Walking home after being invited out for a Friday-night dinner, I was feeling a little disheartened. It had not been the easiest year for me and my husband. It was a year filled with the usual disappointments, upsets and failures, along with a mixed bag of extra challenges that stretched us to dig deep in places we didn’t know we could. And that particular night, I was feeling it.

I was walking home alone that night, down myI needed to change my focus usual route, thinking about life and hoping the year to come would be a positive one. My mind kept returning to the meal I had just come from. I couldn’t help comparing myself to others who seemed to have more going for them, a view that only reinforced the unfairness of it it all.

Halfway through my walk, I stopped myself. Yes, it had been a challenging year, I rationalized. Yes, I had a right to feel down about it, but would it help? I decided I needed to change my focus. Instead of dwelling on what was lacking in our lives, I needed to center on what was thriving instead.

As I thought about this, I passed a stately apartment building. Set back from the street and covered in greenery, it was quiet and unassuming in its elegance. In bold gold lettering, it announced its name on the front: Beltani.

Perhaps it was the building’s name, which had a ring to it I knew I could commit to memory, or perhaps because it contained the Hebrew word ani in it, meaning “I.” I decided then and there my change of focus would be called “Beltani,” and the translation would be: I am enough.

I walked the rest of the way home somewhat reassured that things would be OK the way they are, of life being OK exactly as it was, and of me being OK the way I am—flaws, blemishes and all.

I thought about this concept the rest of the week, turning it over in my mind like a dice, flipping over the sides and examining it closer. Beltani became a code word for me, reinforced by the physical landmark I passed daily—a reminder that life, however complicated, was OK, and that I was, quite simply, enough.

Positive thinking as a way to improve my outlook is something I have struggled with. Often, it feels as if my mind is a train with a preordained route and set of tracks. But that night, I knew that if I could change my attitude towards life for that 10-minute walk home, I would be able to do it again when I needed to.

Positive thinking is rooted in many Chassidic teachings, including the Tanya. Simple in its truth, the concepts are based on the human psyche. If a change is sparked in our thought patterns, it can tilt over a series of carefully placed dominos and even alter the tracks to my personal train. The belief that things can result in a positive outcome is sometimes all it takes to manifest change on a much larger scale. In the daily grind of life, it can feel almost impossible to break free from thought patterns that keep us stuck, going through the same motions on repeat, never breaking out of the cycle. Sometimes, a boost in attitude is all it takes to tip the scales and to help us see the good in our lives, and be satisfied with things as they are.

I think the concept of being “enough” is oneAs women, we have incredible demands placed upon us many Jewish women find challenging. As women, we have incredible demands placed upon us, and a significant number of people in our lives who rely on us to be strong, to hold things together for them. There is often an invisible pressure that is not seen but felt—to be the perfect version of ourselves, to never let anyone see that things are not, in fact, as perfect as we try to project out to the world. This unspoken belief only adds to the pressure we put on ourselves to perform.

So many of us hold up walls around ourselves that we build to mimic the perfection we want to achieve. But perfection is impossible. Although daunting, it can be freeing to let the world see that there are cracks in our walls and our facade. Sometimes, we need to remind ourselves (and each other) that it is acceptable to let some things go undone, unfinished. To just be.

Ultimately, we are all enough, exactly as we are, right here and right now, in this moment in time, with all our challenges and our joy. We don’t lack a thing because, with or without knowing it, what we need we already have. Beltani: We are enough.