Naptime Is Sacred

So you want to start a podcast, but you don't know where to start?

In the next four podmas episodes, I will teach you how to start planning your podcast.

Let's jump right in before you start thinking about the fun stuff like podcast name and album art. We need to think about who the podcast is, for we call this person an avatar or your niche. So, here we need to get super specific, is it a male or female, is it parents, kids, how old are they? What shows do they watch? Is it a show for Muslims, Christians, etc. or an atheist. What do they do for fun, what do they read. A little market research on social media will go a long way into finding where your ideal listener would hangout like Instagram, youtube, facebook, etc.

Once you have a clear picture of your Avatar/niche, you can start thinking of what content that person will take the time to listen.

Join me tomorrow for more information about podcasting.

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Guest Alia Salem is the Founder and Executive Director of FACE (Facing Abuse in Community Environments), an organization dedicating to helping hold abusive religious and community leaders accountable to the communities they serve. Her professional background is in organizational development, community organizing, and communications with a particular focus on the intersections of institutionalized racism and the push towards an equitable pluralistic society.

Alia and her team help communities deal with leadership abuse and create systems that help people know what is going on and what they should do about it. Like the Catholic church masjids fire an imam or other leaders and they pop back up in another community and continue in their abusive behavior, Face is working to stop this.

FACE focuses on Physical Abuse, Sexual Abuse, Spiritual Abuse, and Finacial Abuse.

Other organizations creating awareness about spiritual Abuse mentioned in this episode are

*In shaykhs clothing

*Hurma project

Connect with Alia and FACE

all the socials @aliarsalem

FACE

Report Abuse

https://facetogether.org/report/

Website

Instagram

Facebook

Twitter

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So the Christmas season is in full swing here in the states, and I usually have two thoughts that come into my head this time of year

1. As Muslims do, we create a sprite of celebration for our families for Eid? One that is memorable for our kids without making it all like Christmas in terms of decor and gifts.

I feel like in the age of small Muslim business, and we can go a little crazy in buying Muslim decorations, games, books, and toys because those of us who didn't grow up in a Muslim country didn't have that. Social media is about to start going crazy within a month with the Ramadan and Eid merchandise posts, and I would love to hear what you guys think about this because I, for one, I'm always torn about it. Last year I tried to reuse as much stuff as I could from previous years, and the few purchases I made were things I can continue to use in future Ramadans and Eids. That's the best compromise I could come up with.

1. The second thing that comes to mind is winter traditions. Growing up in Canada, I use to love the Christmas season, not because of the shirk and bidahs. But because everything was so festive, it was snowing, so we would go sledding, build snowmen, have snowball fights and the neighbors had their lights all up, the tv was full of feel-good movies and shows. Not to mention school, where I was always in the Choir and band, and Chrismas was the big performances. So while we didn't celebrate Christmas, there was still a lot of Christmas around. So I had to ask myself, do my kids have a winter tradition? And since we live in Texas, only two things came to mind. Our favorite things are Hot Chocholate and Home Alone 2. Our kids are not in any school clubs that have holiday events, and we get no snow, so that simplifies life.

I asked on Instagram today Does your family have any winter traditions

and some people answered yes, and some said no, some of the traditions included

-going tubing every yea and then going for desserts and hot chocolate.

-family vacations

-Making Harissa (a Kashmiri meat porridge and Kashmiri chai.

- Skating

I would love to know if you guys have any winter family traditions and what you think of it as a Practising Muslims.

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My husband Omar and I are coming up on a significant anniversary, and we wanted to do a How well do you know me tag for podmas. Here are the questions: 1. What is my favorite food? 2. What is my biggest pet peeve? 3. What's my favorite TV show? 4. If I could travel anywhere, where would I go? 5. What are my long-term goals? 6. What is one of my best childhood memories?

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It's that time of year when everyone is planning all their goals. Over the years, I've realized that while these set goals are important, it's even more critical to create a life that allows for goals to be completed.

You have things you want to accomplish, that trip to your favorite city. The degree you want to finish, the book you want to write, the course you want to create, but you don't know where to start.

