Episode 1: The IMAN Framework

What’s the IMAN Framework, and Can It Transform Your Life?

In this episode of "Muslimahs in Motion: Professional Pursuits," we explore the I.M.A.N. Framework—Intention, Mindfulness, Advocacy, and Nurturing—a powerful tool to help Muslim career women protect their boundaries and pursue what’s important. 

Join us as we break down each component, share real-life examples, and offer practical techniques to incorporate this framework into your daily life. Tune in to learn how to align your professional journey with your faith and values, and start making positive changes today!

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction to the IMAN framework
• 1:50 The I in The IMAN Framework - Intention
• 2:20 Importance of short and long term goals
• 3:41 Setting clear spiritual intentions
• 16:12 The M in The IMAN Framework - Mindfulness
• 23:59 The A in The IMAN Framework - Advocacy
• 28:39 Legal Rights and Accommodations
• 30:07 Advocating for Others
• 33:34 Spreading Knowledge and Dawah
• 33:44 The N in The IMAN Framework - Nurturing
• 38:16 Prioritizing Well-being and Self-care

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:18

Bismillahirrahmanirrahim. This is something I keep in mind whenever I pursue a new project or a new opportunity, and I feel like sharing this because I feel like it's something that could be useful for all of us, inshallah. So today we will break down the MN framework and essentially what it means, some examples of scenarios where it might apply to you and some techniques so you can apply it in your own life. All right, let's get to it. So what is the IMAN framework? I-m-a-n? So this stands for Intention, mindfulness, advocacy and Nurturing. This framework is designed to help Muslim career women and men protect their boundaries and pursue what is important to them.

Speaker 1: 1:05

Now, why did I come up with this? I think it's important to have a metric or a measurable way to determine, like what benefits you, whether it's a job organization project. You actually want to make sure it aligns with your personal boundaries and your goals, right? So why are we doing any of this at the end of the day? Well, first things first. We got to do stuff to please our Lord, right? And how do you do that? I mean you, you know, respect yourself, respect your boundaries and make sure you're doing things in accordance with Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala. So we're going to walk through how it might apply to you personally and how you can go ahead and apply to your own lifestyle. So let's walk through each step of the framework. So I let's start with I Intention. So we want to set clear and purposeful intentions. So we want to define what our career goals are. You know you can't, you know, improve if you don't know where you're going or what your goals are. Right. How are you supposed to measure your improvement when you don't know what you want to improve? So we got to make sure they align with your faith and values. So, whether it's short-term or long-term goals, they got to reflect your personal and professional goals and aspirations. It's important to have both short and long-term goals, because we will have long-term goals and I'm speaking to myself, I'll have long-term goals. But because I don't have any short-term goals to hold myself accountable, I'll just kind of get lost in the sauce until like six months later I'm like, oh well, why didn't I improve as much as I wanted to? Well, maybe it's because in the short term I wasn't really measuring anything and, honestly, I didn't know what the heck was going on. So that's kind of why nothing happened Right.

Speaker 1: 2:46

So you got to have the short term goals to kind of, you know, break it down and help. You see, ok, for example, let's say you want to build an app, that's a very big goal, but what you can do is try to break it down from by functionality or break it down by the pages you want, like, chop it up, make it digestible. So it's not just this, it's like fire hose right, the fire hose analogy. You don't want to drown trying to drink from a fire hose. You want to funnel the fire hose up until like a little gardening hose and that's a little more digestible. You know what I mean? All right.

Speaker 1: 3:22

So defining our purpose, then we of course have to have the correct spiritual intentions. So you got to begin each day and frankly, maybe even each task, with your clear niya to serve Allah through your work and when you choose to do this, I promise you it becomes a lot easier because you know why you're doing it. Allah knows you're doing it for him, so he makes it easier for you, inshallah, and not only that, it helps you maintain that focus and then also make sure that whatever you're doing is for his sake and it aligns with your goals ultimately, right? It's easy to get lost in the sauce when a lot of things are happening and you know, maybe you want to pursue this one thing but you're not sure if it really aligns with your beliefs or what you're supposed to be doing. You can catch yourself a lot quicker if you try to observe the smaller things, right, because things eventually snowball.

