Jewish Healing Therapies
Healing From Terrorism Sickness

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Healing From Terrorism Sickness
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What Are Judaic Healing Therapies?

TRY THIS FOR THE NEXT 24 HOURS

1. Live, laugh, love and be happy. Deliberately speak and think positive thoughts about people and events.. If a negative thought enters your mind, visualize it leaving and replace it with a more positive one.

2. Look for the good in people. Overlook the bad.

3. Make time to relax your mind and body. Think of a beautiful scene, a sunset, a moonlit night, the ocean, etc. Let the scene quiet your mind and relax your body.

4. When tense and uptight about people and situations, take three deep breaths. Visualize the tension leaving your body as you exhale. Recall a happy event and enjoy the feeling.

5. Listen to quiet music and be still. Let it soothe your anxious spirit.

6. Learn to be amused by the weaknesses of yourself and others. Don't let those weaknesses upset or distract you.

7. Don't take yourself, others, or life too seriously.

8. Remember that good health requires a healthy body and a healthy mind.

9. Health of body, mind and spirit is within your control.

10. Learn to laugh and let laughter heal your spirit. Laughter is the best medicine.

11. Love your work and enjoy it. Change your attitude toward your work and the people with whom you come in contact, and joy will return to your life in abundance.

12. Love others as they are, not as you want them to be, and your world becomes a much more joyful place.

13. Remember that worry and fear are destructive. They rob you of happiness and joy. Let go of worry and fear and trust in a power greater than you.

14. Count your blessings each day.

15. Live fully, laugh heartily, relax daily, love completely and enjoy the journey.

Mike Moore



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"PEACE OF MIND"
Joshua Loth Liebman

(Excerpts)
"This is the gift that God reserves for His special proteges," he said. "Talent and beauty He gives to many. Wealth is commonplace, fame not rare. But peace of mind that is the fondest sign of His love. Most men are never blessed with it; others wait all their lives yes, far into advanced age for this gift to descend upon them".

I have come to understand that peace of mind is the characteristic mark of God Himself, and that it has always been the true goal of the considered life

Slowly, painfully, I have learned that peace of mind may transform a cottage into a spacious manor hall; the want of it can make a regal park an imprisoning nutshell.

The quest for this inner peace is constant and universal. Probe deeply into the teachings of Buddha, Maimonides, or Christ, and you will discover that they base their diverse doctrines on the foundations of a large spiritual serenity.

Analyze the prayers of troubled, overborne mankind of all creeds in every age and their petitions come down to the irreducible common denominators of daily bread and inward peace.

Especially today, when the prayers of men ascend, mourning and wailing to the Bestower of Gifts, they plead for an inward tranquillity that is both a fortress and a sanctuary.

And with reason. Modern man is treading a narrow defile that skirts an Inferno of such destruction as Dante could not envision nor depict. Stricken by psychic anxieties, cloven by emotional conflicts, beset by economic insecurities, assailed by political doubts and cynicisms, the plucked rooster, man, is a peculiarly vulnerable fowl as he struts along the path of civilization.

He has crowed a good deal in his time, rather bravely in spots. But now he begins to suspect that the ax of destiny is being sharpened for his neck. He trembles, pales, calls for madder music, stronger wine to drown the approaching spector of his fate. For the fact emerges that contemporary man, like T. S. Eliot's fatigued and pitiful Prufrock, is afraid!

In his fear he casts about for devices and techniques of salvation something that will carry him through new dangers
and give him sorely needed courage to face the old ones.

What he needs (what we all need) is not a set of reassuring
answers for no such formula of reassurance exists, but rather an inner equilibrium, a spiritual stability that is proof against confusion and disaster. Peace of mind must not be identified with ivory-tower escapism from the hurly-burly of life, nor is it, a negative conception of anesthesia. Rather, it enables us to accept the pummelings of fate and fortune with a kind of equanimity.

Serious-minded social reformers ask in all sincerity: "Have
men the right to peace of mind today? Is anyone morally justified even in contemplating this state when the world is in such a tumult of reconstruction?" We reply: "No
reconstructed society can be built on unreconstructed individuals. Personal unbalance never leads to social stability. And Peace of mind is the indispensable prerequisite of individual and social balance".

(End of Excerpts)

For more from this book...borrow it from your library and read its wisdom.

Addendum:
Judaism as well as other religeous traditions understand the healing value of inner contemplation and have recommended that their holy days serve as vehicles for the encouragement of meditation, self-communion and the serenity of a quiet mind.


Healing From Terrorism Sickness
By: Clarissa Pinkola Estes, Ph.D

In terrorism, the numbers of
persons affected are huge;
terrorism is meant to affect
thousands and millions of
people, all at the same time.
Most think terrorists' main
aim is to kill people and
destroy installations. This
is only secondary. (Yes, I
know that sounds unbelievable,
but it is so.)

