Ashoka
United States of America 🇺🇸
I was gasping for air, I was out of breath. There was so much to do, so little time, so many needed help! How do people do this? I was a mother, a homemaker, a girl scout troop mom, a room parent, a theater mom; and this was all before I added the hats of my social impact work. This was not going to work. This was not sustainable. In the middle of all of this, I stumbled upon an article by Productive Muslim "Did Muhammad (peace be upon him) multitask?" In the 3 minutes it took me to read the article, I had a completely different outlook on how to handle my outlook and expectations from my work. This was my hook, my return to my faith to discover pathways already generated by the Prophet and spiritual leaders of my faith.
One of the first saying of the Prophet (ﷺ) we learn is "actions are based on intentions". I learnt to pause before starting a project and setting the intention of my objective from this work, do my best and then leave the result to God. I kept going back for more, studying a restudying the life of the Prophet (ﷺ) to find conflict resolution, patience, perseverance, work life balance, refugee resettlement, global and communal change, peace treaties, orphan care, social welfare, building a community and a global nation that lives in harmony with all nations and faiths.
My faith not only saved me, it revived my work as a spiritual changemaker, as a problem solver and student of the world. With the added caveat of my faith and trust in God, I was able to let go of the control to see the results I felt were critical for my work to be deemed a "success" and trust the plans of God in each hiccup, each pivot and each result.
I learnt what I was seeking, was indeed seeking me. I was looking outward for my spirituality to manifest in work and allow me to be at peace, whereas it was in reality my dive inward that developed my spirituality, my connection to God, my dependence on His divine plan that allowed me to serve and have an impact as a changemaker in this world.