Arabian Woman March 2014 Issue

Page 85

WELLBEING a person is financially stable, then they most likely will not feel as anxious. Spirituality Research shows that people who are spiritual are more able to cope with stressful life situations. This is due to them being connected to something higher, and making meaning out of the difficult life experience. “Individuals feel that there is a purpose to their adversity, which they may not understand right now,” she says therefore they surrender and trust a Higher Source to guide them, protect them, and bring them back to a calmer state. Flexing That Muscle Every time we go through hardship or difficulty, Dr. Afridi explains that we are developing a muscle to cope with pain the next time. “Imagine if you go to the gym and you exercise a muscle – each time you tear the muscle and repair the muscle, it grows stronger,” she says, and this emotional muscle of coping is similar. Often times people have had very little hardship or a lot of protection from hardship from their parents or spouses. Either way, she tells that their internal muscles for coping with adversity are not developed because of little exposure to it. “For people like this, when something happens to them or their protective shield (parents/spouses) they will feel the impact of the hardship a lot harder,” she says, while for others suffering a lifetime of difficulties are much more capable of dealing with the hardships because they have the internal muscles developed with every adversity.

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