How can you prepare for Passover with positive energies? These things will provide you with the necessary mental preparation in order to take participate in the festive atmosphere with a joyful feeling.
Passover is supposed to be joyous: we have been freed from the house of slavery and have left slavery for freedom, and we are together on this evening, parents and children, grandfathers and grandmothers and the entire circle of family members, in order to keep reminding ourselves that we didn’t always have freedom, and how lucky we are to be free men and women.
This is how it should be, this is how we are supposed to see this festive day, and this is how we should feel towards it: happiness and excitement and gratitude. But is it really what is happening? For many of us it is, but for many others among us this image is far away from reality, because for many of us Passover is a day of frustration and sadness.
In this age, where there are so many torn up families, both inside and within themselves, and so many couples that do not know what to do with the yearly question of “with who will we celebrate Passover this year”, and so many divorcees who find themselves next to the festive holiday table without their children, and so many single men and women who show up on their own and try to be part of the special day in front of all those good people around them who just want to know “when is the wedding?”, in an age where it is very difficult for many to feel happiness. And we haven’t even talked at all about the “small” questions of “who is always the inviter” and “who is always invited” or “who always helps and who always manages to avoid helping”.
And not coincidentally at all, just before Passover, the depression measure rockets, and a lot more people turn to therapists and advisors in order to receive help for their feelings of loneliness.
So how can you make it to the holiday festivities without frustration or depression, regardless of our personal situation?
Stage 1: acknowledge what is difficult for you and what you are short of. This is your reality. You can’t ignore it and you can’t avoid sadness.
Stage 2: after acknowledging your imperfect life, you can choose what to focus on: your bad state or your good chances. You can focus on turning this evening to a self-pity party, and you can use it for soul searching, to understand where you have gone wrong and to vow to do whatever it takes to change your life circumstances.
Passover signifies a transition from a mental state of slavery into a mental state of freedom: that all evenings we were enslaved to our bad habits, our dubious solutions and our negative attitudes, and this night is all about the freedom to choose much more effective and positive attitudes that we have not yet acknowledged.
So even if your life is difficult, and even if the people closest to you are difficult, your life can be better with more effective attitudes on your part. So take this thought into the holiday, and make sure it is placed at the center of your consciousness all evening and give it all your strength so that it wins over sadness, if only for tonight.