"Every step we take forward will illuminate our path a little more"
essayist & poet Noha Beshir on writing despite the chaos of life, the power of her Islamic meditation and mindfulness practices, and just starting without overthinking it ✨
This is a Beginner’s Mind interview, a series that explores the intersection of mindfulness and creative practice. Zen master Shunryū Suzuki Roshi said, “In the beginner’s mind, there are many possibilities; in the expert’s mind, there are few.” This series shines a light on the practices that sustain people in their daily lives and open the path to new possibilities. Subscribe below to make sure you don’t miss any future interviews. ✨
is the author of one of my favorite Substack newsletters, Letters from a Muslim Woman, where she “shares the joys and challenges of being a visibly Muslim woman in a sometimes-unfriendly world.” I stumbled onto Noha’s newsletter a while ago when someone shared her essay on anxiety, “Voices in the mind, echoes in the body.” I was pulled in right away by Noha’s voice, curiosity, and imagery. As I read more of her work, I came to admire her courage to share vulnerable truths, and the way she weaves together the personal and the political. She is a master of bringing humanity, lyricism, and humor into her work, no matter the topic. I think you’ll love what Noha shares here about her writing and mindfulness practices, so read on, friends. 🙏🏼✨
What are your writing/creative practices? Do you have any rituals or habits that help you?
I’ve always wanted to be someone with a consistent writing ritual, but the truth of it is that my writing life is rather chaotic. I write at a different time and on different days, just fitting it into the nooks and crannies of my life, around family obligations, around work, around caregiving.
There are a few “nice to have” habits that I manage every once in a while. I adore writing in coffee shops, and there’s one near the Costco I go to on Saturdays after I’ve dropped our youngest off at his Arabic classes. If I don’t have 17 other errands to run that day, I will go to the coffee shop, get myself a hot drink and open my laptop there. But this is very idealized. More often than not, I’m writing in bed or over my lunch hour because a thought came to me and if I don’t get it down at that exact moment it’s going to disappear. I have several notes apps on my phone where I track lines, ideas, inspirations, and when I don’t know what I’m going to write about, I go back to those, like drinking from a well, to get started.
What are your mindfulness practices? Do you have your own definition or way of thinking about mindfulness? Can you describe your practices and what they bring into your life?
So! I’ve spent years grappling with mindfulness and meditation, because the way I’d heard it defined, it was about emptying your mind fully and just being in the moment. I have never succeeded at this. A few years ago, I had an epiphany that I’ve been meditating my whole life, just using Islamic meditation and mindfulness practices, both our ritual 5 daily prayers, and then also our thikr (which is basically various forms of remembrance mantras that are meant to remind us of God and the purpose of life).
Lately, I’ve been using thikr as something I am saying to myself or filling my head with all day and it has helped me achieve a level of calm and peace that’s very new (and very welcome!) to me.
Until recently, I found being alone with my thoughts quite distressing. I would immediately hurry to fill my mind with a podcast, a song, social media, anything to stop my anxiety from kicking in. Deleting all the tempting apps from my phone and making thikr my inner soundtrack has helped immensely. Now I just keep making thikr and my head is a calmer place to live. Not that I don’t still deal with anxiety, but the spiral isn’t as long or severe. And I’m less on auto-pilot and more conscious of my choices than before.
Do you have a mantra or motto related to your creative/mindfulness practices/life? What piece of wisdom do you have on a post-it note to help you remember it? (or does this make you cringe?)
I write nothing on post-its! My phone is my post-it, in the form of those notes apps I mentioned earlier. I have a few different remembrance mantras or prayers from thikr that help with both creativity and mindfulness. I say them in Arabic but I will translate them here.
For peace: “Oh God, you are peace, and from you comes peace.”
For quieting anxiety: “Oh God, I seek your mercy. Do not leave to myself, even for the blink of an eye. And make everything work out in the best way for me. There is no God but you.”
For creativity, I like repeating “Ya Jameel” over and over. Al-Jameel is one of God’s 99 names in the Islamic tradition, meaning, “the most beautiful” or “the source of beauty”. And what is creativity if not a source of beauty? I like to choose one of the 99 names that most closely represents the thing I’m seeking, and repeat it.
What helps you when you get stuck with your creative/writing or mindfulness practices?
