(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - About ten years ago, I was captivated by an exciting book on psychology entitled “What Should We Do to Never Get Weary”.
The book told several true stories about people who had experienced different levels of depression, chronic fatigue, and weariness with life and also how their problems were solved.
The writer gathered various stories of people from different social classes. For example, one case was about a middle-aged man who had become depressed because he felt he had no direction anymore after retiring.
The man decided to visit a psychologist (the author of the book). He told her about his problem and explained his interests.
He received some practical advice and decided to begin working for a charity institute offering services to poor people.
Interestingly, the depressed man regained his lost vitality once again shortly after starting to work for the institute, and no longer felt weary. What he did was to create a new habit, which he was always interested in pursuing but was never determined enough to actually start until he visited the psychologist.
Imam Ali (AS) once said: “Habit is second nature.” Or in Arabic: “Aladato tabon than.”
He believed that we ourselves can create a new trait by getting accustomed to something, be it good or bad, and the choice is ours. God has created us as creatures with free will to make a prominent distinction between human beings on the one hand and angels and animals on the other, i.e., the fact that humans have freedom of choice.
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