In the name of Allah, the most Loving, the Wise
Can you believe it’s a whole other year tomorrow?!
As Muslim women and as women of faith in general, we should strive to live our lives with vision. Part of this can be taking time at the beginning of each year to create a picture in our mind of where we’d like to see ourselves at the end of the year. Habits are very powerful tools for taking that vision and turning it into practice! Being intentional about ditching our bad habits and implementing new good habits will help us in creating the life we want to live.
Today, we’re going to go through 21 habits that can help you get a running start for this upcoming year! For the most part, they are small habits but that does not mean they’ll be easy! Also, though these are all great habits, that doesn’t mean all of them will be a good fit for you. Once you have your vision of how you’d like to see yourself, your family and your home at the end of this year…you’ll be able to kind of reverse engineer and decide which habits you’ll need to start adding in to achieve that vision!
It’s important that however many habits we’re choosing for the course of the year, we only choose a few to work on at any given time. We also have to realize that it’s a lifelong process. Part of success is moving forward after failure. If you notice that maybe one of the habits that you’re currently working on is not sticking, drop it and choose another one – then try again at a later point in time!
So with all that said, let’s jump into those 21 habits!
1. Pray within the first 15 minutes of each prayer time.
It is important that we prioritize our prayers. We should be planning our day around prayer times. Do your best to pray within those first 15 minutes when the prayer time comes in. This way, even when you fall short, you’re still not waiting until the last couple minutes!
2. Wake up 10 minutes before Fajr & spend time with Allah.
We know that the last third of the night is such a special time to pray and talk to God. There is tahajjud, which is from the sunnah and there is so much blessing attributed to it. However, even spending that time in supplication, reflection, reading Qur’an…can be a beneficial use of that time.
3. Spend time with the Qur’an every day.
We really should not go a day without spending time with the Qur’an. It only takes a couple of minutes each day, even if you only read two or three pages. Although it is important to make time to read the Arabic, it is just as important to read in your own language…that way we are able to more fully connect with what we’re reading. We can actually understand it. And hopefully we can do more to implement the Qur’an into our daily lives.
4. Drink half your weight (in ounces) in water.
Drinking more water was my first transformative self-care tip in a previous post…and it’s super important! Everyone says to drink a different amount of water but drinking half your weight in ounces makes the most sense to me. So if you weigh 140 pounds for example, you’d drink 80 ounces of water. The important thing here though is to get hydrated! It is so important for so many aspects of our lives.
5. Get outside for at least 10 minutes.
Fresh air, sunshine, time out in nature – all of these are so important! Even just a couple minutes can be beneficial. It is crucial for our mental health, our physical health and can even be beneficial to our spiritual well-being. Start small, stay consistent and go from there.
6. Start dry brushing.
I started dry brushing in 2020 and it’s been great! You just take a couple minutes before you hop into the shower to brush your skin, brushing toward your heart. It improves your circulation, it’s a great form of exfoliation for your skin and it’s a great tool to use for self-care – taking just a few minutes to show love to your whole body.
7. Take your vitamins.
I really think that we should do our best to get our necessary nutrients from our food, however I know that is not always as accessible as it should be. There are many crucial vitamins and minerals that many of us are deficient in and if we took only a few minutes each day, we’d be able to greatly improve our health. Start with a multivitamin and vitamin D!
8. Wash and moisturize your face.
This is a small act of loving self-care that not only helps us wake up, feel more prepared to conquer our day but also it makes a big impact on taking care of one of the most sensitive areas of our skin. No matter how you go about it, make sure what you’re putting on your skin – especially on your face – is natural and contains ingredients that you know and feel comfortable with being absorbed into your body. If you really want to dig into this one, take the time to figure out what your skin type is and which products work best for you!
9. Make affirmations part of your morning routine.
I have decided affirmations is one of the things I really would like to focus on adding into my repertoire of habits for 2021! It’s so simple and can be so powerful! When we’re feeding ourselves negative messages, we don’t always notice but we’re damaging ourselves – mentally, emotionally and even physically. Let’s just turn that around and use our words to feed ourselves loving, powerful, and nurturing messages this year!
10. Have a weekly screen detox.
Between work and keeping in touch with family, among other things (especially in this period of quarantine) has us on our various devices so many hours in a day! It is important that we be cautious with our everyday use and create boundaries around our screen time. However, if you find it difficult to limit yourself once you’re pulled in, maybe a regularly scheduled screen detox would work better for you. This would look like one 24-hour period where you do not use your devices outside of an absolute emergency.
