ABU DHABI: Across much of the world, emotional wellbeing is now being discussed in similar ways with familiar language: self-care, boundaries, resilience. These terms have helped people speak more openly about stress and mental health, often for the first time. That matters. But the language also carries an assumption, one that is not always questioned. It suggests that healing begins, and largely takes place, within the individual. In many Arab societies, that idea does not fully apply. The self is rarely experienced in isolation.