Emuna Therapy

"Poor Memory" Helps Learning

 

image credit:dm74

Research shows that learning only occurs when we're forced to work hard to remember something. The opposite is also true - when we recall something quickly without effort no learning occurs. (How Memory Works) It has also been found that making the effort to remember something in multiple contexts and settings aids memory more than remembering it in one place.

This is why after you learn a lesson in emuna, it is so helpful to switch to another setting and work at recalling what you learned on your own. This is the meaning of of Rebbe Nachman's advice to turn your learning into prayer. Through the process of reviewing what you learned and applying it to your own life, you will make that new wisdom your own. It is good to stay on one theme , for example - love of others - for a while, and speak about it to Hashem in multiple places. This will enable you to recall your commitment to applying what you learned; and you will find yourself doing it where ever you go!

- Dr. Zev Ballen

 

 

Certainty And Uncertainty

Is it true that certainty is a deep-seated psychological need? Or has it just become popular to think it is in a culture of "seeing is believing" - a culture that is devoid of Faith?

Psychology does not differentiate between the mind of one with Faith and one without Faith - this leads to faulty conclusions - for the two brains are not alike. The person of Faith thrives on uncertainty, he craves the mysterious and unknown. For him it is the unknown that stimulates him and gives his life meaning.  It is his freedom to choose Faith not "certainty" that fills him with the vitality of drawing ever-closer to his G-d. See more in The Firmest Foundation.

Check out this week's line up of other great articles courtesy of Breslev Israel: 

Blue-Chip Investment - By Rabbi Shalom Arush

The Turkey Holiday - By Rabbi Lazer Brody

Ovadia's Courage - By Tal Rotem

A Message From Above - By Yael Karni

Let It Shine - By Yehoshua Goldstein

Family Planning and Emuna - By Rajel Hayyim

Spotting The Fakes - By Rivka Levy

Making The Darkness Glow - By the Lubavitcher Rebbe

A Spiritual Antenna - By Racheli Reckles

A Taste of his Own Cooking - Rabbi David Charlop

With Blessings,

Dr. Zev Ballen

 

Coaching At It's Best

We shot this gorgeous clip right after our sunrise prayers at the Holy Wall in the Old City of Jerusalem. I'm grateful to Hashem and our super crew at Breslev Israel for putting this one together. It's a real beauty, guys!

Please enjoy it and share it with your friends!

With Blessings, Dr. Zev

 

Top-Ranked Scientists Geared To Religion

 

 

The Army's brightest scientists gather at West Point, N.Y.             image credit: RDECOM

Science usually discredits  "creationist purpose-based" explanations of natural events - for the first time, a new study reveals how scientists from top-ranked American Universities really think.

Researchers in Boston University's Psychology Department found that, "despite years of scientific training, even professional chemists, geologists, and physicists from major universities such as Harvard, MIT, and Yale cannot escape a deep-seated belief that natural phenomena exist for a purpose." (Science Daily)

The researchers asked the physical scientists to answer true or false to statements such as: "Trees produce oxygen so that animals can breathe" or "The Earth has an ozone layer in order to protect it from UV light." When the scientists were put under time pressure and had little time to think about their answers they tended to accepted these "Creationist" accounts.

When the researchers asked the same questions to another group of scientists, who were not being rushed, they found that they generally rejected the idea of an underlying purpose to creation. 

Deborah Keleman, the primary author of this research expressed her surprize that even the most vigrorously trained  scientific minds are "more naturally geared to religion than science." They prefered to see nature as purposeful rather than random.

With Blessings,

Dr. Zev Ballen

Live Broadcast - Unlocking Your Power

  

                                       image credit: gadknows

Everyone agrees that our decisions and rituals shape our lives - that persistence in some area of life is essential for a person to achieve mastery and success. What people disagree about is on what rituals will give them the results that they are looking for. What area of your life - if it changed - would lead you to the greatest boost in your personal performance, productivity, health and happiness?

This is the subject of today's broadcast - it is called "Unlocking Your Power."

