Expanding Time

It happens when you break neural pathways , when you try to do things differently . It's an identity shift that the brain doesn't like and it throws anxiety and stress at you . That's a classic primal response to cognitive dissonance , because the primal self , the nafs , wants comfort and there's nothing comfortable about cognitive dissonance .

In this podcast I'll address different ways for you to plan your upcoming year , how to expand your time , that the new year and the rest of your life is filled with barakah , inshallah .

This topic will bring a lot of cognitive dissonance when you break your old limiting patterns and form new ones , but allow the information in this podcast to guide you to the next version of yourself . That state of holding two different thoughts at the same time is my favorite place to be .

I love that state of cognitive dissonance because I love breaking old beliefs and reforming new ones . That's the ultimate growth . It's because of these newly developed neural pathways is when you are carving out a new life , a new habit and a new way of looking at time .

As a human , we do not have an upper limit of how much cognitive dissonance we can experience , because we are always growing . Even after you've learned something and become an expert at it , you can still have a different experience once you encounter it again under different circumstances .

So , following the same notion , I had realized that I've given multiple podcasts on time management and here I do it again with different concepts , because how we experience time is relative , based on our individual state of mind . So , inshallah , this will strike a different chord with you and help your productivity .

I invite you to hold contrasting thoughts in your brain when it comes to creating barakah in time . I invite you to plan your time ahead of time for the upcoming year . There's something inside of us that resists us creating time deliberately and with intention , and that is our comfort brain .

And by comfort brain I do not mean laziness , I mean our brain that loves the sameness . We resist planning , we resist thinking ahead about how we are going to spend our time . We resist what we're going to do with our deliberateness that is required for the process . This resistance is because neurons that fire together wire together and so far they've been firing .

I don't have time , and planning of this time actually breaks that limiting belief , thus leaving our comfort zone . Our will to react , being able to be spontaneous and being able to be free to make all the decisions at the last minute is more important to us than planning for time . All of this is thanks to our comfort brain .

These are all well-practiced thoughts . You are used to the lifestyle that is familiar , and these are all lower brain shaitan's tricks , and the best trick of shaitan is that makes us resist cognitive dissonance In the book the World of Jinn and Devils by Dr Omar Al-Ashqar . In his book he says one of the early scholars said beware of procrastinating .

It is the greatest of the soldiers of Satan . The more you plan , the more free you'll be , and here's why You'll be able to create the exact life you want . Planning ahead is a prefrontal cortex feature . Planning and thinking about the future is a human quality . So planning for time is what sets you apart from animals .

Your animal brain , on the other hand , likes to have you live your life on the whim . Without the planning , you'll be worrying about everything that needs to be done and with planning , you'll enjoy your free time more .

People equate spontaneity with fun and being spunky , but they are actually being out of control of their own life , because when you are being spontaneous , you're making decisions of how to spend your time from your lower brain , and the lower brain is always about immediate gratification .

This way , you'll end up living at the mercy of whims and last-minute attractions rather than your big life goals and plans . Let's take an example of changing your diet habits . You tell yourself that from tomorrow you will not be having dessert . You want to cut out all desserts from your food , but tomorrow comes and you don't follow through .

This inability of following through with your plans has nothing to do with the fact that there's something innately wrong with you , but it has everything to do with your relationship with your higher self . Just about 24 hours ago , your higher self said that it will be beneficial for you to cut out all the desserts from your diet for health reasons .

But when time actually came to execute on that plan , the lower brain was more active , and that has scientifically been proven to be true . Future planning is always done from the executive brain and immediate gratification is always the function of the primal brain .

So when you don't honor that commitment of not having desserts , you broke your relationship with your higher self . Remember this higher self is the voice of your soul . It has your best interest at heart . It is always looking out for you . It is always doing the right thing .

So this is not so much an issue with time or food , but an issue with not honoring your commitments and not having your own back , which defines your relationship with yourself . Example I commonly use is that you would not treat your best friend or somebody you highly respect as a second-class citizen .

If you make a commitment with them , you're going to honor it . But what most of us don't realize is that we are treating ourselves as second-class citizens when we don't honor our own commitments . We treat other people much better than we treat ourselves . This is also a trick of Shaitan . He will have you believe that you are not as important as everyone else .

