Basma Zaki

You are good enough. You really, really are. You deserve to be loved and cared for, for no other reason than you being you. You deserve to be loved unconditionally and you deserve to be cared for the way you want, not the way others choose. You deserve to be looked at like you’re the […]

  We’re different. We process our experiences and emotions differently. There are no rules on this. If someone reacts in a way that doesn’t make sense to you, I promise, there’s nothing ‘wrong’ about them. Or about you. It’s just that, we’re different. And you can never really put yourself in someone else’s shoes when […]

  This one’s a reminder for me. For every little feeling I’ve felt. That made absolutely no sense to anyone, but me. It’s valid. It’s real. It’s your right to feel. No one has to be convinced. No one has to make sense of it. No one at all. You feel it. You explore it. […]

  It doesn’t make sense now. It totally doesn’t. But sometime, somewhere in the future, you might randomly look back at it all. And you might realize, it could’ve have never happened any other way. And it will make sense then. I promise, it very much will. April 8, 2020

Note-to-self: When all the signs seem to take your attention off all what you originally thought you‘ve so badly wanted, please remember to let go. Because while you might not know it at the time, you’ll eventually be mind-blown by all what the universe will end up having in store for you. Once it realizes […]

Note-to-self: Procrastination is anxiety. Or it can be. So before you make plans, create more to-do lists, then get mad at yourself for not following through, maybe – just maybe, try listening to what you’re not really telling yourself. Often times you might only need a pat on the shoulder and assurance that it’s going […]

Everything looks so pretty from the outside. Everyone unintentionally makes everything look so pretty from the outside. But then you take a closer look, and you find out for yourself. You realize very little of it is actually true. And yet you still unintentionally make it look pretty from the outside to others, too. Maybe […]

The universe has this way of quietly keeping all the things you’ll ever want in store for you, and only handing them out when you really ask for them. When you make noise about your need for them, when every conversation you ever have includes some element of them, when even your own reflection in […]

Dear self, You’ve gone a long way. You really, really have. On most days, it might feel like you’re exactly where you’ve always been; you haven’t moved forward, you’re still stuck in the same mental loops. But you and I, know you very much aren’t. We both know it’s usually just a phase of losing […]

I don’t know who needs to hear this today, but you really don’t. You don’t need to prove anything to anyone. There will always be expectations, there will always be places they’ll make you feel you have to reach, or dreams that aren’t even yours yet you still feel you’re expected to achieve. You really […]

It’s okay. We’re all in this together. It’s just that not everyone is willing to share their failures so openly, but we all fail so terribly most of the time. And that’s okay. You’re not behind. It’s not a race. You don’t need to follow a specific timeline. There’s no deadline. And you’re exactly where […]

It’s okay. It’s okay to slip back into older versions of yourself sometimes. It’s okay to feel like you’re back to point zero, and that you’ve been convincing yourself you’ve made progress while you’re still exactly where you’ve always been. It’s okay to feel your anxiety rocketing back up on some days. It doesn’t mean […]

Here’s a reminder, for myself before anyone else: Everyone’s going through something. Everyone has their days. Not knowing all about what someone is going through, doesn’t automatically mean they’re okay. I’ve had (very close) friends, on multiple occasions, tell me stories of tough times they’d been through, years after they happened – while I was […]

Over the last couple of weeks, I’ve been coming across very inspiring people who’re very skilled at the things they do, and the common thing among them is usually that they’ve all been doing those things for a really long time. I would listen to them talk about their very early days, and how they’ve […]

Nothing brings more peace to my insides than being able to internalize I’ll forever be a work-in-progress; never meant to make it to a “finished” version of myself. There will always be something I’ll need to work on, something I’ll need to overcome – depending on what life will continue bringing along. As long as […]

you never have to have it worse than everyone else just so you can finally admit you’re feeling overwhelmed. there’s no checklist of struggles you’re supposed to maintain before you’re allowed to complain about how brutal life can get. no one has the right to decide if a word someone randomly said can’t be as […]

I know it might not seem like it on most days, but you’re not behind. I promise. You’re not alone either. There are so many people on this path with you, but we often fail to see those right next to us, because we’re constantly distracted by those who’ve been running their own miles for […]

It’s okay to realize you’re still getting triggered by the very same things, because it was never really the trigger that needs work; it’s more of your reaction to it. There’s nothing wrong with falling back into old patterns of thought. It doesn’t mean an old version of you will instantly prevail. Your reaction can […]

Maybe you can try to accept that the older versions of yourself will continue to exist somewhere inside you, no matter how much you grow and evolve. Watching them resurface from time to time doesn’t mean the newer versions of yourself never existed. It just means… that you’re human. You’re human, and it’s okay to […]

If you really think about it, your lessons and afflictions are always chosen for you way before your people. He knows you, He knows exactly what you need to learn and what you can endure at certain phases of your life, and so He sends you those who’ll help get you there, because it’s what […]