1389 – Friday, 9 January 2026, 23:56 London
Woke up early, state of mind – grouchy, with complaining and negative thoughts.
Wondered what it would take for all this negativity in my mind to be deleted, and for my thoughts to be only loving, caring, and compassionate toward all living beings and even objects.
Overall, it was an okay day. I did things that my heart felt like doing.
6:00 AM, first alarm went off. I woke up and had left my phone at the far corner of the room so that by the time I ran over to turn it off, the sleepiness would disappear. That’s exactly what happened. But I went back to bed and told myself I wanted to sleep more. It was still dark outside, so I decided to sleep for another hour and then go to the gym.
I stayed in bed reading things on my phone – dad’s good morning prayer message and affirmations. Then I suddenly wondered where the time went. A few minutes ago it was 6:00, and now it was 7:10. I think I nodded off, so I wasn’t sure where the time had gone.
7:10, got out of bed and started getting ready to leave the house. I packed my bag and checked the time – it was 7:30 AM. I debated whether I should really go to the gym on Marshall Street from Clarges Street. It’s an easy 15-minute walk, but by the time I got there it would be 7:45, and I’d only have about 40 minutes to work out and get back home. I felt that wouldn’t be the best use of time and that I’d end up rushing, so I abandoned the plan.
Instead, I went to Tesco downstairs on Curzon Street to buy pasta that I had missed picking up over the weekend with the rest of my groceries. I literally only bought pasta and bananas and then came back home. Then did some push-ups with my legs on top of the bed and my hands on the carpet. I made pasta, showered, prayed Fajr Salah, ate the pasta, got ready again, and dressed in blue jeans, a maroon jumper, and a thin jacket. I didn’t take a backpack and left home.
I walked to Green Park station. The Jubilee line was not running, so I took the Victoria line instead, got off at Victoria, and then took the District line eastbound to Aldgate to attend a Power BI training.
While walking from the Victoria line to the District line at Victoria station, I saw a mate I hadn’t seen in two years. I just said a quick hello and kept going. Later that evening, around 7:00 PM, he texted saying it was nice to see me that morning. Back then, I had left that group because of bitchy behavior.
The training day went well, and lunch was delicious. I found myself thinking about how my good mate had made me a sandwich the previous morning before the first day of training, and I had said no because I was in an angry state of mind at the time.
I returned home the same way from Aldgate to Green Park around 2:30 PM. As soon as I got home, I went straight to bed and slept until 4:00 PM. Sleeping in the middle of the day like that probably hadn’t happened in the past year. It felt extremely refreshed. All the complaining thoughts disappeared. I felt light and at ease, and “Astaghfirullah” returned naturally to my tongue, which is my usual default state.
All that was needed was a little longer sleep, to get back to the normal state, I guess sometimes you just got to leave everything and rest and take nap and do things that makes you happy! After that nap I felt focused, got ready, and went to the gym. I had a really, really, really good workout.
Did four sets of 11 reps of pull-ups, Arnold presses, dumbbell front rows, lateral raises, and hanging leg raises for abs. Then I went downstairs, changed into swim gear, swam front crawl and then breaststroke until I had enough and then showered.
While walking back home from New Bond Street, I took a turn straight toward Berkeley Square near the pub. Two guys were walking ahead of me, and I decided to follow them. I remembered there being something about that street from last time but followed anyway. It turned out to be a dead end. They turned around and asked me if there was a way through. I said I thought there was. They laughed, and we all turned back. I lost about four minutes before getting back onto the usual street and quickly returned home.
I left my backpack downstairs in the corridor and walked up to Hertford street to pray Isha Salah. The prayer had just finished by the time I arrived. If I hadn’t lost those four minutes, I would have caught a rak’ah. However, upstairs another Salah with just two people was about to start, so I joined them.
Events will happen anyway, whether you plan them or not, and things eventually work themselves out.
Some free resources to share –
Three things I felt grateful for today:
Grateful for the lovely nap this afternoon—it was the best nap of the year.
Grateful that even though it was cold today (3 degrees), I didn’t feel very cold.
Grateful that I have the weekend ahead of me to look forward to.
what would it take for me – and for you – to wake up ten times bigger, thicker, more muscular, energetic, confident, happy, and grateful; to wake up early, make it to the workout, everything to be okay with family, friends, and everyone around, and then have a relaxing, relaxing, relaxing yet productive day tomorrow?
Goodnight, good luck!
Ash Khaleem