The pity party I almost attended today🎉

Hi FRIENDS! 💛

Today I walked into a pity party.

I basically walked in, sat down, and stayed there for a while.

The theme of the party was something like this:

“This war is exhausting.”

“The kids are home.”

“There’s no routine.”

“Everything feels upside down.”

Which, by the way, are all true.

Life in Israel right now is strange.  The kids are home from school. The days blur together. There’s no normal routine.

We get these  pre-alarm warnings that sirens might come (in the middle of the night too!)  Sometimes the sirens actually do come. Either way,  everyone runs to the miklat, and some time later we can come back upstairs and try to continue like normal.

Regular life still exists.

Dinner still needs to be made.

Homes still need to function.

And Pesach is coming whether we feel ready or not.

So today I walked into the pity party room.

I sat down.

I ate some chocolate.

I watched my kids playing outside.

And inside my head I was basically telling myself, “It’s okay to just sit here and do nothing. Everything is hard right now.”

Which is true.

It is hard.

And I’m not diminishing that at all.

Sometimes resting is exactly what we need. Sometimes sitting down, taking a breath, and letting ourselves feel the moment is healthy and necessary.

But then something funny happened.

While sitting there at my glamorous  pity party, I started writing an email to all of you.

The email was basically about how it’s okay to just do nothing during hard times.

I already had a draft going.

And then I suddenly stopped and thought:

What on earth am I doing in this room?

This is so not like me.

This is not helping me.

And honestly… this is not going to make me feel better.

I asked myself a question:

Later today… tomorrow… next week… am I going to be happy that I spent hours sitting in a pity party?

No.

Not at all.

So I got up.

I started doing a few small things around the house.

And immediately,  I felt better.

There’s actually science behind that.

Psychologists call it behavioral activation. When we take action, even small action, our brain releases chemicals that help improve mood and restore a sense of control.

In other words, sometimes the fastest way out of a pity party is simply standing up.

So if today you also find yourself sitting in that pity party room for a little while…

It’s okay.

But don’t stay too long.

At some point, stand up.

Clear a table.

Run a load of laundry.

Sweep the floor.

Just start somewhere.

Sometimes the fastest way to get out of a pity party…

is to stand up and wash a dish.

Anyway, that was my little moment today.

I walked into the pity party…

but thankfully I didn’t stay very long.

Looking forward to greeting you in  Yerushalayim IYH with Mashiach really soon!

Warmly,

Ellie