Meaningful Life Skills with Rabbi Simon Jacobson

Are social media and technology improving your personal life? Are they enhancing your relationships? With all of technology's breathtaking advancements, connecting us in unprecedented ways, why do we feel more disconnected than ever? Despite the thousands of "friends" we may have on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Tiktok, why have we not become closer and more intimate? People today, perhaps more than ever, feel disoriented and are experiencing deep alienation; a crisis in relationships and intimacy. How do we explain this paradox: A world both connected and disconnected like never before? Please join Rabbi Simon Jacobson for this important conversation and learn how the true challenge is not how to look at technology but how to look at yourself. Discover how to reclaim your life and take control of technology, instead of letting it control you. Explore what social media is doing to us and what we can do to use its benefits and gifts to advance and grow our personal lives and relationships.

19 Jan 202329min

Do we live in a beautiful world or an ugly one? I will never forget a conversation I had with two individuals. We were talking about life. One of the people began sharing, in a very warm and kind way, the beautiful life she grew up in. Her loving home, a supportive family, a welcoming community; her childhood and journey into adulthood was filled with light, warmth, nobility and dignity. The other person joined the conversation expressing how he grew up in an entirely different universe! His life was one of trauma and pain. A hostile home, angry family, disconnected community; his childhood and journey into adulthood was filled with darkness, backstabbing, narcissism and selfishness. His description brought me to tears. I started to think about this contrast, how every person has a different perspective on life based on their different experiences. To some this world is warm, open, inviting. And to others it's cold, hostile and isolating. No doubt, over the course of our lives most of us experience both beautiful times and sometimes ugly ones. But how do you perceive the world as a whole? Do you wake up to a loving world, ready to absorb its warmth and fly with the angels? Or do you wake up to a mean world, ready to brace the cold and battle demons? Please join Rabbi Simon Jacobson in this life-changing talk, and discover that despite the darkness, coldness and hostility often surrounding us, we have the inner resources to warm and illuminate not only ourselves but others as well. We are not products or victims of circumstance. At our core and essence we are bright and soaring souls, sent to a dark and cold universe, with the innate power to transform and create a beautiful world, no matter the challenges.

13 Jan 202332min

Life is replete with change. Processes, transitions, maturation, growth and setbacks -- life is synonymous with movement, and movement is all about change. The journey of life with all its twists and turns, and ups and downs. Why then are we afraid of change? And if you fear change it's inevitable that it will play a major role and impact every juncture of your life (whether you know it or not). Every transition from one state to another -- every new unknown -- will trigger fear and impede your progress. It will compromise your choices and commitments (how can I commit when I'm afraid of what will be?). And being that nothing in life ever stays the same, this inertia would be quite often! Going even further, all growth by definition is a form of change; it's going out of one state, one paradigm and growing into another paradigm. If one is overwhelmed by change - this is preventing all growth in life. We all have to thus ask ourselves the critical question. Do I fear change? And what can I do about it? Because if you don't mitigate it, this fear of change will keep you from making any move in life. Whether you want to grow and climb to greater heights, or whether you're stuck in a bad relationship, a bad job, a bad state of mind, your fear of change will keep you stuck in the status quo. (As they say: the known evil is better than the unknown one.) The fear will paralyze you and not let you move, not let you grow. Please join Rabbi Simon Jacobson as he dissects the anatomy of fear, and specifically fear of change. Learn how instability, insecurity and lack of trust lies at the heart of the fear of change. By identifying its root causes we discover its antidote -- how to overcome and counter fear and how to embrace change in your life so that you can navigate the vicissitudes of life and be free to spread your wings, grow and be the best you can be.

5 Jan 202332min

As the curtain comes down on the year 2022 and we prepare for the new year of 2023, we all wish for each other and for our loved ones a very blessed new year. A year filled with joy, happiness, inner peace and world peace; a year of serenity, success and the fulfillment of all our hearts desires, all in good health and in a very obvious and revealed way. The intentions for an amazing, transformative and accomplishing year are there. We all want it, dream it, long for it and aim for it. But the big question is how? How do we make our dreams a reality? How do we ensure that we indeed have a great year? We all know that new year comes and goes; previous years have proven that we can make resolutions with great intentions and positive goals but then we see them dissipate... they can often last one day, two days, or even a full week! But slowly the inspiration begins to wane and we find ourselves right back where we started. Many new years have come and gone and we haven't necessarily experienced real change. Please join Rabbi Simon Jacobson and learn how to change that narrative! Discover what you can actually do to make this year the best possible year yet. Learn about the forces that hold us back from growth, and the key tools necessary to counter that inertia, and be the change in your life - for yourself, your family, your friends and the entire world at large.

