Fixing Your Fire [Conceit] - 007 Hyperactivity

Wind-of-Water-of-Fire: Unstable Movement

With the help of Hashem, we have merited thus far to discuss the element of fire. Currently we are up to discussing wind-of-water-of-fire.

Fire is the root of the nature to ascend, and water-of-fire is when a person is jumpy to ascend and thus he gets dragged after the jumpiness. Wind-of-water-of-fire is when the movements of this nature (water-of-fire) become too rapid, resulting in unstable movement.

When this particular nature becomes extreme, a person will find it difficult to sit in the same place for too long, and he feels a need to move all over the place. On a more subtle level, it manifests as some kind of inner anxiousness, where a person finds that he cannot concentrate properly.

This is a very common problem, and in today’s times, there all kinds of psychological terms for it. In the more extreme cases it is called “hyperactivity”, and if it is less intense, it is diagnosed as lack of concentration [A.D.D.] - with all kinds of medications that are prescribed.

When it comes to this problem (hyperactivity, or lack of concentration), it can be applied the verse, “There is no house which does not have a corpse in it.”[1] In any case where it cannot be identified exactly what is causing the disturbed movements, people are very quick to name it – and to prescribe medication accordingly - when in reality, this is not necessarily the solution.

We will analyze this matter, beginning from the lower, simpler aspects of it and continuing into the higher, deeper aspects of this problem. It is a complicating matter to address, because it involves several aspects of the soul.

1. Lack of Concentration Rooted In The Physical Body

Our physical body is comprised of the four elements of earth, water, wind and fire. This is not referring to the four elements found in the nefesh habehaimis (animalistic layer of the soul); it is referring to the body itself, which also contains the four elements. When the elements are out of balance, this is the root of all physical problems found in the body. To emphasize again, it is the root of all of physical problems in the body – simply put.

[The makeup of the body is affected by various factors that have shaped it.] Our Sages say that a person’s body receives elements from his father and mother[2]. This is the way Hashem’s wisdom has decreed that our body be designed.

Some people have unstable movement simply due to the particular makeup of their physical body. The physical elements which comprise the body (earth, water, wind and fire) can be affected either by the way it has been born, or it can be affected by the foods a person eats; it can even go as far back to a baby nursing from its mother. These factors can all contribute to an imbalance in the elements of the body, resulting in unstable and extreme movement.

For example, if a child has gotten heavily used to eating very hot and spicy kinds of nosh, we all know that this gets absorbed into his body, and it can cause him to act wild and hyper. He resembles the fiery, hot flavor of nosh he is always eating.

But worse than this are people (usually far from a Torah lifestyle) who, G-d forbid, take certain substances, which greatly affect the movements of their physical body, causing them to act unstable.

In summary, there are unstable movements which are rooted in an imbalance in the physical body, and it can be very possible that unstable movement is coming from this source.

If this is the case, the remedy is obvious: to assess the body and re-balance its elements. This can be simply determined, either through blood tests, or through examining the daily diet of the person.

That all pertains to unstable movements that stem from the makeup of the physical body; it is the least extreme of problems related to unstable movements, because since it is physical in its nature, it has physical remedies, thus it can be treated naturally.

In many people, a lack of concentration and unstable movement is in fact rooted in their physical nature. It is because much of the food that people eat today contains ingredients which previous generations never dreamed of eating. It has actual detrimental effects on the body. The reality is that all people today are consuming dangerous foods, and the only issue is how much.

So before anything else, when treating hyperactivity, a person needs to first assess what he’s eating, and to see what he can do to eliminate harmful foods from entering his system; as well as to see which kinds of foods he should be eating instead.

2. Lack of Concentration Rooted In ‘Nefesh HaBehaimis’

Let’s progress to a deeper kind of problem related to unstable movement: when it is coming from the nefesh habehaimis (the animalistic layer of the soul).

The nefesh habehaimis in us contains all of the middos (character traits) that are possible, and with each person, the makeup shows up differently. There’s a lot of abilities present in the nefesh habehaimis, but when there is one particular aspect that is overly dominating the other aspects of the nefesh habehaimis, it creates a certain degree of inner turmoil.

Understandably, we need to see which particular aspect is dominating and how it’s affecting the other abilities of the soul. But the point is that most of the problems related to lack of concentration are rooted in a dominance of one of the aspects of the nefesh habehaimis, which has produced inner turmoil.

(Here we are not discussing the nefesh habehaimis itself, though; here, we are discussing what results from it when it is imbalanced.)

