The Iron Grip Of This World
Photo by Eyasu Etsub on Unsplash
The moment you take action to take back control of your life, and to attempt to dispel harmful habits and trade them for healthy ones, is the moment you realize how strongly set we are in our ways. It sometimes feels nearly impossible to change significantly for the better. Almost every aspect of our lives are impacted by the current culture, and we underestimate how pervasive and detrimental it is to our lives.
From the food we eat and the stuffs we buy to the content we consume, we are heavily influenced. There are positive influences that advocate for healthier eating and lifestyles, and being mindful consumers, but those messages are often drowned out by the intense psychological warfare of advertisements. Their sole mission is to get as many of us as possible to get stuck in a loop of mindless consumption of food, stuffs, ideology, news/information, etc. There aren’t moral codes of ethics governing these systems of capitalist crusaders; it’s only driven by profit–by any means necessary.
The human body, mind and spirit are incredible, resilient and capable. However, the wear and tear that occurs from sleep deprivation, overconsumption of processed and sugary foods and drinks, doomscrolling social media, overindulging in endless entertainment, and filthy content is very significant–albeit reversible. We often underestimate the damage sustained to our wellbeing, and we don’t take action to rectify them until it’s almost too late.
Current culture is set up in a way that infiltrates many–if not all–aspects of our lives. For example, to use and have access to the majority–if not all–of social media platforms and apps, we often have to forgo our privacy–we agree to their terms when downloading or signing up to them. Even the knowledge that we need a certain number of hours of sleep to function and be healthy is not respected. In 2017, the CEO of Netflix said its biggest competitor was sleep, “and we’re winning.”
Those are just a couple of examples to demonstrate how we are purposely being depleted for mere profit and sinister agendas. Oftentimes we actively allow it and participate because of fear of missing out. It’s almost always not worth it in the long run. Everything unsustainable that we do and consume when we are young, healthy and vibrant will catch up to us in our older age–it’s inevitable. Nonetheless, it’s very much possible to take back control of our lives and develop healthier habits.
Starting with improving our sleep quality, eating nutritious foods, and engaging in spiritual acts like prayers and the recitation and reflection of the Qur’an can significantly improve the quality of our lives over time. It’s definitely easier stated than trying to implement these acts, but it’s worth it and your future self will thank you. Our spirituality and acts of worship seriously suffer when we are chronically tired, malnourished, and unable to focus.
If and when you are confronted with a host of problems in your life, and figuring out where to start to sort yourself out overwhelms you, start with very basics. Take care of the body by giving it the sleep it deserves and good food. The mind by being mindful of what you introduce to it. The soul by purifying it with acts of worship, and the remembrance of its Creator.