You can see it today Wednesday at 5:00 PM Israel time at our Chut Shel Chessed Yeshiva, 13 Shmuel Hanavi Street, Jerusalem, in the main sanctuary. Everyone is welcome, both men and women so if you're anywhere near Jerusalem, come on by!

You can see today's lesson here - the broadcast, as well as our lessons posted from now on - are Mac and iPod compatible. If you tune in too early to the live broadcast link, you'll be sent to the main page of the Breslev Israel website, so try to tune in on time as follows (Israel is still on winter time while the USA is still on Daylight Savings time): 

8:00 AM in LA and the West Coast, 9:00 AM Denver, 10:00 AM Mexico and Central Daylight, 11 AM EDT, 4 PM in the UK, 5:00 PM Johannesburg and Capetown, 5:00 PM Israel. As soon as we can, G-d willing, we'll post a link to the lesson for all those who couldn't see it live. If you can't see the broadcast, you might need to download a new version of Flash Media player, which you can do here. We hope you enjoy the broadcast.

I hope you can join me.

With Blessings,

Dr. Zev Ballen

Short On Time?

Four new studies (Mogiler, et. al., 2012) have shown what people with emuna have always known. That, contrary to logic, giving away time that you don't have can make you feel like you have more of it.

What a beautiful observation of the Truth.

Where I have difficulty, as usual, is not in how my colleagues observe reality but in how they interpret it.  Psychologist Jeremy Dean concluded that the people, in these studies, who were generous felt better because of  odd "perceptual" alterations that their brains were subject to. He mentioned "10 ways that the mind warps time."

Aren't you curious to know about the spiritual orientations of the people that were studied?  The researchers might have come up with very different conclusions if they would have asked different questions that assessed the participants level of spirituality and emuna. Then they may have found that the deeper truth is that the people felt better for completely different reasons.

People with emuna feel really good about giving even if they objectively don't have much to give because they believe that G-d who is constantly looking after them will be pleased with their generosity, and in turn, will surely give them back everything that they need and more.  When people have little and give regardless, they are actively demonstrating and strengthening their emuna which is the greatest source of joy.

Blessings for the new month of Chesvan,

Dr. Zev Ballen

Emuna and Creativity

 

 

By Dr. Zev Ballen                                                             Image credit: Brothersoft.com

Creativity is shrouded in mystery. Psychologists have performed hundreds of studies of creativity over the years. They have studied artists, scientists, composers, poets and Nobel Prize winners. Why is it that when these brilliant people were asked to explain how they came up with their brilliant and novel ideas they could not give a satisfactory answer? This is the subject of today's broadcast.

With Hashem's Loving Kindness, we will be broadcasting live today, Wednesday at 5:00pm Israel time from the Chut Shel Chesed Yeshiva, 13 Shmuel Hanavi Street, Jerusalem.

 You can see it right here. The broadcast, as well as our lessons posted from now on - are Mac and iPod compatible. If you tune in too early to the live broadcast link, you'll be sent to the main page of the Breslev Israel website, so try to tune in on time as follows:

10:AM in NY, 7:00 AM in LA and the West Coast, 8:00 AM Denver, 9:00 AM in Mexico and Central Daylight, 3:00 PM in the UK, and 5:00 PM Israel time. If you are not able to watch the lesson live, we will, G-d willing be posting a link to it soon. If you can't see the broadcast, you might need to download a new version of Flash Media player which you can do here. We hope you enjoy the broadcast.

Wishing You Blessings Always,

Dr. Zev Ballen

 

 

 

Live Broadcast: Self-Control Strategies

 

Self-control is vital to our success. Find out how the "science" of self-control which emphasizes fighting with your unconsious differs from the way of Emuna.

With Hashem's Loving Kindness, we will be broadcasting live today, Wednesday at 5:00pm Israel time from the Chut Shel Chesed Yeshiva, 13 Shmuel Hanavi Street, Jerusalem.