Of course, there is no nefesh habehaimis today which is completely in balance. But it used to be that people were aware of how to work to improve it. In previous generations, people were more aware that the nefesh habehaimis in us must be trained and improved. The way of avodah of all our great people was to deal with the nefesh habehaimis as the root of all problems, as opposed to focusing on the various problems which result from an unfixed nefesh habehaimis. The focus was on the root, not on the branches and results.

But in today’s times, people are turning to modern psychology for all of the answers, which focuses on the various problems that result from an unfixed nefesh habehaimis - but without trying to get to the root. Modern psychology brings up all of the various ugly problems that result from the unfixed nefesh habehaimis, without trying to treat the problems at their root.

Not only is the root not dealt with, but each of the negative aspects of the soul are deliberately exposed, with all kinds of methods to expose the problems, based on what the ‘biological experts’ say - an area that is absolutely full of tum’ah (spiritual impurity) to a Jew’s soul. When a Jew learns about how to treat the problems in his soul based on non-Jewish psychology, this greatly harms the holiness of his G-dly soul.

3. A Noisy Lifestyle

A third root cause for lack of concentration, which is very prevalent in our times, is coming from the noisy and chaotic lifestyle which people have gotten used to and learned to live with. This has gotten more extreme than ever, now that so many people are connected all the time to technology, where they are constantly flooded with information and noise. It is not possible for a person to be serene and concentrate with all this noise around us.

When such a flood of information enters the brain, it is impossible for a person to properly concentrate on his studies and especially on his Torah learning. Educators can all relate to how it is very hard to teach Torah to children who are connected to technology, whose heads are flooded with all kinds of information. In fact, even as a rebbi is teaching his class, the cellphone is going off in his pocket. How on earth are the children supposed to remain concentrated on their studies with all this noise?!

When the phone keeps buzzing in our pockets, there is never one moment of menuchah (serenity) in our life. Aside from the problems this causes in our Torah learning, it is simply a disconnection from an emotionally and mentally healthy life. It doesn’t allow for even our nefesh habehaimis to live healthily.

For this, there is only one solution. We must disconnect as much as possible from all of these noisy gadgets, and choose to live a calmer life, as much as possible, and disconnect from the world around us.

Of course, we cannot disconnect from our surroundings completely, for this is impossible. But we must try as hard as we can to disconnect, each of us on our own level. It would take great wisdom of life to know how much exactly we need to disconnect from the world and how much we can connect to the world around us, but we must still try as hard as we can to have some disconnection from all the noise of the world.

4. Lack of Concentration Rooted In Weak Mental Abilities

A fourth source of lack of concentration is when a person has weak mental abilities. This kind of person has a hard time concentrating ever since he was born, because his very power of thought is weak.

Our mental abilities are called chochmah (“wisdom”; simple thought), binah (“contemplation”; deeper thought), and daas (awareness; connecting to the knowledge). The power of daas is essentially the ability in a person to be connected in his thoughts to something. When one’s power of daas is weak, he has a hard time concentrating on something, because he has a hard time connecting to a thought. Even if one has strong chochmah and binah, if his daas is weak, he is not a “bar daas”, thus he will have a very hard time concentrating.

Sometimes this is simply due to the physical makeup of the person’s brain itself (mo’ach), and sometimes this is due to weakened mental abilities (mochin) that are present in the brain. In either case, the avodah of this person is to learn how to develop the power of thought. The problems with concentration can then be worked on at a later point, but the first step is to build the power of thought.[3] This will be the root of the solution, and it will make the rest of the work much easier, after accomplishing this.

Others find that they cannot focus on their goals, even though they badly want a certain goal or achievement. However, this problem is not stemming from the brain, but from the [spiritual] heart, which is the root of the power of ratzon (will). [Therefore, lack of motivation is not a mental issue, but a heart issue.]

When a person has a hard time focusing on attaining that which he wants, it would seem that the solution is to get him to want it more, so that he will become more motivated.  The truth is, however, that a person cannot be taught how to have a desire for something. If we could know how to get people to want something, we could change the entire world. But this is impossible. Only when a person already has a ratzon (will) can you work with him to further increase his ratzon and motivate him (and even then, it is difficult), but if a person has no ratzon for something to begin with, you cannot get him to have a ratzon, no matter how much you get him to concentrate on it.

Therefore, it is pointless to tell a person who has a hard time with focus and concentration that “If you’re not achieving, it’s because you really don’t want.” This is not always true, because he might want very badly to improve, and it his weak mental abilities which don’t allow him to concentrate.

