Weight Lifting: Practical Bitachon

My friend, a certified personal trainer, has been telling me for years how important weight-lifting is.  I finally decided it was time to do something about it.  So I found several articles about weight-lifting for beginners.  I read up all about how to start with what you can handle and increase resistance, the importance of good form, and how much better free weights are than machines.

Well, I’m glad that’s done and out of the way!

What did you say?  Did I leave something out?  Oh.  You mean just reading about it is not enough?  I have to actually do it too?

Research, information, and even inspiration are a great place to start.  But if you want to exercise your muscles, you have to do, you have to practice, you have to work.

In order to reap the benefits of Bitachon, you need to do Bitachon.

How do you do Bitachon?

Bitachon means accepting that Hashem is running the show, and that He knows what He’s doing.  So doing Bitachon means replacing my knee-jerk reaction with a new Bitachon reaction.  It means letting my actions reflect my new attitude.  Instead of getting angry or stressed about the situation, I remain calm and accepting.

But I don’t really feel accepting.  Isn’t that hypocritical?

That’s the beauty of a workout.  You don’t have to feel strong in order to go to the gym.  It’s not hypocritical to exercise when your muscles are weak; that’s why you’re there!  When you practice saying “Everything Hashem does is for the best” or “If it’s Your will, Hashem, then it’s my will too,” you are building your Bitachon muscles.

Why do dressing up, getting busy, and smiling help turn your bad mood into a good mood?  When we act a certain way, we begin to actually feel that way too.  After enough repetitions of “Whatever I have I need, whatever I need I have,” you will eventually begin to feel that this is true!

Start small and increase

If you want to begin a weight lifting regimen, you do not begin with a one hundred pound weight.  You start with the maximum you can lift, maybe five or seven pounds, and then increase the load as your muscles strengthen.  When you begin a Bitachon regimen, use your new skills as often as you can within your current ability.  Congratulate yourself every time you remember to think or act with a Bitachon attitude, but don’t try to lift one hundred pounds right away!  There are different levels of trust.  Work from wherever you are now, and you will climb slowly.

Practical Bitachon

Here is an scenario where things don’t go according to (your) plan:

You hurry out of the house and into the car.  You have some very important business to take care of today.  You get into the driver’s seat, turn the key in the ignition, and … nothing.

Knee-jerk reaction:  “Now my whole day is ruined!  Why do these things always happen to me?”  This is followed by a huge load of stress and blaming someone else for the terrible mishap.

Bitachon reaction:  “I thought I needed to do these important things today.  I guess that either I was not meant to take care of these things today, or I will have to find an alternate way of accomplishing them.  I can’t understand why this had to happen, but I trust that if God felt it must be this way, then there must be a good reason.”  This is followed by calmly dealing with the situation.

Post a comment below to share some other opportunities you have encountered for practicing these skills, and appropriate Bitachon reactions (even if that was not your reaction in real life).