Jumpstarting New Beginnings
Posted on | January 31, 2006 | By Rabbi Label Lam | 4 Comments
Hey, long time no blog. I realized what the word blog means. It means you stick your head through a cardboard wall and there’s a bunch of people on the other side who revel in throwing wet sponges at your head. No one gets hurt (we hope). It may generate some fun…and here we hope that some of us may get better at getting better. Here are a few tried and proven methods I’d like to share in order to help ourselves jumpstart new beginnings again and again again…Hope you find some of them useful!
1) Learn with a highlighter…that is keep a record of those lines or words that connect with you personally. We ask three times a day at least for our portion in Torah…the Aish Kodesh says that the Torah talks to us in an intimate and personal way. Lots of good learning we do is to cover some material or to stay on a schedule. The intimate connection we seek must be highlighted and allowed to gain recognition.
2) Let your pen be your friend…Write in a regular notebook…you’ll be surprised how much you have inside and how deep we can be when no one else is looking…this is not writing for others but for self. Ask a question…like What remains? What do I really know? and then let it rip for a few page or a period of time. Write a list of hopes…dreams..ambitions…Write 2 things daily that you feel appreciation for and two things you feel accomplished by…2 things to do teshuvah for…two things to meditate upon…etc. do that daily and life takes on new color and meaning.
3) Take one of those magic underlined phrases repeat it 1000 times with ever more dramatic emphasis..it will become a file of pictures and be installed in a way that we can understand it and understand life through it…
4)Teach someone else…I learned allot from my teachers…more from my peers and the most from my students says the Talmud….Nothing causes us to know something like having to teach it and having taught it…If you want to learn Hebrew and Chumash..obligate yourself to teach someone else the subject!
(Numbers 5-8 to come.)
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January 31st, 2006 @ 9:52 am
The writing things down ideas are potentially so powerful, and I have started a few times, but I can’t seem to make it part of my daily routines.
Does anybody have any hints or pointers on things they have done to make writing things down a habit?
Does anything on the Web lend itself to incorporating these ideas or are they best kept in the low tech realm?
January 31st, 2006 @ 10:06 am
Those of you who enjoy throwing virtual sponges at Rabbi Lam can do so in person by joining us as the Beyond Teshuva Melave Malke this motzei shabbos in Queens. Email RSVP to beyondbt@gmail.com or by phone at 917-992-0999.
February 1st, 2006 @ 12:39 pm
Rabbi Lam,
THANK YOU for sharing these practical approaches to growth. I look forward to 5-8!! It would be great to learn more about other practical approaches being utilized by people.
To share one of my own….. I have found that as my life , thank G-d has grown, so have the sophistication and complexity of the problems and challenges I face. To help me view things within a spiritual perspective, I went through Psalms (Artscroll two volume commentary) looking for very specific verses and commentary that applied to my issues. I then copied them into a looseleaf binder which I take with me to and from work. Depending on what I am dealing with on any given day I can constantly review and view my own issues through King David’s holy verses, repeat the verses, or daven with them.
I also have a codeword for each verse. This word strikes a positive cord in me emotionally.The one word is great to repeat over and over as it instills and strengthens the spiritual angle I am working on without the need of a sefer.
What I find very powerful about this is the linking of real problems, mussar learning, and davening.I also feel by somewhat emulating King David approach to facing life’s challenges of faith, trust and reliance on Hashem, I am achieving some real, hard work inner growth!!
February 1st, 2006 @ 1:48 pm
Anon:
That’s a great strategy and puts the actual learning about growth into practice. That’s not an easy thing to do. As Rabbi Brody mentioned, the longest distance in the world is the distance between the head and the heart.
Kol HaKavod.