A Gallup poll conducted in 2023 found that 49% of Americans reported feeling stressed frequently. This is up from 40% in 2017.
In 2024 APA’s latest Stress in America™ poll revealed that 7 in 10 adults reported the future of our nation (77%) as a significant source of stress in their lives, making it the most common source of significant stress in that year’s survey.
The economy was the second most common, with 73% of adults having reported it as a significant source of stress.
Generally speaking there is no doubt that stress and external pressures from the constant negative news, social media, financial pressures and toxic polarization, has taken a toll on the wellbeing of our society.
What can we do to change that (beyond changing the stressful dynamics)?
There is a Chassidic anecdote regarding a famous Chassid, known for his teachings, humility and genuine approach to sharing ideas with others, regarding when he came to visit New York for the first time in his life, after arriving from Russia.
He was taken on a trip to a skyscraper in Manhattan and went to to the top floor, where he went to the viewing platform. His friends noticed that his eyes filled with tears and he began to cry...
They asked him, why are you getting so emotional?
He responded, "all my life, I studied the idea, that if one lifts himself upwards and has a more elevated perspective, then the challenges and obstacles will become smaller. It was a concept that I studied and contemplated but never fully appreciated. However, now when I see the people running around in the streets below, the matchbox cars racing around, and tiny specks yelling at each other below, I have a newfound appreciation for this message, as indeed, when one lifts themselves higher, the dynamics of life, become a little smaller and easier to handle."
There is no doubt that there are a million dynamics at play as we deal with negativity, stress, antisemitism, political friction and divisiveness and more, yet this week's Torah portion, contains a powerful idea of one of the things we can do, when you feel like your inner core is about to be overwhelmed by the stresses of floodwaters of life.
The Baal Shem Tov, the founder of the Chassidic movement shared, that the word for Ark's as in Noah's Ark in this week's portion, also means "word". He would teach, that when threatened with the floodwaters of stress, financial pressures and more, make the time to study the words of Torah and connect with the words of prayer.
Not as an escape from reality, not to run away from dealing with the challenges at hand, but to lift yourself a little higher, in how you then view, handle and then navigate those same stressors.
We cannot control everything out there, but we can always work on our own responses, so that we continue to be beacons of light and to others, and don't get sucked into or become part of the stress.
As the Baal Shem Tov would say, "Bo El HaTeiva", "Come to and inside the Words", take a moment of each day and each week, to immerse your mind in the teachings of Torah, of a moment of prayer and contemplation, and let yourself rise a little higher, so that your ability to then deal with everything, is more profound, strengthened, and has a purposeful perspective in how to navigate the stressors and challenges of life.
We several powerful in person classes coming up as you can read below, and of course online on sites like Chabad.org, there are so many ways to listen and learn and create those holy moments, when we rise a little higher, so that can continue to lift up the world around us.
If you would like to hear more about these teachings, please join us tomorrow for the Shabbat Services, where we will share more ideas.
Shabbat Shalom & Good Shabbos
Yisroel