When You Woke Up Feeling Down…
Sis, the question is not IF you have days where you feel like everything has gone wrong…
The question is: HOW OFTEN do you wake up in the morning and feel that way? And WHAT EXACTLY is it that you do to get yourself out of it?
Some days you just wake up feeling down. Low in energy, or even negative energy. If you choose to not ignore it and pay close attention to it, you’ll realize it is a pretty strange occurrence…
While there are times where you can exactly point out why you are feeling the way you are feeling, there are PLENTY of times where you might not even be aware where a feeling is coming from. Your cognitive brain might very well understand and be grateful for all the blessings in your life. But the feelings that are running in your body and the thoughts you are having absolutely do not match the understanding and gratefulness of those blessings.
The Amygdala
Here is why… Your amygdala is the danger detecting device of your brain. Its ONLY job is to scan your environment, your thoughts, and your behaviors…to see if anything matches with the pre-programmed danger list in your brain. Here is what I mean with that. From birth, till now… the way you were brought up, the experiences you had in life, and the constant messages you receive from your environment, have “taught” your brain what danger means.
Sometimes, something is not even real danger, but because, for example, it was a big deal in your family, your brain has registered that as danger. So the moment your amygdala even associates anything with the so-called-danger, it puts you into a fight, flight, or freeze mode.
Practical steps
You will wake up in the morning, not even be aware of what is going on, but your brain has detected some kind of “danger” and now sending all these fight, flight, and freeze responses to your mind and body. More in a later post on how to track back where this response came from. For now I want to leave you with some tips and tools on how to deal with it.
- Make your connection with Allah(swt) priority, first thing in the morning. When you have woken up and you can immediately feel that you are feeling low in energy, say “Audhu billahi minnashaytaani rajeem”. ALWAYS make wudhu, pray fajr, and read your morning adkhar. If it’s the time of the month where you are excused from salah, sit down and read your adhkar and talk to Allah(swt). Connection with Allah(swt) will feed your soul.
- Find the name of what you are feeling, name it, and search where you are feeling it in your body. How is it manifesting itself in your body? Do you feel jittery in your stomach? Or tight around the muscles in your neck? Over time, you will find patterns.
- Tell your mind that this feeling and mood will not last forever. Remind yourself of another time that you were in a mood like this and it did not last forever. Often, not only are we trying to deal with the feelings we are experiencing, but we are also panicking because somehow we might think we are stuck with these feelings forever. Don’t try to run away from the feeling. Notice it, feel it, name it, let it gently move through your system, trusting that it’s only a feeling and it will move.
- As hard as it might be in that moment, remind yourself of all the goodness Allah(swt) blessed you with in life. How? Picture for a moment your biggest blessings being taken away and what life will look like at that time. When you can picture the blessing being taken away (May Allah(swt) protect us), it is easier to FEEL grateful for what you have.
Sis, I pray to Allah(swt) that your days are filled with positivity, hope, and grace. And that you are able to have the hope and patience of waiting for negative thoughts and feelings to move through and out of your body and mind.
