The Serenity of Silence: Lessons Learned on My Healing Journey

On November 1, 2024 By Zeenat Merchant Syal-Counseling Psychologist|Spiritual CounselorIn Emotions, healing, Mind, Mind-Mental Health, Positive Self Reflection, spiritual healing12 Comments

Does silence make you uncomfortable?

“Everything that’s created comes out of silence. Your thoughts emerge from the nothingness of silence. Your words come out of this void. Your very essence emerged from emptiness. All creativity requires some stillness.” ~ Wayne Dyer

I live with my husband and teenage daughter in the hustling and bustling city of Mumbai. Both my loves are vocal and noisy. I do enjoy the life they bring to my home, but that also means there’s not a lot of quiet in our house. On the rare occasion I’m in the house on my own, the washing machine is usually running in the background.

I welcome silence.

Some people reject silence, and some people embrace it…I am the latter. Silence recharges me.

However, I have observed some people seem really uncomfortable at the mere prospect of a period of silence. This is why today we see people surrounding themselves with noise: phones, texts, podcasts, tv etc.

Why is this so?

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7 Positive Life Lessons from Rumi

On October 21, 2024October 21, 2024 By Zeenat Merchant Syal-Counseling Psychologist|Spiritual CounselorIn Emotions, Mind, Mind-Mental Health, Positive Self Reflection, spiritual healing10 Comments

Rumi, the 13th-century Persian poet, mystic, and philosopher, left behind a profound legacy of wisdom. His teachings, rooted in love, spirituality, and the human experience, offer timeless life lessons we could all benefit from.

I have been reading Rumi since I was 12 years old. I was drawn to the way the words flowed and felt on the page. I didn’t understand much, but I just loved how his words made me feel. I began truly understanding his wisdom a lot later in life. I’m always in awe of the sheer depth of his words and how beautifully he saw this life as a spiritual journey, not just a physical one.

Here are some of his quotes(that I love), along with the positive lessons we can draw from them:

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Why We Need FEAR to Move Forward

On October 7, 2024October 24, 2024 By Zeenat Merchant Syal-Counseling Psychologist|Spiritual CounselorIn Emotions, healing, Mind, Mind-Mental Health, Positive Self Reflection, spiritual healing4 Comments

“I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it.”~ Nelson Mandela

Did I ever tell you how I learned to swim when I was 13 years old?! My dad, kept trying to teach me to swim. I loved the pool and wanted to swim as well, but I just could not get myself to the deep side of the pool. I feared, if I cant feel the floor of the pool under my feet I would drown. That fear held me back and simultaneously upset me as well. By then my dad had taught me all the styles of swimming, the front stroke, back stroke, doggy paddle etc but all in the shallow end.

One fine day, when everyone else was jumping off the dive board happily and I was still in the shallow end feeling down, my dad called me outside the pool to hand me something. As soon as I walked towards him, he said “Hey baby, see you on the other side and keep paddling”…laughingly…and then SPLASH he pushed me in the deep end. I kid you not, I went right down the pool to touch my feet in the deepest end and pushed myself back up and kept paddling like my freaking life depended on it!!

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