Episode 180 - Talk Therapy with God

One hour of personal prayer can change your whole day - maybe even your whole year.

If that hits you, save this and send it to someone who’s been carrying too much alone.

We spend so much time trying to fix everything in our heads.

But sometimes the breakthrough comes when you finally say it out loud.

Not polished. Not perfect. Just honest.
Speak to Hashem like you’d speak to a loving parent.
Use your own words - even if it’s messy.

Do it in the car, on a walk, wherever you can be real.
That private conversation can become the most powerful part of your day.

It’s where clarity comes back.

It’s where strength comes back.

It’s where you remember you’re not doing life alone.

Maybe the real shift starts there.

#personalprayer  #emunah    #jewishinspiration  #faithoverfear  #thetrustfactorpodcast  #jewishpodcasts

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It's tox therapy that oftentimes when you have that conversation, even if it's with a stranger, you will come up with potential answers to your problem. Here you're doing the very same thing. It's a form of tox therapy, but who are you talking to? You're talking to the one who has the power to give you real solutions to your problem, not just pretend to write something down and look at the clock and think, how many more people can I see today because I need to make some more money. You're talking to your creator who brought you here and wants to genuinely know what's bothering you, that you acknowledge that you're in a relationship with him and that you have the ability to ask for more and to give back and to manage that relationship. So if you're doing it, great. He's gonna listen all day long and he has the ability to provide. The trust factor is the ticket to a better life. The trust factor shows you how to get through the life. Good morning, everybody. Welcome to another episode of the Trust Factor Podcast. We're in the month of Elul. We're in the month that leads us into the new year. Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. I don't care how secular of a Jew you are, you know what those two holidays represent. That is the platform, that's the springboard that takes us into the rest of the year. Just like Shabbat is the source of all of the blessings of the rest of the week, literally every single day after Friday night till Saturday night, every single day feeds off of the energy that came down on Shabbat. All of the things that we achieved on that incredible day are the fuel for the rest of the week. And so too it goes for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. The entire year will follow Rosh Hoshana, the new year, and the Yom Kippur that follows. So take full advantage, my friends. We're in the time right now where you can benefit from it in a huge way. There are extra powers in the world to allow you to up your game right now. Take advantage of it. What's one of the best ways to take advantage of it? To do exactly what we've been talking about for the past couple days. The idea of personal prayer. I want to give you a distinguishing character trait between both of them. There's personal prayer and then there's structured prayer. Even within the structured prayer, there's room for personal prayer. Why? That shows you that if you don't have a sitter, if you don't have the book that tells you how to pray, it's not a problem. You can use your own words. And it's preferred in many situations to use your own words, to reach out to your creator, to your father in heaven, and say, I'm in a jam, or thank you, or this is what I need today, or whatever it is, use your own words. There is a time and place and a very good reason to use the structured prayer every day because it breaks through certain barriers and channels that exist in upper realms that we don't understand. Our sages understood this. And therefore, when they compiled this formal structured prayer, if you only begun to understand the wisdom on every single line, then you would not avoid using that structured prayer. Do everything you can to utilize it. It's a powerful tool to ensure that your prayers reach the destination. But you can also use and are encouraged to use your own personal words. Even slang, whatever your language is, it doesn't matter. Have a conversation with your spiritual father the same way that you would speak to your physical father. Life will change for you by leaps and bounds. One thing we talked about yesterday was this concept that stuck in my head. That it could be that there is an individual who is a street sweeper, somebody in maintenance, in a position that doesn't get notoriety and fame. He's making a meager salary, nothing special. He's somebody who often gets overlooked. And yet the personal prayer that comes out of that person's lips could be enough to stop a world war. Understand, that's how powerful your personal prayer is. When Hashem is occupied listening to your desires for good, how to make this world a better place. Tell me, Hashem, you created this world not as a place to torture, not as a place to make us crazy. You created this world in order for us to benefit. Yes, there's going to be difficult times, but how difficult and how often depends entirely on us. And so if we don't want it to be difficult, it doesn't have to be. If you want it to be difficult, it can be, it can be very difficult. And we