Let's Unpack It with Lauren Pearl
Conversations about decluttering our minds, getting organized and living our best lives.
Let's Unpack It with Lauren Pearl
S01E02 with Rebetzen Shira Teleshevsky on Kabbalah Diaper Bags and more
Rebetzen Shira Teleshevsky is the founder and director of the Women's Spirit Center. She created a series of meditations based on Hasidic teachings that help to guide us on a path of connection to our authentic selves. You can feel Shira's love, her authentic self, so it was amazing to have an opportunity to speak with her.
We talked about New Year resolutions whether it's the Jewish New Year or the New Year in December, we tend to stop and think about what's going to be different in the new What am I going to do, how will I act, differently?
Shira and I talked about the concept of T'Shuvah - returning to yourself. As human beings, we have tremendous power, potential, and relationship with Hashem, with the Divine.
With Shira Teleshevsky on Kabbalah and how to teach it whether someone believes in Gd or not, decluttering our minds and spirits, how the perfect diaper bag can be a life changer, how to S'more or not to S'more can be a breakthrough decision and so much more!
I hope you enjoy my conversation with Shira!
Hi, I'm Lauren Pearl, and welcome to Let's Unpack It, where we talk about physical, mental, and emotional clutter. It's easy to see physical clutter, not so easy to see the mental and emotional clutter that we have. packed away, but we can feel it and it's a heavy load to carry. Want to talk about how you can become aware of what you've packed away? How to let go of it to find your calm, joy, productivity, organization, and a lot more. I'm a huge fan of organizing. I started organizing when I was about six years old. I loved putting my books in descending height order. It was very calming for me. Growing up in a chaotic home that wasn't calm at all, organizing felt good to me and I came to turn it into a business. Fifteen years ago I founded Pearl Concierge Services and I have since helped hundreds of clients, primarily female clients. To get unpacked, to get decluttered and organized. So there's so many interesting conversations that we're going to be having. And I really look forward to you sharing in all of it. So let's unpack it. I am so. I'm so honored to be speaking with Rebetson Shira Chelichevsky, the founder and director of the Women's Spirit Center. She created a series of meditations based on Hasidic teachings that help to guide us on a path of connection to our authentic selves. You can feel Shira's love, her authentic self, so it's amazing to have this opportunity to Speak with her this morning. Good morning. My dear friend, Shira Telechevsky. How are you? Thank God. Good morning, Lauren. So wonderful. I thank you. I'm really so honored that such a busy person as yourself would make time to have this conversation with me. So I'm so happy to hear your voice and I always love talking to you. Thank you so much, Lauren. I'm so grateful and humbled by the opportunity. I love talking with you as well. I just want to give a tiny background on how I met you because... 13 years ago, I had moved to Santa Monica and I was sitting at Pete's Coffee, hoping to meet some new people. And I saw a rabbi strolling his little baby. I was like, okay, that is a rabbi. I went up to him and said, rabbi, he was so nice. And he said, Oh, you should come to my house. My wife is there and you should meet her. So I did. Walked with him to your house, and then I met you, and you are, ah, you are such a special person. People always say beautiful inside and out, but. You really are. You have such a special soul. And anytime I have a chance to talk to you about Judaism, about children, about life, everything, it's such a pleasure. So thank you for being here. I wanted to talk about the new year, the Jewish new year coming up and, and whether it's the Jewish new year or the new year in December, a lot of us stop and think about it. What's going to be different. What am I going to do? Like what happened in this last year? There's a word. Called Shuvah. Could you talk about what that is? Yes. You know, the word to Shuvah means to return. And it's returning each and every one of us as human beings has this tremendous, tremendous power, potential, and relationship with Hashem, with the Divine. I remember once as a young teenager, my dad asked me to teach Kabbalah and learn Kabbalah with a woman who would, who was a really wonderful, incredible human being, a very strong donor to our school. He wanted one of the students to study with her and to really give her a glimpse or an experience of what she was giving over. You know, I went to her home and she, she was just such a dynamic. Incredible woman. I was so enriched for those conversations we would have, but she started off with saying, you know, I'm really interested in Kabbalah and all of all everything it has to offer. But I'm asking if you can teach me Kabbalah without saying the word God, she said, because she's not sure that she believes in that, you know, and it was such a great, great opportunity and learning experience for me