State Of Gratitude

By Rana Yassin

As human beings, we all face ups and downs in our lives. This is the nature and reality of this earthly world, and I insist on calling it so, because it is imperfect in the sense that we face day-to-day hardships.

When we are facing bad moods, we feel that nothing is perfect in our lives. We hate everything around us. It can go as far as having us hate ourselves and criticizing ourselves for every action we do. At this stage, one may even reach a state psychologists may define as ‘depression’.

The internet is full of information as to how we can deal with such issues. People often stumble upon many articles while surfing the web, some examples include: ‘The Best 10 Ways To Boost Your Self-Esteem’, ‘Things That You Must Consider In Order To Avoid Depression’, ‘Tips To Keep You Positive’ and numerous others.

I tried most of them, to an extent that I had their repetitive tips memorized. Every time I would read a new article, I was almost able to predict the tips or steps they ask us to do.

Until one time, when I asked myself why I don’t look at my religion, Islam, and see, how as Muslims we are supposed to deal with these issues. It is indeed astonishing how some Muslims have this calmness in their faces. You can realize it from the way they speak, move, and react. I searched until I got the answer; it was something I assure you you would never find in any of those articles that you might stumble upon on the internet.

It is something that not only boosts your self-esteem, but also strengthens your relationship with your Lord. It is in that state when you feel that you are not only happy with that you have, but you are also satisfied with it and grateful about it.

How you get to this point is something people from all faiths can apply. This is the beauty of what I discovered – it isn’t restricted to my own religion only!

So here is the trick...

Try to do this as frequent as possible, every time you get the feeling that something is going wrong and you are not feeling happy about your life:

1. Visit a calm place where nobody can disturb you.
2. Close your eyes.
3. Breathe deeply.
4. Say with every breath you take, in and out, THANK GOD.

With every word you say, remember what God granted you:

THANK GOD, for being alive.

THANK GOD, for granting me a house.

THANK GOD, for granting me a family.

THANK GOD, for granting me education.

THANK GOD, for granting me a brain………

And the list goes on till you reach the tiniest stuff that you were granted in your life. This includes everything, even the things that you are not satisfied with. When applying this method, you will ultimately get to be satisfied with them.

THANK GOD, for granting me this tough experience, because it will make me a better person in the future.

THANK GOD, for making me sick, because I will appreciate the meaning of having a healthy body.

In conclusion, I am not saying here that all these articles are not useful and we should not try these tips. On the contrary, we should, and they are very helpful! But let’s make them special, and add to them this spiritual ingredient that will make the taste much sweeter. They heal our hearts much faster.

  

Fatal Hilarity

By Suzan Balaa

If you could choose how to die, how would you cross over to the other side? My guess is many people prefer to die peacefully in their sleep. While that seems a lot better than drowning or suffocation, it's such a sudden, flimsy way to slip away. If it were up to me, I'd want my death to be a celebration of how I lived. I want to die laughing.

We?ve all laughed so hard we couldn't breathe. For me, these laughing-frenzies usually take place at the most awkward and inappropriate situations like in a crowded elevator, or when I'm sitting in the front row of a small class. Most of the time, the struggle to smother my laugh is funnier than the untimely joke, and that snowballs into a laughing-frenzy. As embarrassing as that may seem, everyone loves a good hysterical laugh, and there's even a good reason why you should. Laughter helps release enzymes and hormones that are helpful for normal functioning of various organs. It is also a good workout for respiratory, abdominal, leg, back and facial muscles. However, in a few special cases, laughter may actually contribute to the death of a person. This extremely rare phenomenon is called "fatal hilarity".

In mythology, it is told that the Greek soothsayer Calchas was foretold the day of his death by another prophet. He waited anxiously for this day to come and when the day arrived and the prophecy didn't seem to come true, he laughed so hard in cynicism at his victory over death that he dropped dead.

But can it really happen? In fact, there have been more than 10 registered cases of "fatal hilarity". On March 24th 1975 Alex Mitchell, a 50-year-old bricklayer from King's Lynn, England, died laughing while watching an episode of The Goodies. In 1989 a Danish audiologist, named Ole Bentzen, died watching "A Fish Called Wanda". His heart was estimated to have beaten between 250 and 500 beats per minute, before he finally expired due to cardiac arrest. Also, not so long ago in 2003, Damnoen Saen-um, a Thai ice cream salesman, died while laughing in his sleep at the age of 52. With his wife unable to wake him up, he stopped breathing after two minutes of continuous laughter.

On a less morbid note, five interesting cases of loss of consciousness due to intense laughter have also been reported. This is called laughter-induced syncope. The laughter causes repetitive forced expirations which result in temporary reduction in blood flow, therefore causing a shortage of oxygen to the brain. One of these cases is a 56-year-old, moderately obese man who suffered laughter-induced syncope as he entertained his colleagues in a restaurant: While waiting for the meals to be served, a guest had told a very amusing joke and the patient began to laugh heartily, "Ha, ha, ha, ha..." in decrescendo until he was out of breath. To everyone's surprise, he then fell forward resting his head on the table and remained unresponsive for a few seconds before regaining consciousness. (Laugh syncope as a rare sub-type of the situational syncopes: a case report, Journal of Medical Case Reports).

In conclusion, not enough information is given about "fatal hilarity" cases to decide whether laughter was the cause of death, contributing factor, or just a coincidence. Nevertheless, you have to admit staring death with a smile on your face seems like a pretty cool way to go. So smile even when no one's looking and laugh hysterically. What's the worst that could happen?

Purpose, Please

By Ali Harfouch

Often, while we are painstakingly reading through a biology textbook or blissfully watching the sunset with a loved one, we are faced with a striking reality: Everything around us has a purpose. Be it the cells in our body, or the orbiting planets, or even the creases in our fingers - they all have a function. Socrates knew what he was talking about when he said, "This world appears in such a manner which gives no possibility to coincidence."
This becomes even more obvious when we observe that all these different creations are in perfect and fused harmony. The intricate functioning of our organs and the orbiting patterns of the sun and moon point toward a system that cannot be ignored by the curious mind. For example, a car has several functions. The air-conditioning system, the engine, the windows, all of which are inter-dependent, all have different functions, yet the car and its parts have a united purpose: transportation.
Similarly, one can say the same about our universe. Astrophysicist and Nobel Laureate Arno Penzias observed that "Astronomy leads us to a unique event, a universe which was created out of nothing, one with the very delicate balance needed to provide exactly the conditions required to permit life, and one which has an underlying (one might say "supernatural") plan."
Every single constant and creation around us serves a specific purpose and functions around the stability and preservation of mankind. This realization leaves one with a deep yet honest question: Are humans - one of the most intricately designed creatures - left without a purpose?