A Healing Season

B'SD

27 Elul, 5777

My mind and heart are awhirl with thoughts about the coming year, 5778. 5777 held so many heart-breaking moments, and some exhilarating ones.

I focus on healing hearts, bodies and minds as best I can with my day-to-day efforts. You read my writings at e.counseling.com, here on the blog, and in

I ask that you add to your healing potential by also reading Healing Powers of Apples and Honey


Rabanit Yemima Mizrakhi also shared some ideas, and here they are:

SPECIAL SEGULOT FOR ROSH HASHANAH, AS TOLD BY RABANIT YEMIMA MIZRAKHI:

It’s vital everyday not to get angry, but in particular on the first day of Rosh HaShanah, this is the day the Jewish people are judged, the gentiles are judged on the second day. On this day there is strict judgment in Shamayim (heaven) and it is a must not to get angry at all, not even to think in an angry way. Don’t invite guests that you know will ‘push your buttons’ that you will not be able to control, wait to host on the second day. Don’t get stuck in worry, anger and definitely not in sadness. The way the year begins, is the way it will flow the coming year. Don’t allow yourself to speak badly.

Before sitting down at the Seder look at everyone’s eyes and bless them each individually, feel forgiveness for everyone around you. Allow love and peace to enter your heart. Everyone should say a ‘L’Chaim’ out loud and bless each other with complete simcha.

The Rosh HaShanah table should be filled with abundance of colors, different types of foods.

Apples and honey: use red apples, it is a segula for a zivug, to find one’s soul mate/shalom bayit and for getting pregnant. It is an eit ratzon,special holy time, before eating the apple, smell the apple and ask for whatever you want. It was at this time that Ya’akov received the blessing from his father Yitzchak. When he smelled Ya’akov he smelled the fragrance of Gan Eden, of the apple, and even though he was undeserving of the bracha, due to the fact that it was supposed to go to Esav, he still received it. Ask for anything you wish.

Pomegranate and rubia (black-eyed peas): ask HaShem to bring out your potential. We all have never ending potential, do we use it all? Ask HaShem for help.. just like it’s hard to take apart the seeds, please HaShem help us realize our potential and be who we are meant to be.

Leeks, beets, dates: ask HaShem to take away any feelings of resentment, anger, bitterness towards anyone. Ask HaShem to help us throw these feelings away from ourselves and remove them from our heart. Ask HaShem to enable you to be able to rebuild your feelings and relationship with these people.

Fish head: ask HaShem that you should lead your household and not anyone else(like our children who tend to control us…) when looking at the fish, ask Hashem to protect you from the evil eye.

All throughout the seder, ask HaShem to make your home a palace: you the queen and your husband the king, your children the prince/princesses. Ask HaShem to make you all children of the King, this requires us to act like children of the King, meaning again: DO NOT GET ANGRY, WORRIED, DISTRESSED, be royal.

Get up early on Rosh Hashanah; this blesses the coming year with ease. A year that your wishes will be fulfilled quickly. Try to postpone your afternoon rest until after 1:00 pm.

It is vital to daven for parnassah on Rosh HaShanah, according to Rav Dessler ztk’l. This proclaims that we trust in HaShem and know that everything is from Him. Ask to be a giver of tzadakah.

Very important to dress festively, even wear white and be HAPPY

Before hearing the shofar accept upon yourself: v’Ahavta L’Reiacha Kamokha (Love your neighbour as you love yourself). If you hold a grudge towards someone in the shul, the shofar will not be able to ascend and sweeten the judgments.

During the shofar: think of the following: resurrection of the dead, that HaShem can revive anything that has ‘died out’ in you be it physically and spiritually. Don’t talk during the shofar blowing. Think about all that you want to be. We are being reborn!

Very important to shed a tear during the shofar and to wipe the tear over your forehead (to wipe away transgressions {AriZal zt’l}). This serves as a shield for the entire year against any bad things i.e. illness. Whoever is able to shed a tear then can be rest assured that she is being judged at that moment and if she comes back to teshuvah at that point, she will be blessed with a good year.

