Fearne Cotton sits in, with Gary Barlow

From Remona Aly, Freelance journalist and editor:
We humans may well have set foot on the moon, climbed Mount Everest or even managed to eat 50 crème eggs in under a minute, but I don’t think mankind has ever really conquered a to do list. While I have in the past enthusiastically struck a task off the page, the satisfaction is nearly always short-lived. There is always something else to do. My most recent list has included: Do pause for thought - TICK. Clean office and sort your life out - BLANK. Procrastination - TICK TICK TICK. 
A friend of mine even has praying on her list. According to my calculations, I’ve basically been praying five times a day for the past 20 years, which totals 36,500 completed prayers. Now that's a lot of ticks. I heard a talk a while ago where the speaker said, “We fill our lives with doing stuff, but forget that we are human beings, not human doings.” I’m guilty of that. I’m so busy with what I’m doing, I forget how I’m being – whether that’s being more mindful in prayer, more grateful in my work, or being more in tune with myself. 
One of the most influential Muslim thinkers, Imam al-Ghazali took a step back from all the noise in the late 11th century. Al-Ghazali was rolling in celeb status - he became an advisor in the sultan’s court, a professor at a top-notch university, and got kudos from the masses, but suddenly left it all at the height of his fame because of a spiritual crisis. He went into seclusion for two years, in an effort to get back to his core self, his core being. It led to him writing his masterpiece on Islamic theology and mysticism, that Muslims are inspired by to this day. 
I can’t really go off into seclusion for years, but I can use some quiet, undistracted moments to tend to my inner wellbeing. Because maybe then I’ll uncover something truly precious. Imam al-Ghazali said, “Those who look for seashells will find seashells. Those who open them will find pearls.” Instead of focusing all my energies on doing things, I’ll open up the treasure inside me. So sorting my life out may just have a mega tick coming its way...