!Slooooow Down

Teacher's Version Outline
1: Slooow Breath for everyone... and sing a song.
2: So the goal if this class is a bit different than some of the other Simcha Seminar classes. In the other classes I gave you great ideas on how to bring more joy into your life, but through adding stuff into your life. We suggested all sorts of new habits to generate more joy into your life.
For example, we spoke about adding daily exercise into our lives, adding time to write 'to do' lists, adding time to do cheshbon nefesh, to journal (along with blessing, eating and praying consciously). But there is a danger of adding all this new stuff into our lives. The danger is that we add so much stuff, even good stuff, we end up doing everything only 70 percent, rushing from mitzvah to mitzvah, without time to do things properly, and without time to enjoy life!
Tonight I'm talking about something totally opposite, I'm suggesting we cutting out stuff from our life and doing less! But the less we are doing we are gonna do better! We need to prioritize what we need to do, and what, well it's nice, but its clogging up our day, and not allowing us to focus on what's really important in our lives.
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Let's give ourselves more space, less on our to do list, so that we can focus on what we our doing and do it properly, with joy, and without distraction. As Paul Simon say, slow down you moving too fast, or as Threou says, less is more.
3: Princeton Study shows us that if you want to do good, do less! It's not only about wanting to do good, it's also about creating space to have time to do good.
4: My Africa Story .
When we rush from thing to thing we have not enough time to enjoy, so we need to find a balance.
What does Torah say about this?
1)1st piece of advice in all of Pirkey Avos, be patient! Great advice when making big decisions, wait for clarity to come!
2) Perhaps this is the ethos behind Shabbat, the day to process...
3) Gemara in Megillah says we have breaks in between portions just as Hashem gave Moshe space to let the Torah sink in.
4) Being present on the mountain Hashem says to Moshe, Rav Kook says be present and connected to whatever you are doing...
5) Lubavitcher Rebbe says you don't have to do anything- your soul is naturally happy!
6) This is the essence of Chanukah. Focussing on the small miracles of life, and not just the big ones. The Malbim story.
(7) Saying a Lshem Yichud before we do a Mitzah.
Practical application of this concept:
1: Zeh Hayom every day
2: focus on breathing.
3: Especially when daavning
4: And...write a to do list for tomorrow. Is there anything I want to cut out?
Is there anything we want to focus on doing with all my heart and all my concentration?

Part 1: Scientific Studies Showing how slowing down will help us act with kindness:
John Darley and Daniel Batson, two psychologists from Princeton University divided Princeton seminary students into two groups. The 1st was to present a sermon on the Good Samaritan parable (on looking out to do good for another), the second on another biblical topic. All students received their instruction in one building, and were then asked to walk over to another building where an audience was waiting to hear their sermon.
Before they were sent to give their talk, half of the seminarians were told "It will be a few more minutes till they are ready for you, but you might as well head on over.." The rest of the students were told "Oh you're late! They were expecting you a few minutes ago...so you'd better hurry."
On their way to their presentation, they encountered a man who was bent over and appeared to be in pain. The students had no idea that the person was really an actor, and that they were participating in an experiment.
About two thirds of those who were told they had time stopped to help the person in distress, while only a tenth of those who were in a rush stopped. The results were not effected by what the topic of their speech was.
Take Away: It's not about talking the talk, but about making time, that makes all the difference.

Henry David Thoreau:
“You must live in the present, launch yourself on every wave,
find your eternity in each moment.”

The Tanya writes that the G-dly portion of the soul need not search for happiness, it is, by it's very nature...happy!

Rav Kook➖Rest for the Sake of Work➖
“In all of your ways, know Him” (Mishlei 3:6).
One must search for God in everything one does. When praying, one must search for God by trying to focus on the words of prayer with deep concentration and a dedicated heart. One must not search for God in other matters at that moment.
Indeed, while involved in that specific action, it may be said that God can be found within that action and nothing else.

When studying Torah, one must realize that God is found in the very act of analyzing and trying to understand each idea. At that moment, God reveals Himself in that specific action and not in anything else.

And finally, when involved in gemilut chasadim (acts of kindness), one must search for God by trying to uncover the best possible way to help one’s friend.
is principle is true in all actions that a person does.

Do not all matters in the world uncover the Divine? Therefore, everything a person does should be understood as a mitzvah, because one must search for God in every action. We may accurately say that one who dedicates his or her entire mind and strength to performing every action with the greatest level of perfection knows God in all of his ways. (MA 2.2)

Cut Out to do more
Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity! Let your affair be as two or three, and not a hundred or a thousand: instead of a million count half a dozen.
- Henry David Thoreau
A no uttered from the deepest conviction is better than a yes merely uttered to please, or worse, to avoid trouble.
-Mahatma Ghandhi

Exercise:
1) What can you cut out of your life, so you can do what your doing with more focus and love?
2) Write out what a day in your life looks like if you are truly present...