Speaker 1: 4:12

If you start doing little things here and there, that kind of compromise on your values, you're going to be looking at yourself six months to a year later and be like what am I doing? How did I get here and why doesn't this feel right? If you look at what you're doing at the honestly the smallest unit, it's going to be a lot easier to check yourself and be like, hey, this doesn't feel right. So let me just intuate and try something else. Before you know, I end up not even liking what I do. That's how you end up not even liking what you do every day, because you're just compromising on what you actually like and what you actually believe in, little by little by little, till one day you're looking around, you don't even recognize where you're at and, with that being said, you wanna reassess yourself regularly, right? So, like I said, small ways you can keep yourself accountable. Every day you wake up, what are my goals for the day? How am I gonna get things done and why am I doing this? You gotta reassess, and when you do that, you make sure that they remain relevant and they remain aligned with your goals.

Speaker 1: 5:09

So, for example, right before I started working, one of the first things I was inquired about, or one of the things I was inquired about a lot, was my hijab. Like was I going to be nervous being in a corporate setting and wearing it, being visibly Muslim, and only just Muslim, but a black woman too, being pretty much predictably, you know and I was the only black Muslim woman in my department and from like was I scared, right, I'm not gonna lie, it's nerve wracking thinking about being the only person in anything, right, so it's just like, oh, you don't know what to expect. Um, so, yeah, nervousness was there. Other people asking do you feel like the hijab is like a blocker or hindrance to my career? I didn't really think I.

Speaker 1: 5:55

Honestly, my mentality was like whatever is meant to happen is gonna happen. It doesn't really matter what I do. Um, well, let me not say that. Obviously there are things in my control, right, but wearing a hijab is what I'm, I honestly feel like I need to do. Um, if something happens to me because of that, then maybe that just means that's not the environment for me, right?

Speaker 1: 6:17

So that's kind of the mindset I had going in and also deep down inside, like with all the duas and the isra'a I made even leading up to to this job, I feel like I don't know. I didn't feel like that fear, you know, like just dread, like oh, I don't know what's going to happen, just crying. I mean, I'm not saying that's a bad thing If you do, I'm just saying like, alhamdulillah, like I was pretty, I was pretty firm, and even there were some well-meaning adults in my life that before I started working they're even asking me oh, like, maybe, if you want to wear the hijab a little differently, I don't know just a little more whatever. And I was looking at them and I said, okay, no, I will not, I will not be doing that. And I know that they honestly meant well and like they were just like looking out for me.

Speaker 1: 7:01

But at the end of the day, I knew that I was doing this for a reason not just to make a bunch of money and not just to give back, but also to represent and show people that people that look like me can show up, do my job. And not only that, but you know, like do really, really, really, really good at it. Trying to think of like a good way to say that. But like, yeah, just kick butt. You know what I mean. Way to say that, but like, yeah, just kick butt. You know what I mean.

Speaker 1: 7:27

And so funny thing about that is, um year after I started my job, I actually won like a company wide quarterly award and with that my black Muslim hijabi face was plastered all over the screens of the company. So you know, I was the only woman, the only black person and the only Muslim slash hijabi person that even won that quarter. So the lesson here is that I'm very glad I did not compromise, diddly squat, because now people can literally wake up, go to the office and see my face. And it really wasn't about seeing my face like, oh, I want to win this because I, you know whatever. I wasn't even thinking about winning it. I was just thinking about doing my job right. It wasn't until, like, I got a couple of emails that I actually got nominated for the award because the efforts and the things, the work I did. Not only that I did, but like the extra things that I did, which was like speaking at panels and participating in like company growth activities and just overall just doing above and beyond stuff, right.

Speaker 1: 8:27

So long story short about that is that people can now look and see, oh, hey, I, this is his person. And they look like that and look, they're doing their thing and you know, maybe they're not looking at that, maybe just saying, oh, a person, and that's great. But like also, it's not just for me, it's for other people who look like too and they're wondering, even if I do get the job, who's to say like I'll do well? Who's to say I'll have a support system. Who's to say I'll, you know whatever, um, yeah, we can do it. So, yeah, I'm glad I kind of stayed 10 toes down. You know what I mean, but yeah, so how can one make sure their intentions are right? Before, like starting a project, job, whatever?

Speaker 1: 9:09

I would recommend like mindfulness, like before you do anything in life, honestly, you got to think about what you're doing. You can't just be walking around just doing stuff for the sake of doing stuff. You got to think about what you're doing and why Right. So, for example, for my job, I know why I was doing it. I wasn't just doing it again just to make a bunch of money. I was doing it for the little me who really wanted to be a software engineer when I was a kid, who really wanted to contribute to society.

