7 Weeks To a Better You - Week 4: Endurance

Are you bored? Do you find your life to be a monotonous routine, going through the motions, often feeling stuck in a rut? How do you relieve the tedium? Lethargy is lethal for the human spirit. We will do anything -- sometimes healthy, often not so healthy -- to get a new rush of excitement, a high, that will lift us out of the doldrums. Would you be surprised to know that there is a millennia-old time-tested method to discover renewal in your life? Would you be further surprised to know that to do so you don't need a pill or other external means and substances to achieve rejuvenation? Please join Rabbi Jacobson on a journey into the recesses of your soul and find a hidden treasure -- a vibrant and dynamic reservoir brimming with renewable energy. Beneath the surface of your seemingly ostensibly static world, lay fountains upon fountains of perpetual creation. Learn how to access and release these formidable flowing forces -- and experience continual rebirth. What better time to do as as we enter the new year, when a new unprecedented energy enters into the cosmic -- macro and microcosmic -- universe.

29 Sep 202233min

How do you experience renewal in your life? How do you truly move forward, away from all your old baggage, your past experiences? Can you truly let bygones be bygones and forge ahead into a new future? Every one of us, no matter what situation we find ourselves in, are always seeking to improve our life, but often our past haunts us, holding us back from growth. Is there a way out of that trap? Can we learn to not ignore our past, but also not to let it hold us hostage? As we prepare to enter the Hebrew New Year, this is the perfect opportunity to begin anew. Please join Rabbi Simon Jacobson for this special program. Discover how to use your past as a stepping stone into your future; to reflect on the year we are leaving behind - all the good and all the challenges that came along with it - and use the energy to propel you forward into new and unprecedented horizons.

22 Sep 202235min

We human beings pride ourselves on our intelligence; how we are far superior to all other species with our minds, our innovations, scientific breakthroughs and technologies. With our intellect we have learned to tame the elements and conquer the universe. Yet, what exactly is intelligence? And what defines intelligence? Is a powerful mind the only contributing factor? Is dominance over other forces the litmus test for success? One can be book smart but have no common sense. A person may have a high IQ and be emotionally immature. Intelligence is not just brain power and it's not simply data processing. True intelligence is also the wisdom of life -- the wisdom of interactions, the understanding of relationships. It goes far beyond the brain and its limited parameters and capabilities. It's more than a science; it's an art. Please join Rabbi Simon Jacobson for a fascinating discussion on the true nature of human intelligence and discover dimensions within yourself that you may not have been aware of or fully accessed until now. Learn how to actualize your full potential and achieve ultimate intelligence, combining the brain and the heart, intellect and emotions - to create a complete and integrated pers

15 Sep 202230min

Do you live to work or work to live? If someone asks you who you are, do you show them your business card? Is your identity defined by your work? Shouldn't it be the other way around? But many us have become so consumed by our jobs and careers, that who we are has become an extension of what we do. Shouldn't we be directing our vehicles and instruments where to go instead of them telling us where to go? Who is the captain of your ship? Let's take this a step further: Is labor a positive thing? We who have grown up with work as a cultural norm may think that this is how it always was. That is not the case at all. Work, as we know it is a relatively recent development. For much of ancient and medieval history, work has been hard and degrading. Indeed, according to the Bible, work-labor is a curse: “By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food.” The Greeks and later the Romans believed that manual labor was for slaves. The Greek word for work was ponos, taken from the Latin poena, which meant sorrow. So as we return to work after Labor Day, how are we to look at our jobs and careers? Are they a curse, a necessary evil? When we go to work in the need to support ourselves are we capitulating to the overwhelming forces of materialism? Are we doomed to sell our souls to a corrupt world that "consumes its inhabitants"? Please join Rabbi Simon Jacobson as he drills down into the belly of the beast, and uncovers the deeper soul of labor and work. Discover that the challenge is not our professions and businesses on their own, but rather with realigning and focusing our work toward a higher calling. The tension between matter and spirit is ultimately best resolved not by escaping the world of labor for the world of spirit, nor by surrendering to work as a curse, but by spiritualizing the material and revealing the deeper sparks embedded in our work. Learn how to become the captain of your ship.

