Thinking about keeping family ties (silatul rahim)

When I was doing a rotation in a mental health service, there was this one thing I kept seeing. A lot of the people there lived far from their families. We would often ask them, 'What’s the main thing that stops you from hurting yourself again?' And over and over, they’d say, 'My family.' It really made me think. Growing up, I always saw silatul rahim as a duty-something we do because Allah told us to. But seeing those moments made me understand it in a new light. SubhanAllah, Allah created our hearts, and He knows what truly soothes them better than we do. Maybe some of His orders aren’t just for the next life. Maybe they’re also a protection for us here in this world. It got me wondering... how many things Allah asks of us are not just acts of worship, but also a form of mercy towards ourselves?