daily practice 3

was this week a bum and stuff I do to avoid mindlessness

Hi! I didn't write to you on Wednesday because I couldn't write to you on Wednesday. I was going through it, having learned on Monday that I was having an exam I'd previously been informed by authority would no longer hold. But I persevered: cried a lot and then did my best.

Assalam Alaykum guys. It is my utmost delight to inform you that the sun still shines even when stuff happens and you don't achieve your goals. Word to Dostoyevsky. A huge part of what I'm trying to learn is to be objective in my replay of things. It is important to me to see the silver lining in retrospect especially when seeing it in the moment was difficult.

Let's get into it: I completed my character sheets (loved loved doing them) and worked a bit on the character inner changes I want to see in Act 1— I use the Micheal Hougle plotting spreadsheet if anyone is wondering. I signed up for a part in a research paper because I promised myself to do more scary stuff and actually made the deadline despite the exam. I studied for 13 pomodoro sessions— a course I didn't plan to study just yet but Alhamdulillah. I did not draw everyday but I did make three posters (one a revised vision board), did two drawings (one of which I'll share below— cannot share the other because it's fashion illustrations I made for a friend's new wardrobe), did not exercise ☹️, completed 4% of a Coursera course module and listened to a 1 hour 30 minutes Tafsir class once rather than 5 minutes each day.

Not bad, I think but I did learn crucial lessons this week:

• I am not great at compartmentalisation and so have to start planning for contingencies more to stave off meltdowns. They have become less frequent as I have picked up accomodations but whenever I find myself in particularly unpredictable rotations, they reappear.

• Sometimes you have to leave your planner open/open it every hour, set a thousand reminders or you'll achieve nothing because you'll recall none of it. Not because you don't take those tasks as seriously but because the major thing (say medical school in my situation) keeps you so ‘busy’ that it consumes your presence of mind as well. It is essential to remind yourself of everything else you must do.

• Living in a city where taking a walk could be getting yelled at or a visit to the a&e because you got hit by a bike is actually pretty bad for mental health.

• Sometimes days of insomnia require the catharsis of crying, doing nawafil and finally deciding something is not worth losing sleep over. The one day I slept the best in the week was the day when this happened.

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creativity stuff

Because when I am anxious I forget.

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goals for the new week:

• Do all the work stuff that suffered because of this week's change of plans (there's like 3 major ones)

• Draw everyday 🙏🏾

• Get my posters back from the printer and be happy

• Read poems (Starting with the Complete Works of Phillis Wheatley recommended from Martisha Hardy Classical Black Poets 2026 Personal Curriculum. You can join in here).

• Write a poem

• Study but maybe 25 pomos this week? Is that more realistic?

• Complete that course module

• Exercise

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  Thank you for reading and I hope to see you next week, in shaa Allah!