Speaker 1: 9:33

Who I'm doing it for, people who look like me, who want to get into the space and are unsure and nervous about can I really be myself and still show up and work and do this thing Right? I think about those things a lot and, yeah, that's why I wake up and do my job, even when it's hard and even when I'm frustrated with, maybe a tech story that is very difficult and it has a bunch of bugs and everything keeps crashing and I really want to set my computer on fire. But I can't do that Right, because, first of all, probably wouldn't have that job very long. Second of all, without having that job, how am I supposed to show people I can do the things that I want to do? You know what I mean. And I want to do them because I want to do big things and I can also show people that you can do big things too. It's like whenever people look at me and they're like, oh man, what you're doing is so hard, I could never do that. I literally stopped them and I'm like, yes, you can, you can definitely do it. I feel like anybody can do it.

Speaker 1: 10:34

It's just practice. It's like math. Nobody really likes math because everybody thinks it's really hard and, honestly, I used to love math, but when I went to undergrad I started to dislike math more and more, especially like discrete math and all those horrible, horrible maths. But, yeah, I realized it's also just practice. Like all of these things are just practice and just reading a lot it seems easier. Like, okay, whenever you like something, it always seems easier, right, but it isn't.

Speaker 1: 11:02

How do I say this, right? I guess, like for people who are big nerds, like something it always seems easier, right, but it isn't. How do I say this, right? I guess, like for people who are big nerds like me, it seems like we're just making it look very easy or whatever. But I promise you, like, there are days that I'm just like, can I actually do this? Like, is this the limit of my intelligence or my knowledge? Because, like, sometimes I'm just over it and also that could be burnout, and that's on me. But at the same time I'm saying that to say like we all experience it.

Speaker 1: 11:31

Yes, of course there are some people who are naturally inclined and been coding since they came out the womb. That's their business, right, that's great. But, like in anything, there's always going to be prodigies or people who are just exceptionally good at stuff. But you can't let that stop you from trying. I think most people can honestly get away with, you know, being in computer science or being in tech, like it's just a matter again of finding what you actually like and applying yourself.

Speaker 1: 11:56

But anyways, I digress, um again, like when you wake up in the morning, um, you know, setting intentions and all that. Make sure you do your morning duas, like your morning akhkars. So, asking Allah, like putting barakah, please put some barakah and whatever I'm doing, and ask him to make you successful in this life, in the next. So, yeah, obviously, after praying, you know fadjr and stuff, try to make some duas before I get ready for the day. And yeah, one of the du'as I've been trying to implement in my life is putting Barakah in my time and my work, because sometimes I don't know about you guys, but me personally, I feel like time because I want to get all these things done and I can't because I, lo and behold, just run out of time. It's so frustrating, like really it's one of my least favorite things.

Speaker 1: 12:53

So when I started asking Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala, like please put barakah on my time, please put barakah on what I'm doing, please allow this to be good for your sake, the whole like time is just getting away from me like on a daily basis. It's calmed down a little bit. Also, I think I finally I've done a better job of, I guess, setting my focus on certain things I want to work on for like quarterly or like monthly things like, rather than just trying to do a whole bunch of stuff and try to finish by the end of the day. Or else I've been trying to determine like okay, what are my goals for today, what are the three things I really want to accomplish today, right, um, and then do those, and then I don't feel so poop about myself when the day is done and I didn't finish like the 10 billion things I had, but I finished the important ones, so I don't feel as like grimy and unaccomplished. So, yeah, ask Allah to put barakah in what you're doing and you'll start to see a difference. Inshallah, mourning askars again, yeah, to protect you just from nonsense people and nonsense things and just things in general, and just thinking Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala. You know, and again I emphasize this greatly, please make sure whatever you are doing aligns with your beliefs.

Speaker 1: 14:08

If the job that you really want or let's not even say you really want it let's say like the company is this really big conglomerate and they do really unethical things which is like, yes, most of, but like, let's say, a specific company, for example, caps Incorporated. You know there's a press release that stated that the CEO in his spare time likes to torture bunnies, elisabella, or they just put toxic waste into like small town water supplies. I know these are very extreme, but like, bear with me. You're like, yeah, I know that they do toxic waste in the small town over there and the CEO likes to kick bunnies around, but I really need this job and it actually pays, like pretty good.

