Two beneficial zikr (remembrance of God) formulas that are taken from the traditions of Prophet Muhammad  ﷺ are:

Reciting Surah Kahf every Friday morning; Allah  will protect you for the coming week.  The second formula is that of reciting Surah Yusuf every night before your go to bed.  Insha Allah, Allah  would protect you from any pain at the time of death and would also enable you to overcome any enemy in this life.

Allah  says in Surah Baqarah:

Allah is the Wali (Protector) of those who have faith (2:257)

A wali is a person’s closest, most senior elder.  Someone who you love, someone who you could go to and he will take care of you and he would never, at anytime let you down.  And if Allah  says that He is your Wali what a great thing that is.

This statement has so much of meaning.  One of which is that Allah  takes one out of darkness into light.  One ways is through knowledge.  Another is through guidance.

The more intense your belief in Allah  gets the closer you will feel that you are to Him.  You will begin to ascend and your personality will become different and more refined.  And this is one of the lessons that we can take from the Mir’aj.  Through faith and perseverance Prophet Muhammad ﷺ ascended so high that he became the beloved of Allah .

One way of removing the darkness from your personality is by letting the Light of Allah   brighten your personality.  And this is what we try to achieve through our spiritual exercise of muraaqaba.  And through this your faith would grow and your closeness to your Lord would also increase.  And insha Allah you would spirituality ascend.

There is no ending to spiritual experiences and it is something that cannot be explained through contemporary reason and logic.

Remember a person will only achieve what Allah  wills for him.  But He allows a bit of free will through which we can cultivate remembrance for Him, standing, sitting and lying on our sides.  This can be achieved when our qalb (heart) makes Zikr (remembrance of God) even if we are physically engaged in other matters.  Perhaps this is one reasons why the Prophet is reported to have said that even when the Messenger is asleep his heart remains alert.