11. Implement a “screens-off” limit each day.
As I mentioned in #10, it is so crucial that we have boundaries with our screens! They are tools, even for entertainment purposes, and we need to make sure they’re not overruling our lives. We should be absolutely sure that we are in control of our devices and we are not simply impulsively checking our phone every second and following addictive behavior with our various devices. So an easy way to do this is to decide a time in the evening that all devices are turned off. Ideally they will be stored/charged somewhere outside of the bedrooms. That way you can have a break, you know you’ll get back on in the morning and you’ll be able to rest that much better.
12. Read something.
Whether you’re actually reading a book or even listening to an audiobook version, it is so important that we are learning new things, expanding our worldview and working our brain muscles! You don’t have to read a book a day or even a week, just make sure you’re reading a little bit most days! You’ll be growing your vocabulary, finding new ideas and you can dig more into topics that you love!
13. End each day with tomorrow on paper.
Before you go to bed, take 5-10 minutes and write down your plan for tomorrow! If you’re just getting started with this or maybe you feel overwhelmed by this idea, simply start by writing down your three most important tasks for the day. Having a plan for your day already written out and decided on makes it so much easier to get your day started and actually spend your time productively. It can be a really helpful tip to start working toward overcoming procrastination and beating laziness!
14. Journal.
Journaling is another habit I’m personally planning on adding into my days this year. It is crucial that we take time to reflect! Journaling looks like so many different things to different people – so do it in a way that feels best for you. Some people use it for goal planning & tracking, some people use it to record important events, some people use it for character building… There are so many cool ways to journal. Dive in, have fun and see some transformation!
15. Wake up at the same time everyday.
I used to be an early riser and I really would like to get back to that in the near future! I think it’s great when moms get up before their children and have time to do some things for themselves and get ready for the day and whatnot. Ideally, it would be great if we could wake up a little before Fajr and be ready to start our day. However, it is important that we look at our individual circumstances and figure out what will work for us and what we’ll actually be able to do… When you decide what time you’re able to wake up, make it a goal to wake up at that time every single day.
16. This would be more of a monthly habit, but try vaginal steaming.
Vaginal steaming is, in my opinion, something that every woman should have in their lives. It is beneficial in so many ways. Especially with so many of us having difficulties with our menstrual cycle, with fertility and other reproductive issues… Vaginal steaming takes only a small investment of time a few times a month and it can be so very healing.
17. Chart your cycle.
Charting your cycle is another thing that I wish was just part and parcel of being a woman. Our cycle gives us insight into our overall well being. As with vaginal steaming, it can also give us a way to heal our fertility and our overall reproductive health. There are several different ways to go about charting your cycle so you’ll definitely have to do some research and figure out which method is most in line with your goals and is something that you are willing to commit to.
18. Check in with your spouse every day.
It is so easy to get caught up in the cycle of everyday life and forget to make time for our spouse. It is so important that as wives, as moms, as homemakers – as women of faith, that we are making our marriage a priority. It is important that we make time each day to communicate with our spouse. One easy first step toward this is to make time every day to just check in with him. Talk about how each of your day was, what’s going on tomorrow, how you’re feeling and whatever else feels important to you.
19. Do a 10 minute tidy-up session before bed.
It is so nice and refreshing to wake up to a clean environment! Ideally you already have a cleaning routine that you’re sticking to. On top of that, set a timer for ten minutes and just remove the clutter that accumulated throughout the day – the shoes that aren’t on the rack, the last few toys that didn’t make it to the shelves, the scarf you left hanging in the bathroom. Just go through and do a quick sweep so that tomorrow starts off fresh, clear and peaceful!
20. Express gratitude!
Making time to consciously express gratitude can be a real life changer! Whether you’re writing it down or saying it aloud. It can be a powerful mindset tool to bring the good things to the forefront of our mind. Another important component to this is expressing gratitude to the people around us, especially our family. We have so many blessings in our lives, make sure that you’re taking the time to be consciously grateful!
21. Meal plan!
Meal-planning has been such a useful habit for me in my homemaking. It helps save time, save money and eat a variety of healthy, nourishing meals. You can choose to do it on a daily basis, weekly or even monthly. I strongly encourage every homemaker to give meal planning a try!
I hope that you’ve found a couple of habits that will help you work toward your vision this year. I’d love to hear some of your some habits you’re planning to add to your days in 2021!
Question for the comments: What has been your most life-changing habit that you acquired in 2020?
Thank you for stopping by ‘Nourishing Our Home’. Please be sure to pop in every Thursday for new posts. Also, if you found this to be relatable and beneficial, please help me out by sharing with your family and friends.