because it made me learn. In a dynamic way in order to express it to someone who might not believe and not be able to use those words. So when I say Hashem, and I know that we have a wide audience here, I'm talking about the divine creator of all of us. Yes. One of us is here with a very specific intention and purpose that we might not be aware of, but if we can let go and almost like swim in the water and become aware of where we're being guided sometimes, and seek out, let's say, spiritual wisdom, you know, and we're talking about the word Teshuvah coming from the Torah. It's talking about Returning Hashem, returning to divine and returning to who we are. And it comes with a very big context to return. The word is used a lot in terms of, you know, thinking about what we have done in the past. There's a few steps of Teshuvah. One of them is charata, which is such a beautiful word. It means regret. And why it's so beautiful is because it's such a distinction between regret and guilt. I think a lot of people think that teshuva is repentance, which is a kind of a punitive or negative thing. Yeah. Yeah. Well, actually, I know it's important to say that the actual first step of teshuva returning to the divine is to leave behind that which is not. Be fitting that we did or that we said, or that we're thinking. And I almost want to talk about it as a pattern. So instead of just thinking, you know, having guilt or shame for thoughts, speech, or, or things we may have done, we have to look about it at the pattern. So we have to leave that pattern. And it's sometimes it's just a simple thing of thinking. Why? What is it that gets me there? Is it because I'm bored? Is it because I'm lonely? Is it because I'm ashamed? Is it because I'm just so, so stressed out by the situation? I'm trying to control something that I cannot control. It is a challenge to not play God, not trying to control things that we can't. Control, and then we don't know, but still being in action, doing things, but not trying to control things. The last sentence you just said, like still trying to be in action, doing good things, but yet not trying to control things. I think that's perhaps for me, myself, one of the hardest areas of life is to know that fine line between, is this in my hands? to do something about and then full force have clarity and vision and do something about it or even think Visualize and pray about it and all that stuff, you know Something that I meant to let go of and really for me It's actually it's so connected because when I give over the piece that's not in my hands I'm so much more able to take action for that which is in my hands I get frozen when I don't know what it is. Is this something I have control over or not? And even worse, I'm trying to control that, which I actually realized. There's a piece in here that I'm trying to control. Right. When I was planning my son's Bar Mitzvah. And I was so, this was my, my oldest son's Bar Mitzvah. And. There, there was something that I was trying so hard to do to get, and I was thinking what it became. I realized something so fascinating because I was going to the bank that morning, and on the screen had something like providing control to parents, and I was like laughing at that screen because I was like, it just, I was so stressed out about one specific thing and it was like, should I get a s'more station? Or not, I love it. And I really want to know if you did. And now I want a s'more about it. I want, because on the one hand, what my son in vision was, he did not want a s'more station. He wanted them to be making s'mores on their own. Okay. I would love to do that, but I cannot let a bunch of little kids and older kids and doing this on the fire by themselves. No, right. And dangerous and very messy. Yeah. That the reason was so hard for me to just say, yes, I am getting a s'more station instead. Actually, what I'm going to do is because I realized I was trying to control something. And what I was trying to control was That the atmosphere be like this beautiful, wonderful, connecting atmosphere. Everybody was just going to be really present. It was planned to be around Longbow Omer and he wanted that style. And then I realized something really powerful. I actually can put all the steps in place. With the intention that this be such a celebratory evening that really celebrates who he is with his friends and family and our friends, and be something that he feels so honored by and, and such a holy thing. Because it, there is, the intention is for the sake of Hashem, just the holiness of the moment to celebrate this and that there's actually, and the joy about it and the joy, right? And what celebrating him. who your son is. My sister said it to me so beautifully on the phone. She said as a preschool teacher, I can set up the most wonderful centers and sometimes it's just going to flow and it's going to be amazing. And sometimes I don't even have the most beautiful centers, but it flows and they're all into it and everything. And sometimes I'm going to work really hard and set up. Beautiful centers and it just doesn't flow and then I was immediately able to say