It Will Begin with Learning to Know Yourself

What begins? Self-realization that you need daily self-care and a mental respite (pause). Do not think you have arrived, and all is well. That is a false flag. Everyone needs self-reflection, a self-conscious reflection on themselves to be a better and healthier person. To those who know themselves, they manage their mind, are mentally healthy, make solid decisions, live a more balanced, careful, and positive life.

Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsh (Germany, 1808-1888) cites a Talmudic objection to depression: “Judaism never considered pain, sorrow, self-affliction, or sadness to be valid goals. The opposite is true; one should pursue happiness, bliss, cheer, joy, and delight. For the Shechina (The Divine Presence) does not dwell in a place of sadness; it dwells only in a place where happiness reigns.”

How do you know that you know yourself? First, you make decisions by which you do not ever need a second thought. Your decisions are solid, work, create positive energy and do not break, harm or cause a repair. Your words are truth, and you never lie. Your grounded in confidence that your actions are appropriate, and you self-reflect daily on your life events to further improve your condition. Your mentally solid, mentally stable, and you make sure you have quiet heartbeat moments of reflection, prayer and calmness. Sometimes exercise, yoga or sitting by the sea is instrumental in resting the mind. Listening to the birds and focusing on the touch points of your body brings mental healing and de-stressing relaxation.

As written in Mi Shebeirach (prayer for healing), it is a prayer for r’fuah shleimah, a complete recovery, which includes both r’fuat hanefesh ur’fuat haguf, a healing of the soul and the body. Judaism acknowledges a distinction between mental and physical health, which are seen on an equal plane, recognizing that both a healthy body and a healthy mind are necessary for human beings to be complete.

Maimonides wrote, “When one is overpowered by imagination, prolonged meditation and avoidance of social contact, which he never exhibited before, or when one avoids pleasant experiences which were in him before, the physician should do nothing before he improves the soul by removing the extreme emotions.” Before addressing a person’s physical needs, physicians must first attend to the patient’s emotional and mental needs.

Every year we read through the entire Torah, week by week. Come fall, it’s time to finish up the last chapter and start all over again at the beginning as have been done for centuries. When we study this way, we practice what the Zen Buddhist tradition calls “beginner’s mind.” The text is not new, but we approach the text as if we are first-time students, eager to unpack the wisdom hidden within. This orientation humbles and challenges us to set aside what we think we know and opens our mind to learn more. Why is this important? Because we think we know ourselves, but we put aside what we think we know to learn more in the mundane and pull truth from that which we think we know, and in it we find, we know nothing at all. Therefore, we search for more truth in study. Stretching the mind in study is a form of growth, refocus and exercise.

Lastly, the mitzvah of health shmirat haguf — literally, “guarding the body.” In the book of Deuteronomy, we find the verse, “Guard yourself and guard your soul very carefully” (Deut. 4:9). Your mind is everything to you. It is first place. Jewish philosopher Philo of Alexandria stated, “The body is the soul’s house. Therefore, shouldn’t we take care of our house so that it doesn’t fall into ruin?”

Rabbi Yehudah HaLevi (Spain, 1075-1141) in the Kuzari: “It is not in accordance with the spirit of the Torah to worry and feel anguish throughout one’s life; one who does so transgresses the Almighty’s commandment to be content with what he has been given, as it says you shall rejoice with every good thing which the Lord your God has given you (Deut. 26:11).”

Rebbe Nachman of Breslav, one of the great Chasidic masters, taught, “It is a great mitzvah to be in happiness (b’simcha) and to overcome and reject feelings of sorrow and melancholy.”

Learn to know yourself. Begin to practice positive mental fitness. Rest and sleep, prayer and reflection, meditation and study, health and fitness are the keys to a balanced low stress and vibrant mental state for a long positive healthy life.