Just Relax and Breathe

In the last few days, I’ve suddenly been bombarded with the same message from numerous places. I found this message to be powerful and emotionally strengthening, and I want to share it with you too! One message which is related is an article we just posted by the Kalever Rebbe: Focus Only on NOW.

The message is simple: Just breathe. Take it one day at a time, one moment at a time – and relax.

I’m sure you’re thinking: “Right. Like that is so easy with the world the way it is!!!”

You’re right. And I am struggling with it too – big time. I am sure that’s why Hashem has been sending me this message over and over again – I’m first in line to need it.

So, I took it to my personal prayer, and these are the ideas that have helped me so far to actually succeed to heed the message.

The Real Reality

The first thing I have realized is that since our thoughts determine our feelings and our actions (and reactions), the primary war is fought in our minds – whether we are going to hold onto our emuna and the spiritual reality, or fall into the physical reality and see all of Hashem’s sticks as having independent power G-d forbid, believe the lies that are bombarding us, and get stuck in the physical reality without seeing Hashem G-d forbid.

Harav Arush recently said that this is the real War of Gog and Magog! This war is won or lost on who we listen to – the tzaddikim, the righteous leaders, or social media and main stream media on a smartphone or unfiltered Internet (which Harav recently called the “silent Holocaust”).

So what have the tzaddikim been saying? And not just what Rabbi Arush shlita has been saying. He is only one of many who have been repeating this same reality:

There is no doubt that the world is in the throes of the birthpangs of the coming of Mashiach and the Redemption. As Rabbi Nir ben Artzi put it, “You’re correct that it’s the end of the world. But it’s only the end of the world of evil!” and as Rabbi Ofer Erez quoted a hidden tzaddik saying, “The world is going up to another place.”

If you’re surprised because you thought that Mashiach coming was going to be a party, know that the process of the Redemption is said to be like a birth – which means it isn’t necessarily easy or pretty. And Rabbi Arush says that we must pray every day that it will come with mercy, and won’t be a bloody birth with a lot of screaming, either. Specifically, he says to pray in great detail that the Redemption should come “with mercy, without suffering, without wars, without terror attacks, without missiles, without earthquakes and without atom bombs.” That’s his list – and for me personally, it’s a terrifying one. If we need to pray against these things specifically, then that tells you what is currently looming over our heads in the form of Heavenly decrees…

So, the first very important point, is to realize what is really going on here. Yes, it is definitely a Global Reset, but not the one that any human being is planning. Rabbi Arush says that when Mashiach comes, he will show us how he used the virus to do very good things and if we knew what was really going on, we would thank Hashem happily for Corona every second!

That isn’t to say that we’re happy about the suffering, the people who are sick or who died, or the state of the world in general. But it is to realize – bigger, good things are happening than meets the eye! “I don’t understand, I only believe, that everything is for the best.”

The key is constantly reminding ourselves that Hashem is orchestrating all the events and He has the ultimate say over what happens, as Rabbi Arush recently quoted the verse, “Many are the thoughts of the wicked, but the advice of G-d is what ultimately stands.”

That Hashem knows what we do not know and sees what we do not see, and is doing everything for our eternal best, in an accounting that we cannot comprehend.

You are not being asked to relax and let go into the hands of a virus, the Ministry of Health, the government, or anyone else. You are being asked to relax into the Hands of the Almighty G-d Himself, who is all powerful and has the ability to take care of you and protect you, who loves you no matter who you are or what you did simply because you are His child, suffers with your suffering, and wants you to have every good even more than you do.

So, this is the first key to being able to relax and breathe – take the weight of the world off your shoulders, and give it back to Hashem. Just like a woman in labor needs to let go and trust the process – so to do we in this huge process called the birth of the real new world order.

Put Your Head Down

In the meantime, the world is undergoing “contractions” of sorts. Personally, I experience every lockdown like a contraction, like I am being squeezed, like it’s hard to breathe, so to speak. Life gets frozen while you just try to manage. The economy is contracting too. Our incomes are contracting. The pain is intense.

The answer is to breathe. Just like a woman in labor is told, “Take it one contraction at a time, and relax into the contraction. The more you tense and stress, fear the pain, or fight back – the more painful it will be. Just breathe through it.”

The correlation to our current situation is obvious. If we think about everything that might yet come, we’ll be paralyzed with fear. Then, we can’t pray or work on ourselves to change in order to improve that future. Plus, we ruin our present! So too if we waste our energy stressing or fighting the reality.

It’s something like the story of Rabbi Akiva, who survived a shipwreck by grabbing onto a plank of wood and using it as buoy to swim to shore. When a wave came, he put his head down and let it pass over him.

We must strengthen ourselves to “put our heads down,” and let the waves pass over us. Focus on swimming and saving yourself and those around you – not fighting the waves. And when you just let it wash over you, it passes so much easier…

In reality, emuna isn’t just the truth. It’s also the only practical solution that both improves our present and greatly improves our future.

How much am I repeating this to myself daily…

The key is to remember what Rabbi Arush has been screaming from the rafters for a few months already – Hashem loves you! Hashem is doing everything for the best!