A Daily Reminder – Part 1

I have been speaking a lot lately about believing in ourselves and believing in our children. The ability to search for, and find, the good in ourselves and our situation, and believe that Hashem is with us through it all and that G-d loves us with unending love, is so critically important, that I want you to print out this statement, and read it to yourself every single morning, and again before you go to sleep, and preferably, once again before you start your daily personal prayer session. Read it at every opportunity you can grab.

You cannot truly believe in G-d, if you do not believe in yourself. And in order to really believe in yourself, you need to remind yourself of these basic truths every single day, preferably multiple times a day, until it becomes ingrained in your mind and heart.

Daily reminders are especially important if you suffer from anxiety, depression, and fear. You must speak to Hashem only with your mind, and ignore your emotions. They will eventually get into line, because emuna and the nefesh (emotions) are one aspect – so as you strengthen your emuna, you will naturally reduce your emotional problems. But right now, the heart has become filled with the Evil Inclination and all its lies, so you cannot speak to Hashem from there. The heart has become filled with darkness and death. Leave your heart and emotions behind! Speak to Hashem only with your intellect! The heart will eventually catch up, but in the meantime, just speak to Hashem with your mind!

Lastly, expect to need to repeat this to yourself for a long time. It takes loads of daily prayer to change yourself for the better in even just one area, because you need to create vessels in order to be able to hold the good that G-d wants to give you. Don’t give up believing in yourself – just keep increasing your desire to do good and be good, and you will see real, positive, and lasting changes in yourself.

The most important thing is: Don’t give in to sadness and depression. Don’t listen to the Evil Inclination who tries to tell you that you are so bad that you can never be fixed. Even if you sinned and didn’t make a good choice, now you have an opportunity to make a new choice – to choose to be happy even with your mistake! To recognize that this is your level, and that you are really good – you just need to pray more in order to become good in practice and have it not damage you and make you arrogant. Just keep praying this prayer and keep yourself happy, because if you give in to the sadness, then you lose all of your ability to want the good!

The idea is to remind yourself of these foundations every single day. This will enable you to make these crucial truths to become clear not only in your mind, but also in your heart. I have given you each concept you need to remember every day, plus my wording for your prayers which is helpful to use verbatum. However, feel free to add your own ideas as you see fit and personalize it to your particular situation and difficulties.

1. Hashem loves you.

“Master of the World – behold, You are my loving father! And You are the best father there ever was, or will be! And You love me, with unending and eternal love, more than all the love of all the parents of all of history – combined! You love me as if I was Your beloved only child.

2. The real you is your holy soul, and it is totally good.

“My loving Father in Heaven, I love You too! The real me is my holy and pure soul. The real me is good, just like You are good. And You know that deep down, I only want You! I only want to do good and be good! I only want to live according to Your will! Simply, to live the way You want me to live! To become who You want me to become!

“G-d, You are only good! You are only good, and everything that You do is absolutely and only good. Everything You do comes from Your love for me. I also want to be only good, and to live according to Your will. The bad in me is not me! It’s not the real me! It’s just my Evil Inclination, my Yetzer Hara.

“Just like You are good, so too, You only see the good in me. Help me to also only see the good in me, and believe in myself! To really believe that I am filled with an infinite amount of good!

3. The bad in you is only the Evil Inclination – and you have the ability to triumph over it!

“Merciful G-d, I want to always remember that You are always with me, and You never leave me or give up on me. Enable me to never give up on myself, either. Let me believe that I can overcome all the bad in me – all the bad lusts, desires, and character traits. You have all the power in the world. You can do anything, and You can also enable me to change my situation physically and spiritually in an instant. Let me constantly connect to You, and connect to Your infinite power, to give me the power to overcome all the bad in me! Let me never give up on my ability to change, and never lose hope!

In Part 2, I explain the second part of the daily reminder regimen!