Show Up

“What would you do if you knew that the things that you fear were nothing but opportunities for you to grow stronger in your faith?”

you want great things to come into your life, you have to first be overwhelmingly clear about the great things that already exist in your life. You have to give them your energy and attention.”

Expressing gratitude to Allah (swt) forces us to focus on the positives in our lives, on the little blessings, the barakah we often take for granted. Making this a habit offers numerous benefits, including helping you to shift your paradigm, tackle negativity and develop an optimistic, grateful outlook on life

“And admit me by Your mercy into (the ranks of) Your righteous servants.” (Qur’an 27:19)

You have a choice: hold on to the beliefs that are stifling you, or replace them with more useful beliefs that will propel you towards the person you want to be.

If a belief is not working for you, if it is holding you back, be brave enough to admit it – and then do the work to change that belief to something more positive, more nurturing, more useful to you as you show up, authentically and sincerely, in your life.

However, when we discuss beliefs in this section, we are not talking about belief in Allah (swt) and the tenets of Islam

Very often, the story we tell about our life is based on a set of beliefs and values that we have built up over time.

The victim narrative tells you that you have no choice, no agency, that everything bad has been done to you, that you have no options, that you have no responsibility, that you are powerless.

And when we tell ourselves that we have no choices, no power, guess what? We start to behave that way. We stop fighting the feelings of despair and desperation. We stop resisting the pull of misery and complacency. We stop reaching for the things that will help us get through our pain and confusion: the salah, du’a, and the practical help of others.

If we focused on their circumstances, we could easily write them off as victims to be pitied and patronised. But when we shift our focus to how they respond to their circumstances, we are able to see them for the heroic individuals they really are.

Stories we tell ourselves

There are always at least two sides to any story. As I illustrated in the previous section, even the most tragic of personal stories can be told in two ways: as a victim’s story or a hero’s tale.