That's where S.M.A.R.T. goals give you a defined method to plan so that you set a realistic goal and maximize a successful completion. Smart goals meaning:

• Specific (simple, sensible, significant).

Goals, like I want to make more money, won't work, if you make a specific goal to make $10,000 there is a better chance of doing

• Measurable (meaningful, motivating).

Ask yourself, what do I have to do to get the extra 10,000? do I need to sell more inventory?, work more hours, should I get an additional job

• Achievable (agreed, attainable).

You have to be willing or capable of achieving this goal if you don't have a way to or the capacity to do it, you won't get it done

• Relevant (reasonable, realistic, and resourced, results-based).

Decide if this is a goal that will have an impact on your life, and a benefit attached to it. i.e., if I have an extra 10,000, I can go to hajj, or pay off credit card debt. The advantage is that you complete an act of ibadah, or your free debt.

• Time-bound (time-based, time-limited, time/cost limited, timely, time-sensitive).

When you set a deadline, you have a better chance of achieving the goal instead of just hoping and dreaming about it.

With the new year around the corner, set goals you can achieve using the SMART system.

Thanks for tuning in today's episode.

I finally finished listening to Marie Forleo's book, Everything Is Figureoutable, and I loved it. There are multiple reasons, but I think the one that has made the most significant impact on how I see my dreams is OPTIMISM.

This book shared stories where Marie and others used everything is figureoutable to get jobs, start a business, overcome a hardship. Whenever I read books or blogs posts about just working through a problem and taking a leap, I realize how important it is to believe in yourself and your work but as Muslims to also hold these beliefs

1. Tawakkul (reliance, trust in God's plan). Not only do we have to plan and work, but we also have to have a firm belief that the outcome is in Allah's control. 2. The power of Dua 3. Creating a life that allows barakah into it? Are you praying, are you fasting, do you eat and drink what permissible, do you give others their rights?

Share your everything if figureoutable moment below.

In today's episode of podmas, I wanted to highlight an amazing Muslim woman named Asha Farah. I met Asha at the SNABI conference, and unfortunately, the audio during her talk didn't come out properly in the recording, but I wanted to share a little bit of her story today.

Asha Farah is a corporate Real Estate Manager at Starbucks Coffee Company in Seattle, Washington. She Has over 18 of experience in corporate America.

Tune in tomorrow for another episode and don't forget to subscribe.

Follow us on Instagram @naptimeissacred

So I just turned 36 this week, and I've been going through those 40 things to do before your 40, but they're intense and not aligned with a Muslim lifestyle, so I came up with Seven things I want to do before I turn 37

1. Go on hajj
2. Visit Somalia
3. Learn a new language
4. Create a show
5. Improve my Arabic reading
6. Read a hundred books
7. Learn to bake better

These are my short term bucket list items for the next year, hope that I am inshaAllah able to accomplish them and much more.

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In this interview episode, we have with us, Amal Mohamud is a Somali Canadian who works as a community producer for Omni Tv in Canada. The program is called Somalis in Alberta. She produces shows in the Somali language under a Canadian multicultural channel, and my goal is to give Somalis a better image in the media.

Amal and I had a great and detailed discussion about her work on Omni TV and the importance of positive representation in media and programming of Muslims and in this case the Somali community in Canada and specifically Alberta gets a lot of bad press, and I'm proud that Amal is creating shows that show our community and Muslims in a positive light.

you can follow Amal here

https://www.instagram.com/theamaal93/

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Do you have any advice for the recently turned 18-year-old about anything? Life advise.

Here are his answers

Experience: Volunteer for as many different things as you can and take on various jobs.

Learn: Take classes on different subjects, read books, watch documentaries, meet people, and try to learn from their experience.

Relationships: Spend time with family and relatives as much as possible. It invents time to cultivate good friendships.

I'll add Spirtuallutly to this list, we are nothing without faith, and the habits that you create early on in life will carry you through the times of hardship when you don't have the mental or physical capacity to learn new things.

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