Dear fellow GYE members...
B"H I have the zechus to be celebrating 40 clean days today, may Hashem help all of us to always continue doing his will!

According to Reb Elimelech of Lizensk, zt"l, 40 days is a significant number for breaking bad habits... 
This is what he writes in "THE TZETIL KATAN" 
"Man was created in the world only to overcome his nature. He should therefore be conscientious to repair and improve his traits of character, as I will explain: For ex- ample, if someone was born with a stubborn nature, he should break his nature forty days in a row, to do specifically the opposite of whatever comes into his mind.  From then on he will be helped from heaven to succeed ever more in breaking the bad character traits, until they're gone. "

At the same time I would like to start a new project for the next 40 day with the help of Hashem (not a neder c"v)... The project will be
"40 Days of Focused Praise To Hashem".
I will try to post every day one positive thing to focus on for that day and keep on thanking Hashem for it... 

For today the focus will be on:
"Thank you Hashem for giving us GYE"!
I am starting with this for a few reasons:
First of all פותחים בכבוד אכסניא 
But more importantly, where would I be today without GYE ... 
10 years ago when I first discovered GYE I was very skeptical about it. My thoughts were, hey, I can do it myself, and this site is full of bad talk and people that I rather not be associated with them...  
But B"H after many years with many ups and downs I've came to realize a few things:
1- I can NOT do it myself.
2- Discussing these matters for the purpose of recovery is the opposite of bad talk.
3- The people on GYE are the best people to be affiliated with... People that are not interested to grow in life are not member of GYE... 

So thank you GYE and thank you Hashem for giving us all the opportunity to become closer to you and better people in all aspects of our life!
Hashem, please help us continue to grow and have mercy on all those lost souls who have not discovered GYE yet, to also have such a great opportunity like you have giving to us!

"Focused Praise To Hashem" DAY 2

Today I will focus on thanking Hashem for the gift of eye sight (Pokeach Ivrim).

Thanking Hashem for our sight is acknowledging an open miracle. A good camera may last a few years. Our eyes can function for over a century without ever needing maintenance. 
Another aspect in this is the appreciation of Hashem's kindness that even though I did not guard my eyes the way he commanded me to, he is still giving me this gift every minute of every day.
Thank you Hashem!

"Focused Praise To Hashem" DAY 3

Today I will focus on thanking Hashem for giving me a Yetzer Hara

Sounds strange? 
Well the medrash says that “Tov” is the Yetzer HaTov and that “Meod”, very [good] is the Yetzer HaRa.

I heard a story of a boy in yeshiva who did not have a chavrusa. So he told his rebbi that he decided to take the yetzer hara to be his  chavrusa. So the rebbi asks "why don't you take the yetzer tov?" the boy replies, "the yetzer hara is always alert, available and he seems to be much smarter" 

There's a lot we can learn from the yetzer hara... The Yetzer Hara tempts a person to sin and he listens to him and falls. But after the person sins, he becomes disgusted with the desire (and resolves never to fall again). And yet the very next day, the Yetzer Hara tempts him once again with this same desire and he renews the desire in his heart R"L, just like before. So how much more so, the Torah and Mitzvos, which are the life source of all the worlds and a person's very life - should feel new to a person every day!