Nothing Moments

• If you consistently have a nothing moment, (let’s say every Tuesday from 5 to 5:30), set up a chavrusa! Learn with a friend. Pick a sefer you would both enjoy, and go for it! You can do it alone too!

• Go over to your mother, and ask, “how can I help you now for 10 minutes? I’m all yours”. She will feel so good! And during your nothing moment, you are helping someone else in their something moment

• Call someone who could use a pick-me-up, light up their day!

• Say tehillim. So often we are waiting on a line somewhere, waiting for the train, waiting for the bus, waiting for a ride, waiting for an exam to start… etc. Those moments are usually really unproductive, but if you say tehillim, look how you just uplifted that time!!

• Torah Anytime has daily dose shiurim, a 2 minute shiur. And to take it a step further- when you're listening to the shiur, try not to do anything else while you're listening. No texting your friend, looking at pictures, etc. Just listen and take the words in

• Make up a song that will help you remember the sheish mitzvos temidiyos. So whenever you have a spare chance, sing it or hum it to yourself! Or if you're not into the singing thing, just whisper them or think of them in your head.

• Nothing moments are a great opportunity to stop and think: "how do I feel in my relationship with Hashem right now?" Get in touch with your neshama. How is it feeling right now? What can you do to make your neshama feel better, to connect with Hashem? Before you can actually do something to fill that moment with good, first you need to take a moment to truly feel.

• Take advantage of this time that you have nothing to do! Have a real, heartfelt conversation with Hashem. Pretend you're talking to a friend you haven't spoken to in a while. Tell Hashem how you're feeling, what you're worried, angry, nervous, sad, anxious, happy, excited, etc about.

• Take the opportunity to spend five minutes thanking Hashem for all the goodness in your life. From your functioning body, to your new dress you just got. From things like your family and friends, to the fact that there was milk in the fridge this morning! Thank Him for whatever comes to mind.

• Think of a person in your life who could use some TLC and do something spontaneous and nice for them, to make them feel good. (ex: putting sticky notes with cute messages on them in random places around the house or somewhere they will see.)

• Listen to an inspiring song that uplifts you and helps you connect with Hashem.

• Do a small cheshbon hanefesh, sometimes you think its such a big deal… but really just sit and think for a second, did I do anything today that I was proud of, anything I would like to change? This would take you somewhere, being conscious of your actions.

• Take the opportunity to work on your ayin tova! Make a list of fifteen people in your life and write three good things about each of them.

• To step up the challenge, write a list of five people who you don't get along with so well and write three good things about each of them.

• Email someone who you're not in touch with very much, but know that they would appreciate you reaching out.

• Practice being nosei b'ol chaviero. Take a moment to deeply feel the pain of another Jew.

Let's Explore

Nothing Moments!

We are talking about nothing moments, and you may be thinking to yourself, like what can I really accomplish in 5 minutes. 5 MINUTES IS ETERNITY WHEN YOU TURN IT INTO SOMETHING SPIRITUAL!! It is really empowering to collect those minutes!

A certain Gadol HaDor made a siyum. What was the siyum on? He said he was making a siyum on Shas he learned in 5 minutes. 5 MINUTES. HUH? He explained that he is often asked to be Mesader Kiddushin at weddings. It’s called for a certain time, but weddings never run on time, he was often waiting. So her would take out a sefer and learn. He collected those moments. And now he is making a siyum on all those 5 minutes’s he collected WHOA!

My mother does something really nice. She was thinking to herself that whenever she waits on a line, it feels so unproductive, she might as well say tehillim. And after doing this consistently, she said that she found that the line would immediately start moving faster. Her cheshbon is, that the yetzer hora doesn’t want her to say tehillim. So he makes the line move faster so she should stop faster, when her turn comes!!

There was a shabbaton in Boro Park, and a bunch of girls were walking down the street to get from one place to another. A man and his son steps into a crack in the wall to allow them to pass, and instead of just waiting, they sang shabbos zemiros in that time! There is so many ways to elevate your time instead of just passing that time!

Fill it with something that elevates you, that connects you. There is such potential. Its YOUR choice. If you plan it beforehand, “If I have time today, I will do ____.” If you have it planned, you have a bigger chance of doing it.

Rabbi Avigdor Miller was giving a shiur. Someone asked him, we have so much we have to work on in aseres yimei teshuva, how can we have time to do all the things we should be doing. Take 5 minutees every day to think about what you’ve done, what you CAN do. “if you sat down for 1 whole minute about what you have done today and what you will do, you have done 100 percent more teshuva than most people in this world.” And why limit this to aseres yemei teshuva?

The beauty of nothing moments is that you’re not a bad person if you’re not doing anything with your nothing moments, you just are becoming elevated if you do!

K’nei licha chaver, k’nei can mean pen. So start a journal, it can be a one minute entry of something that inspired you today. When you have a minute later on you can look back at it, you’ll inspire yourself!

Many seminary girls have something called a “Hashkafa notebook” or “Chiddushei Torah notebook”. They have a nice notebook always in their desk, during all the classes. And (in any class), whenever the teacher says something either especially nice, or something the girl specifically connects to, a sharp line, etc, she’ll write it down in her hashkafa notebook. This way, in years from now, if she’s looking for a bit of inspiration, it’s hard to look through all her seminary notes, instead she can just take out her hashkafa notebook and look at one thing and get inspired.

So why stop when seminary is over? (or why wait for seminary?) Get another notebook, and whenever you hear something nice, in a shiur or from a friend, whenever you experience something incredible and inspiring, whenever you witness something, or read about something in a magazine, write it down! Keep inspiring yourself. It is SOOO empowering!

So, instead of looking at fish while waiting in the doctor’s office, or looking out the window or twiddling your thumbs, be productive! Elevate those nothing moments, and as soon as you do, you have turned it into a SOMETHING MOMENT.

**Thank you Mrs. Leah Perrin for helping with this topic and CRN for contributing to the suggestions.