I'm getting the small station And it was so interesting because it was like I can't actually control this i'm gonna set the intention I'm gonna try but I cannot actually control this and at that moment. I set myself a new little Spiritual tool and that is this that my personal Antidote to control is curiosity. Oh, wow Love that You know, personal antidote control is, it's interesting because one of the greatest, most important One of the attributes we learn about in Hasidic or Jewish mystical teaching is to walk in this world with Betel. Betel? Betel. It's a Hebrew word. Right. So B E T E L, I would think. Like, to say it. Betel. Got it. It needs to be nullified or surrendered to Hashem. And in actuality, I guess it's also seeing ourselves within the whole context of the divine plan. And we're just a tool. Rabbi Sheistav says it so beautifully. He says, be a tool. Like we're just a tool in the hands of Hashem. We don't have our ego. carrying the ego around. And for me, curiosity really helps me to do that. Walking around, being curious, what Hashem wants from me in the moment really helps me in this interesting way to be open to where I am being divinely guided and to be humble to that. I can walk into a aware of the gifts Hashem is giving me. I'm curious as to how to share them. I know what I would like to share, but still holding onto that curiosity. And so importantly in relationships, you know, it's so simple. I'm trying to buckle a two year old in the car right after that experience happened and I became clear that my antidote to control is curiosity. You know, why don't. You want me to buckle you and he says, because I want to drink a cup of water first and it was so simple. It was so simple. And how much time do we spend in the struggle, instead of what you're saying is to let go. And be curious about the situation. And earlier you said something about let go and swim in the water. I love that. Probably because I was swimming a couple of days ago and it's the most beautiful feeling. It's like, Oh, I love this. So effortless and. So beautiful. I feel like I'm in another world. And then the moment we panic or think, how do I look like, you know, in learning and learning how to swim as an adult, it's like the moment I panic, I lost it, but panic is so connected to trying to control in a certain way. And feeling like we need to be in control really more of the feeling that we need to be in control when talking about the new year coming and talking about wanting to be in control that people make New Year's resolutions or, you know, try to think of ways to do a better job in this next year, or, um, you know, and, and I think that There's a lot of emphasis on well, especially in my work where I'm decluttering and organizing clients all the time and talking about it all the time. There's so many physical ways to organize our belongings. I would love to have you tell us. What's your thoughts about how we can unpack and organize our minds and our spiritual selves? What does mystical Judaism tell us about that? Wow. Wow. So much. So much. So much. There's so many ways to answer this question, so I'm going to take a moment and start with the first thing you said. Um, making new year resolutions and it's very interesting because it ties back exactly to what we were just talking about that the steps of Teshuva include leaving the patterns of the past, leaving the actions or think and stopping to do them refraining from it, regretting the past, and Kabbalah, Allah said, taking on resolutions for the future. And this is such a, such a beautiful question about organizing our mind. For the new year, organizing our spirit, organizing our past experiences and our minds. So, and letting go, letting go so much, just like there's physical clutter, there's spiritual clutter and mental clutter that just bogs us Telachevsky. She is something else. I could just listen to her forever. Um, so I hope that you got a lot from listening to my conversation with her. So very hard to condense. the conversation into highlights, but here, because there were so many, but here are a few of them. Shira tells a story that when she was in high school, her father, Rabbi Kunin, asked her to go and study Kabbalah with a woman who was, um, in their community, and Shira really loved studying with this woman. Um, when they first started studying together, the woman asked Shira if she could teach her Kabbalah without using the word God. Um, and Shira talks about how what a great opportunity that was for her when a learning experience, um, because it, she, it taught her how to express her beliefs and her feelings and way of looking at the world with someone who might not believe in God or not be able to use those words. It's highlight number two, chachuvah is a word from the Torah and it means to return to the divine, to return who, to who we really are and leave behind that which is not fitting that we did or we said or that we're thinking, but that instead of having guilt or shame for our thoughts, our speech or the things we have done, that we should look at it as a pattern. Thank you. It's a pattern that we need to leave behind. And