During the first blow of shofar, take one particular transgression that you did and ask for forgiveness. During the second blows of the shofar, the shevarim, hurt/cry for those who are in pain and in sorrow, i.e. the families of terror victims, the families that lost their loved ones, those who are ill….

During the next set of blows accept upon yourself a new mitzvah: tzniut, tefillah, tzedakah… The intention should be in your heart without uttering a word.

During Mussaf prayer when the chazzan says the word: ayeh, you can ask for one of three things, whisper to yourself:

1) Parnassah 2) Ruakh Hakodesh 3) Righteous Children

Once we hear the shofar on the first day of Rosh HaShanah, the judgments are lessened and sweetened and there is less stringency in Shamayim.

Don’t eat anything sour or spicy on Rosh HaShanah, only sweet foods. Everything that you do makes an impact on the entire year. Don’t use walnuts or black grapes.

OTHER SEGULOT:

1) Prepare the seder table early in the afternoon, it is a segula that no troubles will come upon you the entire year, B’H.

2) Try to do ta’anit dibur, not to speak, the morning of Rosh Hashanah (speak only words of Torah). If possible fast as well; this way 1/3 of your transgressions will be wiped away. This comes out on Wednesday morning.

3) Candles for Rosh HaShanah: before lighting give 18 of ‘something (coins, bills) to tzedakah: 18 cents, 18 dollars, etc.. This serves as a pidyon nefesh. Ask HaShem that if something bad c’v is supposed to happen, let the tzedakah stand as a protector against it.

4) Buy a new knife and use it on Rosh HaShanah eve to cut open the challah and apple. It is a segula for a long life and for parnassah.

5) Bake challahs: bake it in the shapes of a circle.

6) Bircat Hamazon: the first one said on Erev Rosh Hashanah say it with enthusiasm and joy, it is a segula for an abundance of parnassah.

7) Recite the following perakim of Tehillim Alef, Beit, Gimmel and Daled before sleeping on both nights to prevent bad dreams.

8) Buy a new dress/clothing for Rosh Hashanah. Intend on this new article when reciting the bracha of She’hechiyanu

REMEMBER TO PREPARE ERUV TAVSHILIN THIS YEAR…. 

ALSO IT IS THE YAHRZEIT /YOM SHANA OF SARAH IMEINU ON THE FIRST DAY OF ROSH HASHANAH, LIGHT A CANDLE AND DAVEN IN HER ZECHUT THAT WE SHOULD ALL BE ZOKHE TO BE WONDERFUL WIVES AND MOTHERS AS SHE WAS A TRUE TZADEKEt…ויהי רצון מלפני אדון כלהנשמות ריבון כל המעשים שתתחדש בחסד וברחמים ברכת רבי ישמעאל בן אלישעכהן גדול :יהי רצון מלפניך שיכבשורחמיך את כעסך ויגולורחמיך על מידותיך ותתנהגעמנו לפנים משורת הדיןHAVE A WONDERFUL CHAG AND GEULAH BEKAROV TO AM YISRAEL!!

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Face Your Medical Problems with Dignity. Face Your Future with Optimism.

Fill your life with self respect.

Something Exciting

B'SD

20 Elul, 5777

It will soon be Rosh HaShana, the weeks-long Jewish New Year season, a time preceded by month-log introspection across the Jewish world. The goal of that reflection is to become an ever-better person, stretching our capacities in untried, sometimes simply necessary directions.

One of the things that has long been on my to-do list is to learn to use different tools for conveying deep thoughts so that people can benefit from the insights. Presented in a dramatic and non-threatening way, those deep thoughts allow an observer to look at issues with objectivity, to be able to see life from another person's perspective.

I took specific actions to achieve that long-considered goal this summer. I've made a video for which I wrote a script and innovated a presentation designed to rock the public's realization about the depth of an important mental health issue.

