Those people who begin to learn guitar playing are often confused and upset by the necessity to practice so much. But in this case practice is the only possible method to achieve high level of guitar playing and become good guitar player.
It is normal that sometimes people feel no desire to practice, then just don't feel inspiration and motivation, they just want to leave it and forget. In spite of such strong desires and emotions, you have to cope with them and continue to practice, it is really worth. In order to safe yourself from such stressful moments, you have to organize the schedule of your practice with guitar. Also it is necessary to establish goals which you have to achieve in certain period f time. You have to write down these goals and put the paper with these goals on the place where you can se it every day several times. You can determine goals for day, week and month and try to achieve them according to your schedule. Nobody requires from you to practice several hours everyday, 15-20 minutes is enough. And one more important moment, every day it is necessary to make exercises for fingers.
In order to achieve success with guitar playing, you have to manage your time. It is necessary to establish fives time for guitar practice and don't break this schedule. Everything likes an order.
As for place, it is necessary to find such place where nobody can disturbs you and you with your playing won't disturb anybody. Yeas, it is not easy, but possible.
1. Break fast away from the smoking crowd. Stay home if you have to.
2. Avoid the drinks or foods that are normally associated with your smoking habit. During the fasting month, a variety of drinks and foods can act as alternatives.
3. Leave the table immediately after breaking fast if you intend to end it with a cigarette. Take a walk instead of lighting up. If you break fast at home, go to the mosque for prayers.
4. Look for new distractions wherever possible.
In short, do whatever it takes to disassociate from the smoking routines.
Some other general tips to help quit smoking:
1. Don't smoke any number or any kind of cigarette. Smoking even a few cigarettes a day can hurt your health. If you try to smoke fewer cigarettes, but do not stop completely, soon you'll be smoking the same amount again.
Smoking "low-tar, low-nicotine" cigarettes usually does little good, either. Because nicotine is so addictive, if you switch to lower-nicotine brands you'll likely just puff harder, longer, and more often on each cigarette. The only safe choice is to quit completely.
2.Write down why you want to quit. Do you want
a. to feel in control of life?
b. to have better health?
c. to set a good example for your children?
4. to protect your family from breathing other people's smoke?
Your strength of desire to quit smoking is very important in determining the success you will have in quitting. Smokers who live after a heart attack are the most likely to quit for good, because they're very motivated. Find a reason for quitting before you have no choice.
3. Know that it will take effort to quit smoking. Nicotine is habit forming. Half of the battle in quitting is knowing you need to quit. This knowledge will help you be more able to deal with the symptoms of withdrawal that can occur, such as bad moods and really wanting to smoke. There are many ways smokers quit, including using nicotine replacement products (gum and patches), but there is no easy way. Nearly all smokers have some feelings of nicotine withdrawal when they try to quit. Give yourself a month to get over these feelings. Take quitting one day at a time, even one minute at a time-whatever you need to succeed.
4. Half of all adult smokers have quit, so you can too. That's the good news. There are millions of people alive today who have learned to face life without a cigarette. For staying healthy, quitting smoking is the best step you can take.
May you have many spiritually fulfilling smoke-free days of fasting during Ramadan.
Gathering all the will power they have Muslim smokers who fast during Ramadan are refraining themselves from food, drinks and smoking during the daytime to fulfill their religious obligation of fasting during this month.
Owing to nicotine dependency, some smokers may experience withdrawal symptoms, like irritability, anger, restlessness, impatience, insomnia and difficulty concentrating. Due to the craving of nicotine, most smokers reach for their cigarettes after breaking of fast, some may even do so within a few minutes after consuming food or drinks.
Before the "addicted" smoker can quit, he must appreciate what addiction is all about and how he can be weaned off smoking. Ramadan provides an excellent opportunity to change one's mindset and environment to quit smoking.
Understanding what tobacco dependence is all about can help the smoker change his habits. This is especially so because addictive behavior has a direct influence on the bodily chemicals that affect emotions and behavior.