sometimes it's as simple as thinking, why? Why, what is it that gets me there? Is it because I'm bored? Is it because I'm lonely? Is it because I'm ashamed? Is it because I'm just so, so stressed out by a situation? Highlight number three. It can be a real challenge to leave behind the need to control something that we can't control. So, the key is to let go of the stress and futility of trying to control while still being in action. And highlight number four. On New Year's resolutions and organizing our mind for the New Year, just like there's physical... Physical clutter, there's spiritual clutter and mental clutter that bogs us down. Letting go is so much a part of organizing our spirit, our past experiences, and our mind. Thank you so much for listening and you're welcome, of course, to share with anyone that you think might find it interesting or meaningful. And please take a moment to follow us. Looking forward to sharing more amazing conversations with you soon. To access your account, say your account number now, one digit at a time, or enter it. Like, guilt is such a big one. Oh, huge. Such a big one. And we think we're being spiritual sometimes when we're getting stuck in it, but it's actually not holy to get stuck. In that space, we need to take these moments to do the steps of Teshuvah and something came to me recently, which is that obviously, obviously, Hashem needs to forgive us. I mean, Hashem made us as such multifaceted human beings. We did not create ourselves. We did not create all the temptations and all the challenges or circumstances. We didn't create that since Hashem is such a compassionate and great and infinite one who, who has such a deep unconditional love for each and every one of us at the same time gives us so much power. There must be in the system a way to just. Erase mistakes, you know, like it wouldn't be fair otherwise because Hashem does give us so much power Sometimes one of the kids will say how are you just letting them get away with that? And and at a certain point i'll say listen I told them what they need to do and now they have free choice if god can give us free choice I can also give them free choice Oh, wow There's a huge amount of trust that comes along with that free choice that Hashem gives us Hashem wants us to be dynamic Partners in creation We're partners, we're co creating this beautiful, beautiful world, life, and journey that Hashem has in mind for us. But when you talk about unpacking, I think there's a few layers and I want to dissect it a little bit. I would love to look at it in three main ways that come up for me. One of the huge ones is unpacking our experiences. It's so huge. And why is it so huge? Is that in the context of Jewish spirituality, where we believe that every single moment in our lives is divinely orchestrated, And that there's such a thing as individual divine providence. That means that when my husband walked by, that was actually divinely coordinated at that moment. Yeah. Right. There's just so many byproducts of this. Truth that every of the truth that I'm going to reiterate that every single moment in our life is so divinely orchestrated. It's crazy. The more you tune into it, the more you realize how crazy it is. And you see it so much more in your life where Hashem has our back and Hashem is teaching us at every moment. and guiding us and asking us to fulfill our mission and potential as we go about our day. And the homework of that is that the Baal Shem Tov, who was a great Hasidic master and Kabbalist, taught that from everything that we see or hear or experience, we need to learn a lesson in divine service of Hashem. So I'm going to take this and I'm going to connect it to unpacking in the following way for a moment. Okay. Yes. I'm going to just go on a little tangent for a moment and I'm going to give the example of my diaper bag or I'm sure everyone can use it for their purse. Yeah. I love it. This specific bag that I have and why I love it is there's like a pocket for everything. My favorite part is that there's a string in the front zipper that has a, that I connect all my keys to. That's my favorite place for a wallet and then there's a place that I'll put the diapers exactly there and then the wipes and before I got this diaper bag, when I just had my baby Summer, who's now 18 months and I was leaving the house and I had this big library bag that I got from the library and every day it was getting heavier and heavier because I was leaving in a moment's notice in a rush. Okay, everybody's finally dressed. I'm going to the park. And do I have diapers? I'm not sure I'm gonna put in some more. Yes. I remember that. I'm not sure if I have water. Okay, I'm going to add another water bottle. And it was just becoming... By the end of the week, that, that library bag was this heavy sack. I would unpack it. Before the next Sunday. Okay. And it was like a laughable. There's five water bottles, 25 diapers, you know, right? And I don't even know what I have. I think there are many, many people listening that can relate to that. And I can't even find it. Because I have so much of it, but I cannot even find what I have