A blog on mental health, spirituality, and personal discovery
I’ve heard it said that it’s not the lesson a teacher teaches that stays with you. What you most remember is how they make you feel.
At the end of the tour, the blind guide made an offer: Ask me any question you want. Hold nothing back. Nothing is off the table.
I had a question, but I held back. Until the very end.
Until we came into the light, slowly at first, and adjusting to the brightness I set my eyes on our guide for the first time.
The Israeli Children's Museum in Holon houses an exhibit called Dialogue in the Dark. The concept is as genius as it is simple: enter a world completely like your own, except that you can’t see. The exhibit is completely and utterly absent of light.
If you’re taking a prescription medication, there’s a chance that you’re taking a drug that has the potential of developing dependence. Now, we’re not talking about Lipitor! Drugs types like painkillers, sleep aids, anti-anxiety medications, and ADHD treatments (among others) are what we could call “addictive medications”. That is, they have the ability and tendency to cause users to develop an unhealthy level of dependency.
Do you have addictive medications in your house? Are you sure? Keep reading. You may be surprised.
Medications are great when they’re used appropriately, but they can be dangerous when they’re not. This is a real problem. In a 2010 study, approximately 16 million Americans reported using a prescription drug for nonmedical reasons sometime within the past 12 months. And 7 million Americans reported doing so in the past month.
Many moons ago, I was a counselor in Camp Mogen Avraham. One of the most remarkable things about Mogen Av is the extensive training and supervision that the staff receive (also, it was a lot of fun. It’s camp, after all). The training I received over those years was formative for me in my current work as a psychotherapist.
If you’re in a relationship, try spending some time alone with your significant other. If you’re not in a relationship, try it with an open-minded friend. Here’s the catch, though - you need to be silent, or mostly silent.
We are good at keeping ourselves busy. We read, talk, and listen. We do things. We go from one thing to another. We are rarely not doing something. You know this already. And if you don’t, you have probably sensed it.
What a week. A political upheaval that almost no one saw coming. A backlash with angry protests that still continue. The victors happy that the country can finally start to turn around, and the others horrified at what their country has done (and where it may be headed).
It’s December 2020, and the candidate you voted for has turned out to be the undisputed worst President in history. You think back to your decision made on that fateful Tuesday in November 2016, and you say, “What was I thinking? I made a terrible choice.”
Blah blah blah. The election news drones on and on. This candidate did this, that candidate did that–if you can believe it. He said, she said. He tweeted, she cheated.
Hoshana Rabba is a confusing holiday. It is described as “the day when the verdict that was issued on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur is finalized”.
The holiday season is upon us, and you know what that means: for most of us, it’s family fun time, dish upon dish of delicious food, and hopefully some spiritual opportunities to connect with the One Above.
Rather than focusing on specific behaviors that we should or shouldn’t be doing, let’s focus on relationships. Our default relationship with God is influenced heavily by how we were parented. Think about this for a moment. Was your upbringing fear-based or love-based? And currently, what motivates your relationship with God? Is it fear or love?
Rosh Hashana is nigh, and Yom Kippur is right around the corner. You know what that means - the Annual Jewish Anxiety Festival is in full swing! If you weren’t whipped up to a frenzy during the past thirty days, you still have another ten days to put your life in order.
Do you take work home with you? Do you find yourself reading work emails during dinner? Do you consistently leave the office later than you would like? Do you hate long phone calls, constantly replying to emails, or being at the mercy of your boss’s whims?
This post is for you.
No matter how you spend your time - making sales, housekeeping, or actualizing change (that sounded better than “therapizing”), being productive is important. We all need to get things done, and we all struggle with balancing work, life, and self-care. Here are some tips to set you on your way.
This 9/11, as we are more “connected” than ever, we can unwittingly forget something important. On this day, we can read articles, sure, and watch videos, and react on Facebook. We may feel like we’re honoring the day. But are we really?
You know what a Muggle is, right?
If you don’t, please take a minute to read all seven Harry Potter books. (Yes, there is a new Harry Potter book just released - the new play Harry Potter and the Cursed Child - and my copy is currently in my “To Read Eventually” pile on my desk. But it's not required reading just yet.)
The National Park Service celebrates its 100th Birthday this year, with free entrance to all National Parks August 25th through 28th (among other dates). I didn’t know that when I visited Acadia National Park this past week, so I wasn’t able to save any money, but it’s a nice introduction to this blog post!
“Whenever you feel stupid, remember that there are people outside looking for Pokemon.” - the Internet
On March 20th, 1990, a Lufthansa flight took off from Frankfurt en route to Paris. Immediately after takeoff, the plane hit some turbulence and the left wing dropped slightly - a pretty normal occurrence, and no reason for concern. The pilot moved his sidestick, directing the plane to shift back to the right. And that’s when things started to go haywire.
Before my first summer as a sleepaway camp counselor, I asked my grandfather, Rabbi Dovid Price z”l, for some guidance.
“One year of sobriety? That’s amazing! Congratulations!” He doesn’t have the strength to tell them that he’s been drinking every weekend.
Would you get a tattoo? Think about that seriously for a moment. For most readers of this blog, I know it’s not something that comes up, what with the biblical prohibition and all. But it’s an interesting thought exercise. If you could, would you?
