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A Gratitude and Mindfulness Practice and the Song of Ha’azinu

In this week’s Torah portion, Ha’azinu, Moses starts his farewell as the people’s leader with a song. Just as he sang a song of thanks and praise at the Red Sea after the Children of Israel were led out of Egypt, so he concludes his leadership with a song. The song is a history of the people of Israel and lessons that can be learned from all their experiences. He appeals to them to listen to these lessons, such as keeping their faith and recognizing all that G-d has done for them. The imagery is beautiful: “As an eagle that stirs up her nest and hovers over her young and spreads her wings, taking them …” G-d’s care for Israel is likened to a mother eagle who cares for her young.

But shortly after, we read that Israel became “fat” and ungrateful. We “forgot the One who brought us into this world”. Life was good and plenty in the land and we had what we needed. When things are difficult, it is easier to feel vulnerable and understand that what we have doesn't come only from us. We might be more likely to reach out, ask for help or cry,

When things are going well, we might forget that not all we have comes from us. We’re part of a family, a neighborhood and community and a bigger world. If we have faith, we believe that the source of good is outside of us, from G-d.

We are reminded to always remember this and never become too full of ourselves.

One way to do this is to cultivate a gratitude practice.

Gratitude allows us to notice our blessings and find balance amid life’s difficulties; mindfulness helps us handle tough times with acceptance, and compassion.

Gratitude is the intentional practice of noticing the good in your life. It relates to anything that makes you feel grateful, fortunate, or blessed. Some examples are gratitude for family and friends, community, health, home, job, pets, or personal belongings.

While gratitude may help you keep a balanced perspective about life — especially when things are difficult or falling apart — it’s not a cure-all.

Gratitude can’t take away the sting of life’s challenges, like job loss, heartbreak, or the death of a loved one. Sometimes painful emotions must be felt -– you must feel to heal.

While it may be tempting to try and cover up pain through gratitude, this may lead to unhealthy ways of coping through denial that negative events are taking place. Things are not sweetness and light all the time — and that’s OK. Ups and downs are part of life.

When you combine gratitude and mindfulness, it allows you to acknowledge the blessings in your everyday life and also sit with whatever you are experiencing right now -- in the present moment.

During hard times, a gratitude and mindfulness practice may help keep your perspective balanced.

For example, if you break up with your partner, it can help you:

• be non-judgmental about the pain you feel

• find positive takeaways from the experience

• prevent yourself from ruminating about what happened

• protect yourself from getting overwhelmed about what’s to come

With practice, it may become easier to gain more control over your mindset. If you can, try to work on it a little bit each day, one exercise at a time.

There are many ways to become more sensitive to the experience of gratitude and mindfulness. Here are some mindfulness gratitude exercises to get you started:

Gratitude bell: Set a daily alarm. When it goes off, pay attention to your senses (what you see, smell, taste, touch, and hear) then think of three things you’re grateful for.

• Gratitude journal: Start each entry by noticing where you are and how you feel. Next, list two to five things you feel grateful for.

• Mindfulness meditation: Start a meditation practice. You can find a guided meditation through one of the many available apps, like Insight Timer or headspace.

Oyinda Lagunju, health, well-being, and Mindfulness author, suggests this gratitude meditation

1. Begin by finding a comfortable seat, your eyes can either be closed or open with a soft gaze in front of you. sitting comfortably and with a straight spine. Allow your body to settle.

2. Now, take a few breaths. Let go of trying to control the breath. Let it move in and out naturally. Allow yourself to relax and let go of any tension or stress. Feel a sense of relaxed alertness, grounded yet present. And take a moment to appreciate how easy it is for most of us to breathe.

3. Noticing. Notice your current state of mind. How are you feeling right now? What is the tone of your mood? Take a moment to notice without judging if it’s good or bad.