when I need it. And when I need it is a key word over here. When I need it. Now this bag, when I'm conscious and I put my water bottle exactly in the pocket that I intended to, and my prayer book in exactly the pocket that I intended to, and my diapers and wipes also, it is like so, I'll use the word, the Yiddish word, mechaya, or I don't even know if it's Hebrew or Yiddish, it's just, it's a breeze. I look at it and it's like, it's all there. Like I don't, it saves me so much time. My journal, my tiny little notepad, because I still like to write down my stream of consciousness thoughts. Yes, exactly. Where it is. And it saves me so much time and energy in the now. Okay. So take this and connect it to our experiences. Since we know that our lives are being divinely orchestrated and we have this obligation to play to co create knowing that and to learn and to know that everything that we see we're actually being shown. There's a reason why we're seeing that, you know, sometimes the things we see are very disturbing. I was in the park just yesterday morning, and this little, I don't know if they're even two, their dad came to the park with them and they looked like such a sweet. I know he's trying his best and it doesn't come with judgment, but I was like, what am I meant to learn from this? He bought her a mango from the fruit stand and she starts eating it, she's barely two and by mistake drops it. And he starts cursing so loud. And then she looks up at him and she says, I'm sorry, dad, I was thinking about this. I'm like. Why did Hashem want me to see this? And I thought there must be a reason, like Hashem is showing me that on some level I need to learn from this. What came to me in that moment, and I've learned not to question what comes to me in the moment of why Hashem might be showing me something. Right. He really looked like he couldn't help himself. Like he's like, it's okay, go play. And then he, even as she walked away, he just keeps on cursing. Not at her, just, he was so angry. Like he didn't know what to do with himself. And I thought, like, maybe there's something for me that I can learn from, that there's, like, that I need to be more careful with this, with, you know, with my children, that sometimes I might be getting angry, and Hashem wants me to just to, like, be in a space that I'm not stressed out, that I'm not getting angry about something. Of course, I was, I wouldn't say it at that level, but just, but there's a reason I needed to see that. And I thought, like, there's, there's a beautiful... in, in the tehillim, in the psalm that says a beautiful line that I think we could just grab onto when we talk about unpacking our minds and our spirit, and that is surah Meirah, turn away from evil. And that's a very active thing. It's not a passive thing. The assets and pursue it. And I think within each experience. And our lives, we need to do all three of them, just like we don't want our homes or our purses being filled with useless things that we don't need anymore, that don't serve us anymore. We need to be able to discard parts of the experience and say, like, this part we don't need anymore. Every night, there's a Jewish prayer. One of my favorite prayers is a prayer of forgiveness. What prayer is, what prayer is that? It's right before the Shema prayer. And it starts with Rebono Shalala Shalom, like master of the universe. And we go about forgiving people in our life. It's a very detailed forgiveness prayer, and I just love it, and I just, I encourage everyone to look it up and start saying it in the nighttime. What's it called again? Will you say it one more time? It's the Preface to the Bedtime Shema Prayer. So when you would Google the Bedtime Shema Prayer, I believe it would come up as first. Ah, okay. It's rebono. It starts with ribono shalom, like the master of the universe. Discard certain things. It's so important in our mind and how we do that is through forgiveness. But also when we're realizing that everything we're seeing... You know, to help it be less overwhelming what we notice in life, you know, one day you're walking and you're like noticing this certain flower. If you notice it, take a moment and think Hashem is showing me this. Unplug it in the moment, because it's so, it's because it's a mitzvah, okay? And also, I'm learning in life that when I take time to put the keys in the right place, put the wallet in the right place, that second saves me so much more time in the every. day moments of life. So when I unpack and I actively unpack my experiences that Hashem is giving me, it saves me so much more energy that would be drained otherwise. It's especially between other people and relationships. So the first part is turn away from evil and I'm going to take over here, discard what needs to be discarded. Actively hold on to the goodness. And that I think gratitude is so powerful for in the experience itself. You're hearing someone that's meaningful to you sing and you just say, thank you Hashem that they're so happy. You know, and when people when we're aware and you were talking earlier about consciousness when we stop and breathe and put the keys exactly