see, guys, let's be real, life is difficult for so many people. They're not able to withstand. That's why we have this idea of MAID, medical assistance in dying in Canada is quickly jockeying to become the top three causes of death in Canada. Last time I checked, which was last year, and it's only a new program. It's only a couple few years old. Last time I checked, it was number five. The fifth leading cause of death in Canada is at the hands of doctors by assisted suicide. That's a reality. May not sit well with you, but it's a very sad reality that people are not able to find joy in this world, that they are inundated and overcome with stress and fear and anxiety and all of the challenges that come with that. You don't have to suffer. You do not have to suffer. That is a guarantee. If you're following the instructions of the Torah, if you're listening to the words that I'm giving over through the Garden of the Luna, every single page is a recipe for success. And not only that, it is an antidote for the evil inclination, meaning it's an antidote for anxiety and depression and hatred and jealousy and all of the other negative traits that bring a person down to the point where they're either physically ill or emotionally ill, and they just can't make this life work out. And so they sign up for this thing called MAID. And they're expanding the options of what's allowed to be considered eligible for medical assistance and dying. Mental health, it's already there. Now they're trying to make it even easier to say that even anxiety, and who's to determine what level of anxiety, but the doctors are trying to make it so that if you say I'm anxious, they can kill you. You think I'm joking because it sounds ridiculous. Look it up, go online, and you will see. Unfortunately, I'm not making any of this up. It doesn't have to be like that. It can be positive, it can be beautiful, it could be meaningful, it could be purposeful, it could be all these amazing things every day. You could choose to see the beauty, you could choose to have that connection with your creator rather than, God forbid, rushing to get away from what you determine is not good because of the actions, the choices that you've made, or the lack of studying the manual. He gave you the manual when he brought you here. Just like a caring father, when he dropped you off, he said, Here, here's a manual, here's your guide. Follow the guide. Don't go it alone. If you go it alone, you can end up in a really, really bad place. Here's the manual. Use it. Read it every day. Keep it by your bed. Investigate down deep. If you don't understand it, get somebody who does and have them explain it to you on a deep and meaningful level, and your life will be so much better as a result. So let's read. We were saying, why is it so difficult then? If I just finish telling you now that this is the secret to life, connecting back to your creator, falling in love with his Torah, reading from the manual, doing the personal prayer, and connecting back to him, if that is the secret recipe for success in life, then tell me why isn't everybody doing it? Why is it so difficult for people to connect back to this concept of a creator, to this concept of a religion? And the answer, as we said yesterday, is the evil inclination. He is your opponent. He is the one who tries to sink you. That's his job. And he's been around for a very, very long time. And if you think you're smart, he's chewed up and spit out many much stronger than you. So you can't take him lightly. You have to take him very seriously. How do you do that? You give him the respect that he deserves. Know that you have a formidable opponent. When you're watching a basketball game, when you're watching any pro sports, when it gets down to the end, to the finals, the championships, those two teams that are matched up are the best of the best. And you better believe that each one reveres the other. Each one studies the other. They sit for days and weeks and months studying the moves of every single player on that opposing team and every strategy they've ever employed. Why? Because they know that they're dangerous. They want to win in this battle. But they also know they're very aware that that opponent can also beat them. And they don't want that. And the more they don't want that, the more they will prepare for it. It's the same idea. He's our opponent. Study him. Figure out what he does to make you fail. When you figured that out, then you can put mechanisms in place to be able to overcome when he does, because there's only so many things that he can employ, that he's been employed. And you have him on your side. So you can never really compare it to pro sports because at the end of the day, there's a creator who runs this world and he's on our side. He wants us to overcome, he wants us to come up victorious. He created the evil inclination. He dictates to it. This you can do, and this you cannot do. So if you want to win, the easiest way to win is to have the big boss on your side. But it's still a challenge because he wants you to be tested. He wants to know what's in your heart. Why are you doing the things that you're doing? Is it because you're looking for the reward or because you fear punishment? Or is it because you really know that I'm here and that you love me and that I love you? And that we together can make sure that your life is a life of