If a person cannot concentrate because he was born with a weak mind, you cannot get him to concentrate, no matter how much you try to force him to. Even if you get him to want to concentrate on a goal, he will simply have become trained to do certain actions with no thought. He doesn’t want what he is doing, and even if he does it, it is done without thought.

You can try to help a person slowly reveal his power of ratzon, but when a person doesn’t have a ratzon right now, it is impossible to get him to concentrate. It is not because he doesn’t want to improve. It is because his mental abilities are weak and are thus not powerful enough to allow him to expand upon his will.

5-6) Lack of Concentration Rooted In Mental Jumpiness and Scattered Thoughts

There are others who have a different problem: their thoughts skip around a lot. This is called dilug (mental jumpiness). With others, however, the thoughts are simply scattered around (pizur).

In the ideal situation, a person’s thoughts are orderly, and they see things clearly and objectively. When there is a lack of clarity, the person feels suffering (like the ‘suffering of Iyov’). But when a person’s mind is jumpy, his thoughts quickly skip around from one thought to another.

For example, a person might read one line of Gemara, skips the next line, and reads the next line. If he is very bright and talented, he might come up with a way to connect the first and third line, even when there is no connection between the two lines of Gemara. A different problem is when there is simply pizur (scattering) in the thoughts, which is something else.

In either of these cases, the problem is not stemming from a lack of concentration. It is stemming from the particular way that the person’s mind works.

In order to figure out where the lack of concentration is coming from, one should observe where his thoughts wander to [as he’s in the midst of spacing out]. If he discovers that his thoughts are jumping all over the place and skipping information, the solution is to start giving order to one’s thoughts.

Alternatively, the eyes play a big role when it comes to our mental abilities. The eyes of wise people are termed as ‘einei haeidah’ (eyes of the congregation), because chochmah (wisdom) is revealed through the eyes. Therefore, a person can work with his eyes to increase orderliness in his thoughts.

In the first method (giving orderliness to thoughts), a person should slowly begin to giving minimal order to his thoughts, and he should deliberately do this slowly, so that he can get used to the idea of seder (order) in his thoughts.

In the second method (working with the eyes), a person can try making sure that his vision doesn’t skip things; for example, when reading the Gemara, he should read the first line, then the second line, then the third line. He should keep his finger on the place to help for this. This is not merely a way to make sure one doesn’t forget the Gemara. The purpose is to train the eyes to focus, whereby the mind’s power of concentration becomes improved.

One who has a problem of dilug in his thoughts needs to slowly train his thoughts to have more order to them. He should start with small areas and then he can eventually try it with larger areas. He should take a small section of Gemara and keep his finger on the place as he reads the lines, reading them consecutively, with his eyes focused on the place he is reading.

When lack of concentration stems from pizur (scattering) in the thoughts, the solution is different than with dilug. (Sometimes the problem of pizur in the thoughts is developed from being lax when it comes to keeping the mitzvah of Bris Kodesh (personal holiness), which results in a scattering of the mental abilities.) Whatever the cause is for the pizur in his thoughts, the thoughts needs to be gathered together, reminiscent of how the exiles must be gathered together from all ends of the earth.

One way of how a person can do this is to learn how to make a summary of what he has just done, after he has finished an act. For example, when learning Gemara, a person should make a mental summary of everything he just learned. This trains a person to get used to gathering his thoughts together. This is not limited to making a summary of what has learned at the end of the zman or at the end of a sugya. The more a person gets used to summarizing what he learns, he will find that he has become naturally better at gathering his thoughts together.

An alternative approach (to improve one’s mental abilities) is for a person to get used to visually focusing on one point for a certain amount of time. Since the eyes are connected with the mind, learning how to focus with the eyes can increase the focus of the mind. For example, try to focus on a certain point in space for 20 seconds straight, then try to do it for 30 seconds, then 40 seconds.

We have described this concept briefly, being that this is a very broad matter.

7) Lack of Concentration Rooted In The ‘Nefesh Elokis’

Until now we have spoken about the possible sources for lack of concentration which stem from the lower aspects of our being: from the body, from the animalistic layer of the soul, from surroundings, from weak mental abilities, from mental jumpiness, and from scattered thoughts. But there can also be a deeper source for lack of concentration, which stems from our Nefesh Elokis (G-dly layer of the soul).

There are people who have a hard time concentrating because part of their Nefesh Elokis is already revealed somewhat, and this might strain the lower parts of the soul, resulting in a lack of concentration.

For example, there are people who feel such a strong love for Hashem that it totally dominates their soul, and the soul becomes thrown out of balance from this. The person will find himself having bursts of love for Hashem, which will cause him to lose orderliness to his soul, resulting in unstable movement of the soul. The lack of concentration will also affect other areas in his soul, and then he will find that he lacks concentration in many other areas as well.

