Recognize Abuse

Many people are so used to hearing verbal abuse, both from others and their own "inner critic", that they do not always recognize it when it occurs. Because it sounds familiar, they don't recognize it.

Don't leave your inner child open to being beaten up. Start noticing your feelings. If you start feeling guilty or bad about yourself while someone is talking to you, then take a good hard look at how they are talking to you. Is he/she sharing their experience and speaking of its effect, or are they pointing out what wrong with you?

Anytime somebody points out what is wrong with you or makes you wrong, that person's own vulnerability is being covered by attacking you. We can learn to be conscious of what we are doing to each other and learn to move into a deeper place to say what we're really feeling without hurting another.


"Blessed are you the breath of life, the inter-breathing of the universe, who breathes into us the wisdom to know that we become holy by breathing together; by shaping our breath into words, and by shaping our words so that they aim towards wisdom'"


The (renewed) blessing before reading the TORAH.