interactions with them, or try your best to avoid confrontation. Also, try to tune out negativity that may be internal as well — i.e. self-doubt, insecurity, etc. Whether by seeking positive influences or turning inwards spiritually, or finding healthy hobbies, replacing internal negativity with positivity is so important.

Sometimes our biggest enemies can be is ourselves. We must find peace within ourselves and find self-confidence in order to repel negativity.

Keep Striving!

Yes, we may have moments of weakness and feel like giving up, but the key is to get back up after you’re knocked down. It’s a cliché, but it’s true. Not everyone is going to live a perfect life, and it’s natural to feel down at times and sad. Pain in itself is a blessing that allows our body and our soul to realize something is wrong.

The key is to not let that sadness and depression to consume you. Identify it and overcome it. Pick yourself up again and keep striving to overcome any obstacle in your path. Find peace and strength in hadith, Quranic ayahs or even motivational talks (my favorite is E.T. Thomas). This is all, of course, easier said than done, but just knowing that we have to find a way to keep moving forward is a start.

Most importantly, if you feel unable to overcome your emotional or mental challenges, you need help seek a qualified counselor or therapist. This is something Muslims often shy away from, but why should we? There is no shame in seeking help.

Find a Counselor

This process of self-care, introspection and emotional and mental healing can be a hard task for one to take alone. Just as any athlete needs a coach to help guide and train them we too may need coaches in our lives to help us reach our goals of self-care, introspection and emotional and mental wellness. The “coaches” we need to seek are counselors and therapists who can do an analysis of our emotional, spiritual, and mental condition.

We may find through therapy and counseling sessions that a certain characteristic, action or trait in ourselves may be the reason for increased stress or lack of emotional, spiritual or mental wellness. Our emotional, spiritual and mental conditions can often be complicated to navigate ourselves. A counselor or therapist can help us navigate and unravel what I like to call the ball of yarn that comprises our emotional, spiritual and emotional states.

Seeking help from a counselor or therapist is not un-Islamic, nor is it haram. One of the best counselors or therapists was the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him). Often time women and men would seek his guidance and counsel on extremely intimate issues they were facing. Did he turn them away and say “No brother — astaghfurallah, go home please.” Or did he say “Sister — just do dhikr and salah, recite some Quran.” to solve their issues?

No, he advised them and provided them practical advice to overcome their personal challenges, no matter how intimate their issues may have been.

Show Empathy

One of the biggest acts we are missing today is empathy. In a world full of so much pain, anger and confusion an act of empathy can go a long way. Be a shoulder to cry on for a friend or family member. Listen to friends or family members who simply want to vent or need someone to listen to them. This in itself is a huge help to those facing extreme stress, depression or sadness.

Conduct a Mental Health Khutbah

Talk to your masjid leadership or imam to ask them to conduct a khutbah (sermon) on the topic of mental health. Find counselors or therapists to help draft up the khutbah for your imam. This would also be a great opportunity to connect your imam to local counselors or therapists in your community.

Create a Non-Judgmental Environment

Today, many Muslims of all age ranges are facing so many mental and emotional challenges. As was said before, it’s more important than ever to show empathy and create a non-judgmental environment in your home, workplace and your masjid. Create spaces and opportunities for people to talk about their problems without feeling ashamed or judged.

Get Mental Health First Aid Certification  

Mental Health First Aid Training is a great way to help open up the dialogue around mental health in your community. We recently conducted one in Atlanta. The training lasts one day and trains community leaders, imams and teachers how to identify mental health challenges in community members, and how to address them in a productive and healthy manner.

Saud Inam is a Muslim American activist, social entrepreneur, blogger and Project Manager for Discover Islam-USA a Muslim American media company dedicated to producing high quality media about Islam and Muslims. He is a columnist for Altmuslim. Saud is always on the lookout for more opportunities to help empower the Muslim American community.