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Daily Lift #851

Take a Mental Note

It is easy to take mental capabilities for granted. Don't.

Try to feel pleasure in your ability to speak and think. Appreciate that you can study wisdom. Even the greatest scholar should appreciate his ability to pronounce words, to read sentences, and to study the basics.

A person who masters this appreciation will live a life of joy.

(see Ohr Hatzafun, vol.3, pp.85-6; Gateway to Happiness, pp.41-2)

See more Daily Lifts on the topic of Appreciation

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Visitor Comments: 1

(1) Anonymous, April 27, 2010 12:10 PM

How?

As usual, I love these daily gems of wisdom. I am wondering how one would go about putting the above ideas into practice. Is it self-talk? Are we being thankful to Hashem for these gifts? Is it a sense of wonder? Do we think about it? So, for example, we know that writing is not natural to humans and that it arose so many years ago and that we still have to learn it today. It takes years before we can master the art and most of us (counting myself) are not experts. But, the idea of putting a line across and down and across again and pronouncing it is wonderful. But, to me, this is always done in relation to someone else because we are always in context and ultimately Hashem is the Context. So, I ask again, in a different way, appreciating something or taking pleasure in something always has an agent: who or Who? Thank you again.

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About the Author

Rabbi Zelig Pliskin

More by this Author >

Rabbi Zelig Pliskin is a noted psychologist and prolific author of 24 books, including Guard Your Tongue, Gateway to Happiness, Gateway to Self Knowledge, Love Your Neighbor, Growth Through Torah, The Power of Words, Consulting the Wise, and the recent Life is Now. Rabbi Pliskin lives in Jerusalem, and is the director of Aish HaTorah's Counseling Center and a senior lecturer at Aish's Essentials program and the Executive Learning Center. He was ordained at the Telshe Yeshiva in Ohio and holds a degree in Counseling Psychology.

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