I have seen people stuck for a long time. In marriages, with their weight, with their profession. Paralyzed to make a change. Having a really hard time making a choice. Why is it?
I love Anne Frank’s quote “Our lives are fashioned by our choices. First we make our choices. Then our choices make us.”
Can you think of a change you made in your life? What was it? How hard was it for you to make it?
I know how hard it is for us to make a choice. Some choices take years to make…Some people never do…
Why do people not make a choice? Here are a few possibilities:
- Don’t know what to choose
- Don’t want to ruffle feathers
- Don’t trust ourselves in making the right choice
- Afraid to fail
Just this past Friday a friend called me and was so complimenting of how I shifted my life and my purpose around. Am I so different than others? I don’t think so!
Magic of Hebrew-The Hebrew root for the verb to choose is Bachar בחר. These letters appear in the word friend חבר as well as the word sword חרב . Why is that? Here is my take: because when we make a choice we inevitably bring about connectivity or we step away (thus bringing strife) from it.
Not making a choice is also a form of making a choice—would you agree?
I just came across a website called Elmad.pardes where I found this quote about Rav Kook:
“Sudden spiritual clarity comes about as a result of a certain spiritual lightning bolt that enters the soul . . . When many days or years have passed without listening to this inner voice, toxic stones gather around one’s heart, and one feels, because of them, a certain heaviness of spirit . . . The primary role of spiritual clarity is for the person to return to himself (herself), to the root of his soul” (Introduction to the Prayer book, Olat Ra’aya).”
What is this lightning bolt he is speaking about?
I think it is the ah-ha moment everyone is talking about. It is the bursts of sudden clarity, it is our intuition speaking to us live, front, and center!
And how shall we return to ourselves and hear this lightning bolt? By breathing. Neshima. First thing is to breath, allowing a connection with our neshama. Our soul.
No wonder every meditation I ever participated in, calls us first into breathing. Why?
Because when we breath in, we allow that spark of God to enter our bodies, our minds, our souls.
I envision it as God’s way of saying – “I am here for you- use me. And you will know what to do.”
So let’s look at this choice, the opportunity of breathing, as an opening up our mind for an invitation to see our own strength and talents.
How unique are you? How precious are you?
I have spoken in my book, Moments of the Heart, Four Relationships Everyone Should Have to Live Wholeheartedly, about the different words for the English word soul.
Nefesh, Ruach, and Neshama.
The Nefesh is concerned with our physical self, our physical body, and our instincts and need for survival. And we all need that. Animals as well as humans.
The Ruach is the spiritual side of each of us. Our hearts, the emotional side of us, what creates our personality and character traits.
The Neshama is the highest form of the soul, the intellectual and rational part – what goes on in our minds. That is the part that elevates our thoughts and sets the direction of our thinking. Don’t forget the treasure that Hebrew has when it shares with us that the roots for the word direction and intention are the same. Where are you going? Knowing that will help set you on the right path. This is what we learn from timeless wisdom. Jewish wisdom definitely resides in the neshama section of our soul. That is also where our conscience and subconscious live. Right and left brain. Both needed.
I love when Jewish wisdom is opening so many windows within our brains…and now the light can come in. Like real windows! Open it and let the light shine into our soul.
So, on what level of your soul do you make your choices? Can you emphasize a different aspect of your soul more by making a different choice?
Are your cultivating your choices based on:
Neshama level? Mind: learning from Jewish wisdom
Ruach level? Heart: connecting our emotions and personality
Nefesh level? Body: a physical aspect
And how shall you make the choice ultimately? How would you muster up the courage to make the choice?
You Listen to your inner wisdom (yes, we all have it and we can all tap into it every day of our lives), and we use hope and faith and trust!
But that is for my next Blog!
Until next time-
All my best,
Dorice