The Spiritual Foundations of Mental Health

A busy and scattered mind can be a wonderful encounter with our lack of control.  Seeing our lack of control can be a wonderful reset - a letting go of needless exertion that frees me to new understanding.  And even if it hurts to have a scattered mind, that's ok, too, because it's part of a safe and healthy world.

Of course the answer is yes.  But why does it often look like they don't?

God, grant me the serenity to accept what I cannot change, the courage to change what I can, and the wisdom to know the difference!

Your heart bubbles up with clarity about life but you often forget and don't see that clarity.  Making room for that gap is a big part of becoming a spiritually mature and successful person.

We live in a feeling that can shape our sense of what is real, what is possible, and what we are dutybound to react to.  And we can glimpse a window opening to reveal a reality beyond that feeling.  

A simple few words in the weekly portion illuminate how illusions take root in our lives.

There is a powerful, self-centered, and snippety command center that can clutter and burden our lives.  Pesach reminded me that my life will only brighten and expand as I turn away from that command center and turn toward the Divine command center.

The source of Pharoah's tyranny was his total intolerance for his own lack of control.  The more he felt threatened by this lack of control, the more he needed to compensate by controlling all around him.  We each flow with an inner Pharoah!  Seeing the impersonal nature of this flow within us offers tremendous insight to finding powerful and creative freedom to navigate challenges and overcome our lacks.

Everyone in this world has experienced an Exodus.  Learn how to mine both the historic and the personal Exodus to discover a wellspring of hope and resilience.

Why do people seek relief in habits they know to be destructive and undignified?  How is it possible that at times we sense deeply the truth of a Higher Power and at other times we fully question this truth?  What lies at the heart of psychological stability?