#23 Reflections: Steps To Get Khushu In Life

I’m thinking about mindfulness and khushu again.

I want to make sure that I’m not just learning new things from books and then carrying on with how I live life. I want to make sure I’m trying to grow and develop through them.

So I’m currently wondering, how can I try implement more mindfulness in my day?

I’ve identified that a reason why maintaining khushu within my salaah is difficult is that my brain is trained (by my own habits) to never be present.

Therefore the solution to gaining better khushu would be to train my brain to be more present in my daily activities.

What does it mean to be present in my daily activites?

To basically have khushu in everything I do in my day.

The concept of khushu in salaah is to be focused in the prayer, to not have other thoughts running in your brain, and definitely to not be multi-tasking.

So how can I train my brain to have more khushu in my day?

1. To plan my day the night before

When I don’t know what needs doing in the day or what commitments I have, I constantly find myself thinking about what needs to be done next.

When I’m doing wudhu for fajr, I’m wondering what do I make for breakfast. When I’m eating breakfast I’m wondering what meetings do I have at work, etc. Knowing what’s on the agenda for the day and having it written down reduces the need for thinking about to-dos.

2. To brain dump more

Other things I find myself thinking about when I’m standing to wash dishes usually revolve around things I’m worried about, from a bad conversation I had with a friend to something, to a stressful day at work, to something about the future.

Whenever I find my thoughts wondering away to these things, a good idea would be to pull out my phone and brain dump notes of what I’m thinking. Then allocate some journalling time before bed to go through the list of brain dump points later and focus on the dishes for now.

3. To dedicate slots of time to listening to podcasts

If I’m doing a mundane task like laundry or I’m at the gym, I always tend to put on a podcast. There’s many posdcasts I enjoy but don’t have the time to dedicate soley to it.

But I want to reduce my multi-tasking and learn to be present more. So instead of cutting off podcasts from my life completely, I’m going to listen to them only during my gym time. This means I still get to stay up-to-date with my podcasts, it gets me motivated to get to the gym (hopefully!) while also preventing me from using it during the rest of my daily activities.

4. To begin each act with intentions

It’s easy to just move from one task to another while your brain is floating in another place all together. A lot of the time it’s because we’re on autopilot just repeating the motions. Ii think one way to break this is to begin each act with an intention.

As I move from the dining table and sit infront of my work laptop, I think — why am I working.

As I move from my work laptop to the sink to wash dishes, I think — why am I washing the dishes.

It’s about being more intentional with every act of my day. It gives you the ability to add purpose to even the most mundance acts and make them acts of worship.

5. To do more mindful dhikr

There is wisdom behind having the various daily duas we were taught as children as part of our routines.

There is a powerful effect of beginning and ending each act with a dua. It drags the mind from wherever it is back to the present. But that’s only possible when these duas are not recited on autopilot.

—

These are 5 steps I’m going to try working on.

InshaAllah these steps helps to become more mindful in our lives.

InshaAllah these steps can help train our brains to live in the present — to be in khushu-mode. And hopefully make it easier to stand on our prayer mats with greater focus and humility.

May Allah fill all our prayers and lives with khushu. Ameen.