Speaker 1: 15:02

Listen, there will come a time in our life when money literally does not matter and you're going to be sitting with yourself and being like I wish I had just stuck to my guns and it's hard in the moment. Obviously you're desperate and you feel like, yeah, I really need this thing. But the thing is, when you make do off for something and you're trying to do things with your best intention at heart, allah is going to make it easy for you, even though it might side note, I think like it might not even be the easiest thing, but then you have to remember, like when you make dua to Allah for good things and putting goodness in stuff, sometimes it's the hardship that brings you to the ease. Right, and sometimes there's even ease in that hardship. So, with all that being said, you know, even though it's not the easiest journey in the world, there's never been a hardship. I've been through that. I came out the other side and I'm like, oh well, that wasn't worth it, that was just completely useless and all of that meant nothing. No, never. So you got to do stuff, even though it's hard to do the right thing. I promise you you're going to feel so much better after and you're never going to regret doing the right thing, even when it's difficult.

Speaker 1: 16:15

All right, so let's move on to the next letter M mindfulness, practicing mindfulness and presence. So incorporating mindfulness in your daily work routine to enhance focus, reduce stress and improve productivity. Okay, what does it mean? So think about boundaries, think about spiritual mindfulness. For example, for those of us who have, like screen slash desk jobs, make sure you take those regular screen breaks, okay, because you do not need to be sitting eight hours at the screen looking at it and then your eyes feel fried by the end of the workday. Nobody needs that. Get some standing breaks, get some walking around breaks. And if you don't have the option of a standing desk which I recommend to everyone if you have a little home setup, homework at home, whatever please get a standing desk, it makes a difference. And one of those standing mats. So then that way your feet don't hurt after like 15 minutes, get one of those, it makes a difference. But yeah, if you don't have that, stand up, walk around and, most importantly, please go outside.

Speaker 1: 17:26

It is so easy once you start working, all you do is be at home, go to work, and none of that time involves, you know, being outside, where the earth and the grass is. You know, when they say, touch grass, y'all need to actually be doing that. There's a reason why people say that because it's important to read the air and smell it and get exposed to that vitamin D from our beautiful sun that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala provides, because you know what's going to happen if you don't do that. You're going to feel really lethargic all the time, kind of sad, and you're going to feel like a shell of yourself. Hmm, why am I saying these things? Because it's happened to me.

Speaker 1: 18:05

So now I prioritize trying to be outside, even if it's being next to a window For some reason. If I can't like just make the time to be outside which you should, even if you're getting in your car and just spending like extra five minutes just to you know, absorb the vibes of the outside. The birds are chirping, the sun is shining, the grass is moving in the wind. Just be mindful. Do that Like you can do it. You got to make time for things that are important, right? It's not that we don't really have the time, it's that we don't make the time. So, even if it's five minutes, make the time right.

Speaker 1: 18:42

Sitting for eight hours in one spot is just not good for nobody, and especially if you're just completely remote. You got to make the effort because it's really easy to get into the habit and a routine of just kind of like lounging and being in or whatever. You got to make the routine to do it, because if you don't, it's really easy to just get stuck in the cycle. Stay hydrated, take care of yourself. If you're hungry, just listen to your body. Right, like, please, don't ignore your body. If you're thirsty, please drink. If you're hungry, please eat and, most importantly, if you have to pee, pee, please don't ignore that. Please go pee. Okay, you need to respect yourself. There's no point in ignoring your body just for the sake of eight hours of work. Nobody asks you to do that and, in fact, yeah, life is too short to be doing that.

Speaker 1: 19:39

Our bodies are amana, a privilege, right, allah gave us these bodies. We cannot be abusing them just because we want to get one task done. And again, one finger at you, three fingers at me. I had to work on that because it's really easy to just be focused and be like oh, let me just write one more line or let me just do this thing. No, you need to get up. Okay, thank you. And spiritual mindfulness Okay. So you got to stay connected.

Speaker 1: 20:08

So, for example, if it's Zohar time, asr time, you know, the first thing I think of is spiritual mindfulness, is go on ahead and pray the Salat, okay. So, alhamdulillah, I have a job and an occupation that kind of allows for that flexibility. Like, alhamdulillah, I have a great boss that when it's time for me to pray or go to Jummah, he allows me to do that. We need to pray when it's time to pray. Allah gave us that privilege. We did not have to have jobs that allowed us to do that. So we need to thank him by taking those five to 10 minutes to thank him and pray, you know, for the one who granted us the blessing of our jobs, the blessing of the risk we got. To thank him. I mean nine to five, for example, zohar and Asr.

Speaker 1: 20:56

Those ones don't even take that long, right? So prioritize it, please, because that's the one thing, it's the first thing you're going to be asked about. So, yeah, go on. And it's never really worth delaying. Like, ok, if you have a meeting and you absolutely cannot get out of that meeting, that's understandable, as long as you stay within the window of like the prayer, obviously. But what you don't need to be doing is just intentionally delaying it just because you can. Okay, nobody asked you to do that, okay. So please keep that in mind, inshallah, because this thing is important. Do not get in the habit of doing that, because these kinds of habits are kind of hard to break and you don't want to be getting those habits.