I hope to share the results with you in a few days. I hope that you'll find them as exciting as I do. 

Meanwhile, my videographer and I are about to finish editing the video. We had quite a bit of material to work with.

Please bear with me as I tend to some tedious technical details, a meeting with my journalism boss (he'll be the first person to view the video other than me), accomplish a few work-related interviews with mental health professionals, and take a trip to visit friends celebrating a joyous occasion.

I plan to post another update to this blog by Thursday. I definitely need some time off for the next 48 hours.

My prayers and wishes for well-being are with people suffering around the world in Mexico, the Caribbean, Florida and elsewhere. I've literally lost sleep from praying so much.





Buy the E-book or print edition of EMPOWER Yourself to Cope with a Medical Challenge. 





Face Your Medical Problems with Dignity. Face Your Future with Optimism.

Fill your thoughts and actions with progress.

Wishing YOU a Sweet, Wonderful New Year

B'SD

27 Elul, 5776

I'm up to my elbows in cooking delicious food to share with loved ones. I wish them and you, my readers, a sweet, spiritually and emotionally nourishing 5777.

The Jewish new year is a blessing for the world and everyone in it, not just the Jewish kids in the class.

May it be filled with blessings.

Sweet and refreshing.

And jam-packed with happiness.

Buy your copy of the E-book or print edition of EMPOWER Yourself to Cope with a Medical Challenge TODAY! 





Face Your Medical Problems with Dignity. Face Your Future with Optimism.

Fill your life with a sense of productive direction.

Here are Rosh HaShana Season Prayers in LARGE Print!

B'SD

25 Elul, 5776

My friend Terri Shared this with me moments ago, and I'm sharing it with you:

ניתן להוריד קבצים של תפילות הימים הנוראים לכבדי ראייה באותיות גדולות מ:

http://www.thechesed.net/bigletters.htm 

Files of the prayers for the Yamim Hanoraim in large letters for the visually impaired can be downloaded from the above link.

כתיבה וחתימה טובה

May you be recorded for a good year!

Print the prayers out for someone who'd benefit from that.

There are also - High Holiday prayer books - (even birconim with the after-meal blessings) with very large print for the visually impaired. Ask around at Jewish bookshops.

May 5777 be filled with wonder, happiness and 

sweet blessings, worldwide.

Did you know that EMPOWER Yourself to Cope with a Medical Challenge  comes as an E-book or print edition? Buy one today!





Face Your Medical Problems with Dignity. Face Your Future with Optimism.

Fill your efforts with practical moves.

Happy New Year

B'SD

26 Elul 5775

Business: Be sure to read Social Media and the MMR Controversy and Heads UP Parents and Coaches.

Life: I'm cooking up a delicious collection of food for friends at Jewish New Year time (the Rosh HaShana holiday begins on Sunday).

Here's a look at the seed crackers I've prepared.

Here's a message I've shared far a wide. I hope that you'll ponder and enjoy it.

When you pray with tears, you unlock the Heavenly gates; 

when you pray with joy, there are no gates.

~R. Lazer Brody

Who you are is a gift from G-d. 

Who you become is your gift TO G-d!!!!

~ Rabbi David Aaron

Those messages are not just for the Jewish kids in the class. 

May the world be blessed with unending goodness in 5776.

See you next year!




Buy the E-book or print edition of EMPOWER Yourself to Cope with a Medical Challenge. 





Face Your Medical Problems with Dignity. Face Your Future with Optimism.

Fill your mind with optimism. Practice makes perfect.

Sweetening a New Year with Self Respect

B'SD

20 Elul, 5775

I've been busy tending other people's needs (I'm cooking my wholesome menu for other people so they can heal as I do) and lacked time to update the blog. But with Rosh HaShana, Jewish New Year coming soon, I've focused on time to post today's message.

I hope that you'll benefit from these 7 Tips for a Happier Year. 

But what about the goals/resolutions people tend to make at New Year's time?

I prefer to avoid making resolutions. I'm old enough to know that people tend not to keep the promises they make to themselves. 

