Yoohyun Park/Production Coordinator
You can’t always get what you want
By: Ana Mamula, Staff Writer
As I was scrolling through my “for you” page on TikTok last summer, bored out of my mind in quarantine, I remember seeing the same things: crystals, spirituality and how to manifest properly. I remember my generation taking spirituality by the reins and running with it.
I personally noted the spread of misinformation on the practice itself, causing many people to have a false perception of the notion as a whole.
One of the notions that individuals carry is that spirituality cures all; you can receive anything you want, you can be who you want and you can attract whatever you want. And this all is sparked with manifesting. Apparently, you can just write down your wishes three times on a piece of paper or click your shoes together three times and poof! Your wishes come true!
That's not how it works.
I will be going through what you need to know about manifesting and the actual truths regarding this notion.
First off, what is manifesting, you may ask? Spiritual manifesting is when you're flowing, not forcing. It's different from goal-setting because it's like you're co-creating with the universe. You have a special relationship with the universe and you are working alongside it to grow into the individual you wish to become and do what you wish to do.
You have a special relationship with the universe and you are working alongside it to grow into the individual you wish to become and do what you wish to do.
ANA MAMULA, STAFF WRITER
When it comes to manifesting, it is important to understand life itself and how your mindset truly affects everything.
When we go through life, we all go through both good and difficult periods of time. When a rough patch arises, it is easy to feel as though such patches alone comprise one’s reality, which can negatively impact one’s mindset. But what individuals do not understand is you are the creator of your reality.
So, if you believe you are the creator of your reality and you create the good, you have to take responsibility for all — the good and the bad.
And once you take that responsibility, you can change the outcome.
Now, why is learning about life, the good, the bad and outcomes so important? Because those who fail at manifestation, those who do not do the research, are oblivious to understanding the mutual agreement you have with the universe.
Because those who fail at manifestation, those who do not do the research, are oblivious to understanding the mutual agreement you have with the universe.
ANA MAMULA, STAFF WRITER
You cannot ask for good if you are looking over the bad. If you shift the power of the good and bad to things other than yourself, you are not learning, growing, accepting or changing. That is the importance of life.
Your feelings are closely dependent on how positively you dream about your future. To implement your wishes, you need energy — energy that comes from manifesting properly.
Those who still want to turn the other way when hearing you have to go through the bad to receive the good need to understand we were not put on this earth for it to be easy. You came here to be challenged, grow and learn.
Because the hard truth is that even when you receive what you manifested, you’re still going to have challenges and obstacles.
To succeed in your spiritual journey, it’s crucial to stop tip-toeing through life and remember who you are. Start looking at your past and how far you have come. Look at all of your accomplishments, look at all of those times when you would complain about the difficulties and think about how you overcame them.
Think about how strong you have gotten. Think about what you have learned. And then you will receive what you want, you will become who you want to be and you will attract who you want to attract.
Salma Hindy likes to think that she was at her peak creativity and performance level while making her childhood friends laugh. Lunch times at the Islamic elementary and secondary schools she attended turned into a comedy sketch hour filled with extravagant storytelling and ridiculous imitations of her teachers and friends.
The up-and-coming comedian recently returned from the 12 city Super Muslim Comedy Tour in the United Kingdom, and finished in second place in the Toronto Comedy Brawl competition against over 400 comedians. Hindy also spent her autumn performing at comedy festivals in Boston, Dallas, Chicago and New York.
As Hindy prepares to open for American comedian and actor Ken Jeong on Jan. 11 for the Life After Mac performance on campus, it’s fair to say storytelling and making people laugh have followed her into adulthood.
Growing up in a conservative Muslim household meant that her parents have a rigid understanding of what comedy and performance is, which made it difficult for them to understand what their daughter wanted to pursue.
While their ideas of comedy were often tainted with negative connotations and misconceptions, Hindy wanted to show her family and Muslim community that clean comedy can be approached in a way that is mindful of the values and boundaries she has set for herself. Her career, identity and spirituality are part of her own personal journey and comedy just so happens to play an important part as well.
Despite her parents’ reluctance to attend her shows, Hindy’s mother found herself attending an event her daughter just so happened to be performing at for International Women’s Day this past March. It may have been seeing her daughter perform stand-up for the first time, the fact that Hindy removed all her parent jokes from her set, or the constant boasting on part of her mother’s friends, but the laughter seemed to ease her concerns.
The comedy industry was in for a shock too. Most audiences aren’t used to seeing a visibly Muslim woman take center stage at a comedy bar. Hindy will skip out on free drink tickets and get ecstatic at the availability of halal food at her events, but the industry is ready to embrace her and the diversity she brings.
“I fit in pretty well as someone who doesn't fit in, if that makes any sense. They want to see people with different identities… different stories and different perspectives. Somebody who can teach them something that they didn't know before while obviously still being entertaining and funny,” explained Hindy.
While Hindy’s faith and stereotypes around her identity do seep into her act, she isn’t explicitly written for a Muslim audience. Her witty remarks and hilarious stories about her life, which are all based on true events, humanize her as a Muslim Canadian; an identity that is often informed by the media rather than real life interactions.
Comedy became a breakthrough for fostering understanding. From jokes about struggling to have a crush reciprocate feelings to witnessing anti-Muslim protestors outside of a mosque and thinking ‘wow, these people go to the mosque more than me, like damn I wish I had your consistency’, Hindy utilizes storytelling to reach out to her audience and build a relationship.
“[I]t doesn't even necessarily have to be specifically or explicitly about Muslim issues or Muslim struggles, obviously those are really enlightening and they're great informational pieces for the audience, but even just you ranting about the same thing that somebody else would rant about which is just very mundane, just shows how relatable you are and how much of a connection that we all have,” explained Hindy.
Hindy completed her bachelor of engineering at McMaster and a masters in clinical engineering at the University of Toronto. She recently started her first full time job as a biomedical research engineer at Centre for Addiction and Mental Health so it’s only a matter of time before this milestone in her life inspires the newest additions to her comedy set.
In conversation, Hindy can’t help crack a joke or two — or every five minutes— often followed by a ‘you know what I’m saying?’ and her contagious laughter. Comedy is her superpower, she uses it to spread awareness, break down stereotypes and share herself unapologetically with the world.
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