Speaker 1: 21:40

And on on top of that, taking a little break to pray, I feel like again, it's just another way of keeping that mindfulness for yourself and respecting your body. Like, for example, if I'm stuck on a coding issue or a programming problem and something is just bothering me and my brain feels like it's overheating and vibrating and I'm just tired. It's like it's overheating and vibrating and I'm just tired. I'm going to pray, come back, I say alhamdulillah, because, like, I just feel like this coolness and this energy just like washes over me. All the irritation and the itchiness is just gone and I'm just thinking about it's just me and Allah, subhanallah, it's just me and Him and I'm just praying. And for those five to seven minutes I'm not thinking about, you know, this compilation error or this. Like you know, no pointer exception. I'm not thinking about that, I'm thinking about Allah and it helps. It really does so.

Speaker 1: 22:36

Don't think of it as like oh, it's interrupting my workflow, like no, if anything, it contributes to your workflow, like my dad, one of the things the advice he gave me, especially like just programming in general. He's like whenever you're stuck on something, sleep on it or just like go take a walk, because our brains they're not just like active workings, like they're constantly working. So what will happen is that your brain is thinking about and this doesn't just apply to programming, by the way, this can apply to a lot of things your brain is working on the problem in the background. So by the time you wake up or by the time you come back and your brain was just like kind of doing some background processing, you'll be like, oh, eureka, the answer is here in my brain, and that's happened to me before. So, again, don't think of it as okay, this is interrupting my brain process. Think of it as this is part of the process and as it should be, because, again, you should be kind of scheduling your life around a lot, you know, not the other way around, because, again, this is very important. So, yeah, so, if you have a mindfulness practice that you practice in your work life or your personal life, feel free to share that with me by clicking the link in the episode description, so you can actually send the pod a text and I'll pick a couple to share. Inshallah in a future episode. Message and data rates may apply.

Speaker 1: 24:00

All right, a advocacy, ah. So advocating not just for yourself, but for others. So okay, girl, what does that mean? Let me tell you. So, self-advocacy you confidently advocate for your needs and boundaries in the workplace. So, for example, negotiating flexible working hours, requesting a prayer space or corner, or seeking opportunities for personal development. So, yeah, advocacy it's a skill that many of us, as minorities, have had to pick up pretty early In the workplace. This is pretty important and pretty invaluable.

Speaker 1: 24:45

We have a right in the workplace to practice our religion freely, no matter what anybody tells you or tries to, you know, passive-aggressively convince you otherwise. You know we have constitutional rights not to be discriminated against due to our religion. You know, for those of us who grew up here, we will learn about the Constitution and our rights and the right of religion and freedom of speech and all that stuff. But for those of us who are not so familiar, yeah, we have those rights. So don't let anybody try to bamboozle you into thinking you don't because you do. For example, title VII.

Speaker 1: 25:17

Title VII prohibits employers from discriminating against employees or applicants based on religion and hiring, firing and any other terms and conditions of employment. So, yeah, nobody can hire or fire you based on you being muslim, based on you wearing hijab, you having a beard, are you literally doing anything that has to do with your religion? They can only hire you or fire you based on your ability to do the job or not do the job. So if you ever feel like somebody has literally said, oh, I don't think you know, you know you're right, culture, fit or whatever, whatever and you can actually prove that you know, like, for example, I've heard stories of sisters like getting interviews and being completely qualified and as soon as they show up for the interview itself and they see they have hijab on them, you're just like, oh uh, this position is actually taken. Oh uh, actually you're not qualified. Sorry, come on really. And you know some people are quite frank about it and you know, alhamdulillah, some people are able to take the proper legal actions and get their bag because, yeah, you cannot, that's not OK. Obviously, if you can do the job, why does it matter? I have a scarf on my head, exactly, it doesn't. So, just putting that out there, this is a true legal stipulation that people can actually be held accountable for.

