Nazia Saley

Letters for Living #60 Helping you move from surviving to living with purpose As-salaamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakaatuh, dear beautiful soul, Bismillah. There was something I was reflecting on today that I wanted to share with you. As women, we can so easily become defined by the roles we carry. Mother. Wife. Daughter. Daughter-in-law. Businesswoman. Caregiver. And before we realise it, those roles can become the answer to the question, “ Who am I?” But you are so much more than any one role you carry. I am not talking about adding more to your plate or trying to become everything to everyone. We already know where that can lead. I am talking about remembering the person underneath all those roles. The woman who has dreams. The woman who has things she loves. The woman who is creative, curious, passionate, funny, thoughtful, adventurous, ambitious, nurturing, or deeply connected to something that makes her feel alive. There may be parts of you that have been quiet for a very lon...

  Letters for Living #59 Helping you move from surviving to living with purpose As-salaamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakaatuh, dear beautiful soul, Bismillah. Years ago, when I first started my own journey of healing, growth and transformation, I came across an idea that has stayed with me ever since. There are two types of people. The moaners and groaners. And the movers and shakers. We all know a moaner and groaner. They're usually the first person on the WhatsApp group when something goes wrong. They have something to say about the government, the electricity, the traffic, the prices, the service, the weather, the neighbours. Everything. At this rate, they'll complain that the ice is too cold and fire is too hot. And if we're really honest with ourselves, we've all had our moaner-and-groaner moments. The problem isn't having a bad day or expressing frustration. We all need to talk. We need people we can trust. We need space to process what we're going thro...

  Letters for Living #58 Helping you move from surviving to living with purpose   As-salaamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakaatuh,  dear beautiful souls, Bismillah. Are you tired? I mean really tired  not just the kind that comes from not getting enough sleep, but the kind that settles somewhere deeper. Tired of the news. Tired of social media. Tired of the constant opinions, narratives, expectations and information coming at us from every direction. Tired of being told what we should be doing, buying, wearing, eating, achieving and becoming. And underneath all of that sits a quiet, constant feeling that we are not quite enough. Not thin enough. Not successful enough. Not productive enough. Not present enough with our children. Not doing enough for our families. Not earning enough. Not living the right kind of life. There is always something else — something to fix, something to achieve, something to worry about. Honestly, I think many of us are exhausted from tryin...

  Letters for Living #56 Helping you move from surviving to living with purpose. As-salaamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakaatuh, dear beautiful soul, Bismillah. There is a verse in the Qur'an that has been on my mind: “Indeed, Allah will not change the condition of a people until they change what is in themselves.” Qur'an 13:11 The more I sit with these words, the more I see the responsibility within them. We all want change. We want more peace. We want healthier relationships. We want to feel differently. We want our circumstances to improve. We make du'a for the things we want to see change, and of course, Allah has the power to change anything in an instant. But our focus can become so fixed on what needs to change around us that we forget to look at what needs to change within us. And that is where the real work begins. We cannot continue responding to life in the same way and expect our experience of life to be completely different. Yet this is something we do repeat...

  Letters for Living #56 Helping you move from surviving to living with purpose. As-salaamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakaatuh,  dear beautiful soul, Bismillah. There have been so many little shifts happening within me lately. Not necessarily dramatic moments where everything suddenly became clear, but rather small realisations that have slowly changed the way I see certain things. And  that is how transformation happens through those quiet moments of awareness that begin to change the way you see yourself, your life, and ultimately, your relationship with Allah. One of the things I've been noticing more deeply is the importance of breaking our patterns. We can spend so much time wondering why the same things keep happening in our lives, yet we often don't stop to look at how we are responding to them. We want a different outcome, but we keep returning to the same thoughts, the same reactions, the same fears, and the same behaviours. . What Does Tawakkul Really Mean? A...

  Letters for Living #55 Helping you move from surviving to living with purpose. As-salaamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakaatuh, dear beautiful souls, Bismillah. It’s been a few weeks since I last sat down to write to you. And perhaps that in itself is part of today's reflection. Because life happens. We make plans. We have ideas about how things are going to unfold. We place things into little boxes in our minds and think, this is how it’s going to be. And then life takes us somewhere completely different. Sometimes gently. Sometimes not so gently. And I think one of the hardest things for us to accept is just how uncertain life really is. We can have a plan today and tomorrow something changes. A person changes. A door closes. Money disappears. An opportunity doesn't work out. Something we were relying on suddenly isn't there anymore. And when that happens, we can realise just how much of our sense of safety was attached to that particular thing. Because when the means ...