4. And now, start to imagine what you have in your life to be grateful for. Start with feeling gratitude for the people and circumstances that led you to this moment here today. It could be your parents, grandparents, or other family members or friends, or anyone who has made a difference in your life. Pause

Feel gratitude for the opportunities you’ve had in life, education, travel and work experience.

5. Consider the health of your mind and body. Offer gratitude for your health and your body and all it does for you. Think of a part of your body that you are grateful for.

Now, consider your gratitude for the people in your life. Offer your gratitude to your immediate family members. Feel gratitude for your extended family. Feel appreciation for your coworkers and friends. Extend gratitude toward the mentors in your life who helped you grow into the person you are today. Pause

6. Now, consider your gratitude for the earth and your surroundings: For water. Food. And the air that you breathe every single day. Pause

And now, think of anything else that you feel gratitude for :

Think of and see clearly in your mind specific things for which you’re grateful. Each time, let gratitude fill your heart and say thank you:

• A place you appreciate. Listen to how it sounds. Imagine how it would smell.

• A meal or specific food. See it clearly in your mind. Imagine how it would smell and taste.

• An animal. See them greeting you. Notice what color they are. Observe how they play with you.

7. Continue to focus on this quality of gratitude for a few more moments. Really let it sink in. When you’re ready, open your eyes fully. Slowly come back into the room. Move any parts of your body that might feel stiff.

8. And as you go through the rest of your day, consider expressing your appreciation for the person you chose in this practice, it could be a text, an email, a card or simply a mental wish for them. Then notice how this expression of gratitude changes your day.

Moshe was grateful for all he was able to do, and accepting that at the end, he would not live to see the completion of his life's work and go with the people into Israel.

May we be grateful for all that we have, and accepting of what we don’t have yet.

LISTEN TO THIS ON THE INSIGHT TIMER APP:

https://insig.ht/X7FTBltMXtb

OR:

https://insighttimer.com/skeinon/guided-meditations/cultivating-gratitude-and-parshat-haazinu

The Power of Sound

Hearing, Sound Meditation and Parshat Vayelech

In this week’s Torah portion, Vayelech, the people of Israel are commanded to listen to the entire Torah at the end of every seven years.

Everyone.

When we received the Torah on Mount Sinai we heard the blasts of the shofar and said, “We will listen… to the commandments of the Torah”

And one of our most important prayers that we recite three times a day starts with Shema Yisrael, “Hear o Israel…”

On Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, the only commandment we have is to hear the shofar. This holiday is referred to in the Torah as Yom Teruah, or the day of shofar blasts.

On Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, the holiday ends with a long shofar blast.

While the shofar is often called a trumpet, it is a ram’s horn. The ram’s horn reminds of when Abraham was asked to sacrifice his son Issac, and instead, a ram was caught in a thicket and Issac was spared. We too hope to be judged favorably on Yom Kippur.

What is it about hearing that is so important compared to the other senses?

Our sages discuss the importance of hearing in the Talmud .

The Beit Yosef, written in the 16th century by Joseph Karo, said that sight is external (what you see isn’t always what you get–you may see a beautiful house, but you don’t really know what’s going on inside) while hearing has more depth.

In the 18th century, The Ba'al Shem Tov said that this wordless sound of the shofar speaks to the heart in a way that surpasses anything that could be expressed by words or through vision. The shofar is meant as both a call to us to wake up and examine our deeds and work on ourselves and also a cry from deep within us that represents our appeal to G-d to judge us favorably on Yom Kippur.

According to Seth Horowitz, neuroscientist and author of The Universal Sense, hearing is an underrated sense.

Hearing, and sound shape the mind and affect the way we think, feel, and act.

He explains that “much of the emotional impact of sound dwells beneath conscious thought.”

Hearing is the fastest of all the senses -- we process sound much faster than sight. It is also the sense that allows us to perceive the world at the greatest distance away.

Mindful meditation is often practiced with the breath as the object of our focus,

Sound meditation uses sound as our object of focus. Just as we use the breath to anchor us in the present moment, we use sound to keep us in the here and now.

Let’s try this sound meditation together.