Speaker 1: 26:40

Another thing is reasonable accommodation. So your employer is required to reasonably accommodate employees' religious practices unless doing so would cause undue hardship, which really it shouldn't. For example, a flexible work hours for prayer Okay. As soon as time comes in, you tell your boss hey, I need to go pray. You find an empty meeting room, you pray. That is not causing undue hardship on anybody. Now you have a meeting with a very big stakeholder and it happens to coincide with the time of the prayer. I would not recommend saying to your boss hey, I know we have this very multi-million dollar deal and I have to show up to this meeting, but I need to pray. Now. That's not really. Obviously you have the right to pray, but you kind of want to make it as easy for them to say yes as possible and very hard for them to say no. So I wouldn't recommend that. But like no-transcript causing undue hardship, especially if you bring your own prayer mat and you're just praying Like all of us alhamdulillah, we all know what prayer looks like.

Speaker 1: 28:17

You're just standing and doing the proper motions for five to seven minutes, so don't let anybody try to convince you that, okay, what this is like, this is just no, it's not too much, it's not an inconvenience. You're not blocking anybody from doing anything. It's your quiet, you're to yourself, you're just praying. Okay, so legally they have to let you do that. No-transcript, nobody is going to tell you oh sorry, ma'am, like you can't have that, it's too. It's a danger Really. So it all depends in the magnets and all the ties in the world. You can't allow me to tie it in a way that is not out the way. All right, yeah, the answer is no. There is no. Yes, you can. You know what I mean. So yeah, don't. Again, you have the legal right essentially to have these things. So yeah, with that being said, if you need to go to Juma, your employer is required by law to make reasonable accommodations for you to go to Juma. If you need a place to pray, your employer is required by law to make reasonable accommodations and provide a place for you to pray. If you need to take off time for Isilat, which honestly is kind of sad, we have to do that in the first place, but anyways, that's a conversation for another time your employer is required by law to make a reasonable accommodations and let you take off time to go to East Salat.

Speaker 1: 30:10

There are laws that protect us in this country, so we should never feel bad or afraid to stand up for ourselves. And this is in every job, by the way, not just corporate settings. Every job, all right. Cultural competence, because when you're advocating for yourself, you got to advocate for your others. And really, when you're advocating for others, it doesn't just mean others in your immediate proximity, it can also mean your community as well. What does that mean? Let me explain. So, as much as a lot of us don't want to or are very tired of being the token XYZ person, the token black person, the token Muslim person, the token brown person, the tax we have to pay that comes with being a trailblazer and a ceiling breaker and a mover and a shaker One of those taxes is telling people and educating people about, like, what's what really and, yeah, I'm sure your mouth is tired from explaining yourself over and over again, but again, that's a responsibility when we have, when we have the privilege to make a difference and, you know, show up in these spaces right.

Speaker 1: 31:20

Islam is a religion that, unfortunately, is a huge victim of misinformation, especially in the West. So there's so much that people either don't really know about or just have the wrong idea in general. So if someone asks you a question, try your best not to come at them through like the lens of frustration or exacerbation, not to come at them through like the lens of frustration or exasperation. You can look at it as almost like spreading dawahs. You're doing the ummah a service by properly informing people about our beautiful religion and, look, you're going to get rewarded for that. Inshallah Yama kiyama. You're going to collect them rewards by informing people, because you never know, like, what your information and what you educating people might bring to others.

Speaker 1: 32:03

You know what I mean, um, but yeah, I've developed a knack for detecting if people are pretty, if they're asking questions out of malice or ignorance rather than just like generally wanting to learn. For example, like whenever somebody wants to learn something from me, they come, come from my place of humility, subhanallah. Like they'll be like oh, I'm really sorry if this is a dumb question, or I'm sorry if this is weird, but I just have a question about this. I'll be like, oh, yeah, of course. Like please never be afraid to ask me a question, because that's I mean, that's why I'm here. You know, I want you to learn. I will never be upset about answering any genuine questions people might have, like whether it's about hijab or Islam in general.

Speaker 1: 32:47

I've gotten a bunch of questions and then there's people who, for example, I'll be in the elevator with that ask things like so how come you have to wear that thing on your head? All right, buddy, just because you said that I'm not gonna say nothing. It's about the tone. It's about, like, what you're asking. It's about, like, the look on their face. Yeah, you obviously are not here to learn nothing, you're here to tick me off. So, yeah, I'm not giving you the satisfaction of doing that. The people who trust you enough to ask questions, like the genuine people, should not be punished for other people's ignorance. So if we write off everyone who wants to just learn, are we no better than the ones who just write us all off? You know something to think about. All right last one. Something to think about All right last one N, the N in Iman N is for nurturing.

Speaker 1: 33:51

Nurture your growth and well-being. So what does that mean? Personal development. So, invest in your learning, invest in self-development, go to workshops, get that higher education and develop skills that enhance your professional and personal life. So please, do not be afraid to learn, learn, learn For our girlies who went to undergrad and whatnot. Or you went to some kind of schooling bootcamp, whatever the learning does not end there. You are going to be learning. It doesn't matter if it's just tech or software engineering.