where they belong, or we stop and breathe and go outside. And look at the trees and the flowers and the fruits and the vegetables and everything that Hashem has made this beautiful world for us. It's just so interesting to me. And I'm not a minimalist. I love things. I love pretty things, you know, there's so much emphasis on the physical stuff and it blocks us in a lot of ways from our consciousness and from our. appreciation. I went to a resilience class recently. Okay. And it was so, it was so fascinating. I think it's Dr. Andrew Chate, I think is his name. He was so well researched and like, he shared with through all of the years of study and, and different, um, you know, um, just research that he's done on different projects. Um, What, what, what he's, his real thing that he learned was people with mission, meaning, and purpose just have, they, they are able to be that much more resilient. But he was started exactly with what you're saying. Like, I, I think he said, like, first thing that needs to happen is we need to quiet the mind. Yes. And then you can be able to develop that sense of meaning, mission, and purpose. And I'm part of, you know, there's so much space for that in Jewish thought, like think about Shabbat or the holidays, not using our phones or technology for that many hours is something that really allows us to quiet the mind and be able to process, I'm going to use the word, a lot of spiritual unpacking comes with, and everything that we're talking about right now is like processing the experience. My husband got into something in the more recent past. Um, we kind of almost like we're just, I guess, fell into it is how, how it happened with one of the kids wasn't was it during COVID time. He wasn't talking. It was 18 months. He was hardly saying things. The doctor wasn't nervous, but I was. And three people that week mentioned to me emotional. It was a very interesting thing. And my husband hosted, you know, one of his groups. Does anyone know someone that practices it? of his message and that he's almost finished being certified and he needs to do it on someone and he did it on my son. And within two weeks, my son, who was hardly saying any words was a sentences. It was crazy. Interesting because one of the things that talks about was that emotions can get trapped in different parts of our bodies. And when that, that happens when we're not processing the emotion, because there are steps to when we experience something. Part of it is processing it, but if we're not processing it, then it becomes trapped in our bodies. And I was thinking like how beautiful it is in the Jewish tradition. There are so many ways that we process. That which Hashem is handing over to us in our life, process our experiences through like the bedtime routine of the bedtime Shema that before we do that we do the forgiveness prayer, for example, through this time of year that we spiritually, and we look, and we really take a conscious, Look at ourselves with a joyful lens and look at in the context. It's all about, it could be so egotistical to get wrapped up about ourselves and about where we've done wrong and where we should have guilt and shame and all that stuff. It could be so egotistical, or we could come to it in the spiritual context of, you know, Rabbi Manas Freeman said. It's not don't spit into the well, it's don't spit into the well from which you drink. It's a huge difference. Huge difference. And that brings, it brings me to the next like unpacking the next way of organizing our mind or, or spirit. You know, I believe that's so connected with this time of year when we talk about stock taking. And, uh, processing our thoughts, speech and action as we get ready to serve Hashem for another year. And we talk about crowning Hashem as king, but like our personal ruler, that we're making Hashem's presence something that it matters to us in our day to day and our thoughts, you know? Right. And that is. within the car, unpacking our, you know, and unpacking and organizing our mind and spirit within the context of our divinely gifted potential and strengths. Wow. We need to keep on remembering that Hashem is creating us every with our past experiences and our present experiences and our, our strengths, our gifts. Our talents. We didn't create them, so it's not ours to hoard. Right. Hoard. Ah, Shira, this is so, our, our gifts and our talents, the things that Hashem, that God blessed us with. are things that we need to share in the world and not hoard and not hold on to them, right? But let them go into the world. Yeah. I mean, that's such a, every year when it's When it's, you know, Rosh Hashanah is coming up for the many years now. I've added something new each year. Some practice, some ritual, something, 70 million things from this conversation. I have to figure out, you know, what it is. I love what you were saying about how we're like unpacking our experiences of the day at the end of the day. So we're unpacking our hearts and our minds every single day. We don't have to wait till it's a huge burden where we can't move and we can't breathe and we're embarrassed to have people over because