Sunday, April 6

I know a lot of people who are what you‘d call hard-core Kabbalah students; attending holidays, scanning Zohar, doing acts of charity, reading the books, etc. Yet they're not really changing. And they ask me, 'why, why am I still in this dysfunctional relationship or dealing with low-self esteem or battling this addiction? Why aren't I changing?"

I tell them what my father and teacher Rav Berg has often told me, "Change is what happens when the pain of staying the same is greater than the pain of changing."

The thing is, we don't want to wait for the pain of cancer to motivate us to stop smoking, or the heartbreak of a lover cheating on us to realize we're in a bad relationship. We want to imagine what the pain would feel like now so we don't have to go through it later.

What do you want to change about yourself? Pick one thing and imagine the pain you will feel down the line if you continue doing what you are doing.