If you start running your life as if you were the most important person to respect and love , it will show up in every single aspect of your life . But the problem is that this type of self respect does not come naturally . We are all born on fitra to follow the voice of our soul , but over time , mistreatment from the environment .

Either as children from adults in our life or as adults from other adults in our life , we learn patterns of self-sabotage , especially for women . Usually in the name of service . They are told that their innate self-worth is attached to how much value they can provide to the world in service of others .

Most women are not taught how to listen to the internal voice command , so they never really find out if providing service for others is something that they actually want or they're doing it because they don't see a different choice . When women do this because of a perceived obligation , they learn to think that what they want is not important .

So generations of reinforcement of showing up in obligatory , culturally acceptable set of behaviors tells women what they want is less important , and this shows up in all areas of their life , especially in the area of keeping commitments to themselves .

When it's time for you to show up for activities that you planned to be important for you , it's easy for you to reject that commitment because you've never learned how to show up for yourself . You've only learned how to do it for others . This is the programming that is at fault here , not because there's something wrong with you .

This programming is the reason why you treat yourself as a second-class citizen . You don't have your back is the reason why you treat yourself as a second-class citizen . You don't have your back . So then are you surprised when keeping your commitments of not eating dessert is difficult .

This type of strong relationship with yourself seems unnatural because it's unexplored territory . This is the reason why it's difficult for us to be in complete loyalty and integrity with ourselves , and this exact behavior towards yourself teaches others how they can treat you . And this teaching is that I am a pushover .

It's okay for you to walk all over me , because that is essentially what everyone sees you doing to yourself . So showing up for our time commitments is something we have to continually practice and focus on .

We have to renew this relationship with ourselves on an ongoing basis , otherwise shaitan will step in and use our subconscious programming against us , and we will find that we are in self-sabotage all over again .

When we honor our own plans . We are in conflict with our survival brain . It is trying to keep us alive , but it pulls us very far off track . It tells us , eating sugar means survival , being spontaneous means freedom , but that's just the language of comfort , not the language of your soul .

You have to overcome your primal brain that is in survival mode in order to create a different future . So , as a human , one of your superpowers is that you can make time , and I'm not saying it like you can create time out of thin air . That's a quality that only belongs to allah .

But just like you might have noticed that you have lost time by not planning , you can also make time by planning . When you plan on doing something for an hour and you follow through to that commitment , then you make time to relax for the next hour . On the other hand , if you don't plan , you can spend the entire two hours doing the same thing .

Therefore , you've lost the relaxing hour . You have the ability to create time for yourself like this , and the reason I know that is because I am able to create and achieve so much in a short amount of time .

Alhamdulillah , compared to how I used to be , I have so much more free time now compared to when I was not creating and accomplishing half as much , which is ironic , isn't it ? I'm getting more done and I have more free time . You would think that getting more done would mean more hustling , more stressful energy , but with planning and getting more done .

It means more free time and relaxation . Incredible , isn't it ? You have this ability to create more time also because you are Khalifatullah , god's vice-gerent on this earth . You can create time with your mind , because Allah gave you a mind to exercise control with , and the real control of the mind lives with executive functioning of planning .

When we resort to haphazardly doing things at the last minute , we are using our lizard brain . This way , we are doing things out of pressure , which is just another form of fear .

When we decide at the last minute , that decision is based on how we feel in the moment and that is mostly under the survival brain's control , and mostly that dictates doubt , fear , but most of all , comfort . It says stay in , don't leave for workout , no need to meal plan , no need to fill out that grad school application .

If you say to yourself tomorrow I will prepare for the interview , tomorrow I will fill out the forms for the application for grad school , tomorrow , 11 am will come and I'm going to want to take a stroll or eat a snack or enjoy my time with my pets , I'm going to want to respond from the emotions of the moment , and the most overarching emotion will be of

comfort . This is why you don't move ahead in life . I have made a promise that I will not treat myself like that anymore . I refuse . I choose to prioritize my values . I take precise actions according to the plan that I made ahead of time , and I also choose to relax and enjoy my time fully . I am still human .