29 Des 202232min

What is the single most important ingredient for a healthy and successful life? Many answers have been offered and discussed. Is it love; wholesome relationships and healthy attachments? Is it religion; faith in a higher power that we answer to and a code of laws to follow? Or conversely, is it simply the pursuit of pleasure; enjoying the moments and living it up? While all of these are certainly options people follow, and they may also be valid approaches, with each one playing a vital role in our lives, there is still a bedrock that lies beneath all other forces, which is absolutely necessary to living a truly wholesome and productive life. This single most important ingredient is meaning and purpose. When you have a unique calling and distinct mission, that in turn drives everything else in your life. If you don't have a raison d'etre, everything you do will be lacking a sense of direction and urgency. Meaning -- that your life matters and all your choices matter, now and forever -- is the foundation upon which every other part of your life is built, including healthy love and relationships, including religion, including enjoyment and success in every given area. Please join Rabbi Simon Jacobson and discover how you can find your unique meaning and purpose, and how that will transform your life. We are living in a time of crisis of meaning -- people everywhere are in desperate need of finding their personal mission statement. What is needed, now more than ever, is nothing less than a revolution of meaning: empowering every man, woman and child with a meaningful life. Let us join together and light up the entire world -- a world that is so often shrouded in darkness and confusion -- with the clarity and focus of meaning.

22 Des 202226min

Psychology is a force that impacts every one of us. We are all in some way dealing with struggles of the human condition. Being alive means we are dealing with the vicissitudes — ups and downs, twists and turns — and many complexities of life’s journey. Hence, the trillion dollar therapy and medicinal industries, serving us for good or for bad. But what exactly is psychology? The actual definition of psychology is: the study of the soul. Yet, what exactly is a soul? Did you know that there are over 45 different psychological schools of thoughts? from Fraud, to Watson, to Adler, Jung, Frankl, from the cognitive to the behavioral, and everything in between, over and under. New opinions and novel approaches are continuously being introduced. Clearly, the true nature of the human psyche remains shrouded in mystery and continues to elude us mortals. So how are we to make sense of all the different — and often opposing — opinions about something so critical: the understanding of who we are? How can we make heads or tails and figure out what makes us tick? You may be surprised to learn that around 250 years ago — a century before the birth of modern psychology — a Russian born mystic and sage developed, what we will call, the most comprehensive psychological blueprint for life. With his keen insight into the very nature of the soul, based on thousands of years of esoteric teachings and hard earned experience, The Alter Rebbe, Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi, laid out an intricate roadmap, an x-ray of the human psych. In doing so he integrated the best of all the psychological schools of thought and offers us a revolutionary new model, relevant today more than ever, one that has the ability to guide us into the future. Please join Rabbi Simon Jacobson in this fascinating and illuminating talk to reveal a new way of looking at yourself and your potential. Discover how you are not a product or victim of circumstances or genes, how you control your destiny — how you have the power, power beyond your belief, to navigate every challenge and curve ball life throws at you. How to forge ahead and carve your future to be the best it can possibly be. Learn to not only contain your demons but how to transform them into assets that will make you grow and actualize in ways that you could never have imagined.

15 Des 202230min

How do you deal with adversity? When facing a challenge in life, how do you react? There are the conventional approaches of fight or flight; do you retreat out of fear of confrontation; escape your reality? Or do you stand up and fight, waging a battle with the enemy within and without? Others might turn to prayer; do you beseech G-d to interfere and show you the way? Or do you follow the approach of simply giving in; surrendering to the circumstances and waving the white flag. These are the four conventional approaches that most people take when dealing with the different obstacles that life throws at them. And believe it or not, while all four might serve a purpose in specific moments, they are all limiting and holding you back from truly facing your challenges. Please join Rabbi Simon Jacobson to discover a revolutionary fifth approach to dealing with adversity - which will not only help you overcome the obstacles but will help you grow from them to become the best you can be.

8 Des 202230min

Do you ever feel that there is a battle being waged within your psyche? That you have conflicting drives tugging you in opposite directions? It may be a struggle between your reflective mind and impulsive heart, or between your responsibilities at home and at work, between your personal values and the outside pressures that may compromise your standards, or between being a taker or a giver, between serving yourself or serving others. If you feel a battle raging inside you -- manifesting in any of the above ways or in other ways -- welcome to the "club." Know that you are not alone. Every one of us has an inherent clash within our souls, two forces wrestling for control over our choices. The voice of survival and the voice of transcendence. The physical drive and the spiritual drive. Most of us either choose one or the other, or we compartmentalize. Can we make peace between these two drives? Can we experience inner harmony? Or are we doomed to a perpetual war? Please join Rabbi Jacobson on a fascinating journey plumbing the depths of your innermost self, and learn how these two forces are actually twin "souls" competing for your attention. Discover that the ultimate way of fusing your conflicting voices and relieving the tension between matter and spirit is by spiritualizing the material, and harnessing its enormous power toward a higher purpose, which is beyond both body and soul.

1 Des 202227min