This is just one example, but the same idea can happen with regards to any of the soul’s abilities, as long as there an imbalance in the soul. With most people, the Nefesh Elokis isn’t revealed, so it usually doesn’t play a role in a person’s lack of concentration. But with people who are already in touch with their Nefesh Elokis ever since they have been born, they might experience a lack of concentration, due to the very presence of their revealed Nefesh Elokis.

Modern Psychology and Therapy Cannot Treat the Jew’s Divine Soul

When this is the case, going to a therapist or psychologist cannot help, because the knowledge of secular psychology does not address the Nefesh Elokis (G-dly soul, or Divine soul) of a Jew. Therefore, there is no proof that can be drawn from secular research [about A.D.D.] to a Jew’s life. A gentile will never even begin to understand that a lack of concentration [A.D.D.] can be stemming from a Jew’s Nefesh Elokis.

To give an example, one of the aspects of the Nefesh Elokis is, “My soul thirsts for G-d.” The lack of concentration might be coming from this place in the soul when it is out of balance, like if a Jew is yearning to become closer to Hashem very much, to the point that he suffers inside from this, and his soul becomes imbalanced from the yearnings. Or, the problems might be coming from other points of the Nefesh Elokis that are out of balance. But a gentile has absolutely no knowledge about the Nefesh Elokis of a Jew, no matter how much he knows about the soul.[4]

Misunderstood Souls

In these individual cases, in which the lack of concentration stems from an imbalance in the Nefesh Elokism, these peoplefind themselves in a deep inner exile; an exile within an exile in themselves. They have nowhere to turn to for help, because modern psychology doesn’t address it and doesn’t know anything about it. Nobody can even begin to understand their problem.

There are so many young children and teenagers who have problems with concentration, and their parents don’t know what to do with them and how to get to the root of the issue; the people around them don’t even have a basic knowledge of the problem. These kids and teenagers get thrown around between yeshivah and yeshivah, between one institution and another, and the people who work with them cannot get down to the reason of why these kids have such a hard time focusing and concentrating.

Often, the educators who are appointed to work on them are lacking even a basic understanding of the issue, trying all different kinds of therapy on them which doesn’t work, without getting down to the root of the issue. As time goes on like this, the child or teenager is left bewildered and frustrated, having tried all kinds of therapy and medication, to no avail. His poor soul gets thrown around and twisted all over the place, and he suffers amidst all of this. And nobody understands what the problem with him is.

The Problem With Medication

We must know that all of these medications prescribed today to fix problems in concentration all have one common dominator: they are all weakening a person’s soul abilities. The person’s soul suffers as medication is applied to him, in the hope that his problems with concentration will be weakened and thereby healed. The rest of his soul is sacrificed in the hope of healing the disorder with concentration, besides for the other physical symptoms that it causes.

We have so far seen that there are six sources for lack of concentration, yet modern therapy always uses one general approach to solve it [namely, medication], without trying to explore the root.

Medicine today is being applied to solve problems in the soul in the same way that the body is treated. With the body, medication is prescribed based on which part of the body is hurting, and the medicine weakens part of the body so that the other parts of the body will get healed. So too, medication is being applied to a person with issues in his soul, as if it is a physical problem and nothing more, and this harms other areas of his soul in the process.

Someone told me recently that there is a certain university where, in order to apply, the students were told that they must take “ritelin” (the drug which is usually given as medication for A.D.D.), so that they could be able to concentrate on their studies! They are viewing “ritelin” as a basic part of their diet, as if it’s bread. They are being deadened while alive - all for the sake of learning how to concentrate on their studies in school.

We must return to the way things always were, to the ways of our Sages of the past. Of course, there are always cases which need medication, and it has always been so, even in the past. But when there is a problem, we need to identify where the problem is coming from; with regards to lack of concentration, we have listed here several possible causes for it.

We must determine where exactly it is coming from, and this is indeed challenging to figure out, and it requires siyata d’shamaya (Heavenly assistance). When we identify the source of the lack of concentration, most of the remedy will involve mainly working with the source of the problem, whether it is coming from the body, from the nefesh habehaimis, and from the other reasons mentioned here.

Understandably, there are extreme cases which certainly require medication, but in most of the cases where a person lacks the ability to concentrate, we should determine the exact root of the problem (using the seven reasons listed here), and then use the particular solution that applies to it.

 In Conclusion

This has all been described very briefly. There are many more details that branch out of this discussion, but these words can serve as an opener and as a representation of the general picture.