Our lives are incredibly busy. Maybe even chaotic. Between taking care of our children, schoolwork, working from home, even homeschooling, maintaining the household, connecting with family - and everything in between - the burnout is inevitable. Oftentimes, taking care of yourself is a distant afterthought. But how do we find the power in parenthood if our power reserve is running on empty? What can parents do to realize the importance of self care in our everyday life? How does Islam promote self care? Dr. Abdallah Rothman joined Noor Kids' 'Powerful Parenting Speaker Series' to discuss: - What is self care? - How has the idea of self care evolved in today’s world? - What does Islam say about self care? - Self care as ibadah and as self love - How can parents begin to prioritize self care? - 3 practical steps to self care Throughout the month of Ramadan Dr. Abdallah is doing a weekly series of short talks as part of the "Midday Meditations" series for Cambridge Muslim College's Ramadan Live program. Each talk focuses on the Qur'anic themes of nature and agriculture and gives practical insight into how to deepen our psycho-spiritual development throughout the month to work toward maximizing our potential. Subscribe to the youtube channel to be notified when these and other great daily talks are released live daily throughout Ramadan.
Dr. Abdallah talks about the importance of psycho-spiritual introspection in one's orientation to the practice of Islam and how religious obligations should be transformational rather than simply transactional. If we look to avoid difficulty or hardship and attempt to overlook our inner state, we can fall into 'spiritual bypassing', where we use belief and ritual as a replacement for doing the inner reflection and hard work of healing our hearts. Islam requires us to do both, and if we orient ourselves to the practice of the religion in this way, the obligatory acts of worship and remembrance can and should become transformational. Dr. Abdallah was invited by the Emmoa Foundation in Ghana to speak about an Islamic perspective of the themes in Brene Brown's book 'Rising Strong'. He discusses how the Islamic paradigm of psychology positions vulnerability in relation to God, self and the other, and asserts that Muslims need to embrace vulnerability within their relationship to and practice of Islam. He draws parallels to Brown's stages of "Reckoning, Rumbling and Revolution" with Al-Ghazali's 6 stages of Murabata. Dr. Abdallah presented on "Finding Center in the Heart (of the Pandemic): Practical Tools from the Islamic Tradition for Building Resiliency in Times of Disruption and Trauma" at the Huron-Respect Conference, 'Pastoral & Spiritual Care During the Pandemic' hosted by Dr. Ingrid Mattson on November 14, 2020. In this short presentation he outlines how he and his network of colleagues responded to the COVID pandemic crisis, tending to the wellbeing needs and collective trauma of Muslim communities around the world using online webinar platforms to address increases in anxiety, family conflict, depression, and existential grief. His approach to Islamic psychology is presented as a psycho-educational program to orient participants to indigenous Islamic tools for building resiliency and decreased anxiety. Dr. Abdallah Rothman gave a talk on the state of the therapist's heart in Islamic psychotherapy at the Symposium on Psychology and Spirituality in Istanbul March 4, 2019. In this short presentation he discusses the position of an Islamic psychotherapist as innately involving an aspect of spiritual guidance given the nature of the domain of the soul. Considering this, Dr. Abdallah suggests that it becomes an ethical obligation of the therapist to be constantly engaged in a process of tazkiyat an nafs (purification of the soul) and that beyond therapeutic technique, a significant factor in the therapeutic relationship is the state of the therapist's heart for acting as a clear mirror for the client. A series of 20 short talks that build on one another successively as a course in self improvement. Dr. Abdallah Rothman takes you on a journey of Presence and Self Reflection, introducing principles and concepts from the Islamic tradition and framing them in practical application in daily life. Throughout each session he offers tools and resources to develop a practice of self reflection in your own life. This was part of the Cambridge Muslim College Ramadan Live program in 2020. The videos are the recordings of those sessions that were streamed live, with viewers from all over the world tuning in and asking questions, which Dr. Abdallah answers at the end of each session. Available for free on Youtube:
Dr. Abdallah Rothman was invited to join Yusuf Jha and Soul Inquiry for a livestream discussion and Q & A on managing our mental health in these uncertain times of the Coronavirus pandemic. In this context they discuss the Prophetic saying: How amazing is the affair of the Believer! Indeed his entire affair is good. And this is not the case with anyone except the believer; should prosperity come his way, he is grateful and that is good for him, and should adversity come his way, he patiently perseveres, and that is good for him." [Muslim] How do we bring these states of gratitude and patience to our hearts in times of trial and difficulty such as these? And what can we do to cope with the situation in a way that takes into consideration our mental health and wellbeing? These questions and more are explored and some practical tools are discussed. View the livestream recording below: The livestream had such a great response and request for more, that a follow up session was scheduled. Subscribe to the youtube channel to be notified on this and more content from Soul Inquiry.
Dr. Abdallah Rothman addresses an audience of medical doctors at a conference in Karachi, Pakistan exploring the Islamic perspective of healing and the psychological and spiritual aspects of disease. He discusses the holistic approach to medicine that early Muslim scholars took and explains how the soul can be taken into consideration when treating physical, emotional and spiritual health. |
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