Forever Friends...

Do you have a 'Forever Friends' teddy bear?

I actually have one of those! *Face-Palm*

But since I love teddys its all good! ;)

Today's post is about your 'Forever Friend'.

You know this 'Forever Friend' is forever with you, knows you, talks to you, listens to you, is there for you, advises you, looks out for you, kisses your tears away, comforts your heart and knows your soul!

What a friend, eh?!

Now that's why this friend is your 'Forever Friend'.

But the thing is we - you and I - are not very nice to this 'Forever Friend'. In fact we're pretty nasty and sometimes downright evil to this friend!

We say mean and hurtful stuff and we make our forever friend cry. We psychologically torture it and yet this forever friend is still by our side - forever.

Confused?

I bet you're thinking (by the way, betting is haraam) 'I don't treat my forever friend like this and if I did we wouldn't be forever friends!'

And you know what you're absolutely right!

So who am I talking about?

I'm talking about YOU - your SOUL - the REAL you!

We all have that one best friend - our soul sister or soul brother - and my soul sister best friend (Nikki) is actually reading this post also (thank you soul sister!).

But our best friend also has a life to live. We can't always bug them 24/7 - even though we can - its not right to.

We need to give each other space to grow so when we are together we can blossom.

So what do we do in this 'down-time' away from our best friend?

We become our own best friend!

No, honestly - who knows us more than ourselves? We do!

It kind of feels weird saying that - but we spend the most time with ourselves yet we seem to be afraid to get to know ourselves.

We're afraid to listen to our intuition or our heart.

We think we'll make the wrong choices or wrong decisions.

But that's just our fear - its not real at all!

Be Your Own Best Friend!

So when you fall, you pick yourself up and don't rely or wait on others - except keep faith in yourself and Allah. 

This doesn't mean your best friend doesn't mean anything. It means we have to grow and learn to grow. 

And think about it - if we don't learn to grow and become strong - how can we become strong for our best friend?

Somehow its all logical.

"It was narrated that Anas (may Allah be pleased with him) said: The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: Whoever is mainly concerned about the Hereafter, Allah will make him feel independent of others and will make him focused and content, and his worldly affairs will fall into place.

But whoever is mainly concerned with this world, Allah will make him feel in constant need of others and will make him distracted and unfocused, and he will get nothing of this world except what is decreed for him." Hadith Tirmidhi

And in this downtime from your best friend there is also someone else who is your 'Forever Friend'.

Have you guessed who that is?

Its Allah! :)

Allah is your bestest and forever friend.

He created you and its because of Him that you're here AND its because of Him you have a best friend in your life.

Allah (swt) gives us five daily appointments to talk to Him and reconnect with Him.

We can do that right?

He also talks to us and advices us - He is an author of a self-help book called 'Qur'an'.

We can read it right?

The reason we are always frustrated or agitated is because we rely too much on other souls and not much on ourselves or Allah. And when someone isn't there for us we get worked up and throw tantrums - not realising that those souls need some downtime too!

Remember the key here is 'Give each other space to grow so when we are together we can blossom.'

We also need to constantly remind ourselves that although as humans we are social beings and need to belong in a 'community' on the Last Day we will be alone and none of our loved ones can come to our aid.

So if we take some time daily to get to know ourselves better we are in fact helping to prepare for our big day - when we stand in front of Allah (swt).

"Then, when there comes As-Sakhkhah (the Day of Resurrection's second blowing of Trumpet), That Day shall a man flee from his brother, And from his mother and his father, And from his wife and his children. Everyman, that Day, will have enough to make him careless of others." {Qur'an; 80:33-37}

Check out today's tips and action points to see how we can become our very own 'Forever Friend' and in turn have a stronger connection with our Allah and our best friend(s) insha'Allah :)

"Aloneness is a flower, a lotus blooming in your heart. Aloneness is positive, aloneness is health." Osho

Action Points and Tips:

1. Spend some part of your day in solitude. Give yourselves 15 minutes (to start with) to clear your mind and just sit quietly.

- Do some dhikr in your heart to help you in this exercise.

2. Journal your thoughts - get them off your chest and on to paper. Sometimes these thoughts are completely useless so by popping them on to paper they are out the jungle of your mind. This will also help you in the 'solitude time'.

3. Reconnect with your hobbies and passions. If it has been a while you did something you enjoyed because you got 'busy' with life (and others) then give yourselves permission now to re-start that hobby or try new stuff.

See if you don't spend any quality time with yourself actually getting to know you then you will feel lonely and always in the need of others.

There's always a time and place in life for everything.

Isn't it time you became your best and forever friend? Your life will get just a little more interesting when you do now! :)

Let me know what your hobbies are and what you do to reconnect when you have downtime insha'Allah :)

---