10 Gentle Signs That You Are Stressed(& that your soul is asking for care and renewal)

On November 5, 2025 By Zeenat Merchant Syal-Counseling Psychologist|Spiritual CounselorIn Emotions, healing, Mind, Mind-Mental Health, Positive Self Reflection, spiritual healing5 Comments

“Every day brings a choice: to practice stress or to practice peace.” ~ Joan Borysenko

I used to think I can take any amount of pressure in my 20″s. And I did excel under pressure at the time. I would study until late for exams and then go take them on 2 hours of sleep. I did and still do work well under stress. However, while I could achieve results under stress, I did not realize how I was harming my own body and mind in the process.

It was about a year after my daughter was born, when I started to see the full effect of the stress taking over my mind and body. It took the form of persistent migraines, lower back aches, dark circles under my eyes and forgetfulness. It was then that I realised something was seriously wrong. Physically, all my tests were normal, and that was a wake up call for me. I knew I had put so much pressure on myself, and needed to take back control of my life. For my sake and my baby’s.

Stress is the psyche’s way of signaling that something within or around you feels out of alignment. It arises when your inner sense of harmony is disrupted by a perceived challenge or demand that seems greater than your current capacity to meet it. In essence, stress is the body’s sacred messenger, alerting you to areas where balance, boundaries, or deeper presence are needed. When experienced in small doses, it can awaken growth, focus, and resilience. But when it lingers, when tension becomes your constant companion, it can fragment both body and spirit, calling for restoration, compassion, and mindful recalibration of your inner world.

Here are 10 gentle signs that your spirit may be stressed and is asking for care and renewal… along with reflections and healing practices for each.

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6 Guiding Principles To Nurture Your Emotional And Spiritual Maturity

On October 30, 2025 By Zeenat Merchant Syal-Counseling Psychologist|Spiritual CounselorIn Emotions, healing, Mind, Mind-Mental Health, Positive Self Reflection, spiritual healing9 Comments

Part of spiritual and emotional maturity is recognizing that it’s not like you’re going to try to fix yourself and become a different person. You remain the same person, but you become awakened. ~Jack Kornfield

Part of healing is also growing emotionally. To be specific, emotional and spiritual maturity is what happens as we heal.

I’m more of a personal growth and personal development junkie, always have been. In the early days, I would buy every book, course and go for every event that was even mildly in that arena. I loved every moment of it all, but as I keep growing and healing, I have realised that I don’t need to read every book, or do every course or go to every event. All I need is to apply everything I already know, consistently and gently.

I have also realised that Emotional Maturity is not measured by the number of years you’ve lived or the experiences you’ve collected, it’s actually measured by how deeply you understand yourself, others, and the flow of life itself. True maturity is a sacred unfolding of awareness, patience, and compassion. It’s the quiet transformation that allows you to meet life with calmness, clarity, and grace.

Here are 6 Guiding Principles To Nurture Your Emotional And Spiritual Maturity:

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13 Ways to Sky Rocket🚀 YOUR Self-Worth in 30 days

On June 18, 2024 By Zeenat Merchant Syal-Counseling Psychologist|Spiritual CounselorIn Emotions, healing, Mind, Mind-Mental Health, Positive Self Reflection, spiritual healing7 Comments

“Self–worth is so vital to your happiness if you don’t feel good about yourself, it’s hard to feel good about anything else.” ~ Sandy Hale

Recently while at an event, the above truth dawned on me, more deeply than usual. It was the result of a conversations I was having at that event.

At these events you know there are people you might not know or they dont know you, or you meet them after a very long gap, so when you sit on the same table you tend to do the polite hellos and superficial conversation just to fill the air. Old people pleasing me was a pro at superficial conversations. But, I noticed this time that all the conversations I had were NOT superficial. Almost automatically everyone I met opened up about their most deepest thoughts and those are the best conversations according to me.

Upon deep reflection, I realised that my own energy was different, better, more self loving, more self respecting.{The healing work we do can have that effect.} The beauty of this inner work is, that your outside world responds to your inner energy as well. And that is why I felt at ease and had the best time even in between strangers.

One of the key factors of healing is working on building your self worth and by association self respect.,, and here is how I build my own self worth…

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