When I’m stuck on creativity and/or writing, reading long form usually gives me enough of a reset to move forward. A really long article. An immersive novel. Usually, I have gotten in my own way and I am spiraling. Reading something immersive takes me out of the spiral long enough that it can circle the drain and leave me behind to start over.
Are there any books / writers / teachers / approaches that have been transformative for you that you would recommend to readers?
These are not books about mindfulness or creativity or even writing, but they are books that have been transformative for me in different ways, or even just gave me a framework to think about the world right now:
One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This, by Omar El-Akkad. This book gave words to a lot of the rage I have been feeling as the genocide in Gaza unfolds, but it also did so much more than that. It articulated ideas and feelings I was wrestling with about justice, about freedom, about the way the world works.
There’s Always This Year, by Hanif Abdurraqib. This book is just so stunningly beautiful. The writing. I don’t think I have ever read such exquisite writing. And it opened a world to me I had no window into, and it made it beautiful. I want to see Columbus now.
You Could Make This Place Beautiful, by Maggie Smith. This book was both moving and deeply steeped in interiority. I don’t know whether to call it a collection of poems or a memoir or both? It introduced me to new possibilities for how to write about my life and experiences. Hard to describe but so so easy to read.
How have creative and/or mindfulness practices helped you in your life?
The biggest gift of both writing and mindfulness for me is clarity in what I really want and what I really value. The world is so noisy, and we are living in a hyper-capitalist ecosystem where we are always being told we are not enough unless we have THIS thing or THAT thing, and if we don’t step back into ourselves, away from the commotion, it’s easy to start believing all that stimuli.
Mindfulness helps me step back, which helps me see more clearly whether I want the thing the world is trying to push onto me. Then, writing helps me figure out what it is I do want. When I sit down to write, I might have an inkling of where I’m going, but I certainly don’t know every detail. Writing helps me sort out the details and the connections.
What advice would you give someone who is trying to start or restart a creative or mindfulness practice?
Just start. Don’t overthink it. Don’t make up a whole plan for what you will do. Or do make up a plan, if you really want, but don't get too stuck on it, because once you start, you will figure out the next step, and the one after that, and you will keep going. We are all just moving along in the dark with a flashlight that only shows what’s happening 3 feet ahead of us. Whatever we may be telling ourselves about our goals, we don’t know the destination. So starting is the best thing we can do, and every step we take forward will illuminate our path a little more.
is an essayist and poet who writes about motherhood, faith, mental health, and the multi-generational immigrant experience. Her words can be found in Maisonneuve Magazine, WAYF Journal, and on her newsletter, Letters from a Muslim Woman. She loves cycling, swimming, forests, and really good sandwiches. She lives in Ottawa, Canada with her husband and two children.
For more from Noha ✨
Follow Noha on Instagram and threads @nbeshir93, on X @hockeyhijabi, and on Substack: @nohabeshir
Much of Noha’s writing, including her unfinished letters series, can be found on her newsletter on Substack below👇🏽
A recent essay on names and identity can be found in WAYF journal, which can be purchased here: https://www.wayfjournal.com/shop
The one piece of “true” journalism Noha ever wrote was a longform essay on her experiences as a hijab-wearing Muslim in Quebec, Canada, in the decade leading up to the banning of hijab for public servants. This piece is available to read at Maisonneuve Magazine’s website: https://maisonneuve.org/article/2020/04/9/degrees-freedom/
I loved this interview with Noha at Beyond with Jane Ratcliffe
I also loved Noha’s essay, “The Muslim Men I Know”
What You May have Missed on Be Where You Are
The next Ass in Chair Collective this Mon, June 9th is for paid subscribers. The next free one is June 16th and it will be a solstice celebration with some fun giveaways & celebrations of what we’re proud of this spring. If you’ve been waiting to try it out, it’s a great one to put in your calendar. All the details are in the post below.👇🏼
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Be Where You Are is a newsletter about how to use writing and mindfulness to live more fully where you are. To reply to this newsletter, just hit reply. I’d love to hear from you! I read and respond to every comment. You can also find me on Instagram/Facebook/Bluesky or find more info at my website.
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This is such a treat! Thank you for sharing this conversation, Noha and Emily. I've been a fan of Noha's writing since close to the beginning of my Substack time, and I love hearing her talk about mindfulness from a Muslim perspective. I'm a big fan of diversity in contemplative practices and I learned a lot from reading this.
I LOVE this one. Thank you for what you shared here, Noha!