Shifaa Integrative Counseling
  • Home
  • About
  • Contact
  • Payment
  • Blog

A Ramadan in Retreat: Psychological/Spiritual Wellness in Isolation

5/1/2020

 
Dr. Abdallah Rothman joined Baraka Blue once again on his Path & Present podcast, this time to discuss the impact of the Coronavirus pandemic on our mental health and wellbeing, and the challenges and opportunities that isolation affords. They discuss the notion of retreat in light of the month of Ramadan coinciding with many people's current status with stay at home orders, and how people can adapt to the situation, cope, and use this as an opportunity for growth.
Path & Present Podcast · A Ramadan in Retreat: Psychological/Spiritual Wellness & Growth in Isolation w/ Dr. Abdallah Rothman

What Islam Offers to Modern Self Help: An Islamic Paradigm of Psychology

2/6/2020

 
Picture
The human being is body, mind, heart, and spirit. Often times, the self-help industry ignores this truism which brings about hidden, often unintentional misguidance that can lead to spiritual crisis, or worse, distance from our connection with God.

In this thought-provoking article, Dr. Abdallah Rothman shares powerful points including:
  • The forgotten rich tradition of 'ilm an nafs' (knowledge of the soul) inherent in Islam.
  • What does it mean to change oneself and how does one do this?
  • An Islamic perspective of the self as an integrated human being
  • Fitrah: The soul’s true identity
  • The structure of the soul (along with a visual infographic of the soul)
  • Understanding self-development as the development of the soul
Read the full article

Heartfulness

6/28/2019

 
Picture
It is clear that there is a growing trend of mindfulness extending beyond spiritual communities and into mainstream culture. How do we understand mindfulness from within the Islamic tradition? Is there a place for it in Islam? Is there an Islamic version of mindfulness?
​
Listen to the audio or read the text below:
At first when you hear this term "mindful" you think 'full of mind'. The last thing we need is to be more in our minds. We're already so locked into this thinking consciousness where we define ourselves by our thoughts. You could think "well, I don't want to be 'full of mind' I'm already stuck in my thoughts." But really mindfulness is about being conscious. It's about slowing down. It's a contemplative way of being. It's not really about being more connected to thoughts in the sense of identifying with the mind. It's not necessarily about thinking, but meta-thinking: thinking about thinking. It's slowing down and being conscious of what you think and what you do. The core of mindfulness is about being present. And this concept of being present is absolutely an Islamic principle. It's something that we find in the Islamic tradition and is a key factor in everything from ibadah (worship) to akhlaq (manners). Presence is indeed a very islamic principle.

However, this term mindfulness can tend to shift our awareness from the reality of the self, which is a much more holistic picture than what we have come to conceive of as ourselves in contemporary times. To a certain extent the entire modern world has been influenced by the Cartesian assertion, "I think therefore I am". It's taken root in society where people over identify with their thoughts. So that people's entire notion of self is about what and how they think and everything related to the self is based in the mind. And this in particular is really not an Islamic concept.

Read More

Sufism & Psychology: An Islamic Model of Spiritual Development

5/25/2019

 
Picture
Abdallah Rothman joins Baraka Blue on his podcast "Path and Present" to discuss Islam, psychology, human nature and psycho-spiritual development.


​click the play button below to listen or visit the path & present page

Discovering Your Faults

10/2/2015

 
Picture
If growth and mastery of self are your goals then you should occupy yourself with the business of discovering your faults and weaknesses of character. How else will you know what you need to work on in yourself if you are not aware of where specifically the focus of the work needs to be applied? You can’t fix something if you don’t first discover where the problems lie and what then needs to be fixed. Thus, it would not benefit you to avoid the ugly parts of yourself as these are the key signals pointing out areas where growth is needed.


Read More

When You Fall Off, Get Back On

9/9/2014

 
Picture
As the old saying goes, “When you fall of your horse, dust yourself off and get back on”. This is something that we must do frequently. You’ll never fully master every aspect of your life. There is always something that we are struggling to come to terms with, perfecting, or just attempting to keep in line. You may know very well what you need to do or what your goal is in achieving a certain objective or state of mind, but maintaining that objective is challenging. We have days and even just moments when we’re on and things are working out. We recognize what we need to do and we feel like we’re making strides toward our goals. Sometimes if we’re lucky we experience long stretches of this. But it is inevitable that eventually we lose our ground and we fall back to old ways, old habits or behavior patterns from the past. When this happens, don’t let it consume you and make you feel like you’ve failed. Just dust yourself off and get back on.


Read More

Why Do People Have To Leave Each Other?

7/30/2013

 
I wanted to post this link to an article by Yasmin Mogahed titled "Why Do People Have to Leave Each Other". It discusses the pitfalls of attaching ourselves to people and outcomes and why it is so important to have a sustainable source for filling the void inside rather than those that we so often tend to rely on.  Here is the link : http://www.yasminmogahed.com/2011/11/13/why-do-people-have-to-leave-each-other/​

    RSS Feed

    Author

    Abdallah Rothman

    Categories

    All
    Announcements
    Articles
    Courses
    Events
    Islamic Psychology
    Mindfulness
    Podcasts
    Relationships
    Research
    Self Growth
    Spirituality
    Videos
    Youth

    Archives

    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    March 2018
    January 2018
    June 2017
    September 2016
    October 2015
    September 2014
    July 2013
    June 2012

Copyright © 2020 Shifaa Integrative Counseling
  • Home
  • About
  • Contact
  • Payment
  • Blog