Five Minutes to a New Reality

What you see is what you get. If things look good, you feel great – optimistic and full of vigor. If they don’t, you feel down and depressed. The bleaker the picture in your brain, the weaker you feel. Sadness and depression immobilize a person.

What the vast majority of people refer to as reality is not reality at all. Rebbe Nachman of Breslev says that the world is a mirage, so don’t let it fool you.

Rebbe Nachman would tell us that what we call “reality” is really nothing more than our personal perception of things. This is banner-headline fantastic news for everyone. How?

If we dissect depression like we would in Biology Lab 201, we’d find that the core of depression is the feeling of despair when a person thinks that he or she can not alter or deal with a difficult or distasteful situation.

With the above in mind, and with Rebbe Nachman’s principle that reality is perception, by changing our perception, we readjust reality. This is a mind-boggling, encouraging concept because we no longer need the escapes of substances and cheap thrills to feel good.

With the very same circumstances that each one of us has in life that tend to bring us down – whether it’s a difficult spouse, an abrasive or abusive boss, a health challenge, a financial problem or whatever – we’re now going to readjust our reality. In other words, we’ll pick ourselves up in five short minutes. That’s all it takes.

We’re not going to whitewash anything or sweep anything under the rug. While I teach you this 5-minute ploy, keep that painful situation in the front of your mind. In a few minutes, it won’t hurt.

Tell yourself the following three points, and say each one at least three times:

1. Everything comes from the Almighty.

2. The Almighty is always with me.

3. Everything the Almighty does is pure compassion.

Once you realize that your painful, depressing situation comes from the Almighty, Who just happens to be your loving Father in Heaven, things hurt less. Add to that the memory that you’re not alone, and that He is with you, and you feel even better. If you don’t feel it, close your eyes and ask Him to let you feel His presence – you’re now in for a pleasant surprise. As illogical as it might seem, tell yourself that your painful predicament comes from Him and that everything He does is pure compassion.

The above mental exercise takes five minutes or less, but it will completely alter your perception and change your outlook – you’ll see a rosier reality. Whereas five minutes ago, you were upset at having to fix a leaky pipe in your home, you’ll now realize that this is a gift from Above as a substitute for a leaky valve in your heart, Heaven forbid.

Hold on – we’re not finished yet. The first five minutes of rehashing the above three points in our brain will definitely make us feel better. By saying them out loud, and letting our mouth and ears join in the party with our brain, we internalize these three thoughts in our hearts and we strengthen emuna.

Now comes the big pay-dirt, the gold dust in the sand.

The Rebbe of Komarna says, once a person knows that everything comes from the Almighty, the Almighty is always with him or her and everything the Almighty does is pure compassion. Then things turn around to the extent that they actually become pure compassion.

With that level of emuna, you are now perceiving a brand new reality that will make you as happy as a lark. So let’s get to work. Let the above three principles be so internalized in your thinking that they become part of your default. You can’t imagine what a good life is in store for you, and it’s less than five minutes away.