Sound meditation can be practiced indoors or outdoors.

Sound Meditation

So settling in, and making sure you’re comfortable, sitting straight, shoulders relaxed. You can sit or lay down, whatever keeps you most alert

Either close your eyes or lower your eyes to a spot in front of you.

Noticing the points of contact that your body is making with the chair or surface you are sitting on. Noticing if you are holding any tension anywhere in your body. (pause ) taking a moment to check

And seeing if you can let it go of any tension as you allow your body to be supported by the chair or mat.

Just as in awareness of the breath meditation, when our attention gets pulled away, we gently re-focus on sound or sounds.

Follow the instructions as best as you can.

I will leave spaces with no talking between the guiding for you to practice.

And now bringing attention to your breath.

Allowing the breath to move all the way down to your stomach.

Not forcing your breath in any way, but allowing your body to breathe naturally and at its own pace.

And noticing where you feel the breath most in your body– your stomach, your chest, your nose/nostrils? Taking a moment to notice (pause)

Can you hear your breath entering and leaving your body?

Resting your attention on the sound of your breath. (pause)

Any time your attention wanders, bringing it back to the sound –as many times as you need to.

Imagining that all that exists is the sound of your breath (pause)

And now expanding our awareness and paying attention to the sounds in the room around us. And if there is no sound at all, then noticing that.

Sounds around you, sounds from within you (and your body) such as your breath,

Being fully open to any sounds around you or within you.

And being aware of hearing at his moment.

We practice without judging the sounds– this is good, this is bad.

We don’t have to get caught up in the sounds, just allowing them to come and go.

Aware of sound and the space between sounds. Aware of silence. (pause)

At any point, if you notice that your mind is distracted, it’s okay.

Bringing your attention back to your ears and hearing whatever is in your awareness right now

We allow any sounds around to come to us on their own .

We don’t need to make an effort to hear sounds.

We can be curious about sounds.

Their volume, their pitch, their length. Vibration. Do they change?

Being present to whatever sounds are here– right now.

And allowing any sounds to wash over you and pass through you.

Taking a few more moments to observe your hearing and sounds.

Pause

And maybe feeling some gratitude for all our ears do for us.

How effortless it is for most of us to hear.

Imagining a sound we enjoy and maybe brings a smile to our face.

Pause

And now returning our attention to our breath.

Resting here for a few more moments.

May we merit a year in which we are able to appreciate all of our senses, and grow our awareness of all sounds around us.

G'mar Chatima Tova. May we inscribed in the book of life.

TO LISTEN TO THIS PRACTICE ON INSIGHT TIMER: https://insighttimer.com/skeinon/guided-meditations/the-power-of-sound-hearing-and-parshat-veyelech

OR ON THE APP: https://insig.ht/pSxqzV8Altb

Choose Life!

Free Will and Parshat Nitzavim

In this week’s Torah portion, Nitzavim, we are told that there are blessings and curses before us, and we should choose life.

R. Shimshon Rafael Hirsch explains that “ choosing life” means that there must be effort and thought on our part. It doesn’t happen by chance.

Free will is one of the cornerstones of Jewish belief. But are we really free to choose? Maimonides in his Mishneh Torah teaches that the question of free will is “longer than the land and wider than the sea.”

While we don’t have control over much in our lives, we can learn to control HOW we react or deal with different situations.

And here comes the promo for mindfulness. When we meditate and pay attention to our breath, we are more present in the here and now. The breath is always right here and right now, and it’s always with us. And if we can learn to be more present with whatever we are experiencing, we can slow down and choose not to allow our habitual responses to kick in. These responses can be knee jerk reactions that we later regret. So if the cashier in the supermarket tells me she is closed just as I put my stuff down after waiting fifteen minutes in line, I might have some choice in how I react after taking a few deep breaths. I give myself some “breathing room.”

