EMOTIONAL SANITY
Every action and deed is linked to an emotion.
M
ANY SITUATIONS IN DAY-TO-DAY
life have a profound impact on our
emotional well-being. The senses of
deprivation and achievement that dominate our
psyches as a result of different circumstances
are responsible for the development of
imbalanced personalities.
When we strive and long for certain things but
are unable to attain them, a sense of deprivation
prevails on the surface of our emotional rivers.
On the other hand, when we are able to access
all sorts of luxuries that are not easily afforded
to others, a sense of achievement overrides our
emotional state.
How senses of deprivation and achievement
develop is illustrated well in the following
example.
There are two children who both want an
expensive toy. One child’s parents are wealthy,
so they buy the toy and present it to him. He,
receiving the gift, feels a sense of achievement.
The other child’s parents are unable to afford the
toy; so he, being unable to obtain the toy, feels a
sense of deprivation.
Both the sense of achievement and sense of
deprivation, if prolonged, negatively impact our
mental welfare.
The sense of achievement and sense of
deprivation are opposites of each other. To nullify
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the effects of a sense of deprivation, a dose of a
sense of achievement must be given - and vice
versa.
The child who didn’t receive the toy he wanted
will feel deprived. If his desire is fulfilled the next
time he asks for something, then he will feel a
sense of achievement which will counterbalance
the sense of deprivation he felt before.
In the case of the child who was able to get
the gift, a sense of achievement would dominate
his mind. He would begin to think, ‘Anything is
reachable. All I need to do is say that I want it.’
This is where an imbalance in his emotional state
starts to occur.
Once the child acquired what he desired,
now is the time for that sense of achievement to
become null and void. Next time the child asks for
even a small toy, his parents must not give it to
him. When he is given this small dose of a sense
of deprivation, his emotional sanity is secured.
HH Younus AlGohar notes, ‘When the child
is sick, what the doctors tell you is give the
child paracetamol - and, in intervals, give them
ibuprofen. Similarly, fulfil one desire of the child
and say no to the other.’
If the child’s parents continue to say yes
to everything he asks for, they are actually
destroying his emotional well-being and paving
way for him to develop a superiority complex.
The other child would eventually fall prey to an
MESSIAH HERALD / ISSUE 05 / JUN 2017