bliss, purpose, and meaning. You and your entire family. The more you want that, the more he wants it for you. So let's read and see what it says. The evil inclination does the utmost to weaken a person and discourage him from doing any solitary personal prayer. Why? Because he knows the power of prayer. He knows that a street sweeper can stop a world war. And he will do anything that he can to stop that from happening because he wants control. He tells you, what are you crazy? What do you think he'll accomplish by wasting an hour and talking to the trees, going out into the field, meditating? Who are you talking to? There's nobody listening. That's what the atheists of the world are telling you. That's what secularism tells you. What are you doing? You know, before we had Bluetooth devices, before we had Hen Shri in the cart, I'm old enough to remember. If you were talking to God in the car, which a lot of people do, don't kid yourself. You might think they're on Bluetooth, but they're not. Back then, if you were talking in the car, people would look and they would look to see is there anybody else in the car with you? And if there isn't, they would go, okay, this guy's cuckoo. This guy's lost his mind. Stay away from him, right? That's what it used to be back then. But one of the blessings that God gave us was hands-free and Bluetooth. Now, you could speak to them from the second you get into your car until the second you get to your destination. And nobody would know the difference. You could be as passionate as you want, you can shake your hands, you can do anything you want. And people will think you're on a serious call. This guy's closing a big deal. Oh, this guy's fighting with somebody. Oh, whatever it is, there's an excuse. You can look as nuts as you want. Today you're not nuts because there's Bluetooth. So utilize that opportunity to speak to your creator when you're traveling, on your way to work, on the way back. Whenever you're in the car is a great opportunity. Turn off that radio. It's junk. I stopped listening to the radio 20 years ago. I promise you, I used to listen to it every single day. I used to have it on permanently. I had my favorite stations. I would flip between them. I have not done that in 20 years. It's junk. It's designed to make you miserable. It's all negative, anyways. And even the music in between, there's more talk today than there is music. Why? Because it's all about manipulation. Stay away from that junk. If you're going to do anything, if you're going to listen to anything, listen to Torah lectures. Go online. Listen to podcasts. And then when you're in between podcasts and Torah lectures, speak to your creator about what you just learned and tell him, I'm going to commit to doing this. It sounded great. I like what Jesse said. He's on point. I'm going to introduce that in my life and I'm going to start today, Hashem. I'm making that commitment and I need your help. And then do it. Implement it in that car. Make your car your sanctuary. You want to talk about using your vehicle for the right purposes, for the purpose of a mitzvah? You know what happens? You want a new car? You want a better car? You want a nicer car? That's how you do it. Utilize the tool that he gave you for the best purpose possible. And he will make sure that you have a car all the time. Why? Because he knows whatever chance he gets in his car, it's our time together. We have a conversation together. So what's going to happen if I don't have a car? Right? Now all of a sudden my time with him may get cut down drastically or even disappear for a little while because now I have to replace that with a carpool. Not so easy to be screaming and yelling or having a conversation and pouring your heart out to Hashem when you're surrounded by strangers, right? So Hashem says he needs a car. Why? Because I want him to have a car, because I want to have that connection with him. It's the same thing with your house. You know, oftentimes we think, God, what are you doing? I use my house for good. I host people and um I bring in Torah lecturers and I host meals all the time. People stay in my house when they're passing through. I use my house for a mitzvah. My car, I use it for a mitzvah. So why are you making my finances difficult on me? Why is it that I have a hard time making my months in, paying the mortgage, paying the car payments, all these different things? Make it easy on me. You owe it to me because I use it for a mitzvah. It's not how it works. How it works is Hashem says, I gave you the house so that you could put a mezuzah on your door, so that you can host people, so that you can feed people, so that you could bring Torah and educate your children in the ways of Torah in that house. I gave you a car so that you can go to synagogue and pray. I gave you a car so you could help the less fortunate get rides to synagogue and get rides to the places they need to do, take people to the hospital who can't get there otherwise. That's the reason I gave you them in the first place. It's not that he owes us, it's that we have to be grateful to him for having given us all these things. Not sure how I got here, but the idea being that you are finding ways to connect back to your creator. Not that he owes us, but that we owe him and we want to connect back to him, to be grateful and to continue to receive the things that we want to receive. So