“Each time we reflect, we’re changing our soul a little bit. It helps us move more toward the direction of the good inclination.”
– Dr. Greg Marcus, author of The Spiritual Practice of Good Actions: Finding Balance Through the Soul Traits of Mussar
In his book about Mussar, a thousand-year-old Hebrew spiritual practice, Dr. Greg Marcus advocates for engaging in daily acts of kindness and end-of-day journaling. The Hebrew word for loving kindness, “chesed,” is the idea is that the whole world is built on acts of loving kindness, Marcus shares. And journaling helps us reflect on opportunities to practice generosity.
In a One You Feed podcast interview, Marcus describes a scenario in which a student who was taking an online final exam in a library asked to borrow his power cord since her laptop’s battery was dying. Even though he was leaving, he agreed to loan her his power cord and pick it up later. He saw the student’s request as an opportunity to make someone’s day—and bailing people out helps make the world a better place.
Referring to Mussar journaling, Marcus says that at the end of the day, the goal is to focus on whether or not we did everything we could. One way to do that is to ask ourselves questions: Where was I challenged? Did I meet the challenge? Over time, as he shares, this practice helps us take gradual steps toward balance.
What’s an act of kindness in which you’ve engaged? How can you stay alert to such opportunities in the future?
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