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- Solving Family Conflict
Turning Breakdowns into Breakthroughs If you cannot get rid of the family skeleton, you may as well make it dance. – George Bernard Shaw Quarrels. Spats. Estrangement. Infidelity. Abuse. Divorce. Broken hearts. Broken homes. Family conflict is heartbreaking for a parent, and even more damaging to our children. Innumerable academic and clinical experts tell us […]
- Finding the Bayit Floor: A Two-Step Technique for Getting Grounded
When we embark on the lifelong journey of raising a family, we know there will be moments of anger, tension, and sadness. It’s inevitable – but it doesn’t have to be the end of the story. With the right coping mechanisms, negativity can be dealt with and, in time, transformed. Jewish sages teach us that […]
- The Bayit Walls: Building Up Healthy Boundaries
“Love thy neighbor, but don’t pull down your hedges.” -Benjamin Franklin In the first article in this series, I shared some of the wisdom we can learn from the Hebrew letter, beit (ב). Our sages teach us that the letter beit sounds like bayit, the Hebrew word for house or home. It also looks like one, with a wall, roof, […]
- Anchoring Upward: The Bayit’s Ceiling
Anchoring Upward: The Bayit’s Ceiling Acknowledging a higher power is one of the greatest skills, talents, and resources we have in building our homes. As we work to build the sturdy structure of our home, it is essential to look to the ceiling above us, and all it represents. The ceilings of our homes are our protection […]
- On A Wire: A Psychotherapist’s Secret to Overcoming Fear
Fear is a notoriously thorny challenge to overcome. After all, it is the human brains’ most ancient response; a deeply wired, fundamental reaction that has evolved over eons with the very admirable goal of protecting us. The fight-or-flight operating system is so embedded in our neurobiology that it is a wonder it doesn’t control us […]
- Escaping the House of Bondage – Breaking the Bond of Abusive Relationships
“The hardest part of being in an emotionally abusive relationship is actually admitting you’re in one.” ― Anna Akana “My ex was my Exodus.” Sarah summed it up succinctly one afternoon at the end of an exhausting two-year saga of leaving her abusive husband with narcissism. Sarah had been enslaved for 10 years and did not […]
- Silencing the Inner Judge
Meet Hannah. It is Rosh Hashanah lunch. The table is impeccable, full and expectant. The guests are many, varied and very hungry. The 10 children (or maybe more, she just lost count) are auspiciously absent for an (admittedly blessed) split-second. So, post-Kiddush buzz, Hannah takes the opportunity for a satirical monologue. She bangs her fist on […]
- Broken Body Issues
Most women have long been socialized to believe that if we don’t look good, we aren’t good. And so we sacrifice feeling good about ourselves for that futile holy grail of looking good to others. And modern media assaults us with the most unapologetic messaging about just how good we have to look. It is no wonder that statistics […]
- A Formula for Defeating Depression – Noah’s ARC
Anna was drowning. She crumbled into the couch before me in a familiar wash of tears, “I got fired… again… I just couldn’t get out of bed. They finally fired me. And I don’t blame them. Why would anyone not fire me?” Her despair was slowly engulfing every living inch of her existence. I listened, […]
- Addiction – What are you really running after?
“Karl Marx wrote: ‘Religion is the opiate of the masses.’ Carrie Fisher said: ‘I did masses of opiates religiously.’ Most addiction is a form of opioid addiction… because addiction’s main goal is most often a frantic running away from pain. The question is, how do we stop running? Or at least, how do we run […]
- Mine the Gap
Let me start by just cutting to the essence of my marital discord here. My husband and I are radically different creatures. He’s contemplative, I’m explosive. He’s measured, I’m boundless. He’s careful, I’m carefree. All too often our opposing personalities rub up against each other in precisely the most painful of ways. For instance, communication […]
- Love is Not All You Need
Did you ever realize that The Beatles flagship song, “All you need is love” was written by millionaires? Yes, all you need is love…as long as you have most everything else you need. Love, actually, is one big fat distraction. A damaging one at that. Loving is the goal of a relationship, alright. But you […]
- Missing Piece
Learn from Ploni how to find your happily-ever-after…
- Tool For Anxiety
Here is a quick & effective tool to practice the next time you need to de-escalate your anxiety. It is culled from powerful Cognitive Behavioral (CBT) methods and traces a path up and then back down the ladder from the physical realm, through emotions, to the intellect and back again!
- Up & Down The Ladder – A Tool for Anxiety
Anxieties. All of us have them. Some of us are debilitated by them. Some of us have learned how to manage them. Self-talk and self-awareness tools have been found invaluable in greatly improving that management. Here is a quick & effective tool to practice the next time you need to de-escalate your anxiety. It is […]
- The overly simplified guide to “Should I marry him?”
1. Is he a mensch? (for those of you yidishly challenged, that means a good guy, a person of integrity, of honor and of notable character) 2. Is this the one you want to have problems with? Yes, you read it correctly. Not if the two of you will have problems, but is THIS the […]
- Jewish Meditation
Over Hanukkah 2011, The Shalev Center held a 3-day silent meditation retreat in the heart of Jerusalem. It was deeply moving and transformative. Participants experienced silence, interlaced with singing as well as teachings and meditative techniques from Kabbalah and Chasidut. Spirituality made practical, affecting and transforming our lives. Facilitators were Rabbi Hillel Lester, Rabbi Daniel […]
- Babel’s Daughter
One woman’s journey from the Bible-Belt to the Holy Land….In this electric show, Chaya shares her cosmic, sometimes-comic, always-poetic, spiritual journey from the Mississippi Delta to the hills of Jerusalem. The show is entertaining and inspirational as well as interactive, offering a synthesis of spoken-word performance with audience-engaged self-exploration.This show shows you Israel. This show […]
- Psychology of Tashlich
Utilizing the ritual of tashlich to clear out negative impediments which stand in the way to accessing personal power and our Divine aspect within. From here, true responsibility (response-ability) and clear choice can then follow.