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Resource Category: Gratitude

By Jaime Glazerman | The Torah compares the human body to a tree and writes that "For man is a tree of the field” (Deuteronomy 20:19). Just like we love and appreciate trees of all shapes and sizes, we must learn to love and appreciate our own unique "trees".
The midrash in Kohelet Rabbah teaches: “When God created the first man he took him and showed him all the trees of the Garden of Eden and said to him, ‘See my works, how beautiful and praiseworthy they are. And everything that I created, I created it for you. Be careful not to spoil or destroy my world–for if you do, there will be nobody after you to repair it.'” Trees, in this text, are the tool used to teach the first human beings to feel gratitude for the world around them.
Given the reality of climate change and its accompanying consequences on our collective mental health, we need to start thinking about how we can make sure our mental health is stable as we try to figure out how to save the world at large.
By Rabbi Sandra Cohen | How do you rejoice when you can’t rejoice? By accepting your experience and being gentle with yourself. You can use the joy around you to help you be kind to yourself. Allow for the possibility that you may eventually feel better, just not today. And that, my friends, will let joy in. Forgive yourself. After all you, have done nothing wrong.
The fact that a religious individual has more opportunities to feel and express gratitude is one of the reasons Dr. David Rosmarin and colleagues hypothesized, tested, and found that religious individuals would reap the positive benefits associated with gratitude—such as increased well-being—above and beyond the advantages associated with general gratitude.
On Purim, one is instructed to wear costumes to mask their identity from others –– like Esther hiding her religious identity from King Ahasverus. Balancing different parts of ourselves for different circumstances, however, is a fact of life - but it can be exhausting. That is why it is necessary that we take the time to perform self-care when we have the chance, so why not try some fun, holiday themed self-care routines!