Ramadan is a powerful school of gratitude and patience,  instilling essential values through the practice of fasting. These two principles in particular help us navigate life's difficulties:through patience we learn gratitude, and through gratitude, we achieve contentment, a state essential for our well-being and happiness.

As life coach Nadine Ezzeddine tells An-Nahar, when we change our perspective on Ramadan and consider it an opportunity to improve ourselves, we achieve patience and gratitude. Achieving change requires two essential factors: the patience to reach it, and gratitude for the blessings we have. Once we embrace these two ideas, our approach to fasting becomes spiritual rather than physical.

Restoring Lost Balance

Every month of the year, including Ramadan, offers an opportunity to restore balance in our lives and reconsider our habits, especially after months of neglecting that balance in our words, actions, diet, and thoughts.

Therefore, as Ezzedine emphasizes, Ramadan is not only about fasting from food; it is also a month for learning self-control, restraint, and refinement, and for empathizing with others' suffering.

More importantly, Ramadan is a month for drawing closer to God. Outside of Ramadan, people are often preoccupied with work and other obligations, neglecting to pray and spend time with their families. During Ramadan, however, communication is strengthened, especially during iftar and suhoor meals.

During this month, people should ask themselves: What habits do I need to change? While they may not be able to change them all, they can start with the most pressing. Thirty days is sufficient time to break any bad habit.

Ezzedine adds that appreciating blessings and gratitude, seeking ways to develop ourselves and become closer to God, and practicing patience are some of the most important factors that positively affect our psyche during Ramadan. People feel more patient and grateful during this month because their spiritual energy is high.

She describes Ramadan as a month of spiritual training that should teach us patience, calm communication with others and our surroundings without provocation, and how to suppress anger. Fasting teaches patience and helps discipline our desires. The more consistently we fast, the easier patience becomes, allowing us  to control our emotions, persevere, and face temptations in all situations.

How can you promote gratitude and patience during Ramadan?

• Begin your day with patience and contentment.

• Reflect on your daily blessings. After breakfast, thank God for the value of water and food.

• Every day, write down three things you are grateful for, even if they seem ordinary, such as family, health, or shelter.

• Remember the suffering of others and give charity to the poor, or share your breakfast with someone who is fasting.

• Share moments of gratitude with family or friends and encourage them to do the same.

• Remember that patience is worship, and the reward for patience is great. Patience in fasting is not deprivation, but purification of the soul.

• Train yourself to control your emotions in one situation each day. For example, remain silent in a crowded place or smile when there is a disagreement.

• Sit with someone who can help you control yourself.

• Set aside some rak’as to thank God for His blessings, rather than turing the entire prayer into requests.

• Practice meditation or remembrance. Calm yourself by reciting the Quran or sitting in silence to reflect on God's creation.

• Accept hunger and thirst as training for the soul.

• Surround yourself with a calm atmosphere. Stay away from sources of stress and focus on spiritual serenity and the tranquility of Ramadan.