Nearly everyone struggles with anxiety or worry sometimes (some more than others…)

Rebbetzin Lori Palatnik suggests that there are two types of worriers – those who tend to fret about the past, and those who tend to worry about the future.

Examples of fretting about the past:

“I can’t believe I said that! They must think I’m so awkward.”

“Why did I go to Queens for school? I should have gone to Carleton”

Examples of fretting about the future:

“How will this disagreement be solved? What if it causes a bigger fight and divides our circle of friends?”

“What if I can’t handle the project?”

Whether a person is worrying about the past or about the future, one thing is clear: in the moment of worry, that person is not in the present.

In this week’s parsha, Lot and his family flee from the burning city of Sodom. They are commanded not to look at the burning city as they run away. Lot’s wife disobeys this command, and is transformed…

“She looked from behind, and she became a pillar of salt”.

–Genesis 19:26

Why does Lot’s wife become a pillar of salt? (A number of reasons are given, but I want to focus on one.)

Let’s think about this for a second. Why is salt such a staple in the kitchen? Yes, it adds flavour, but it has an arguably even more important function: it preserves.

Salt is a great preservative, and salt itself basically stays the same forever.

We can also stay the same forever…if we get stuck looking back. If we get stuck in the past, we can’t change. We can’t grow. 

I remember once being in a “stuck” state of mind. I was dwelling on a past relationship (which was over for very valid reasons). While shopping, I noticed an eye-catching T-shirt. Jumping out at me, in block letters, was the phrase:

“You can’t move on to the next chapter of your life if you keep re-reading the last one”.

It hit me like a ton of bricks. I couldn’t move forward if I kept looking back. I took it as a sign, and resolved then and there to leave the past behind.

But I couldn’t just fixate on the future either. I had to ground myself in the present. Once I did, I was truly able to move forward. 

Ask yourself: is there an area of your life where you may be like “a pillar of salt?” 

Maybe it’s time to stop looking back.

Maybe it’s time to let the past go. 

Maybe it’s time to take a deep breath, and ground yourself, right here. 

In the present. 

Shabbat Shalom,

Danielle Altonaga