Often, it is the emotional aspects that cause the smoking behavior to continue. And thus the multitude of excuses which smokers offer such as it gives "a surge of energy", or "acts to reduce tension" or even "gives a feeling of security".
What it actually amounts to is that smoking maintains a certain level of nicotine in the smoker's blood, especially in the brain.
This is, in fact, the key to understanding addiction as a result of nicotine inhaled from the cigarette. Under the influence of a high level of nicotine, all the above-mentioned excuses seem real. The smoker is emotionally satisfied by his smoking behavior.
However, after puffing on a stick of cigarette, the nicotine level in the smoker's blood begins to decrease gradually. Over just about one hour, the level becomes almost negligible, seemingly resulting in a "loss" in energy, "increased" tension and "insecure" feelings. And the urge to smoke begins.
At this point, it is critical for the "addicted" smoker to find new strategies to distract himself from the urge to smoke. Try any one or all of these suggestions:
Before the urge to smoke strikes (about 60 minutes from the last puff), start doing activities that make smoking physically difficult to perform. Examples include washing the car, weeding the garden, jogging, or taking a long shower. Almost any kind of physical exercise may help. Your smoking behavior may be ingrained and automatic. Anticipate this behavior and stick to your plan to quit.
Check your watch (preferably one with the second hand) whenever the urge acts up. Fight it over the next one minute by keeping your eyes on the movement of the second hand. After one minute, your urge will certainly subside. Then continue for another minute. You will feel even better. Repeat for another minute if necessary.
Before the five minutes are over, the urge will pass. Most urges are short. Once you understand and experience this, you will be better able to cope and resist the urge.
Because you are addicted, quitting smoking can prove quite challenging. The physical symptoms of withdrawal from smoking (like being irritable and edgy) may last between three to 10 days, with the intensity decreasing by the day. But the psychological aspect may last longer, weeks and even months. Over time, however, the urge will fade.
Relapses can occur if you are not careful, particularly when you subject yourself to the environment that habitually make you "light up". Be aware of this and the circumstances that will make you do so, such as after a meal or when getting in the car. Keep the cigarettes away as suggested in last week's article.
Most relapses occur within four weeks after a person stops smoking. The chief reason is most smokers are not prepared to make changes. The month of Ramadan should help Muslim smokers who want to give up. Fasting forces a smoker to change his mindset, his environment and his habit. Most routines are broken for a good part of the day over the next four weeks.
So, try to acquire new non-smoking behavior during the Ramadan. Unlearn smoking. Take it a day at a time. If you succeed on the first day, you are likely to succeed again the next day. Before your know it, you are already a non-smoker.
The most vulnerable time, of course, is during meals, especially the breaking of fast.
"Fasting during Ramadan is a unique opportunity to attain both peace of mind and heart," says Imam Gayth Nur Kashif, Director of Washington, DC's inner city Masjid ash-Shura.
Imam Kashif, who came to Islam by way of the Black Muslim movement and was an editor of the movement's Muhammad Speaks newspaper and a contemporary of Malcolm X, explains: "During Ramadan one concentrates on rendering good and abstaining from the wrong. Such a pursuit creates peaceful serenity in the hearts of men and women. Ramadan fasting cannot be complete and in fact, the fast can be invalidated if one fails to control his or her temper. The fasting persons are advised to refrain from argument and to inform the other party that they cannot continue the troublesome dialogue because they are engaged in the sublime obligation of fasting. Without doubt a full month of such restraint is destined to leave its mark upon our bodies and souls."
The fasting during Ramadan that requires certain restraints from dawn to dusk, the hours when the human interaction is the greatest, is designed to mould the lives of its practitioners.
Dr. Molook Roghanizad, a member of the Curriculum Advisory Committee of the Fairfax County School Board in Virginia and an educational consultant, says, "Ramadan fasting offers an opportunity for Tazkiyah, - the cleansing of the self - through its disciplinary regimen. And on another level, Ramadan offers a unique opportunity for synthesizing with the less fortunate."