Speaker 1: 34:15

In any job, if you want to be the best or you want to be really good at what you're doing, you got to keep learning. Ask your employer or your HR people if they have some kind of subsidies to take courses like, for example, like at my job, we have this Udemy like. It's covered by, like our job, so they just allow us to learn as much as we can. Um, and it's free. We don't have to pay out of pocket for nothing. Um, which is cool, honestly. Honestly, because I used to.

Speaker 1: 34:41

So I was a huge Udemy stan way back in the day, before people even knew what Unity Excuse me, I love Unity too. But Udemy was my dad put me on. He was like learn these frameworks on Udemy, you only got to pay $12 for the class. I was like like I mean, this is just a smorgasbord of information. I was just obsessed. And not even 12 actually at the time they're doing like seven dollars, so I would just be buying courses, buying this thing. I mean like, oh, game development this thing, let me buy it. Web development this, let me buy it. Uh, unity, this, buy it, this thing, buy it. I was, it was party on the roof. I love Udemy.

Speaker 1: 35:25

If anything, if you need somebody to to just woo, woo, woo, Udemy, it's Udemy, it's me, I, it's Udemy, me, I love Udemy. So, yeah, anyways, udemy is great um. And then there's Coursera. So, coursera, love her. Never really used her. That's the. That's the business, though. But um, coursera partners with like universities and top like organizations, essentially to provide um, to provide, uh, for example, like courses again, and you can actually get certifications. You can get um certifications from udemy courses, depending on the course, but of course, there has like official certifications and they partner with schools like harvard and um companies like google to provide official, accredited certifications. So, for example, I mean you can put any of these on your resume, but people just know the corsair certifications even more.

Speaker 1: 36:22

So what is? What does all this have to do with any of that? Yeah, invest in yourself, the only investment in this life besides investing in your dean, obviously, um, and yeah, that does that. You can always like get back and benefit from is investing in yourself. You will always get returns and returns and returns on that, because the things, the knowledge you gain, you never know where it's going to benefit you.

Speaker 1: 36:46

There are so many more alternatives Udemy, coursera, whatever. Just try them. See what you like. But, yeah, they're flexible. Some of them are free, but then you have to pay for the certification. But, yeah, do your research, see what you want. There's so many options out there. Give it a go. And you have to realize too, like a lot of employers, they only benefit from their employees learning. That's why they provide these things for free, because you might be thinking like, oh, what's the catch? They want you guys to learn things, so then that way you can be better at making money, right? So you got to take advantage of all the opportunities I'm not just talking about educational opportunities. Some employers they got self-care workshops. They got mental health, like free therapy provided by this therapy company.

Speaker 1: 37:34

If you use this promo code or a gym, you got to use them. Don't just let them sit there collecting dust. You're working for people. You might as well use the benefits that comes with working for them, like, for example, my job has like a free fitness center. Yes, I use it. Rather than paying monthly $50 to go to the gym, I can just use the fitness center and I'll have to pay a dime. You might think, okay, $50, whatever I'm like, you know it's $50. $50 adds up babes. Okay that $50,. You know how many meals I can buy with the $50? How many Trader Joe's ice cream sandwiches I can buy with the $50? Yeah, that's what I thought. I'm gonna get my $50. Don't worry.

Speaker 1: 38:17

And last but not least, well-being and self-care. You got to prioritize, you know, your mental, your physical, your spiritual well-being. So go ahead and use that self-care. Now, self-care does not have to be expensive, okay. Self-care does not mean spending hundreds, something dollars to go to the spa thing or spending $200 on a haircut, or self-care can just be getting a little clay mask, laying down and just not doing anything for 15 minutes. I know that's self-care to me because I run around and do a lot of stuff. I don't have time or, excuse me, I don't make the time as I should to sit down and do nothing. But there is benefit in sitting down and doing nothing. That allows your brain to process things and come up with new grand ideas. So, yeah, prioritize that. You know that free fitness center I mentioned earlier. Go ahead and use that to stay active. Again, I've mentioned it a couple times Our bodies are a privilege.

Speaker 1: 39:16

We got to take care of them. You don't have to be pumping all the iron, but what you can do is take some walks, even if you don't got a free fitness center. Take a walk outside, you know, grab a friend, chat, go on a nature trail If you, depending on the city you live in like, for example, in Atlanta, there's always like a free yoga workshop in the park kind of thing. Or sometimes, if you go out online, you can get them free Pilates classes or free kickboxing, or go on Groupon. Anyways, my point is maintain a regular fitness routine. Your body will thank you 20 to 30 and, frankly, even 10 years from now.

