Calisha Bennett – Introducing Grounded

			The members of our communities, the young, the middle aged, and even the old are experiencing more
confusion, disillusion and overwhelmed than ever before. We are living in a hectic fast paced world
where we are facing rapid social, cultural and technological changes all at the same time, all of
which are having an increasingly negative impact on every aspect of our well being. Under particular
pressure and strain is our state of personal identity and spiritual well being. We don't know who we
are anymore, we've lost our connection not only with our true selves and each other, but also our
connection with reality, what is truly important in life, and what is reality. Reality is what
		

			exists behind the smokescreen Beyond the Mirage of the dunya experience and distractions. Reality is
the purpose of our lives, our relationship with our Creator and Sustainer, and our ultimate
accountability to him. And so we have to ask ourselves some really important and hard hitting
questions. Where have we gone wrong? How we lost our way and lost ourselves? How can we improve our
condition as individuals and as a community? Where do we start in our journeys towards purifying our
hearts, reviving our faith and strengthening our identities? My name is Felicia Bennett, and I'm an
Australian born Muslim mother of five children. I have almost two decades of community work and
		

			Islamic teaching experience. I specialize in teaching the Quranic science of Tajweed. And in
educating women and youth about the foundations of Islam, and how to best navigate through life with
their identity intact and their faith at the forefront of their life's priorities. Five years ago, I
started my first business developing diamonds working from home as a coach, speaker and educator
after more than a decade of community work and teaching. Over the years, I noticed a massive shift
in the struggles I was witnessing in the community and addressing with my clients and students,
struggles with personal and spiritual identity were very common and concerning. I also picked up on
		

			issues like serious mental and emotional problems, relationship struggles, confusion about feminine
roles, especially as wives and mothers, a lack of resilience and coping with hardship, women
confused and easily influenced by toxic ideologies and anti religious and an Islamic ideas, a
massive lack of basic religious understanding, a huge increase in self absorption and the pursuit of
feel good band aid type solutions to problems that actually cause more harm in the long run. Now,
I'm not one to sit around when I see problems emerging. I've always tried to be a proactive person
and I feel that the issues in my community, the issues faced by my sisters, particularly in regards
		

			to their faith and well being our responsibility upon me to help address in the process of
rebranding and renaming my business I've used almost 20 years of accumulated learning and experience
to formulate a structure of learning and support to help women to actively tackle and overcome these
pressing challenges. Through grounded I want to help revive the seeds of faith through actively
nurturing and working on the faith, identity and confidence of my fellow sisters, mothers, aunties
and young people. I hope to equip Muslim women with the essential and foundational principles of
Islam and the Muslim identity by utilizing traditional Islamic methods and age old wisdoms that are
		

			supplemented with worldly sciences and practical learning. I aim to achieve this through the
provision of one to one consultation as well as online and in person programs, courses, workshops,
day retreats and speaking events. What grounded seeks to do is to help our Muslim sisters to be
firmly grounded in their religion, establish sound and unbreakable faith, identity and confidence,
be able to distinguish truth from falsehood, be inspired and motivated about fulfilling their
potential as believers become effective callers to the faith become active agents of positive change
in the world achieve personal success in this life and the next and to inspire, guide and lead
		

			others to do the same. Grounded has 16 Integral core principles and values by which we provide our
services support and education with the prioritization of Allah subhanaw taala. His profits are the
long run he was salam and Islamic teachings at the very heart of our methodology. What I would like
to say to my sisters, is that if you are a born Muslim woman or a convert to Islam, or if you're a
Muslim man who is struggling in any way, I encourage you to reach out to someone strong,
knowledgeable and trustworthy. No one should have to feel alone in their spiritual journey. I
believe that if we have sincere intentions, keep good company and continue to learn and improve
		

			ourselves. Then with Allah's help, we can most definitely revive the seeds of faith within our
hearts inshallah.