Iman Mutlaq, is a single mother with two sons and a very successful business women and financial adviser from Pindi (Pakistan). She earlier felt life was only about traveling, earning money and taking care of family and friends! At that time, spiritual practices like meditation, for her was a joke. In-fact she says that she used to make fun of her friends who were involved in such practices.
Having stayed for a long time under a myth that meditation is for sick people, she soon realized with meditation she discovered another beautiful side of life. Today as she meditates regularly, she can feel she gets the best of both world – the spiritual and the material world.
Q : I read in another interview, that for a long times you were under the myth that Spiritual Practices like meditation are only for sick people or people who lacked something in their life. But when you learnt meditation that myth broke. Could you talk about this?
Iman Mutlaq : When one is so immersed in the material world and in the everyday needs of life – running from one place to the other and especially if one is very successful in such a world, one finds no time to sit and think about anything but work and money and material possessions.
I have a family so I was focused on taking care of my family. But I thought I had it all - money, success, my two boys, my family and good friends. I thought I didn’t need anything else and so I thought that if everyone was like me then they wouldn’t need anything else either. And so when I thought of meditation and the people that meditate I thought they were miserable and unhappy and couldn’t make it in the real world. That they have reached a level of desperation and so resorted to something like meditation.
Little did I know that people who ran from one thing to the other, who focused totally on material possessions and acquiring more of them were the ones who were lost in this world.
The first day I stepped into my meditation and yoga class I felt my whole life would changed. And that’s exactly what has happened. My eyes, my heart and my soul opened up to levels of love and life that I didn’t know existed. I discovered that the material world, which is although also important for our livelihood kept us so busy that we forgot to enjoy life, to take a few moments to take deep breaths and start seeing happiness around us.
I realized that in order for my life to be complete and for me to have everything, I needed to nourish the inside of my body and soul. So I understood then that meditation is for everyone – and shouldn’t be regarded as a side issue to get to when we have time, but should be an integral part of our every day.
Q : Before you learnt meditation, you were doing very well in the material world, so how did meditation help you discover another beautiful side of life?
Iman Mutlaq : Meditation led me to delve deeper into myself. For the first time, I felt I met myself, started to get to know myself. I started to feel how amazing life was when it wasn’t rushed or continuously on the go. I started to think of how I can delve deeper into myself and how I can find and strengthen the happiness within.
The life after learning meditation was a totally new life – totally new world – that I never thought existed. My life is still busy and on the go but I stop and admire the trees, I smile at people, and while I am on the go I never fail to stop on the way to lend a helping hand, or a listening ear, to anyone that needs me no matter which side of the globe they are on.
This is a beautiful side of life that I have discovered which in turn gives the material world a new meaning.
Q : You have been a very successful women, so could you talk about how meditation can help women in corporate field?
Iman Mutlaq : I have always believed in myself and my ability and when I set a goal for my life, I go out and achieve it.
Yet when I started meditating regularly, I got more mental clearly. I became less stressed (stress is so common in Corporate World these days). Better decision taking ability because my mind is much calmer, the body is rested and I feel complete from the within.
My life is now divided up where I time for everything I want to do – so there will be time for work, time for food, time for friends, time for family and time for oneself. When everything is relaxed and balanced in my lives, I naturally feel happier.
With more energy for work, a clearer mind, with having taken right decisions, I have the confidence to go through any issues that come up.
