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Sleep as a Reset Button

Our lives have become more and more intense. Each day seems to be filled with more complicated issues to the point that we seem to forget the complicated issues of yesterday because of those that arise today and we have problems trying to keep up with the things that need to be done. There are so many things that seem to be important today that by tomorrow seem to be unimportant because of the new and even more important things that come up. As a result we seem to lose track of what needs to be done, should be done, and no longer can be done.

With situations like this what we need is a way in which we can decide what of the things are important and put them in the correct perspective. This is often difficult.

What we need is a Reset button. We need a way to take all of the things from the day and to put them aside for several hours so we can look at them in a new perspective at another time.

When we wake up as we begin our new day one of the things that the do is to think about what needs to be done that day and what can be put off, forgotten, delayed, or must be done urgently. This reordering of priorities can only be done after having a Reset button which tells us which puts the things aside temporarily and then we can begin them from anew precisely as the davening says that we should do.

The Modeh Ani may not have been clear in the past but today it certainly is an important issue. Today we more than ever we need the ability to be able to put aside the things that need to be put aside so that we can deal with the new things that come up.

There are people who make up lists and this is also important. I’m one of them. However, it is important to be able to also cross off things from that list or to prioritize the items on that list. In that way we can raise or lower the importance of things so that we’ll be able to decide what to do every day.

Is it important to do the should we do the most important things on any given day? Not necessarily. For if we would do so our days would be filled with only excruciatingly important things and we wouldn’t be able to function properly. We need a break from the important things. We need to do trivial things, to sit back, to relax, to enjoy life, and not only on a vacation time but on a daily basis. Therefore, we have to have a mix of the important things and the unimportant things. The trivial items that we had put aside and which were less important together with the most important things. Perhaps it is those things in the middle that will suffer, but as time goes on their priority will also go up and down.

Perhaps a good way of dealing with this is to think about the list of things that we would like to accomplish before we die. Once we are able to do that, then we are able to decide priorities for the items that we actually do on any given day. That will help put things into a long-term perspective and help us decide which are the truly important things.

It will also help us decide what we can do and what we cannot do LINK because if something is such that it really cannot be done or cannot be handled then it is better, no matter how important it is, to go on to those things which actually can be done during a lifetime.

Even within the day itself it seems that the events of the day grow and become more intense. That is yet another reason why at the end of the day a Reset button is needed.

What does a Reset button do? In a computer a Reset button clears the memory of everything that was done, all of the programs, all of the information, all of the extra data which can clog up a system is forgotten by pushing a single Reset button.

Computers are like people in many ways. Too much information, especially if it is deemed to be excessive by the person or by the computer, causes the person or the computer to run more slowly, work less efficiently, and eventually to stop working altogether, to grind it to a halt until it’s able to sort things out. Sometimes giving it a little bit of time to fix things up can temporarily help the problem in some of these cases. In other cases it is necessary to push that Reset button in order to clear everything out of the memory, at least temporarily, and then to put things back into the memory one thing at a time in an acceptable order, so that the person or the computer can deal with it in a workable way.

Whether it is a person or a computer is basically the same an information overload will never help things work. Thus, the more programs or data that you put into a person does not necessarily help it improve. To the contrary, in many cases it can be detrimental and some of those extra programs or some of that extra data should be removed, the system should be relieved of that extra baggage which it cannot deal with. It’s too much for it.

Some computers and some people are blessed with an ability to deal with more data than others but that doesn’t mean that they have to be filled with all of the data that they can possibly hold either. It means that there is the option of holding more but even that is to be kept in the machine or the person with gentle care and with sensitivity and in a usable, acceptable manner so that it will not overwhelm the system.

Is the Reset button a good device to use on a regular basis?

No. It is too strong a device and it too will wear out the system. The system needs other maintenance on a regular basis in order to work properly. Indeed, if you see that you are using the Reset button on a person or on a computer too often, it is a sign that there is a significant problem which needs to be handled in other ways.