Gratitude and Abundance

Gratitude. Abundance. So hard to embrace these when we're feeling overwhelmed by illness, or extreme circumstances. When I am overwhelmed, all I want to do is crawl into a hole and escape. Gratitude and abundance are the furthest things from my mind and heart. Therefore, how do you turn your face around to see the joy and beauty in the world, when you're not feeling it in your heart? What does it for you? I keep reminding myself that HaShem is always before me--Sh'viti. Even if I can't feel the fullness of abundance and joy in my heart sometimes, I can be comforted to know that I am not alone.

Sing Your Own Song!

Spring is here for us in the Northern Hemisphere. I always think of this change of seasons as the most blatant, in that we are going from the "sleep" of winter into full-blown energy. Listen to the birds' songs getting louder and more prevalent in their quest to mate. See trees and other plants bursting forth with new growth. There is also spring cleaning--of our homes, and ourselves. Pesach is coming soon. All of these events constitute more energy and activity, an awakening.

Rabbi Nachman in Likkutei MoHaRaN I:282 teaches that each person can always revive and reawaken his/her spirits "by searching out and finding your positive points, collecting them together and sifting them out from the impurities within you, this is how melodies are made.... search until you find a little bit of good in yourself... and in just the same way, you must carrying on searching until you find yet another good point. If despite your desire to be happy you feel drawn down, draw strength from happier times gone by. Eventually, joy will return."

This also reminds us to thank HaShem for the blessings in our lives. It's so easy to get caught up in the negative feelings, and I love what R. Nachman says about creating melodies. Each one of us is a special, unique song that HaShem sings as we are breathed into being. Never forget that!

Everything Happens for a Reason

On this list, we deal with joy as well as suffering. Our prayers bring comfort to our loved ones, and we hope the fact that we are all joined in this together helps to ease their suffering. Our work is healing work, and that brings me to mention a book I have been reading about healing, called Everything Happens for a Reason by Mira Kirshenbaum. She is a psychotherapist from Massachusetts who has helped many people find the meaning in their pain and suffering. It has always been my belief that inside one's greatest pain is one's greatest gift. Perhaps you grew up with "less than ideal" parents, or in a horrible living situation. Or, you're dealing with a health crisis right now, or some other life-changing event has occurred. How we face such circumstances can make us stronger, wiser, happier, and closer to realizing our soul's true purpose in our lifetime. It reminds me of Viktor Frankl's Man's Search for Meaning and how he managed to survive and thrive during the Holocaust by finding the meaning in his suffering. Kirshenbaum's book provides many questions to ask of yourself to see which of the 10 meanings might fit your present circumstances. She asked hundreds of people many questions and discovered that their responses fell into 10 basic meanings; feeling at home in the world, self acceptance, letting go of fear, uncovering hidden talents, and living with a sense of mission are just a few of the reasons she uncovered.What it boils down to is this: you have been given the gift of a life. Don't squander or waste it. The experiences and trials that test you are there for a reason. The people or events that have been difficult in your life can teach you something very important about yourself if you open the door to them and give them a meaning for your life. Your soul is on a journey to return ever more purified and refined, and the meaning you make of your circumstances can help bring that purpose to light, to be even better and more evolved than you were before the moment when your life changed.

Be Hole-y

It is so easy to be joyful when the good things come to us in our lives. But how difficult it is to find the joy in difficult situations? In Kaballah, we humans are seen as vessels of light and this light stays locked up inside of us until cracks and holes form in the vessel. What makes holes, you ask? Difficult situations break down our defenses, causing the vessel to crack. This is when our light bursts out and shines. Judaism is full of contrasts. By that, I mean that in the moments of our greatest pain and challenges, our light comes rising up and bursts open through the cracks, letting us fully realize HaShem's blessings upon us. In our pain, our true beauty and blessings can be more fully realized. That is why prayer is so important. It can help guide us through the challenges, knowing that The Creator wants us to be our most full, shining selves!