Five things that will change your mental, physical and spiritual state

1. Waking up early.
2. Being grateful.
3. Being present.
4. The process.
5. Sleeping early.
• Waking up early:
Lockdown disturbed my quality life like anyone else’s but at the same time, I am grateful to it. As of now, I feel m
ore connected, more content, happy and growing than I felt ever before. The Corona period was a phase of ups and downs, mostly ‘downs’. Describing my feelings here, feels like staring at the very quicksand, I almost sunk in.
“The power of positive thinking” by “Norman Vincet Peale” has had a great influence on my lifestyle and mindset, of course. Five things
mentioned in this book, referred to as Life S.A.V.E.R.S are literally life savers.
• Silence
• Affirmations
• Visualise
• Exercise
• Reading
• Scribbling A.K.A Journaling
By following this, I started developing ‘gratefulness’ and ‘having faith in Allah’ type of mindset.
Islam and power of positive thinking:
As Namaz( Salah) included Silence, Affirmations and visualisation.
Affirmations:
The Quranic verses increase one’s optimistic belief, gratefulness and faith in Allah
Every morning for at least 15 minutes recite affirmative, faith increasing versus.
Visualisation:
Dua’as include visualisation. You visualise what you need and ask for it. Be aware of what you visualise for you’ll get it and that Allah is the best altruist.
Even research shows meditation actually changes the brain(mindset).
Doing at least, one thing for your body, mind and soul increases your love for yourself and provides relief to your soul that you have, truly done something for your own self. As Vincet says”reading is to the mind, exercise is to the body and prayer is to the soul”
So basically, by waking up early , you give yourself time to actually process ‘the happenings.’ So, you actually get to feel the things properly and intensely. All above, the start of your day will be in a proper sync that you get to channelise your energy towards ‘your process’.
Workout:
Secondly, to feel good in your skin, workout for at least 20-25 minutes, everyday or at least 4 days a week. Basic, lunges, squats, planks, twists etc. can be a part of your workout routine. Also, at the end of the day, all of it makes, going to bed, more easier. As far as I have seen Gen-Z struggle from it the most.
Journaling:
Writing up your thoughts is important for clearing your mind. Also for Self awareness and planning. For that, you can start maintaining a Journal or if being persistent with journaling seems difficult. You can start with wrapping up your whole day with one single sentence. One sentence, each day or brain storming and brain dumping, just writing down, any random thoughts coming in your mind.
Reading:
Reading, itself, is also the most jewelled art. It connects your emotional, mental and spiritual being by unknown forces, too powerful to enhance and change your personality and mindset , every time you read a book; you become the book you read. I would suggest to have three different genre based reading, mainly; self help, economics and fiction.
Self help genre- to keep you motivated , Economics- to help you manage money as they say “everyone
makes money but not everyone knows how to manage money.” Fiction, for increasing creativity and all. My favourite books, so far, genre based( I would suggest you to read them in the chronology mentioned below, the chronology isn’t based on favouritism but connectivity) :
SELF HELP:
1. “The Power of Positive Thinking ” by “Norman Vincet Peale.”
2. “The Miracle Morning” by “Hal Elrod.”
3. “Atomic Habits” by “James clear.”
4. “101 Essays That Will Change the Way you think” by “Brianna West”
Economics:
1. “The Richest Man in Babylon”by “George Samuel Clason”
2. “Rich Dad, Poor Dad” by “Robert Kiyosaki”
Fiction:
1. “The Alchemist” by “Paulo Coelho”
2. “The Fountain head” by “Ayn Rand”
3. “The Thousand Splendid Suns” by “Khalid Hosseini”
4. “Forty rules of love” by “Elif shafak”
Being grateful:
As they say talk peaceful to be peaceful.
‘Surah Al-Luqmaan’ has a verse that says: “Anyone who is grateful does so to profit of his own soul”(31:12). “If you are grateful, I will surely increase you in [favor], Qur’an 14:7.
Be thankful to Allah for everything you have Or you shall have. Thank Allah for every good thing.
Above all, don’t complain ( don’t confuse complaining with speaking up for yourself).Try hard to not to complain and try hard to become a grateful person. “If we see God as full of love and compassion, so are we” Forty rules of love by Elif Shafak.
Basically, being grateful brings contentment and fulfilment to your soul and heart, also never regret your past, just be grateful for whatever it has taught you.
Being Present:
What you’re doing with the moment you have, determines how your life will transform and what will you become. That means if you decide something for yourself, “now”; what you have done with your past doesn’t matter at all. As they say; you can change your future by changing the present. That’s the power of present, because it and only it is what matters.
Past has happened and future doesn’t even exist, it is just a mere concept, a prediction and procrastination, takes from you the present moment that you own, when you actually feel like the problems are being solved, the planner is becoming “the perfect” planner, according to you but in reality, everything is right there. Because you didn’t use your present moment, what you actually have, instead, you assumed that everything will go according to your so called assumptions, for the time which doesn’t even exist
because YOU CAN NEVER EVER PRETEND TO PREDICT YOUR FUTURE!
Don’t confuse procrastination with having a vision for yourself, because you need to know your vision, Your dream life, your dream job, your dream house , and not just being stuck in your dreams, d oing the actual, needed process for your dreams.
Now the question being asked is how to end Procrastination :
1. Setting a goal: Do a brain dump. Like having an idea about what work or chapter or topic you have to finish. Or knowing what you actually want to offer to the world. Just having a blur idea will do. Do not seek for the perfect to-do because you don’t even know if it would actually happen or not?
2. Do not care about the goal. To be precise, forget the goal. Determine the process, you need to achieve your goal.
