The decision to heal is the first step toward freedom.
We often wait for the perfect time to heal.
We wait until the pain softens.
Until we “have it all together.”
Until we are stronger, wiser, or more ready.
But here’s the truth: healing does not require perfection, it requires intention.
And that begins the moment you say, “I’m willing to show up for myself.”
This single, courageous decision to tend to your own heart, to explore your pain, to turn inward rather than run is the first step toward lasting freedom.
In her powerful and soul-centred approach to healing, Uzma Naqvi, a transformational life coach for Muslim women, often reminds us:
“Healing starts not when the pain ends, but when you decide you are worth the effort it takes to come home to yourself.”
This article will explore what it means to show up for yourself, how healing is both spiritual and emotional, and why you are worthy of peace, love, and wholeness right now, as you are.
What Does It Mean to “Show Up” for Yourself?
To show up for yourself is to stop abandoning your own needs, feelings, and boundaries. It means choosing often quietly and without applause to honour your healing journey.
It’s not about being positive all the time.
It’s not about being unbreakable.
It’s about saying:
- “I will no longer ignore my pain.”
- “I am allowed to prioritise myself.”
- “I don’t have to be perfect to be healing.”
Showing up looks different for everyone. For some, it’s starting therapy. For others, it’s unfollowing toxic voices online. Sometimes, it’s simply making your bed and whispering a du’a with cracked lips and tired eyes.
You don’t need a grand gesture. You just need presence.
Why We Often Delay Healing
Many of us delay showing up for ourselves because we carry subconscious beliefs like:
- “I’m too broken to heal.”
- “It’s selfish to focus on myself.”
- “I don’t have time everyone else needs me.”
- “Maybe this is just who I am.”
These are not truths, they are protective stories formed by trauma, conditioning, and disconnection.
Uzma Naqvi speaks often about the need to rewrite these internal scripts. To release shame and meet ourselves with compassion. Because until you believe you are worthy of healing, you’ll keep postponing it or looking for it in places that only deepen the wound.
Healing Is a Spiritual Process
Healing isn’t just about self-care routines or mindset shifts. It is deeply spiritual.
In Islamic tradition, the soul (nafs) is sacred. It is meant to evolve, to seek alignment with the Divine, to return to fitrah our original state of purity and peace.
When you show up for yourself, you are not only honouring your emotional health you are honouring your soul’s journey back to Allah.
You are saying:
- “Ya Allah, I am ready to feel again.”
- “I trust that You will hold me as I heal.”
- “I want to live a life that reflects Your mercy, not my wounds.”
Showing up becomes an act of worship. A form of remembrance. A way of saying to the One who created you, “I’m here. Use me. Heal me. Guide me.”
The First Steps to Showing Up
Let’s be clear: you don’t need to change your whole life in one go. Healing is not a sprint it’s a sacred return.
Here are simple but powerful ways to start showing up for yourself today:
1. Name What You’re Feeling
Pause. Breathe. Ask yourself: “What do I need right now?” Naming your emotions reduces shame and invites clarity. Journaling or whispering your thoughts in du’a are gentle ways to begin.
2. Make Time for Stillness
Busyness is often a trauma response. Healing thrives in stillness. Create five minutes a day to sit with your breath. Place your hand on your heart. Let yourself be.
3. Connect with Allah Through the Heart
Move beyond ritual into relationships. Let your salah become a sanctuary, not a performance. Speak to Allah as your closest friend, not a distant authority. Pour your wounds into sujood He is listening.
4. Say “Yes” to Yourself
Say yes to rest. Yes to boundaries. Yes to therapy or coaching. Yes to saying no. Every “yes” to yourself is an act of self-respect.
5. Join a Healing Space
You don’t have to do this alone. Faith-centred coaching spaces like those offered by Uzma Naqvi provide compassionate support rooted in emotional intelligence and spiritual alignment.
The Myth of Being “Too Broken”
So many women silently believe they are too far gone. That their pain is too heavy. That their story is too messy. That they missed their chance.
But let me tell you something:
You are not too broken, you are breaking open.
Open to softness. Open to healing. Open to Allah.
In the Qur’an, Allah promises:
“Indeed, with hardship comes ease.” (Qur’an 94:6)
Ease doesn’t always mean life gets lighter. Sometimes, it means you become stronger. You become softer without collapsing. You become anchored, not in this world, but in divine mercy.
Healing Requires Intention, Not Perfection
There will be days when you forget your progress. Days when your inner critic is loud. Days when you want to give up.
But healing is not about never falling, it’s about returning. Returning to your body. Your breath. Your values. Your Lord.
You don’t need to be “healed” to be loveable. You don’t need to be consistent to be worthy. You don’t need to be strong every day to deserve peace.
All you need is a decision to show up, as you are. That’s enough. That’s divine.
Let’s Reframe the Narrative
You are not being selfish by healing you are being responsible.
You are not behind you are becoming.
You are not weak you are awakening.
You are not disconnected you are invited.
Invited into remembrance. Into softness. Into surrender. Into safety.
Final Reflection
Healing begins the moment you choose yourself. Not in ego, but in truth. You are worthy of peace. You are deserving of love. You are capable of wholeness. And most importantly you were never meant to walk this path alone.
Allah is with you. Every time you whisper a du’a through tears. Every time you take a deep breath instead of spiralling. Every time you say, “I want better for myself.”
That’s you showing up. That’s you choosing healing. That’s you coming home.
Take the first step. Book your free connection call today link in bio.
If you’re ready to begin your healing journey gently, at your pace, and with divine support Uzma Naqvi’s transformational coaching is here to walk with you.