Sound Heart
Emotional and spiritual development work in tandem. When we delve into big emotional experiences like envy or arrogance, we find underlying spiritual ailments and emotional baggage. On the other hand, when we work on developing healthy humility, our anxiety level improves. Understanding this connection is a part of emotional literacy as well as purification of the heart. This course is a journey into therapeutic and spiritual concepts surrounding our emotions that play a role in the spiritual state of our heart.
Emotional awareness means gaining insight about our internal life and enriching our emotional vocabulary. In classical Islamic teachings, purification of the heart means working on unwanted feelings like anger and jealousy in a systematic way. Together, emotional awareness and purification of the heart can improve both our mental and spiritual health as well as developing meaningful relationships with our own self, with others, and with our Creator.
Objectives
To understand the language of emotions and to label them more accurately
To learn what our emotions tell us about our needs and wants
To discover the link between our emotions and our spirituality in different spiritual ailments
Class Format
Each class focuses on a family of emotions and experiences that accompany a spiritual ailment. First, the spiritual ailment is examined through Quranic verses, Hadith, and scholarly works. Then, the accompanying emotions and experiences associated with these ailments are explored using the current research of established social scientists and psychologists. Every class will also incorporate therapeutic techniques including meditative exercises, cognitive restructuring, and imaginal exposure.
Term 1: Spiritual Ailments and their Accompanying Emotions
Jealousy/ Envy
Fear, Anger, anxiety, and sadness
Arrogance/Pride authentic pride vs. hubristic pride;
insecurity and fear of rejection and loss
Ostentation/Showing off or need for attention/ desire for fame;
Miserliness/Greed
Lust/Covetousness