Daily Letter 20: Emotional Wellness

Emotional Wellness

Rest, exercise, and diet are essential to your physical health.

Your emotional health also requires three things:

1) Belonging – not having to weather challenges alone (Heart)
2) Doing deeds – actions that move beyond well-trimmed words (Hands)
3) Knowing the story of which you are a part – and your vital role in it’s next chapter (Spirit)

Trusted friends make a huge difference. Good company helps us know we belong.

And beyond the overwhelming support of Israel in America – despite the avalanche of antisemitism that has been ascendant in recent days – having loyal and loving supporters can enable us to get some rest. And a resting heart rate is what you seek in stormy times.

When you make a painful discovery, however, that somebody you thought was your supporter, is not, this can ransack your emotional condition. This is when doing deeds can help. Just as your mood changes after you complete a chore – like bringing bagged, raked leaves to the curbside, has an effect on your mood. The completion of a hands-on task also helps. Over and above the concrete results of your deed, your doing a good deed functions a lot like exercise does.

Lastly, knowing your people’s story and your role in it, makes all the difference. We all have to choose. Not just what to do. Also, who to be. Rising to fully embrace your calling is what this pivotal and perilous hour asks of you. It drives your spirit in a purposeful direction, as you rise each morning.

Let’s make this crisper. If rest, exercise, and diet keep you physically fit, then attending to your heart, hands, and spirit keep you emotionally fit. 

“May the works of our hands give us direction; May the works of our hands, direct us toward You, dear God” (Psalm 90:17).

Am Yisrael Chai.
Rabbi William Hamilton