Inside each of us, there is the seed of both good and evil. It's a constant struggle as to which one will win. And one cannot exist without the other – Eric Burdon

Are you struggling with doing what’s good for you?

As salaam alaykum !! I hope you have been keeping well. See, I am currently struggling with my habits and upon reflection, my thoughts have brought about an amusement of how we operate as humans. We are like a double-edged sword; in one instance we may do things that are detrimental to us and in another instance, we can perform actions or behave in ways that benefit us.

Yet, the part of us that baffles me the most is how often we clearly know what is good for us and what we should be doing to achieve it but we self-sabotage. We either prevent ourselves from performing that action or worse, do the very thing that would harm us.

So, the question I find myself asking is, why do we struggle with doing what’s good for us? 

Clearly there are a lot of angles we can look at this from but let's look at it from the area of habits. Quite frankly, our lives are run by an array of atomic habits (good or bad). Our religion, Islam is one that is deeply rooted in habits and as such if we claim that Islam is the core of our lives, then we must be prepared to give our habits their due.

Last Saturday, we had a Q&A discussion on habits, and it is clear as day that our struggles with forming/ maintaining habits are a reaction from deeper seated problems.

, when it comes to our habits, our struggles include and are not limited to a lack of consistency, procrastination, overwhelm, demotivation, inability to break from bad habits, distractions, a lack of self-control, mental health struggles etc. No, I didn’t make this up myself, they were gotten from a summary of responses sisters like you, and I shared prior to the session.

As stated earlier, these reasons are not the root cause, rather they are mere symptoms. I tend to think in patterns, and it did not take long for me to realise that all the struggles stated here stem from issues with our body, mind, and soul. All the struggles with habits stated above can be classified into one or more of these three buckets.

For example, a lack of consistency can be linked to strength of mind, same with distractions. A lack of self-control can be linked to a weak mind, body, and emotional state. For me, I am currently in a mentally and emotionally overloaded state so I honestly shouldn't be surprised that I am struggling.

, what this tells me is now more than ever we need to pay attention to nurturing our body, mind, and soul. We are suffering from an onslaught of physical, emotional, and mental blocks that are triggering coping mechanisms to merely survive not THRIVE.

Because of these blocks, we struggle to do what’s right for us even when we know what to do and how to do it. Now, I am not saying we will ever be completely free from blocks nor am I saying we won’t have moments when we are not firing on all cylinders. Rather, what I am saying is, if you are constantly struggling with your habits (either in breaking a bad one or acting on a good one) you want to troubleshoot where the issue lies because it is only when we tackle those problems that we can truly soar.

As for me, I will be going on leave from work soon to reduce my mental load and clear my head in shaa Allah. I will also be paying super attention to my Salat and Dhikr; bi ithnillah I am able to re-centre myself. I find that once my spirituality is in a good place, I am able to invite enough calm into my life and every other area seems to come back into alignment.

So I have a question for you . Is your body, mind and soul being nurtured appropriately and adequately? If no, be honest and tell yourself which of these three areas currently needs more attention in your life. Then, make a resolve to start working on it/them.

Feel free to hit reply and let me know.

• On that note, if you weren’t at the Cultivating habits to nurture your potential session on Saturday, the replay is available.  You may want to check it out if you are currently struggling with your habits. Watch HERE

• Secondly, if you are like me and you had a great Ramadan but somehow you find yourself struggling to keep up with some of your ma shaa Allah habits post Ramadan 😉😉. You may consider copping this workbook by Ibadah plug. I really enjoyed working through it during their post Ramadan workshop in May.

• Lastly, the month of Dhul-Hijjah would be starting tomorrow or next in shaa Allah. The first 10 days are just as powerful as the last 10 nights of Ramadan and a great period to amass HEFTY rewards bi ithnillah. I only came to a realisation of how important these days are last year, and I am determined to make the best of them as go through this life bi ithnillah. This short e-book by Life with Allah was very instrumental to my knowledge and I would be going through it as refresher on how to maximise the next 10days. You can check it out too if you wish. May Allah grant us ease in worshipping Him and may He accept all our worship. AMEEN.

Got to run now , but before I sign out 😊 ,let me remind you to always take your worries to Allah. Only Him can make everything clear.

Love,

Sekinat