Speaker 1: 39:53

When one starts working, not only do we have more money, we have less time and sometimes, with that less time, we sacrifice cooking and, as a result, we eat out a lot. Please avoid this. Please protect yourself. It is hard when your friends want to go out for brunch every Sunday or have a lunch every other day or do this thing, go for ice cream. Don't get me wrong. Listen, I love food, so I'm never going to say no. But one thing I had to learn is that if I'm not going to say no, then I need to control myself when I'm going and eating this food or having this brunch or getting that ice cream. So, for example, maybe you don't want to say no because you want to see your girls, but maybe you could offer hey, how about you come over for dinner and we'll make something? Or if you do eat out, go ahead and get the salad on the side rather than the fries. Okay, I know it's hard Me.

Speaker 1: 40:59

I used to be a hater, used to be like why do people order salad while you're going to a restaurant? You can make salad at home. I still don't order the salad, but I get like the broccoli. I get the alternative healthy, less carb, free, whatever because even though it's not as tasty I mean mean, sometimes broccoli can be good. So I'm not going to hate on broccoli, but you know, even though it's tough and you really like the fries and you like the seasoning and the crispiness, again you have to invest in your well-being and your body and your future self is going to thank you, inshallah for doing it and getting into those healthy habits. Or maybe again, instead of ice cream, go for smoothies or an acai bowl, whatever those are. Um, and if you do have trouble finding time or energy to cook and you find yourself eating out every time you go to work, please try meal planning.

Speaker 1: 41:56

I was having trouble with meal planning. I'd get home I'd be so tired and then I also have my meetings and other things and it just gets easier and easier to find the excuse to buy food, especially again when you get invited to brunch and this thing. But you have to make the effort to like cut down on the unnecessary stuff. Oh, speaking of drink the water, leave the soda and the lemonade alone. That stuff sneaks up on you. And, again, try to like cut down on the unnecessary things.

Speaker 1: 42:35

An app I started using is this app called Jow. It's like J-O-W. I feel like it helped me a lot and you can always put like your dietary restrictions, like, for example, obviously I don't eat pork, so I cut out all the recipes with the pork. I don't like coconuts. Cut out all those things. It just gives me like five, three to five, like meals or whatever. You can ask it how many meals give you and they have their like community recipes that you can just pick from or it'll just feed them to you, which I need that because I need less of the mental burden of like, oh, what am I gonna choose? Because that's part of the problem for me. It's like now I gotta choose like what I'm gonna make and yada, yada, and like it's gonna take like two hours to make. A lot of these recipes are like 30 minutes or less, or 14 minutes, 15 minutes or less or whatever. You can choose that as well, and I feel like it really helps me.

Speaker 1: 43:22

And then, when you're done, let's say if you like, have a store like Kroger. It'll go ahead and take all those ingredients that you need and put all the ingredients in your cart for you at the correct portion sizes, like if you're making it for two people, it puts how many tomatoes you need for all the recipes you're making for two people. I don't know if that makes sense. I hope that makes sense. And you might be wondering well, hawa, what about the meat? It's not halal. Well, guess what? I take the meat out because you can customize the cart and then whatever meat I would have hypothetically bought at Kroger or whatever, I just go and buy that at a halal store or whatever. Does that make sense? Cool? But yeah, try that out, see how it works. But yeah, you can even do it manually. But for me, I kind of need that lack of the mental whatever of having to choose. But yeah, all right.

Speaker 1: 44:14

So that is a wrap on today's episode of Muslimah's Emotion Professional Pursuits is a wrap on today's episode of Muslimah's Emotion Professional Pursuits. I hope that you guys were able to gain a lot from that, inshallah. You got to remember the clear intentions practicing mindfulness, advocating for yourself and nurturing your growth. These are all very important steps to achieving that balance and success in your professional and personal lives. And keep in mind, it's not going to happen tomorrow, it might not happen next week, but if you try to do this, little by little, I promise you you will see an improvement and a difference. I know I have so, inshallah. If you have any thoughts, experiences or questions about today's topics, please reach out to me through the link in the episode description. You can literally text the show direct. I will get it. I would love to hear from you guys and perhaps share your insights in a future episodes, inshallah. So thank you for tuning in and, until next time, keep moving forward with intention and purpose. Salam, and stay blessed.