She points out that the tazkiyah aspect is clearly emphasized by Prophet Muhammad who, according to Ka'b ibn Malik, said: "Two hungry wolves sent against a herd of sheep will not do more damage to it than a man's eagerness for wealth and prestige does to his religion." [Cited in Ahmad, al-Tirmidhi and Abu Yahya]
"The Quran," she adds, "started to be revealed during Ramadan and it is recommended that during this month we concentrate on the reading of the Quran. Why? This is because during this month, we are less involved with physical needs and have a better opportunity of understanding the Message - the Quran, that is. Therefore there is a better chance of understanding the truth and reaching that spiritual elevation that we all desire." This state of 'special elevation', she is says comes when we elevate ourselves through understanding the true message. "The moment you have reached the absolute truth is your Lailut ul Qadr, the Night of Power," she stresses.
She says that the real attainment of Qadr for ordinary beings is not a physical act, nothing sort of pulling a spiritual rabbit out of a hat, but in reality that indescribable moment when all things become clear to you and this moment of truth is worth one thousand months, more than a lifetime. The Quran says: "But those will prosper who purify themselves and glorify of their Guardian-Lord and (lift their hearts) in Prayer." (Quran 87:14-15)
Dr. Muhammad Hamidullah, the eminent scholar and translator of the Quran into French, in his monograph Why Fast? (Centre Culturale Islamique, Wilkes Barre, PA) discusses the physical aspect of fasting. He likens fasting to the break from the ordinary to sleeping and to the weekend breaks in work and school. He points out that just as sleep renovates the body, the fast rejuvenates and invigorates the body, noting that Prophet Muhammad said, "There is a tax on everything, the tax of the body being the fast."
What fasting does to a Muslim is perhaps best explained by Jim Quraishi, who wrote in an internet religion forum, "I am much more forgiving and accepting of my coworkers. I am more liable to overlook their frailties and petty jealousies. I'm like a man who knows that at the end of the day there is a pot of gold that awaits him."
Islam does not promote withdrawal from society, however during Ramadan a brief withdrawal from society is allowed for those who desire to do so, which is called itikaf. In itikaf a person can confine oneself to a secluded corner of a mosque - women can select a corner at home - during the last ten days of Ramadan to devote their full-time to prayer and remembrance of God. The itikaf experience can be likened to a retreat in a secluded camp. Ibn Umar said, "The Messenger of Allah [Prophet Muhammad] used to seclude himself for the last ten days of the month of Ramadan."
According to the late Dr. Alija Izetbekovic, President of Bosnia, "The Islamic fast which is the union of asceticism and joy - and even pleasure in certain cases - is the most natural and most radical educational measure that has ever been put into practice. It is equally present in the king's palace and the peasant's hut, in a philosopher's home and a worker's home. Its greatest advantage is that it is really practiced."
The fasting during Ramadan has been ordained for Muslims as fasting had been ordained for people that preceded them. Prophet Muhammad, addressing his companions on the last day of Shaban, the preceding month, said: "O people! A great month has come over you; a blessed month; a month in which is a night better than a thousand months; month in which Allah has made it compulsory upon you to fast by day, and voluntary to pray by night. Whoever draws nearer (to Allah) by performing any of the (optional) good deeds in (this month) shall receive the same reward as performing an obligatory deed at any other time, and whoever discharges an obligatory deed in (this month) shall receive the reward of performing seventy obligations at any other time. It is the month of patience, and the reward of patience is Heaven. It is the month of charity, and a month in which a believer's sustenance is increased. Whoever gives food to a fasting person to break his fast, shall have his sins forgiven, and he will be saved from the Fire of Hell, and he shall have the same reward as the fasting person, without his reward being diminished at all." [Narrated by Ibn Khuzaymah]
Aaliyah Turner used to light up the scoreboard for the Emmanuel College women's basketball team - even while observing the Islamic month of Ramadan. She would go all day without food and water until halftime, when the sun set. So during this year's observance, playing a pickup game of basketball with a youth team organized through her mosque seemed to be no big deal.
"If I weren't fasting, I'd feel like I'd probably miss more shots because I'm out of sync," Turner says.
