How to Love Yourself this Valentine’s Day(and everyday!)

On February 14, 2025February 14, 2025 By Zeenat Merchant Syal-Counseling Psychologist|Spiritual CounselorIn Emotions, healing, Mind, Mind-Mental Health, Positive Self Reflection, spiritual healing6 Comments

“My primary relationship is with myself – all others are mirrors of it. As I learn to love myself, I automatically receive the love and appreciation that I desire from others. If I am committed to myself and to living my truth, I will attract others with equal commitment.”~Shakti Gawain

Self Love is the ONLY force that can make us whole and healed. We all KNOW this fact, yet we still struggle with it.

I hold workshops on Self-love and Positive Life Management all the time in my city. In a recent workshop on Self-love, while discussing the merits of it, a kind gentleman asked, “But I think self-love is just too self-indulgent and narcissistic! How can I think of myself when I have so many responsibilities towards my family and loved ones? Shouldn’t I be thinking of them first before my own needs?”

I smiled at him and said, “How can you fully serve your loved ones and make them happy, when you are not happy yourself? If you are having a bad day, will you go home and be loving to your family or be moody?”

He said, “Of course, I’ll be moody! I have to vent at some point.” I responded, “Is that fair to your family? If you love yourself, you will NOT allow yourself to be sucked into a bad day. You will give yourself the gift of calming down and being happy no matter what kind of day you are having, because you know YOU are worth it. Anger, irritations, shitty days etc won’t trouble your inner happiness. And then when you go home, how will you be with your family?”

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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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We’ve become SO independent, it’s depressing us(and what you can do about it)

On September 15, 2024 By Zeenat Merchant Syal-Counseling Psychologist|Spiritual CounselorIn Emotions, healing, Mind, Mind, Heart& Soul-Motivation&Inspiration, Mind-Mental Health7 Comments

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“Individually, we are one drop. Together, we are an ocean.” ~ Ryunosuke Satoro

Many years ago, one of my spiritual teachers shared this story with me. I would like to share it with you all today.

The story is about a village where all the women washed clothes together down by the river. When they all got washing machines, there was a sudden outbreak of depression and no one could figure out why. It wasn’t the washing machines that could do such a thing. It was actually the absence of time spent doing things together. It was the absence of community.

We’ve all gotten so independent these days… Our birthday wishes have also becomes so impersonal over texts, whatsapp or facebook. We rarely pick up the phone to talk, everything is done over texts. I feel like the human to human connection in this uber connected world is severely missing. Read on to know what you can do about it…

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