Stop Living on Autopilot: The Power of Reflection

hi everybody and welcome to yet another episode of the Barakah Blueprint podcast this is the podcast where we align faith and focus to achieve success that truly lasts I'm your host Ibrahim Shareef and today we'll be talking about a very important topic the Pinnacle and the basis of Baraka and focus in your life and that is reflection this is a very important topic to both me and you because we live in a world and we live a life full of distractions around us because let me ask you this when was the last time you sat down and reflected on your connection to God Almighty and I'm posing the question first to myself before I POS it to you how often do we pause and think about life and our choices and our connection to God almighty this particular topic is very important because it is the basis of how busy we are compared to how fulfilled we are in our days and it is the Pinnacle of or and this is the basis I would say to estimate and assess our health in the connection to God Almighty and our spirituality so we'll talk about how reflection connects with faith and how we can integrate reflection in practical ways in our day-to-day life so let's dive into why self-reflection is a very important tool for our growth and embod style so we live a life that is full of noise around us but true wisdom comes in the silence many of us live our lives reacting more than reflecting and we tend to sometimes end up in a situation where we live on autopilot and just work on autopilot we work we scroll we consume but we rarely take the time to stop and ask ourselves where am I going and studies show that deep thinkers tend to be more fulfilled and achieve more than those that are reactive those that don't stop and think and reflect and question themselves now for us as Muslims Allah subhanahu wa tala praises the ones who reflect for example inan he says he Praises those that uh reflect on creation and reflect on the purpose that they live and how close they are to the Creator Allah subh also mentions the opposite several instances in the Quran for example he says do not be like those who forgot their lord so he made them forget themselves this shows us very clearly that reflection is an essential part both of our Wellness in this life and for our health in the Hereafter and this tells us that Allah subhana wa tala's wisdom is installed everywhere but those that will benefit from it are those that will stop and reflect like for example take the example of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam reflection isn't just a part that came after his Rah after The Message of Islam it is something that even came along uh before prophethood so the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam used to travel a distance on foot to the cave of and would just sit there and reflect and reflection is not only something that stopped there but it growed even stronger after his prophethood so he he kept encouraging to stop pause and reflect on our current affairs and our future steps something that we can find both in the prophetic Sunnah and the quranic rhetoric it is said for example that one hour of reflection is more beneficial and can be more beneficial than an entire year of worship so what can happen here if we don't integrate reflection in our lives uh we can end up in a situation where we feel busy we feel occupied we're doing busy work we're working on autopilot and perhaps even feeling exhausted and or most likely feeling exhausted but at the same time never feeling fulfilled and that makes perfect sense because Allah says as quoted earlier those who forget their Lord will ultimately forget themselves so if you don't if you're not in tune with God Almighty and you're not in tune with your own spirituality it is very normal that you're not going to feel fulfilled so I'm going to pose this scenario and let's see if we recognize ourselves uh in that do you feel that you are constantly rushed and stressed do you feel that you are repeating the same mistakes without learning from them or do you struggle feeling present in your daily prayers or your daily tasks if your answer was yes to one or all of the questions the most likely there this is a point in time where you need to stop and give your time some reflection because as mentioned if we don't reflect if we don't keep our connection to God healthy we will not only lose that connection with God we will lose that connection within ourselves as well and therefore reflection is what keeps us connected to God Almighty we talked before about the importance of consistency to keep that consistency alive it is perhaps good to divide this reflection or or portion this reflection into bite-sized chunks with that being said a practical tip that I was given and that I would also recommend to you my dear listener is ask yourself three questions on a daily basis this if if you're not the journaling type of guy there's no need to sit down and write them if you prefer just sitting and thinking about them or having a mindfulness session where you have these three questions and these these three questions alone that in itself is good enough but the three questions are number one did my actions today align with my principles and values number two how did I respond and react to the challenges I was faced with today and three the most important one how has my connection with God been today now the second tip here is more if you're okay or fine with journaling I myself like to journal and I would definitely recommend you to do the same the best thing you can do is engage in a writing exercise because at least for me as a person it allows me to be more honest in my reflection because this will also enable me to for example and I would recommend this write down lessons that you have learned from today things that you're grateful for even that can trigger a deeper and longer reflection and utilize this thing that is called M uh accountability a friend or a family member to hold you accountable for this reflection is something that is very recommended alhamdulillah have uh a select group of friends that help me uh achieve that reflection and ask me challenging questions if you happen to not be that person or you don't have those that are aligned with the principles and values that you have installed within yourself perhaps use chat GPT or another AI tool as a reference or as a as a self-improvement coach of course not fully reliant on the output but at least as a trigger to trigger those reflective questions for you another tip a third tip that I would give is to to ensure that you start your morning the Right Way start your morning with Quran is something that I highly recommend I would recommend this to both my Muslim and my non-muslim listener start your day with Quran include that in a 30 minutes no phone no screen session in your day because as mentioned the the the wisdom from God is often found within the silences have a 30- minute Silence from your phone from your social media distractions from those notifications and those push notifications because when we constantly consume we tend to not think or reflect too deeply and having a the Quran as a reset Factor will surely help us to achieve that reflective self and the fourth tip integrated with the third tip the best reflection happens in moments of worship it happens in your Salah it happens in your prayers it happens in your in your morning and evening routines in these specific remembrances of God utilize those moment moments as as not just moments of recitation and reciting words that you may or may not understand reflect on your recitation reflect on your connection to God Almighty when you're engaging in those acts of worship connecting to God so a challenge that I have for this week to myself and to you before going to sleep spend five minutes and 5 minutes alone to reflect on this past day the day that you have spent and let's keep it simple let's keep it by size write one lesson that you've learned and one thing that you're grateful for and yes it's a small habit but trust me it is a habit that can cause a great change of positivity to your life and old cliche yes life moves very fast but the wisdom is usually attained when we slow things down a little bit and the evenings or the mornings are usually the perfect opportunities for those when we slow down and integrate more reflection I can promise you that you will find more peace and a lot more Baraka in your life and that's it for this very short podcast episode that I wanted to share with you today thank you so much for tuning in for listening to the Barakah Blueprint podcast and I pray that we can all achieve a bit more reflection in our day and to stay connected to God Almighty if you like what you've heard or what you've seen please give this a like a follow a subscription leave a review so I know what I can better in doing or what I am doing that is already good thank you so much stay productive stay focused and stay purposeful and in Bara Style asalam alikum