our house is so full of stuff or just, you know, like our heart, how hurt we are, angry we are. There's so much. Shira Telachepsky, will you come back and can we talk more another day? This is so, you're so... I'm really speechless. This is always how I feel about when talking to you and you share what's inside that amazing, um, soul and mind of yours. I'm always amazed at you and I'm so grateful. Thank you so much for your, thank you so much for sharing and, um, and to leave with an intention. Okay. Yes. Yes. Yes, it would be, it would be. You know, thinking about that little bird who doesn't know that those wings that he considers a weight are actually there to lift him up and let him fly. As we go into this new year, what are the weights that are really wings that are there to help us fly? If it's talents, if it's experiences, if it's, and realize that they're there to help us fly. I think I'm remembering that helping us fly is not a self centered thing, but it comes with a sense of mission and purpose that we each have a unique purpose in this world. Like the law of recovery said that birth is God's way of saying you matter. I need you. And, and within that context, and may we all be really written inscribed for a happy, healthy new year. Amen. Amen. My dear friend, this is so beautiful and heartwarming. I just feel like I just got a massive hug from you through the, through the computer. I wish you and your wonderful husband and children and family. Have just continued blessings and joys and, um, throughout this next year and forever past 120. And I really most sincerely would love to talk to you again. Let's see when we can etch out some more time because what you have to say is so important and so meaningful. So thank you, Shira. Thank you so much, Lori. What an amazing conversation with Shira Telachevsky. Um, I hope that you allowed yourself to soak in her energy and her wisdom and her light. It's just almost impossible to come up with just a few highlights from our conversation because everything was a highlight, but here are just a few of the things that really stood out for me. The first one being... Shira tells us a story that when she was in high school, her father, Rabbi Kunin, asked her to study Kabbalah with a woman in the community. Before they started studying, the woman asked Shira if she could teach her Kabbalah without using the word God. Shira shares what a great opportunity and learning experience that was for her, because it made her think and become aware of how to express her thoughts and feelings to someone who might not believe in God or might not be able to use. The next highlight is about the word Teshuvah, which comes from the Torah and means to return to the divine, to return to who we really are. And to leave behind, especially we think about this at this time, Rosh Hashanah is coming in just a few days. So we leave behind that which is not fitting that we did or said or thought. Instead of having guilt or shame for our thoughts or our actions, Shira says that we should look at it as a pattern. A pattern that we need to let go of. And sometimes it's as simple as thinking, why? What is it that gets me there? Is it because I'm bored? Is it because I'm lonely? Is it because I'm ashamed? Is it because I'm just so, so stressed out by a certain situation? So, awareness is one of the first steps to shuva. Another highlight is Shira talking about her life before her new diaper bag. She had a big bag, but she kept loading up with everything, right? Because you're running out the house, you finally get the kids ready, and you just want to be sure that you have everything, so she was continually throwing things into this big bag so that by the end of the week it was so heavy she could hardly carry it. Five water bottles and 25 diapers and countless snacks and she couldn't even find it when she needed it and now she has a new diaper bag and she loves it because there's places for everything and she talks about when she is conscious. And she puts her water bottle exactly in the pocket where it belongs. And her prayer book exactly in its pocket. And the diapers and the wipes and her pen and her journal and so on. That all of a sudden, it's a breeze. And it saves her so much time and alleviates her of so much stress and energy in the now. And the last highlight I'd like to share is what Shira had to say about New Year's resolutions. Just like there's physical clutter, there's spiritual and mental clutter that bogs us down. So, letting go is so much a part of organizing our spirit, our past experiences, our mind. It can be a real challenge to leave behind the need to try to control something that we can't control. So the key is to let go of the stress and futility of trying to control that which we cannot control, but to be in action for that which we can do. Thank you for listening. I feel so blessed to have these amazing conversations and then share with you. So if you feel something that we spoke about resonated with you or would with someone that you know, More than welcome to share and please follow us free to leave comments. I'd love to know your thoughts Thank you so much