“I Don’t Feel Like It”*

Do you suffer from “I don’t feel like it -itus”?  Here is a cure.

You know you should get some exercise but you have a list of excuses to choose from.

“I didn’t sleep well.”

“I had a fight with my significant other.”

“I had a bad day at the office.”

Etcetera. ecetera…Yet you know from experience that if you did workout, you always feel better after. So it’s important to make that extra effort to do the workout. Making that extra effort is now part of the workout. It’s as though you began with some heavy lifting. You have trained yourself to overcome an emotion that stands in the way of your progress and growth.

Kabbalists speak of “Head over Heart.” The head is above the heart, so that metaphorically the head should overrule the heart. The head represents the intellect that knows what is right to do. The heart represents the emotions which are often impulsive and when acted on alone send us off the path of our improvement and growth. Ideally, the head and heart will eventually find a balance to work together, but until we find that balance we should let the head overrule.

Beyond exercise, which is for ourselves, the same head over heart approach applies to our dealings with others. Too often we are not as kind, compassionate, or charitable to others because at that moment we “don’t feel like it.” When we are feeling up and in a good mood it’s easy to be giving. Giving of ourselves is hardest, just like exercise, when we’re not in the mood. Just like exercise, that is precisely the time to make that extra effort knowing that you will feel better after. Eventually, through the training like experience it will become easier and easier to automatically do the right thing.  So whenever you find yourself saying “I don’t feel like it,” tell yourself that that’s all the more reason to do it.

“When I first came to America I was poor, yet I always gave to charity. It always made me feel richer.” – Sam Fox, my Father, a Holocaust Survivor

Side effects will include a more constant feeling of joy from “feeling like it”, which will lead to doing the good and right thing more and more.

Heart and Soul

*An Oldie But Goodie updated from the original sent 10/10/11