let's get back into it. A wise reader or a wise listener will surely conclude that no matter what, we have to drop everything else and designate an hour for personal prayer. Daily personal prayer is a new lease on life, a special sweetness. When you come out of a session of personal prayer, the more powerful it was, the more you connected back to your creator in your thoughts and your words and your feelings, you literally come out with a new lease on life. It's like the best therapy session that you could ever have. You know, there's this idea that's taken hold in in modern history called talk therapy, where you're talking to somebody who doesn't care. Somebody who's looking at the clock and making pretending to make notes, but they really don't care because they understand that just by virtue of you talking out your problems, nine times out of ten, you're gonna find your own solutions. I'll give you an example. Just yesterday, I was working with somebody who's a friend of mine, but who's also in the HRAC business, and we're talking business. And I've been waiting for him to come over so that we could talk about installing an air conditioning unit. And waiting and waiting and waiting, and finally he comes in and we're having a conversation. And now it's a brainstorm session. He's throwing out problems, challenges, ideas. It's not a straightforward setup. I'm countering back with different ideas, trying to understand what he's trying to tell me. And together we figured out that potentially, not yet, there was a completely different approach, one that neither of us had thought about for weeks, that could save me a lot of time and a lot of money. So easy to do, so easy to implement, I could do it myself. But had I not had that session to talk with them and bounce ideas off of each other, I never would have come there. Now, I'm not sure if it's going to work or not, but that's besides the point. The point is it's tox therapy that oftentimes when you have that conversation, even if it's with a stranger, you will come up with potential answers to your problem. Here, you're doing the very same thing. It's a form of tox therapy, but who are you talking to? You're talking to the one who has the power to give you all of the things that you are uttering, to give you real solutions to your problem, not just pretend to write something down and look at the clock and think, how many more people can I see today because I need to make some more money. You're talking to your creator who brought you here and wants to genuinely know what's bothering you and wants to hear from you that you acknowledge that you're in a relationship with him and that you have the ability to ask for more and to give back and to manage that relationship. And that's what he wants. So if you're doing it, great. He's gonna listen all day long and he has the ability to provide. We'll finish with this. One of my distinguished teachers told me that when a person ascends to the heavenly court after 120 years, the heavenly judges will open up a big book, a giant book, and that book represents an individual's life, the story of a person's life, where every thought, utterance, and deed is recorded. It says, I in Goa, I was in Shamat. There's an eye that watches, there's an ear that hears, and everything that we do in this planet 120 years, everything, even the things we don't acknowledge because we're not focusing on them, but our eyes see them, so our soul records them, it's all recorded in the heavens. So he says there's a book when you get there. Each page represents a day in that person's life. On every page where it's written that the person did an hour of personal prayer, the page is turned. Next page, oh, okay, he prayed here, next page, until they get to a page where the person did not. On a day with no personal prayer, the person is meticulously judged for every thought, utterance, and deed of that particular day. You'll remember a couple days ago I told you, whatever is judged here is not judged there when you're praying. And in your prayer, you're judging your own deeds. You're becoming aware, like I talked about yesterday. You're becoming present. That's Torah. I'm here. I'm aware of my surroundings, I'm aware of the people I'm impacting. And I'm not just talking emotionally or spiritually or in business. I'm saying, where am I standing right now physically? Is there a fire in front of me and people are running to get away, and I'm standing here oblivious to the rest of the world because I'm in Lala Land, which is where most people are, or am I dialed in? Am I aware constantly of my position physically, emotionally, and spiritually? And I could tell you that if you want to win at this game of life, you're going to be the latter and not the former. Have an amazing day, my friends. We'll chat tomorrow. Thank you for spending time with us on the Trust Factor Podcast. If you've heard something today that moved you, save this episode and share it with someone who might need to hear it. Be sure to subscribe so you don't miss upcoming conversations that challenge, empower, and uplift. And if you're on social media, connect with us. Leave your thoughts, drop a quote that resonated with you. Hashtag the TrustFactor Podcast. Until next time, keep growing in your trust and keep living with purpose. I'm Jesse Revivo, and this has been the Trust Factor Podcast. Thanks for listening.