In the name of Allah, The Most Gracious, The Most Merciful.
We often talk about kindness to self in terms of pampering ourselves or not being too hard on ourselves.
But I think being kind to ourselves also include ensuring ourselves a good future and not doing ourselves a disservice.
My mother once told me that if we don’t change ourselves for the better before we turn 40, we may never change at all. I am inclined to believe this is right. I think by that age, everything gets set in stone somewhat; your habits, your savings, your plans.
I still have some good years before I ripen so I have got to give it a good go while I still can.
The reason why my 4am club membership was only for two days was because I could not see a good reason for compromising my sleep when I needed to start work later than usual, which also meant that I had to end work later, thus cutting precious sleep time since I had to be awake at 4am the next day. That was the deal breaker.
Right now, however, I am feeling the effects of falling back into my old ways. I feel less energetic and less sharp mentally. I forget things more easily as well. I discussed this with my colleague, stating how I felt sharper when I woke up at 4am despite the lack of sleep. And we came to the conclusion that it may be better for me to re-enter the 4am club.
I will need to be more realistic with my morning routine and realise that it is impossible for me to achieve so much in one day. I need to be more patient in terms of having to rotate the things I want to do, my passions essentially, instead of trying to squeeze everything in one day.
I also need to allocate a minimum of 15 minutes for each task instead of five minutes. That is part of being realistic as well.
So let’s see how things go. I need to bravely re-enter the 4am club and keep on adjusting my routines and I figure out what works best for me.
And Allah is The All-Knowing. – MM
Metropolitan Muslimah 