Let's look at self-improvement a bit differently this year.

One reading of the

book 

lets you know of my preference for

self forgiveness and self respect.

I'd like to share some related thoughts with you: Goal-setting tends to scare the goal-setter. You come up with excuses about why this or that didn't "work out," knowing all the while that it was YOU who didn't do necessary work. "It" had nothing to do with the failure.

Your failing, perhaps, was to decide that you're not good enough, or that life's not good enough, until your goal - or someone else's - is met. That's a brutal approach to life. Enthusiasm dies when tiny parts of the goal are reached, or not. There's more to you than that.

Instead of pinning your hopes  - and self-worth - on a goal, focus instead on processes that work for you. 

EMPOWER Yourself to Cope with a Medical Challenge is full of options you can take. You know of others. Use them to your advantage. 

Keep plugging away with methods and mindsets that help you to feel and to function better than if you did not think and behave that way.

Appreciate the things going right in your life, too. Some of them can be BIG surprises.

Pay attention when people compliment you. Focus on the goodness within you. 

And appreciate yourself for doing things so right that other people appreciate you, too!

Buy the E-book or print edition of EMPOWER Yourself to Cope with a Medical Challenge. 





Face Your Medical Problems with Dignity. Face Your Future with Optimism.

Fill your heart, mind and soul with self appreciation.

Patient-Empowering Privacy

B'SD

4 Elul, 5775

It's a new year, may it be brimming with sweet blessings for the world at large.

I'm clinging to the marvelous moods and spiritual highs of the Rosh HaShana holiday followed by a most meaningful Shabbat spent with precious people. 

I have no words for the love shared between me and my friends, and the love that we share for the Torah-oriented life. I doubt that I'll be on the Internet much for the next day or so, as I stay with and cherish the sensations.

Privacy is so necessary when we need to bolster our emotional lives. So, I'll let Rami Klinstayn sing of those emotions for me. 

May 5775 be a source of unending blessings, worldwide. 

Here are the lyrics, in Spanish and Hebrew (I'll post the English-language version if I finish the translation task in reasonable time):

Es otro viernes, respiro el aire
la luz y la sombra juegan otra vez a atraparse
la mesa está puesta, fotos de infancia en el muro
caravanas blancas vuelven de la sinagoga
y el aroma aquel que me rasguña el corazón
se cuela se cuela y abre puertas
a una pequeña alegría a la misma vieja canción
que ha pasado por nosotros a lo largo de las generaciones

Pequeños regalos
alguien me ha enviado pequeños regalos
fragmentos de convicción, círculos de fe
pequeños regalos alguien me ha enviado
pequeños regalos

Es otro viernes, terraza y periódico
el sol tal como las preocupaciones lentamente se van borrando
melodías simples se arrastran por la ventana
y ya ninguna tormenta esconderá por aquí el silencio

Ze od yom shishi noshem et ha’avir
ha’or vehatzel mesachakim shuv tofeset
hashulchan aroch tmunot yaldut al hakir
shayarot levanot chozrot mibeit kneset
vehareach haze shesoret li et halev
mitganev mitganev vepoteach dlatot
el osher katan el oto shir yashan
she’over etzleinu bemeshech dorot

Matanot ktanot
mishehu shalach li matanot ktanot
resisim shel kavana igulim shel emuna
matanot ktanot mishehu shalach li
matanot ktanot
kmo hakoach lekabel et ma she’ein et ma sheyesh
ma od efshar kvar levakesh

Ze od yom shishi mirpeset ve’iton
hashemesh kmo hade’agot le’at nimcheket
manginot pshutot zochalot mehachalon
veshum se’ara kvar lo tastir po et hasheket

זה עוד יום שישי נושם את האוויר
האור והצל משחקים שוב תופסת
השולחן ערוך תמונות ילדות על הקיר
שיירות לבנות חוזרות מבית כנסת
והריח הזה ששורט לי את הלב
מתגנב מתגנב ופותח דלתות
אל אושר קטן אל אותו שיר ישן
שעובר אצלנו במשך דורות

