Community Events www.emanuel.org.au Tu Bi’Shvat Abov Mimuna 4 Above: Tu Bi’Shvat Tree Meditation at Bronte Beach led by Orna Triguboff. Below: The end of Pesach Mimuna celebration coordinated by Anat Baruch, Ofer Hirsh and Sylvy Aviv, together with a great team of volunteers!
Rabbi Ninio A Gratitude Movement As I sit to write this article the strains of Dayenu are still ringing in my ears. I celebrated four sedarim and at each one we all sang a rousing chorus of “dayenu: it would have been enough.” But how many of us live our lives that way, thinking, “it would have been enough?” How many of us recognise the blessings in our lives and appreciate what we have? When do we say, “it is enough?” For the people who joined me at any of the sedarim this year, I asked them to participate in a moment of thanksgiving. I asked everyone to think about something in their life for which they were grateful. Unfortunately in our world, I do not think that we do this often enough, to stop and realize the incredible blessings in our lives, to, for just a moment, shift from looking at what is wrong, and consider what is right. I recently read an article which quoted research saying that we spend, on average, 45 minutes a week on regret. We beat ourselves up and chastise ourselves over things we did not do or things we did do. We look for the negatives and then dwell upon them. The top ten regrets included not saving enough money, not working harder at school, not exercising enough, not appreciating elderly relatives before they died, all very human, very real circumstances. (Mamamia March 6 th <strong>2012</strong>) And how can we be blamed for thinking this way? Advertising and media constantly remind us of what we don’t have, what we are missing, the ways we should change our lives and that message filters through to us by way of regret, we wish we had done things differently, had more, achieved more, that if we did, life may have turned out another way. But what if, instead of giving us the negative message, we were given the positive one? We were called upon to stop and recognise the blessings in our lives, the moments for which we are grateful, to see the good and then invited to share our thanksgiving and gratitude with those around us? We can spend too much time lamenting what we don’t have and perhaps not enough recognising the beautiful blessings, the gifts. And they do not have to be huge moments, in fact, it is perhaps the smaller ones which are sometimes the most significant. I was sent a YouTube video which opens with a man sitting on a piece of cardboard with a sign which reads “I am blind, please help.” The video pans away and we see people enjoying the day, some look at his sign and walk by, a few drop a coin or two into his tin. www.emanuel.org.au Then a young woman comes along and changes the sign. After this we see many more people stopping and placing money in his tin. The camera focuses again on the sign, it now reads, “it’s a beautiful day and I can’t see it.” Changing the sign caused people to stop and consider the blessing of being able to see a beautiful day. I have been reading about a new movement called the gratitude movement. They did a piece of research and asked a few hundred people to keep a diary. One group were asked to record what happened to them every day, another was asked to record only the negative experiences of their day, and the third group, to write about the things for which they were grateful in their day. Of the three groups, the one who wrote about gratitude were more alert, enthusiastic, optimistic, determined and energised. They had lower levels of stress, were more likely to exercise regularly and help others. “At the core of Judaism is gratitude” One of the founders of the gratitude movement claims that acknowledging blessings, appreciating the goodness in your life can lead to a stronger immune system and better relationships. But he cautions: “(it is) not to say that everything in our lives is necessarily great but it means that we are aware of our blessings.” And that is the key. Life is difficult, we all face challenges, struggles, disappointments, times of pain, suffering, loneliness and sadness, and being grateful does not ask that we negate those feelings, that we try and pretend that times of struggle are not happening, but rather, it challenges us to focus, just for a few minutes every day, on something which is positive in our lives. Sometimes that will be easy, other times it will be difficult, but just redirecting our thoughts, to be aware of our blessings, even in the midst of our struggle and pain, is incredibly powerful. Judaism is a gratitude movement. Although we joke that it is about suffering and guilt, in fact, at its core, is gratitude. There are so many opportunities built into our prayer services and the rhythm of Jewish life when we are encouraged to find and acknowledge our blessings. The daily prayer service, the bed-time shema, the Shabbat, all moments when we are called upon to focus on the goodness, to pause and be grateful. Judaism realises the importance for each of us, spiritually and psychologically, to see the positive in our situations, to really count our blessings. I will never forget an Oprah show I watched many years ago. Her guest was a single father whose wife had died. He had two children, both with severe intellectual and physical disabilities. 5
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