Managing Ramadan Stress

Ramadan can also be a month of pressure, extra demands, and anxiety. Of course, the stress can pile up and have us sadly dreading the month rather than savouring it.

Make a Ramadan plan by listing things you would like to achieve in the month and then plan on achieving these goals. It is important that goals are realistic and it is better that your life doesn’t need to entirely take a different road in this month. Recognizing what you want to achieve in the month will help you stay focused.

Create Memories

This is beautiful. For my siblings and I getting up for Suhoor was the toughest part of fasting. No amount of begging or trying to explain to my mother that we have eaten enough at dinner would work. She would use it as a condition to allow us to fast.

She would use the pot lid and wooden spoon and joyfully bang on it to wake us up trying to create the ‘masaharaty‘ (The man who calls on the people to wake up for Suhoor) atmosphere.

This resulted in a bunch of really cranky swollen-faced kids at the table. What made it worse was that my parents were always amazingly cheery during that ‘middle-of-the-night’ meal. Now thinking of it I am all teary eyed. A time lost now; I wish I could have frozen the moments.

For us as children there was no work, no childcare duties, no worries about the world to interfere with the pure task of fasting. After all we were now doing grown up stuff and fasting like them.

Wrapping up I remind myself first and foremost that Ramadan is a month that should be anticipated and not bemoaned. Preparing by reading or listening to inspiring stories from the Qur’an is usually rewarding and humbling at the same time. After all, the stories in the Quran are words of inspiration to help us through our most difficult challenges in life.

As we know fasting is a means of learning self-restraint and patience. With patience we are able to strengthen our resolve to sincerely worship God alone and also cope with life’s ups and down.