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.

How Do YOU Want to Spend Eternity?

B'SD

6 Av, 5775

I'm busy finessing the start of new employment, my social life and my thoughts about a very sad day on the calendar, Tisha B'Av, aka the 9th of Av, which begins in a few days.

Headlines are enough to give any sensible person nightmares. And summertime heat seems to provoke more bickering than usual about that. 

So, rather than share medical news or other thoughts, I want to share two thought-provoking and calming posters I've found online:

Spirituality is about becoming a more refined,

better person than you were before;

A person who helps to build the world,

not destroy it.

Please let me know what you think of the ideas above in the comments section below.





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 life with meaning. As the book advises, the alternative to coping is worse.

Healing for the Body, Mind and Spirit: Serenity of the Soul

B'SD

21 Tevet, 5773

I subscribe to various listservs, one of which is dedicated to self-improvement via religious ideals. The listserv often holds requests to pray for a specific someone who is ill. 

I read a pleasant surprise in yesterday's update, after having shared a message with the listserv's owner. Days before the update came out, I had explained that not only do ill people need prayers for healing (refuot/רפואות), rescue from this or that (yeshuot/ישועות) situation, miracles (nisim/ניסים) and wonders (niflaot/נפלאות) to help them along, but also a serenity of the soul (shalvat hanefesh/שלוות הנפש) so that the mind-body connection can work together in a healing manner instead of working against each other and further harming the already suffering person. 

Less stress is always conductive to 
mental and physical health.

Compassion is called for when someone, including ourselves, is ill. 

Serenity of the soul is possible. It takes a bit of work, lots of forgiveness, increasingly healthy perspective and repeated effort. It can be done. The payoff is heartfelt relief and a happier look at life.

I hope you'll share your thoughts about the messages and ideas above and below in the "Comments" section.

---------- Forwarded message ----------

From: Orit Riter <oritriter@gmail.com>

Date: Wed, Jan 2, 2013 at 11:31 AM

Subject: {Daily dose of emuna} That yetzer hara... what a joker!

To: daily-dose-of-emuna@googlegroups.com

BS’D

Today’s daily dose is dedicated to the refuah shleimah of Binyomin ben Batya.  Please recite a kapitel of tehillim in his zechut, he is greatly suffering from pain in his back.  May HaKadosh Baruch Hu send him refuot rabot, yeshuot rabot, nisim v’niflaot v’gam shalvat hanefesh amongst all of Klal Yisrael who are sick and suffering b’karov, b’rachamim, Amen! (Thank you to Yocheved Golani for formulating this bracha).

Please visit her on EMPOWER Yourself to Cope with a Medical Challenge print or E- book (buy it by clicking HERE) and Its MY Crisis Book Blog http://tinyurl.com/itsmycrisis-blog)

We are continuing our journey to avodat Hashem with purity. Chazal teach us other valuable ways to achieve the goal of attaching to Hashem with purity and increased emuna.  The following lessons will focus specifically on achieving a higher level of self- discipline and thereby minimizing transgressions in order to improve purity of heart.

We are all born with innate desires, attractions, thoughts and tendencies which need to be harnessed in order to achieve our maximum potential. Often we cannot control our thoughts as they feel involuntary.  Yet, refusing to act on a thought represents the epitome of self-discipline and therefore holiness.  Meeting the challenging task of refusing to bow to our temptations brings with it tremendous spiritual rewards.

Chazal set boundaries to safeguard us from sin.  These borders are created to prevent us with our human frailties from entering a dangerous situation from which retreat will be virtually impossible.  If the boundaries were left up to each individual, they would be pushed and moved to suit our ever changing wishes and individual challenges.  Respecting the sages’ knowledge of our own character and weaknesses helps guide us on the right path.

Restraining ourselves from following our desires ultimately makes us feel good.  Deep down our soul knows we are choosing the right thing. Rabbi Nachman ztk”l offers insight from the Zohar HaKadosh that controlling one’s urges creates a conduit for receiving bracha into the world.  Hashem ‘yearns’ to send us blessings and we provide Him with this opportunity by controlling our desires. .

However when sin does transpire, we must admit to it and daven to Hashem asking for mechila (forgiveness).  Rabbi Nachman teaches that the yetzer hara is like a trickster who runs around with his fist closed asking people, “What do you suppose I have in my hand?”  To which each person imagines that the closed hand has in it just what he desires most. They all run after and follow him and when they reach him he opens his hand which is completely empty.  This is the way of the evil one who lures us into sin without fulfilling any of our worldly desires!  

This idea shines further light onto the insignificance of chasing after non-spiritual pursuits.  They are meaningless and will lead us to transgress.