8 Sep 202229min

Love. One simple word that is far from simple. Love contains volumes upon volumes. Everyone uses the word, but does anyone know what it means? No matter what culture, race, religion or nationality, love -- or the lack thereof -- is everywhere. From the beginning of time, authors, poets, songwriters and artists have tried to define love; the simple word connoting longing, passion, connections, complexity, depth, beauty, heartache, intensity, to name a few of its many facets. Love has moved mountains, but it has also destroyed nations. The best and the worst of people have emerged in the name of love. So what is this love? Is it biological or spiritual? Is it real or imagined? Love to the human spirit is like water to a flower. Everybody needs it and yet we find it so elusive. It lies at the heart and foundation of all of life and yet it's so difficult to find healthy, nurturing love. What would life be like without love? Can a child grow up healthy without love? Is there such a thing as dysfunctional love? Is love selfless or selfless? Please join Rabbi Simon Jacobson in this critical discussion and discover age-old secrets from the Kabbalah about the essence of true, healthy love. By contrasting it with current scientific views on love, learn new and deeper dimensions of love that may surprise you, including how love (and the need for love) drives everything we do -- even our destructive behaviors. Find out how to create relationships that are not only meaningful and sustainable, but connections that will be eternal.

2 Sep 202237min

One of the greatest compliments you can give a person is to call them a visionary. But what is a visionary? And who is a visionary? We often think the title is reserved for the geniuses, the rare individuals that were blessed with unique foresight, prescience, wisdom and strength -- a guiding light and presence. But the truth is that every single person - you and I included - is capable of being a visionary! We each have the capacity; we just need to become aware of our uniqueness, and learn to have the courage and fortitude to not just please and conform to others, but to be ourselves, and tap into our own powerful and life-changing value. Please join Rabbi Simon Jacobson and discover how YOU can become a visionary. Explore how to discover your true self, and how you can employ certain methods, a formula to use in your life to widen your horizons. Instead of looking at things with myopic vision, begin to see the panorama -- and that in turn will inform and enrich every detail of your life.

25 Aug 202236min

Details, details, details.. All of our lives are comprised of so many minute specifics, obligations to our home, family, friends, work and even to ourselves. We often get overwhelmed simply by the pressure, expectations and demands of these daily routines, known as the daily grind for a reason. It sounds nice in theory to be told that we must step back and see the forest for the trees, get beyond the minutiae and look at the big picture -- and allow the big picture to inform the particulars. Great advice! And yet, life goes on, often at a 90 mph pace, not leaving us much room to pause and breathe. Every morning we wake up bombarded with our to-do lists, details necessary to get through the daily rat race, but overwhelming and often anxiety inducing at the same time. How can we actually -- and responsibility -- take care of all the details in an effective way, but (and here's the million dollar question!) instead of the details controlling us, we control them? Is that even possible? Does my life simply consist of random moving parts or can I find purpose in each piece? William Blake put it so beautifully, "To see a World in a Grain of Sand, And a Heaven in a Wild Flower, Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand. And Eternity in an hour." But how? Please join Rabbi Simon Jacobson in this exciting workshop as you discover the beauty in the details, how you can see the greatest of the great in the smallest of the small, and how you can combine all the tiny parts of our day to create the most magnificent big picture. And how you can indeed experience the infinite in the finite and the eternal in the moment.

17 Aug 202233min

"Life breaks all people but some are stronger in the broken places." Ernest Hemingway During the course of our lifetime, every one of us is going to inevitably experience hurt -- a loss, a setback, trauma, grief, death, etc. At one point or another, we will all face difficulties along our journey, tested with heartbreak and challenges. Now, this is not meant to paint a dark picture and negative outlook on life.. It is simply the reality of life's cycles. The most important thing to remember is that your response to life's cracks will be what defines who you are. How will you deal with loss and betrayal; with broken promises and shattered dreams? What will you do when your love is violated? When you are in pain and suffering? How will you navigate the uncharted and crashing waves of setbacks and trauma? Will you break down or will you become stronger in the process? Please join Rabbi Simon Jacobson in this fundamental workshop as he shares with us a time tested proven formula - almost 2500 years old! - and learn the seven steps that lead us from loss to healing; a seven step process that offers us critical tools and methods to take us from life's darkest moments to not only heal - but to become stronger and greater than ever.

17 Aug 202229min