“Shiviti Hashem l’negdi Tamid”: David HaMelech’s Prescription For G-d Consciousness and Character Refinement
A personal journey to Hashem, spiritual symmetry and emotional equilibrium

My journey began as a frustrated mother with a huge, seemingly uncontrollable temper. I felt like there was no way to diminish the rage inside of me every time my children acted out or did anything that was not in keeping with how I wanted things to go (sound familiar to anyone?) I had read several books on chinuch banim, on anger, and attended a chinuch banim class by one of the best in the field for two years. Still none of the above helped me in the moment to calm myself down, re-gain my self-control and composure, and deal with my kids in a far more effective way than screaming and yelling at them. This was hurting my kids, ruining our relationship and destroying me. Until one day I finally woke up from this repetitive nightmare with the help of an amazing teacher, mentor, spiritual guide here in Eretz Yisrael (Chana Luk, Elon Shavut). Chana was the first person to teach me how to deal with my kids and their hi energy and the clashing that usually led to by very simply learning how to bring HaKadosh Baruch Hu, or more accurately, how to bring myself, into a heightened awareness of His presence, into whatever scenario I was facing.

Now I’ll pause here for a moment by mentioning that I’ve been observant for over 20 years, was very involved in Kiruv, and really did notneed anyone to convince me that Hashem exists, is always watching me and is involved in every detail of my life. I knew that, I taught that, I believed that. Still, as clearly evidenced by the way I would respond whenever things weren’t going my way, I wasn’t living with it!
My journey continues when I decided to take a course with Chana’s teacher (Elon Feldman, Ramat Beit Shemesh) who taught us to use the verse from Tehillim (16:8) “Shiviti Hashem l’negdi Tamid” in a matra- like manner to quiet our minds and help us enter into a meditative, more intuitive state. As I added this to my morning routine, something quite magical started to happen.

I would repeat this verse over and over until I found myself entering into a very calm, centered, clear space. I began doing this every morning and then the truly miraculous started happening:

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