-- 

ואנחנו נברך קה, מעתה ועד עולם הללוקה

Visit our website: www.dailydoseofemuna.yolasite.com

* Acknowledge the gifts Hashem has put into your hands. Then make the effort - but also recognize that the outcome is always beyond your control.

* Become aware of feelings such as fear, anxiety and sadness as they are occurring within you, and identify them as signs of lack of trust in Hashem.

Truly awaiting Mashiach and wishing everyone only revealed good .... With bracha, Orit Riter

--- 

You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Daily Dose of Emuna" group.

To post to this group, send email to daily-dose-of-emuna@googlegroups.com.

To unsubscribe from this group, send email to daily-dose-of-emuna+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.

Yocheved Golani

Writing Services • Self-Help Coach for Health Issues • Author • Speaker

LinkedIn profile: http://www.linkedin.com/in/yochevedgolaniink
Find Me on Facebook http://tinyurl.com/36fqch3

Twitter http://twitter.com/yochevedgolani

Buy EMPOWER Yourself to Cope with a Medical Challenge print or E- book HERE 

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

Forgive yourself, knowing you've done your best with the tools at hand and the skills you've developed. Take pride in your future efforts to be even better. We're human, doing the best we can under complicated, confusing conditions.

 

Have Some Purim Fun!

B'SD


5 Adar 5772


The headlines are hard to take. The Hormuz Straits are shaping up as a possible setting for World War 4 (I believe that WW3 has been going on throughout the Intifada years).


I believe that indulging in healthy humor can help humanity to cope with fear, pain and uncertainty. So...


Friends and I worked together to launch some Purim fun at http://purimparodypaper.com/index.html (we're still uploading content). Adar is a month of miracles. We look forward to MANY!

(shhhh!!! don't tell anyone 
I'm behind 

this Purim project and mask!)

One more thing: I'm learning of people panicking at threats against Israel and a rumor about Purim. So I ask everyone to remember: A) Rabbi Frand's Tisha B'Av video about resolving problems with people so you can protect Israel B) Hussein's Scud Missile War on Israel ended on Purim and C) This is the time to focus on the 3 lines after the aleinu prayer in Jewish prayer books/sidurim: Fear not sudden terror, Conspiracies will be annulled, and H' is with us - we'll endure and be rescued!

oh - 1 more thing: Be nicer than usual. Can't hurt!

Buy the E-book or print edition of EMPOWER Yourself to Cope with a Medical Challenge today. Name the medical challenge or disability. It's loaded with laughter to lighten your mind and heart. 

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

Do You Need a Hug?

10 Cheshvan 5768




Facing a medical crisis is frightening. You wonder who will be a good friend to you. Who will help? Will you be cured? How can anybody stop the pain you're in? Can you find anything to smile about? Will you make it to the happy events you want to attend in the future?

So many questions and nobody to give you guaranteed answers. The answers you so much want and need to hear. You sigh, or cry, maybe show a temper to somebody trying to help you. You so much want a wonderful friend to be with you. Someone who never runs out of patience. Someone who can make you smile again. Someone to embrace you like the elephants kissing each other above.

I can't hold your hand or give you a hug, but I can suggest that you read my It's MY Crisis! And I'll Cry if I Need To. It's all about compassion: how to forgive yourself and others, how to face the pain, the questions, and the fear. It can teach you how to become emotionally stronger.

You'll giggle at some of the humorous thoughts in the book. You'll try the ideas that excite you, and best of all, you just might find solutions you need in the RESOURCES section.

Let my book be a friend to you. Read the parts you enjoy again and again. Look at the front and back covers and see all the hands reaching for yours. The opening words of It's MY Crisis! acknowledge your agony. Cry when you need to. Find the License to Cry in the first few pages.

Buy It's MY Crisis! And I'll Cry if I Need To for yourself or a loved one. Let it be there for you when you need that special friend. Just click on http://www.booklocker.com/books/3067.html



Back on October 8th, I posted news about the phenomenal Breast Chek Kit. Today I received the following message and I'm sharing it with you:

Dear Yocheved, I really would appreciate if you would put this questionnaire on your blog It will assist me in finding out more about people's awareness of the urgency to look after their health generally.

Kind regards,
Prof. Celene Bernstein

October is International Breast Cancer Awareness month. Because breast cancer is such a prevalent disease worldwide, I am collating information to assist with early detection of breast tissue changes. Please spend a few minutes completing the following questions. That will greatly assist my colleagues and I in this endeavour. Your responses will be dealt with confidence.

To access the questionnaire, please click here:
https://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=cQRuDRuplVaokV75OaW2Jw_3d_3d

Thank you very much in advance for your help.