3. Own the process. Fall in love with the process. Do the process without thinking about your goal.
4. Eventually, achieve the goal.
“If you want to genuinely start over, clear the state of everything you ever thought about how to get your life together. Don’t predict, project, mind-read, assume. Don’t imagine a better elevator speech. Don’t only think of what it makes sense to do. Think of what it feels right to do. Not what your impulses say, not what your laziness says, not what your fear says. Those things have probably gotten you where you are. But a layer beneath them is a more resolute voice, and it will tell you which way to go. You only have to be quiet, listen, and act” by Brianna West.
The process:
You are already an achiever if you did your process. The thing that matters is what you learn, to what extent you grow and
what you
become due to the process. It is not about whether you achieve your goal or not; what matters is the process you determined for your goal, also do not make your process as such you just want it to end it, as soon as possible, rather you need to love and adore and own every single second of your process. It should be consistent and intelligent, practice.
In reality, the process, itself should have a reason to jump out of your bed, every morning. As in Japanese, this is what they call “Ikigai.” It isn’t always true that you have to struggle and suffer and delay your happiness, to succeed, rather, you can deeply enjoy your
Journey , your life. Be mindful and intentional about the passage of time.You are deserving for all the things which bring s happiness to you, doesn’t matter if you have not achieved your assumption of your future self. And keep exploring yourself and the things that
bring more value to the process. Do not let other people’s insecurity overpower your vision of life, do not let them dictate you.
If you just know, what you actually want to offer to the world and what do you want to do now. Surely, you will determine
the process, and don’t seek perfectionism. Do not wait for “the right time” to start. It doesn’t exist.
“There is no grand moment in life. You don’t wake up and say, ‘Aha! I’ve made it!’ Happiness is all in details, the joy is all in
the journey. Always has been, always will be.”“Outcomes are just ideas, actions are results” by Brianna West.
To make the process more productive, use the Pomodoro Technique. Just decide your task for 25 or 40 minutes and take a 5 and 10 minute break, respectively. One focused 25 minute work will be considered as one pomodoro. After,
Sleeping early:
Sleep early to give yourself the proper amount of sleep. Mostly, for teenagers and people in their 20’s require 8 hours of
sleep.To complete their sleep architecture. And then it can reduce to 7 1⁄2 to 7.
Some people feel like getting less sleep doesn’t affect them or getting some five to six hours of sleep is sufficient for them. But, in the long run; it does affect you; mentally, physically and emotionally. Also, do not sleep more than 8 hours, it makes you lethargic. Let the night be for sleep.
Why eight hours of sleep? ( source: Internet)
Sleep is not uniform. Instead, over the course of the night, your total sleep is made up of several rounds of the sleep cycle, which is composed of four individual stages. In a typical night, a person goes through four to six sleep cycles. Not all sleep cycles are of the same length, but on an average they last about 90 minutes each.
The four sleep stages; one for rapid eye movement (REM) sleep and three that form non-REM (NREM) sleep. These stages are determined based on an analysis of brain activity during sleep, which shows distinct patterns that characterize each stage.
NREM Sleep Patterns
NREM sleep is composed of three different stages. The higher the stage of NREM sleep, the harder it is to wake a person up from their slumber.
Stage 1 / N1
Stage 1 is essentially the “dozing off” stage, and it normally lasts just one to five minutes.
During N1 sleep, the body hasn’t fully relaxed, though the body and brain activities start to slow with periods of brief movements (twitches).
Stage 2 / N2
During stage 2, the body enters a more subdued state including a drop in temperature, relaxed muscles, and slowed breathing and heart rate. At the same time, brain waves show a new pattern and eye movement stops.
Stage 2 sleep can last for 10-25 minutes during the first sleep cycle, and each N2 stage can become longer during the night. Collectively, a person typically spends about half their sleep time in N2 sleep.
Stage 3 / N3
Muscle tone, pulse, and breathing rate decrease in N3 sleep as the body relaxes even further.
Experts believe that this stage is critical to restorative sleep, allowing for bodily recovery and growth. It may also bolster the immune system and other key bodily processes. Even though brain activity is reduced, there is evidence that deep sleep contributes to insightful thinking, creativity, and memory.
We spend the most time in deep sleep during the first half of the night. During the early sleep cycles, N3 stages commonly last for 20-40 minutes. As you continue sleeping, these stages get shorter, and more time gets spent in REM sleep instead.
REM Sleep Patterns
During REM sleep, brain activity picks up, nearing levels seen when you’re awake. At the same time, the body experiences atonia, which is a temporary paralysis of the muscles, with two exceptions: the eyes and the muscles that control breathing. Even though the eyes are closed, they can be seen moving quickly, which is how this stage gets its name.
REM sleep is believed to be essential to cognitive functions like memory, learning, and creativity.
Side effects of getting required amount of sleep:
1. More energetic.
2. Increases focus.
3. Increases memory.
4. Increases emotional intelligence.
5. Clear and glowing skin.
6. Recovers from emotional damage.
7. Increases mindfulness.
8. More happy and content.
9. More productive.
10. At least, not sinning during that part of your day. Bye bye,Netflix and hanging out and working late.
Before going to sleep, intentionally, let go of all your successes and defeats. And at the end, like Sazuki you should be able to say, proudly, “I am an artist at living and my work of art is my life.”

The author is Secretary Life foundation and Chief Co-ordinator of Sheikh ul Alam Centre for peace & Sprituality

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