Muslims in the United States face special challenges in celebrating their holy month, which this year began Sept. 23 and ends Oct. 22. While Muslims in the Islamic world revive the daily rhythms of Ramadan - streets empty at sunset, families congregating for Ramadan dinners, or iftars, and later heading to the markets to drink tea until the wee hours of the morning, comfortable in the knowledge that they can sleep late because others will, too - Muslim-Americans have to adjust Ramadan to the beat of American life.
In the process, they're creating Ramadan traditions with a distinctly American flavor - whether it's fasting in the heat of competition, eating takeout for iftar, or breaking fast with Christians and Jews.
"The Muslim experience in America is one of trying to conform to the way society around us runs," says Shahed Amanullah, who runs zabihah.com, an online guide of restaurants that conform to Islamic dietary restrictions. "In a Muslim country, everybody breaks their fast at the same time, so business conforms to that. But in America, we have to conform to a different schedule."
Omar Ahmad, for example, a technology worker in Silicon Valley, is often still at work at sunset. So he drives to the nearby Yaseen Center mosque in Belmont, where iftar is served, and gets his meal to go. He eats it at his office - a ritual performed by dozens of Muslims who work in Silicon Valley.
"That's when you can tell who all the bachelors are," he jokes, adding that mosque officials don't mind the eat-and-run.
Saira Sufi grew up in Topeka, Kan., accustomed to home-cooked iftars with family, but had little trouble adjusting to breaking her fast when she took a job on Capitol Hill, mainly because she could share the experience with Muslim colleagues. But since taking a job two years ago with the Civil War Preservation Trust, where she is the only Muslim, Sufi confesses to missing the sense of community. "I love breaking fast with other Muslims, but if you can't, you just accept it."
Rather than lamenting, however, Sufi has turned her solitude into an opportunity to contemplate God - another practice encouraged during Ramadan. "When you're on your own, you reflect a little more," she says.
While Muslim-Americans like Sufi have adjusted Ramadan to American life, more Americans have also become increasingly aware of Ramadan, and have sought to accommodate Muslims. For example, at Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass., the prayer hall stays open late to accommodate students praying Taraweeh, special prayers performed only during Ramadan. And many employers are letting Muslim employees slip out at sunset so they can break their fast.
Many Muslim-Americans, meanwhile, are using Ramadan as a chance to reach out to the larger community. Since the 1990s, Sufi's father, Ashraf Sufi, has frequently invited non-Muslim neighbors to his home for iftar. After the 9/11 attacks, the need for interfaith dialogue became more urgent, and Dr. Sufi and his colleagues expanded the iftars through the Islamic Center of Topeka. The interfaith iftars have since become "like a tradition," Sufi says, drawing about 70 people, including Jews, Christians, Buddhists, and Bahais.
"If you don't meet people, you stay in your own shell, and that just breeds suspicion," he says.
Indeed, according to the "Fatwa Bank" at IslamOnline.net, a conservative Web site, Muslims are encouraged to share iftar with non-Muslims. In response to a question from Pakistan, the Fatwa Bank said: "It is an intelligent and impressive idea to organize iftar with non-Muslims."
Along with diversity, the nation's penchants for volunteering and technology have also influenced the way Muslim-Americans observe Ramadan. For example, Nabila Mango, a San Francisco social worker, says the annual iftar she has organized for the past six years for the city's Tenderloin district, draws some 100 volunteers. "The volunteers are really a picture of the Bay area: Muslims, Jews, Christians, straight, gay, everybody," Mango says.
And Omar Mozaffar, an Islamic studies student at the University of Chicago, has taken up blogging to reflect on the meaning of Ramadan. It also helps overcome a typically American dilemma: "In our society, Muslim or not, we are alienated from each other, and blogging helps people connect and share ideas," he says.
Jamil Abdullah, who coaches a basketball team sponsored by Masjid Al-Quran, a Boston mosque, believes Ramadan in America is too diverse to be labeled an American Ramadan.
"I wouldn't say it's our own unique Ramadan. I would say everybody's Ramadan is unique," he says. "There's not this Ramadan, or that Ramadan. It's just Ramadan, your Ramadan."
