Take Back Your Power

 
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How sliding off your phone could provide the peace and happiness you’ve been searching for 

For thousands of years, the Jewish people have been practicing the religious tradition of Shabbat. Each week, families around the world sign off from all their weekly, mundane activities. Removing any distractions from their lives for 25 whole hours. 

For most people, this includes no telecommunications, no work, no heavy lifting or carrying, no cooking or preparing hot food, no cleaning, shopping, discussing of financial matters, the list continues to minute details observed by more religious communities. 

This practice is a spiritual permission to pause and take an account of ones personal life, without the noise and distraction of life. 

A practice of this magnitude could seem outdated to some, especially considering of intertwined technology has become in our modern day lives. However, many argue that it is more relevant now more than it ever has been. 

The peace and serenity so many of us are seeking, whether it be through yoga, meditation, contemplative walks, or journaling sessions are all snippets of the all encompassing peace that is experienced during these moments of Shabbat calm. 

Because of this, more and more young minds and hearts are choosing to explore this ritual as more than just an experiment, and instead, creating it as a lifestyle. 

Each week, come sundown on Friday, people are trading this happy hour to happy day. 25 hours of presence, preplanned meals, get togethers, spiritual readings and Jewish ideals, all to be discussed around the meal table, with family, friends, and strangers. 

Not one soul at the table distant or distracted. Instead, conversations are started, relationships sparked, ideas formulated. A true energy fills the room. Some would call it presence, others an undivided attention of the day. 

In a society as the one we live in today, too many of us are looking beyond the present moment for our peace and happiness. It’s practices like these that guide us to true feelings of fulfillment. Meeting our personal, physical, and spiritual needs. Fueling us up emotionally, and releasing the burden of societal pressure. 

Where does serenity come from? It comes from silence. It comes from an inner knowing of being exactly where you are meant to be, and when you are meant to be. 

Choosing to keep Shabbat is one of the most powerful tools and practices one can adopt to begin to journey to Eden. A path that we call peace. 

For more on the practice of Shabbat reference : or contact your local rabbi to see how you can begin integrating Shabbat into your life.

Alexa Eden