The main goal of terrorism
is "intentional trauma" to
the living. The murder and
mayhem are SECONDARY goals.
The concept of doing ongoing
psychic injury to thousands
and millions "all at the same
time" is an important tactic
of terrorists.

Terrorists understand, if only
in their diseased unconscious's,
that accomplishing such will
unleash a greater communicable
and spreading "psychic infection"
than any biological or germ
warfare could ever hope to achieve.

This "infection" that terrorists
hope to circulate is that of
innocent persons becoming
afraid of life, afraid of the
future; of causing people
to put off the living of life,
to move in ways that are far
less than their previous free
selves.

The effect of living in such
a crouch hurts the human spirit
and heart. The main goal of
terrorism is intentional
psychological trauma. Murder
and mayhem are only secondary
and sometimes even tertiary
goals. Terrorism is willful
psychological assault; a
conscious and planned assault
against the minds and hearts
and spirits of a large group
of persons. I repeat this only
if it be necessary to press
past the reader's ego's
resistance to this hideous
truth: In terrorism, murder
and mayhem are secondary to
this primary goal of ruining
the hearts and hopes of others.

This is partly why terrorism
is difficult to comprehend by
reasoned minds as anything but
the most grotesque form of
manifest evil. We can barely
conceive of thinking to
psychically injure others so.

There are other secondary goals
to terrorism. Any and all of
them are the sickest imaginable.
But the above is how terrorists
seek to cast their net of
"sickness" over all survivors
and victims, over the living,
by trying to deprive you of
esperanza, fullest and freely
felt Hope.

By trying to limit your libre,
your Freedom, your living life
as a completely free person,
shoulders proud, head up, mind
on goodness and love for all
and pleasures that bring peace
and happiness. The "post-trauma
recovery list" contains the central
ways to proceed. Here are some
additional which are very specific:
It is peculiar to find how strongly
that poisonous net holds when one
is unaware of what it is made of,
and how easily it falls apart when
one consciously begins to contradict
its malicious urgings:

1) Refuse to dwell on what
psychically depletes you of hope,
contentment and peace of mind.
During post-trauma times,
sometimes an extremely difficult
or disheartening set of thoughts
attach themselves to us; almost
like a gang cruising around
looking to harass someone.
Terrorists are counting on
this to happen to many. Refuse
this set of thoughts. Use the
discipline of your mind.

2) Dwell in what strengthens you.
For some it is reading, other's
physical activity, others, crafts.
There are so many things and
combinations of things. Remember,
what brings you peace tends to be
the same as what strengthens you.

3) Live as normally as before
Do not let fear control you.
Take care of your body, your
mind and your spirit.

4) Rest (real rest, even if only
a few hours at night, even if,
like many are, awakening many
times in the night, do not
entertain "bad thoughts," do
not allow yourself to fall
into a pit of them. Think
instead of the greatest
beauty and love you know,
discipline your mind to stay
with those images; they are
medicine for the hurt..

5) Join up with people/matters/
groups that invigorate and create
positive energy for you.

6) You are no less than you
were last week. You can be more.
Regardless of fears, doubts or
insecurities, you can make the
choice to be uplifting, positive,
and optimistic to all those
who come into your life.

7) With regard to goodness and
things that are good for you and
others, do what you always do.
Do not cease goodness or pleasures
that bring good.

8) Continue to implement life
dreams. If you don't have one,
you're overdue. Get out your
thinking cap.

9) Use your intuition to guide
you through these days. It will
not fail you. Some call this
great gift that every person
possesses, insight, some call
it 'sense," some like us old
believers, call it guardian Angels.

Further Actions to
Take For Recovery:

1) Keep busy, do not sit and do
nothing. You are having a NORMAL
reaction, do not tell yourself
that you have lost your mind.

2) Talk to people - talk is
the most healing thing you can do.

3) Try not to cover up your
feelings by withdrawing or by
using alcohol. Talk your feelings
out. As many times as you need to.
There is no shame or selfishness
in this.

4) Reach out to others. They
really do care.

5) Spend time with others. Do
not isolate yourself. Ask other
people how they are doing.
Remember, they too may be
uncomfortable telling a
stranger of their fears.

6) Recognize that each person
telling their story over and
over is their way to heal.

7) In the ensuing days, find
things to do that feel rewarding
or refreshing. These need not
be big things, but things to
balance the tragedy.

8) When you feel bad, find a
person to talk to, and to cry
with, to tell of your anger
and other helpless feelings.
Don't keep it inside.

9) Your spiritual beliefs
will definitely help you through.

10) You definitely will be able
to help yourself and others better
if you will cleanse your feelings
and accept caring from others.
We all wish to be brave and strong
in the face of disaster.

We all wish to be looked up to
for our endurance and our efforts
to help others. If you truly care
for humanity, include yourself in
their numbers, by giving your own
inner feelings the voice and the
dignity they so deeply deserve.

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