Three simple health tips for Ramadan

By: Mohamad Kadry

Source: khaleejtimes.com

Fasting during the month of Ramadan can bring out many changes in those who observe it, but gluttony and laziness should not be among them.

These are problems that many people face each year when fasting from sunrise to sunset, tempted by copious amounts of food at Iftar combined with little to no physical activity throughout the day. But Ramadan should never be an excuse to overindulge.

While fasting, your body’s metabolism essentially slows down which can make you feel lethargic and help pack on unwanted weight. But with some careful planning there are a number of things you can implement into your daily schedule that will help you remain fit and strong throughout the month.

How Successful People Stay Productive and In Control

Source: talentsmart.com

By: Dr. Travis Bradberry

TalentSmart has tested more than a million people and found that the upper echelons of top performance are filled with people who are high in emotional intelligence (90% of top performers, to be exact). The hallmark of emotional intelligence is self-control—a skill that unleashes massive productivity by keeping you focused and on track.

Unfortunately, self-control is a difficult skill to rely on. Self-control is so fleeting for most people that when Martin Seligman and his colleagues at the University of Pennsylvania surveyed two million people and asked them to rank order their strengths in 24 different skills, self-control ended up in the very bottom slot.

And when your self-control leaves something to be desired, so does your productivity.

THE MEANING OF THE FIVE DAILY PRAYERS

A very beautiful and inspirational explanation.

Our 5 daily prayers are a way to curb over-attachment to anything material. The five daily prayers regulate our lives with their specific timings to teach us that indeed Allah is Greater than anything else that we might be occupied at that moment. The dawn prayer teaches us that the most beloved thing to us; comfort and sleep, should not control us- so we rise up in the cold mornings, wash ourselves and pray in an acknowledgement that Allah is Greater than our love for comfort and sleep. The midday and afternoon prayer teaches us that no matter how engrossed we are with work or the short lunch hour that we so highly value; it’s not the purpose of our existence. So we leave it for a few minutes and stand and pray testifying indeed Allah is Greater. On Friday, we dedicate if not most, all our lunch hour to attend the Friday sermon and prayer. The dusk prayer, that time when we are finally home and about to spend time with our family, eat dinner or simply relax- we get up and pray together to confirm that Allah is Greater than any of that. Finally the night prayer, Isha’- when we are tired after a long day of work and responsibilities ready to fall into bed and sleep, we pray again to prove that submitting to Allah is Greater than falling to our warm beds. All these serve as constant reminders to us that as much as we love life, we live for a higher purpose. Conversely, if we are having a terrible day, these spiritual checkpoints save us from a fatalistic outlook and serve to remind us that there’s always something more and our problems are not the permanent.

ALLAHU AKBAR..

Please share to inspire others and spread the message that our Allah is Greater. JazaakAllah Kair.

Why reading on a screen before bed is a bad idea

By: Damon Beres

Source: huffingtonpost.com

You’ve heard that using screens before bedtime can mess with your sleep, but new research suggests the problem is even more serious.

Reading from an iPad before bed not only makes it harder to fall asleep, but also impacts how sleepy and alert you are the next day, according to new research from Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts. The study, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on Monday, said the findings could impact anyone who uses an eReader, laptop, smartphone, or certain TVs before bed.

Tips for a Healthy Winter

Source: onislam.net

By: Anisa Abeytia

Winter is upon us and it is officially flu season. So, how do you plan to stay healthy this winter?  Most of us do not think about flues and colds until we already have one. Thinking about your strategy now will help you and your family stay well all winter.  So how are you going to start and what are you going to do?

Tips to avoid missing Fajr (dawn) prayer

Source: ProductiveMuslim.com

By: Abu Productive

How do you wake up for fajr? And I don’t mean wake up for a day or two, but how do you keep waking up for fajr, constantly, everyday, without fail.

There’s loads & loads of websites online giving you tips and advice on how to wake up early. But our focus is not on worldly tips (which should be taken by all means, part of tying the camel;, our focus is on the spiritual means.

Sleeping is similar to death

Source: http://www.zikr.co.uk

Sleeping is similar to death. That is why sleeping has been linked to death, and waking with life. When preparing to sleep we should fear that may be our eyes close and do not open again. This has happened many times ; hence we should ask Allah (The Exalted) for forgiveness of our sins as it is not good to do so without.
The pious would sleep little as the time spent in sleep is of no use. Only if we are successful and able to understand to reality of our life. For instance if someone has a life of 60 years and sleeps for 8 hours a day then we would have spend 20 years in sleep, that’s 1/3 of the life spent in sleeping. In these 20 years we did not achieve anything, however, if we spend our sleeping in the way of the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) then Inshallah we will gain some benefit as this will become worship.

Study Reveals How Sleep Removes Toxic Waste from the Brain

By: Elizabeth Renter

Source: http://naturalsociety.com/study-reveals-sleep-crucial-detoxify-brain/#ixzz2xiDnt7FY

Although we don’t know exactly why, there is no question that sleep is crucial for brain and overall health. Without proper sleep, the chance of disease and stress increases notably. Now, researchers at the University of Rochester Medical Center (URMC) Center for Translational Neuromedicine have foundthat sleeping actually helps detoxify the brain, potentially offering clues into dementia and Alzheimer’s disease.

The study, published in the journal Science, reveals that your brain has a unique method of removing toxic waste through ‘the glymphatic system’. Even more interesting, it seems that brain cells shrink by about 60% during sleep, allowing for waste to be removed more easily.

“Sleep changes the cellular structure of the brain,” said Maiken Nedergaard, co-author of the study. “It appears to be a completely different state.”

SubhanAllah

TIME MANAGEMENT FOR MUSLIM FAMILIES SIMPLIFIED

Source: muslimmatters.org

By: Siraaj Muhammad

When reading about the problems Muslim families face we notice that some are general to the culture in which they live, while others are specific to Muslims or predominantly Muslim cultures.  Attempts to resolve them usually involve learning Prophetic family best practices as well as educating ourselves about gender and child specific communication techniques via seminars, books, and articles.