The first word that comes into my mind, being an asylum seeker, when thinking about healing is ‘love yourself. It may seem a bit selfish, but I think loving yourself in the context of sharing yourself with others is the key. “Healing’ is the theme of Refugee Week 2022. Being a Refugee Week leader in 2020 I always try to publish something on the refugee week every year. This blog is one of many others.
People who are seeking refuge are human beings and have every right to love themselves and think about the elements which give them healing and adopt them in their life. It can be adopted in anyone’s life. Healing is universal and it’s for all of us regardless of anyone’s race, ethnicity, colour etc.
Healing can be obtained by anything. It can you saying sorry to your nosy neighbour after a misunderstanding, may be giving up your seat in the public transport to the people who needs it, can be offering an ice-cream to a little one on the street you do not know, can be a keyboard warrier to fight for justice, can be having a bath after a long day, can be exploring with a refugee, can be saying ‘ I love you to your loving person, can be watching starts in the clear sky and spotting shooting star and wish for something, can be helping someone, can be a love at first sight, can be seeing your loved one is doing well, can be visiting some place which you aimed to visit at least once or one more time in your life, can be feeding people or donating, can be working for the community, can be joining the protest which you think is important, can be cooking some nice food for yourself and everyone, can be singing in the bathroom, can be spending time with your friends and reading books, can be listening to the songs you like, can be your own self-satisfaction in something, can be able to fix something was broken, can be eating the food you like, can be watching a comedy show, can be exploring the wild and find something new, can be capturing the moments in a camera, can be giving hug to people, can be having a full body massage, can be thinking about your loved ones or May be helping a refugee.. and so on.
It’s possible that you’ve been hurt, broken, rejected, or even mocked. You may be suffering from low self-esteem and believe that you aren’t worth more than they mock you for. They stated you were unwell, and you felt sick suddenly. You’re sick of your financial condition, your health, your body size, or your appearance, and you’re desperate for total self-healing.
For me, Healing comes with lots of elements. One of the important elements of Healing is ‘Love yourself’. How can we define those elements to love yourself? I have found some of these elements can be very important to love yourself. This is for everyone. As you all know a lot of the refugees and asylum seekers life has a lot of ongoing including mental health issues and they are sometimes anxious and do not have the power to remind themselves about ‘Healing’, so it is important for us to share with them the elements of ‘Love yourself’. Sometimes we all are going through a lot of things. So, it is important we think about these elements. I found 8 of them-
1. Have faith in yourself.
2. Don’t give up on the things that matter to you.
3. Be forgiving to yourself.
4. Pay attention to yourself.
5. Take care of yourself.
6. Have faith in yourself on the decission you make.
7. Recognize yourself.
8. Take time to appreciate yourself.
Through my experience, while working very closely in the community (such as Citizens Advice, Support through court, fire services, vaccine volunteering, and refugee volunteering) I found it always important to share those values of loving yourself. I believe having more self-compassion builds resilience in the face of adversity, helping people to recover more quickly from trauma or romantic separation.
If you don’t love your body, it won’t communicate to you. It is unable to communicate what it needs in order to heal. And it’s always correct, but we don’t always listen.
Every aspect of your body functions in harmony, but if you don’t love yourself, you’ll experience internal discord, and each organ will begin to behave independently. It’s called survival instinct by some, but it’s just self-love. It can make you feel compelled to stand out. Even though the environment around you is shouting negativity, it is the driving power within you that has kept you going thus far. I have followed the same esteem when I was rescued after I was confined for 6 months and enslaved.
Pay attention to the things and people in your life that bring you joy. For the world is heading toward infinity on the negative side, choose to love yourself a little more, think about the positive side first and then some more, because true self-healing requires all the love you can generate. With the generating power, you will be able to spread love and compassion to the whole world. This is what I do. What about you?
Md Mominul Hamid (Law student, Asylum seeker, Survivor of Slavery and Trafficking in the UK). The full article is totally my own opinion. If there is anything you did not like or hurts you, I do apologise in advance, please feel free to email me- at abirking1988@gmail.com)
