Zaid Ismail's Blog, page 21

Who defines your worth?

When our self-worth is low, we convince ourselves that we deserve pity and support for the state we’re in, because rising above it seems too daunting. But it’s unlikely that we’ll realise that it’s a low self-worth driving such behaviour. Instead, we’ll be convinced that the most important thing in the world is for the […]

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Dehumanising struggling humans

Trigger warning ⚠ As destructive as narcissistic behaviour is, it is not the entirety of any person’s being. Narcissism is a result of intense insecurity about the self. To compensate for this insecurity, the one who is insecure about their worth to others will always focus on hiding their shame, rather than admitting their vulnerability. […]

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Reclaim your worth

Peace is most ravaged when we convince ourselves that we were treated badly by others, or by someone we trusted, because we weren’t good enough for them. A betrayal of trust, no matter how noble the person, reflects cowardice on their part. We only betray the trust that others place in us when we feel […]

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Who says you’re not enough?

When we find a need to repeat affirmations like ‘I am enough’ to ourselves in the mirror each day, we’re trying to convince ourselves to believe something that we are already convinced is not true. If we believed it to be true, there would be no reason to try to convince ourselves about it each […]

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Have we forgotten how to love?

Most of us have forgotten how to truly love another. Love has become so commercialised, that we confuse a mutual exchange of interest and benefits as love. That’s why we end up believing that only as long as we’re getting what we need, do we have reason to feel loved. Meanwhile, we lose sight of […]

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Dignity is yours to claim

There is no shortage of examples of dignity in war zones, poverty or drought stricken areas, or in the midst of heinous terrorist attacks. Notice how some people, when faced with soul-destroying realities, are still dignified in how they rise above it? If you wait for your aggressor or abuser to treat you with dignity […]

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To be…

The oddities of life continue to befuddle me. The restlessness intensifies each day, and the feeling of incompleteness resonates deeper than before. The most bewildering of all is the sense that my chosen path is lacking in fulfilment. But not entirely. The nagging of responsibility whines on in the background and creates a backdrop of […]

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The victim bully

The common trait between the blatant bully and the passive aggressive victim is that they both share a victim mindset. The one demands significance through invoking fear in others, while the other tests for their significance by shaming or guilt-tripping others. The victim mindset sets in when we allow ourselves to be defined by the […]

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Own your dream

When you find yourself putting your dreams on hold because you’re waiting for others to confirm that it’s a feasible project, or that you’re capable of achieving it, know that it’s not a dream. It’s simply a wish. Dreams can either be an indulgence of escapism, or it can be a seed of passion. Most […]

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The enemy of mindfulness

We find ourselves in a state of duress, or stress, when we lose sight of what we can influence, whi fee helpless in the face of everything that we think is out of our control. Whenever we’re faced with a problem, we either focus on mitigating the impact of the problem on us, or we […]

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