My brain still has the battle at the moment of execution and it still demands comfort . I say to it I understand where you're coming from , but I have things to do and once I start to take action , I'm all in . I still have to get over the initial friction of initiating the task and it's like inertia .

Starting the motion is hard , but when you start taking action it becomes easier . If you don't follow through with your plans , you will continue to spin in the life you currently have and call it fate . You will mistakenly call it qadr . You will think this is how your life is supposed to be because that is what's written for you . That is not accurate .

You can change your future outcome . By honoring your plans at each moment , you can literally change the trajectory of your life . The survival brain will never go away . It will always tell you to keep hiding in the cave , shaitan will always feed you thoughts of fear and not enoughness . That is just a part of the deal . Your job is to take action .

Anyway , you commit and execute your plan . Anyway , you put your screaming , your comfort-seeking survival brain to the side and you say I have things to do . So these are the three steps of the process that I can teach you to expand your time and find barakah in 2022 . Step number one plan ahead . Step number two make strong decisions , meaning don't look back .

Listen to my podcast on decision making . Step number three take effective action . Measure how well you did with the result you create , not with the activity you performed . Listen to my podcast on effective action for more on that . So this three-step process is the simplest thing I can teach you that .

So this three-step process is the simplest thing I can teach you . If you say you will fill out an application tomorrow , do it . If you say you will eat something healthy tomorrow , eat only that . If you say you will take 30 minutes to prepare for a school debate or an exam , take only 30 minutes and rest and relax for the next hour that you planned for .

Follow through on exact list of things you said you were going to do . This method is the quickest way to create self-confidence and time that will then show up in every area of your life . There will be resistance to planning your time . Just know that that is the part of the process . Nothing has gone wrong here . Embrace the cognitive dissonance .

Make it your friend . See if you can hold contrasting thoughts at the same time , like I can gain time by planning for it , and planning time feels constricting . Your brain is more flexible than you give it credit for . Also , I'm holding a free workshop on time management on December 12th at 1 pm Eastern time .

It will be geared towards how to keep your commitments in the upcoming year and expanding time through Barakah to create a deliberate and purposeful life in the year 2022 , inshaallah . There will also be live coaching if somebody wants to design their next year according to their plan or whatever topic you might have around time management .

Replays will only be available inside my Empowered Muslim Women program and I will leave the link for registration for the workshop in the show notes below . I highly recommend that you attend . Live Planning creates barakah in your time . Planning is the special blessing that Allah SWT bestowed upon humankind .

Planning is the special blessing that Allah SWT bestowed upon humankind . Use the three-step process planning , strong decision-making and effective action to create time in 2022 . Create that unprecedented relationship with yourself . Take your future in your hands and teach everyone around you how to treat you and what it means to be a model Muslim citizen on this planet .

If your motivation is da'wah , if it is setting an example for your kids , or if it's creating an insane amount of wealth , planning for 2022 will not let you down , because it will set you up for success for the rest of the years .

Inshallah , learn to be in cognitive dissonance . It pays off big time . I am a living example of that . Monitor your limiting beliefs that you carry about time or about your relationship with yourself , and create new beliefs that serve you . Manage your mind , because Allah , subhanahu wa ta'ala , gave you a mind and gave you knowledge to utilize with that mind .

I truly believe our highest minds are the most underutilized tool . As a Muslim Ummah , I believe this is what makes us Khalifatullah , because in Ayah 30 in Surah Baqarah , where Allah SWT announces I will create a vicegerent on earth . In the very next Ay , where Allah SWT announces I will create a vice-gerent on earth .

In the very next ayah , allah SWT says and he taught Adam the names of all the things . So Allah SWT has given us the knowledge in the names of all the things . He has given us the means to use that knowledge in shape of our prefrontal cortex , and then he calls us his vice , vicegerent on earth . Now it's up to us to learn to utilize it .

I pray that we are able to make the best use of our time and create barakah in our day , by the will of Allah . May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala grant us the highest , purest intention so we can utilize our created time for our benefit . May Allah make us of those who reap benefits in the hereafter from the time we spend on this earth .

Please keep me in your du'as . I will talk to you guys next time .