How many have you taken the Myers Briggs test and clung to friends and careers through those 4 initials ascribed to you? We navigate life in search of what defines us and much of that is what we absorb from others as well as what we seek.

Starting in our early years, we’re labelled as naughty or nice. Loved ones will tell us we’re sensitive. Teachers will tell us we’re loud. Colleagues and bosses will tell us we’re lazy, and these all form part of the story we tell ourselves throughout our lives. We use these labels to observe our roles and our importance in relation to the world around us, and thus life becomes a game of picking and dodging those attributes that do and don’t serve us – the key is in knowing which ones are which.

Ultimately, to be free of any egoic self-labelling is the most liberating state, and one that many strive their entire lives to achieve. It’s saintly work! It requires constant introspection and mindfulness that many of us who are juggling the everyday highs and lows of life find ourselves unable to apply ourselves to wholly.  Absorbing labels that impact our self-perception in a negative way can trickle down into how we practice our routines, our rituals – even our religion.

In this weeks episode of two sense, Selina discusses the detrimental nature of labels and when to know it’s the right time to ditch them. Nafisa’s post (see below) about her relationship with the day Arafah, explains why absoribing a label could have prevented her from seeking it once upon a time…

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I haven't always been practicing of my faith and often the story I told myself held me back from living Islam day to day. I put myself low down on the "religiosity spectrum" and that meant that I didn't see some acts and things like day of Arafah as something for "me". I know that doesn't fully make sense but I know a lot of you will get what I mean. So if that feels like you, I want to tell you that tomorrow is the day of Arafah and it's for everyone. It's for everyone to find forgiveness and the mercy of Allah. No pre requisite required just you and an open heart submitting to your Lord. p.s if you head over to @amaliah_com stories there is an explainer of the importance of day of Arafah so do have a read 💕 Wishing you all a blessed day of Arafah ✨ // Taraweeh in Medina

A post shared by Nafisa Bakkar (@nafisabakkar) on Jul 29, 2020 at 10:18am PDT

If you’ve not listened to one of our two sense episodes before, it works like this; Selina, Nafisa and Sara sit down once a fortnight at the virtual roundtable and are challenged to each bring two subjects they’d like to unpack and debate as being either overrated or underrated, and then leave for our listeners to do the same! Even the most mundane of topics sometimes give way to often layered and useful perspectives…

In this episode the ladies are also discussing the intriguing politics of clothing pockets, why your 20s might not be your defining decade and why acquiring knowledge isn’t always the most noble of ventures…

This week in the overrated category:

Sara:

1. Your 20’s as the best years of your life/ your defining decade.
2. Being original in your work! Why imitation is the road to reflecting you in what you create.

Selina:

1. Not being on social media…
2. Acquiring superfluous knowledge.

Nafisa:

1. The politics of pockets.
2. Writing 2020 off…

This week in the underrated category:

Selina:

1. The limiting nature of labels and why you need to ditch them.

You can listen to this episode using the link below, and catch all of our other series’ and Two Sense episodes over on Acast, Apple Podcasts, Spotify and wherever else you get our podcasts…

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