מתנות קטנות
מישהו שלח לי מתנות קטנות
רסיסים של כוונה עיגולים של אמונה
מתנות קטנות מישהו שלח לי
מתנות קטנות
כמו הכוח לקבל את מה שאין את מה שיש
מה עוד אפשר כבר לבקש

זה עוד יום שישי מרפסת ועיתון
השמש כמו הדאגות לאט נמחקת
מנגינות פשוטות זוחלות מהחלון
ושום סערה כבר לא תסתיר פה את השקט

מתנות קטנות…

OK, back to the mundane business of this patient-empowering blog: I want to share a thought with you.

Be careful about the Patient Privacy initiatives you support. Privacy is a necessity. But extreme privacy can present danger to your health.

The last line of the California Medical Association Challenges drug-tracking system in court article explains the serious risk mentioned above, and the risks of rash decisions.

Empower Yourself to Cope with a Medical Challenge, 

using information that promotes the goal. 

Read

Click on the  image above and buy the  E-book or print edition today.

See you later this week. I'm going to reflect a bit more on the wholesome happiness I feel, first.
 

Face Your Medical Problems with Dignity. Face Your Future with Optimism. 

Fill your life with facts you need to know.

 

Wishing YOU a Happier, Healthier New Year Full of Life

B'SD

29 Elul, 5774

I pray that the world will be blessed with genuine, enduring peace this eve of Rosh HaShana/Jewish New Year. 

The classic Jewish custom is to bless people for a "Good, sweet, healthy" year, not a "happy" year. Happiness is fleeting, sometimes based on mistaken ideas. Focus on decency, compassion, patience, forgiveness. For YOURSELF, and for others. Progress happens when you are kind towards yourself. 

So does happiness.

I was offered employment suitable for a person under thirty this week. Puzzled by the phenomenon, I asked friends what they thought of the situation. 

Several people remarked to me that I appear young and energetic, shocking as that may be when we consider the physical/emotional ordeal I faced with that long-ago benign-but-a-killer brain tumor. 

My present appearance and behavior deceive onlookers unfamiliar with my realities.

The secret is in the sauce, so to speak. I knew on the day I learned of the diagnosis that I had only one chance to remain alive and thriving. I seized it, indulging in compassion for my clumsy efforts to survive

I went on to make medical history, seeing again after having been blinded by a brain tumor and seeing ever-better over time, shocking  the teaching doctors handling my case.

Had I indulged in bitterness, anger, hatred, vindictiveness (name the negativity), I'd have died a miserable death - inside and outside.

Heaven has rewarded me with astonishingly remarkable friends and achievements. I am wealthy in the truest sense. I feel the love lavished on me hour by hour. 

Negativity destroys lives inside and out. I sweated and struggled my way to life, never knowing if my efforts would pay off. My self-respect grew. So did other true riches in my life.

I pray that my experiences can help other people to stop flailing and failing to meet difficult goals.

I share this essay, by Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz, with the wider world, and pray that each reader absorbs its universal lessons. 

Returning to Our Best Selves

As I once taught when I used to be an EMETT leader, "You don't need to feel positive when you begin to improve your character and outlooks on life. You need to behave positively. Your actions will convince your mind that you are indeed happy. Then the universe opens to you. GOD fills your life with blessings. Learn to recognize them; they are specific to you and your needs."

Want to know how I achieved that life-giving mindset despite a dire diagnosis? Buy the E-book or print edition of EMPOWER Yourself to Cope with a Medical Challenge. It teaches you the steps I took to stay alive emotionally and physically.  

Face Your Medical Problems with Dignity. Face Your Future with Optimism. 

Forgiveness begins with YOU. Forgive Yourself.

 

לחברינו ולקוחותינו היקרים!

שנה טובה ומתוקה

שנת בריאות, שנת אושר

שנת ברכה והצלחה

מתוקה מדבש!!!