 You can see it right here. The broadcast, as well as our lessons posted from now on - are Mac and iPod compatible. If you tune in too early to the live broadcast link, you'll be sent to the main page of the Breslev Israel website, so try to tune in on time as follows:

10:AM in NY, 7:00 AM in LA and the West Coast, 8:00 AM Denver, 9:00 AM in Mexico and Central Daylight, 3:00 PM in the UK, and 5:00 PM Israel time. If you are not able to watch the lesson live, we will, G-d willing be posting a link to it soon. If you can't see the broadcast, you might need to download a new version of Flash Media player which you can do here. We hope you enjoy the broadcast.

Wishing You Blessings Always,

Dr. Zev Ballen

 photo credit: happyarm

 

 

 

Spirituality Is Not Physics

 

                            Photo Shared From: Breslev.co.il

In the following, The Nikolsburg Rebba gives us a crystal clear example of how the limitations of science cannot contain spirituality: 

"In this week's sidra we read about the karbanos - sacrifices. The word karbanos is from the root word that means "close." The sacrifices were a means of getting close to Hashem.

In physics, there is always the same distance between two items. For example, if there is cup and a fork on the table, there will always be the same distance from the cup to the fork as from the fork to the cup. This is a simple fact that everyone can understand.

However, when it comes to spiritual matters, it is not like that. It says in Tehillim: "Hashem is close to all who call to Him." Hashem is always close to every single Jew, but this doesn't mean that we are equally close to Him. If we commit transgressions, then we become distanced from Hashem, while at the same time Hashem remains just as close to us as He was before.

The same is true about Hashem's goodness to us. It says in the same chapter of Tehillim: "Hashem is good to everyone." Hashem bestows blessings on us all the time, but if we are unworthy, these blessings cannot reach us, although Hashem keeps on sending them.

By reading the chapter of karbanos, we become closer to Hashem. This enables us to benefit from the many blessings that Hashem keeps on sending to us. May Hashem help that we should merit the fulfillment of the verse: "And all of these blessings will come to you, and it will reach you." 

Here is your Parsha/Newsletter for this week:  Download CSC NL Week 31 Pinchas. Have a beautiful family Shabbos!

Blessings Always,

Dr. Zev Ballen

 

 

 

My Rebbe's Smile

By Dr. Zev Ballen

My Rebbe's smile is so beautiful and so real; lately I've been wondering about it.  The world is filled with beautiful people with beautiful smiles, but somehow when Rabbi Shalom Arush smiles - you feel something different - it's hard to describe. I've seen the 'confident' smiles of the wealthy and even of those rich in Torah scholarship - but my Rebbe does not smile like they do either.  I don't think I ever saw a real smile until I saw his.
 
What is his secret? What makes Rabbi Shalom so happy?  Does his pleasure come from being a best-selling author? No. He smiled before this.  Is he proud of the Torah institutions that he has built? No. He smiled before this. Is he smiling about his financial success, after years of poverty and debt? No. He smiled before this. Maybe Rabbi Shalom can smile as he does because he is proud of his achievements in learning or because of the beautiful children he has. No. He smiled before all of these. 
 
So what in the world is he smiling about?
 
I think that my Rebbe is smiling because he knows the deepest Truth about life and it just keeps nurturing him and giving him more and more pleasure all the time. He found this Truth when he was poor and unknown.  He realized that G-d is good and that He is the One Reality. Once my Rebbe saw that everything is G-d, it became impossible for him to complain about anything. He saw how much he had, and was grateful for it all.  Life became joyous, calm, sweet and worry-free. There were no more problems. There was only good.  My Rebbe's smile expresses his total and complete centeredness in Truth. When he smiles, he also wants nothing more than to share the Truth with you.  His passion to give can be found in his every intention; thought; movement and word. He has forfeited the illusion of 'self.' He is a limb of Hashem in this world. 
 
Imagine, for fun, how a Holy person would score on a 'cutting edge' 'highly reliable and valid' personality inventory.  The doctors would laugh at him like people laughed at the pure and simple man in Rebbe Nachman's story of The Wise Man and the Simple Man.  There are no psychological categories that can contain holiness.  If a tzaddik took a personality test, G-d forbid, he might appear psychotic, schizoid, isolative, obsessive, or grandiose. Continue reading here...

 

Wishing You Blessing Always,

Dr. Zev Ballen