Recalling Health to the Mind Essentials

Vacation: What a concept. It is not only alright to take a vacation from the stressors of work and everyday problems, but vital to creating the health you desire—despite the fact that your boss might tell you otherwise. Vacations do not have to be a chore to plan; they can be a simple three- or four-day weekend which you allow yourself to indulge in when you know that stress is starting to wreak havoc in your life. It can be as simple as an eight-hour respite that you take when you are caring for a disabled loved one who requires 24/7 attention. Full vacations, those of one week or more, do have their place. Sometimes it takes at least a day or two to clear your brain of all the thoughts it wants to carry with you on your journey to get away from it all. Taking a good book (on a topic other than your work) is one way to get into the mode of escaping the troubles of this world. Sleep is also a good escape mechanism. Use it and any other tactic you know that works to initiate a restful and peaceful state while you relax on your well-deserved vacation.

Work: About work, the Sacred Text has exalted it to the rank of worship when it is done in a spirit of service.

In The twelfth Glad-Tidings, it is written:

“It is enjoined upon every one of you to engage in some form of occupation, such as crafts, trades and the like. We have graciously exalted your engagement in such work to the rank of worship unto God, the True One. Ponder ye in your hearts the grace and the blessings of God and render thanks unto Him at eventide and at dawn. Waste not your time in idleness and sloth. Occupy yourselves with that which profiteth yourselves and others. Thus hath it been decreed in this Tablet from whose horizon the day-star of wisdom and utterance shineth resplendent.” -- Compilations, Lights of Guidance

"With regard to your question whether mothers should work outside the home, it is helpful to consider the matter from the perspective of the concept of a … family. This concept is based on the principle that the man has primary responsibility for the financial support of the family, and the woman is the chief and primary educator of the children. This by no means implies that these functions are inflexibly fixed and cannot be changed and adjusted to suit particular family situations, nor does it mean that the place of the woman is confined to the home. Rather, while primary responsibility is assigned, it is anticipated that fathers would play a significant role in the education of the children and women could also be breadwinners. As you rightly indicated, 'Abdu'l-Bahá encouraged women to 'participate fully and equally in the affairs of the world'." -- Compilations, Lights of Guidance

"The great importance attached to the mother's role derives from the fact that she is the first educator of the child. Her attitude, her prayers, even what she eats and her physical condition have a great influence on the child when it is still in womb. When the child is born, it is she who has been endowed by God with the milk which is the first food designed for it, and it is intended that, if possible, she should be with the baby to train and nurture it in its earliest days and months. This does not mean that the father does not also love, pray for, and care for his baby, but as he has the primary responsibility of providing for the family, his time to be with his child is usually limited, while the mother is usually closely associated with the baby during this intensely formative time when it is growing and developing faster than it ever will again during the whole of its life. As the child grows older and more independent, the relative nature of its relationship with its mother and father modifies and the father can play a greater role." -- Compilations, Lights of Guidance

From the Sacred Text…

“And now I give you a commandment which shall be for a covenant between you and Me–that ye have faith, and that your faith be steadfast as a rock that no storms can move, that nothing can disturb, and that it endure through all things even to the end; even should ye hear that your Lord has been crucified, be not shaken in your faith; for I am with you always, whether living or dead, I am with you to the end. As ye have faith so shall your powers and blessings be.  This is the balance, this is the balance, this is the balance.”
                                                                                                         -Bahá'í Faith