Mindfulness practice simply means that you choose to be aware of what you are doing, when you do it, and that you don't just respond automatically. Is it that simple? How free are we really to choose to free ourselves from habits and instincts, and negative reactions that harm us and those around us?

When we’re mindful, these habits and instincts are still there. They don’t disappear, but they're less likely to control our thoughts and actions. Instead, they become mere thoughts and feelings that we observe and then can decide whether, and how, to act upon them.

We do have some freedom to choose. We can choose to be kinder, for example, to ourselves and to others, if we just stop and remember that this is a possibility. The same is true for being patient, curious, accepting, appreciative, reflective, and any number of other qualities we want to foster. These can be conscious choices. We just have to stop a moment and remember it is possible to act in that manner, and then choose to do so.

The choice is also in deciding whether we dwell in thoughts or feelings, or do we simply notice them without engaging them or becoming reactive. We first acknowledge when we notice thoughts, feelings or sensations. It’s like a wave coming at you when you swim—first you have to notice that it’s coming, then you may ride it or dive underneath it. You can’t choose whether the wave comes at you or not, but you can choose how you meet it. When we realize that there is a choice—that control is not necessarily in the content of our thoughts or feelings, but rather in how we deal with them —then we can take control over our life. Here is a short mindfulness practice to cultivate the freedom to choose where we place our attention

• Start by finding a comfortable place to sit, where you won’t be disturbed. Sit up straight, and relax your shoulders. Close your eyes or focus your gaze on a spot in front of you. Take a breath as you become aware that you’re breathing. And take a moment to notice the physical sensations of the breath– perhaps in your nose, or your chest, or your stomach as it rises with the in-breath and falls with the out-breath Pause.

• Take a moment to notice If you feel an itch, tingling sensation or any other physical distraction …. Observe it. Then take a breath. After your breath, you can choose how you are going to react to it—or not react to it.

• Take a moment to observe any thoughts that might arise as you sit. (pause). On the next out-breath invite your awareness back to focusing on your breath.

• Notice which thoughts pull at your attention and which ones you can let go. It doesn’t matter how many times you need to bring your attention back to your breath. The moment that you’re aware of a thought that’s distracting you, escort your attention back to your breath.

• Take some time to notice any feelings that might be coming up, such as frustration, sadness, joy or anger, and when you become aware of any feelings, acknowledge them, and invite your awareness back to your breath.

• Bring your awareness to any sounds around you -- traffic, birds, an appliance, the phone ringing or a child crying -- notice if you have a tendency to want to look or check it out. Take a deep breath. After your breath, you can decide whether or not the sound was worth investigating.

• Observe sensations in your body. If you notice a pain in your shoulder or an ache in your back and want to change your position, take a breath before you do anything. Then make a conscious choice—of moving or staying still. It’s OK to move or shift or change positions during your meditation, as long as it’s done with awareness.

• It doesn’t matter how many times you need to bring your attention back to your breath. The moment that you’re aware of a thought, feeling, sensation or sound that’s distracting you, that is a mindful moment, a moment where you are strengthening your ability to choose where to place your attention. Take a few more moments in this practice if you'd like.

• As you transition out of this practice, try applying this mindful awareness to your everyday life. Notice the point where you are triggered or distracted. Notice emotions and thoughts that arise, as well as sounds that distract you. Observe it all … and then mindfully make a decision on how to respond.

The Torah commentator, Kli Yakar, explains that one person’s behavior can affect everyone. My behavior and reactions not only affect me but anyone around me. Every action I make has a consequence, like a ripple in a pond.

In a few days, we will celebrate Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, a time of the year when we look back and reflect on what changes we might like to make. We look at our behaviors and hopefully try to become more aware of what we need to work on in ourselves. Mindfulness meditation can help us in this process of reflection and “return” to the person we would like to be.

Shana tova!

LISTEN TO THIS ON INSIGHT TIMER: https://insighttimer.com/skeinon/guided-meditations/choose-life-and-parshat-nitzavim

ON THE APP: https://insig.ht/mUue8j8qBtb