Starting from the Beginning

Episode 1 · April 3, 2023

Change, feeling stuck and procrastination

The Truth Hurts · Episode 1 · audio in Hebrew

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The conversation

You can eat the healthiest food in the world, sleep enough and run every test there is, and still get a diagnosis with no idea where it came from. Gili Man Wolner offers a different angle: illness is the body's correct response to a stimulus that is wrong for it, and that stimulus isn't always sitting on your plate. Sometimes it's sitting in your thoughts. She draws a line between guilt, which only hits you over something that already happened, and responsibility, which simply helps you know what to do next. Real balance isn't choosing between faith and doctors. It's making room for both of them at the same time.

The truth

  • The difference between guilt and responsibility comes into focus in the story about the intersection. Her rabbi asked her to picture herself making a turn, and she turned right instead of left. The lesson, the way she tells it, was simply to know what to do next time, not to beat herself up about it.

  • In Rabbi Ashrov's words, illness is the body's correct response to a stimulus that is wrong for it. Gili illustrates it with two people who drink diet soda all day long. The way she sees it, the reason one of them ends up with a damaged liver and the other doesn't comes down to the power of thought.

  • That leads to the sharpest line in the conversation: you can eat nothing but green and organic and still get sick if you're bitter and angry, and just the opposite, a person whose thinking is clear could in theory eat cat food off the street and nothing would happen to them. And that, she is quick to make clear, is absolutely not a recommendation.

  • Two axes run side by side: faith (emunah), whose highest value is knowing, and effort (hishtadlut), meaning actual tests and actual doctors. The higher the faith climbs, the less effort is needed, but we are human beings and not angels, so we can't give up either side. The secret is balance.

  • Control over your thoughts, she says, is the common core of every religion, whether you reach it through prayer, through solitary reflection (hitbodedut) or through meditation.

  • The website already has a blog with doctor recommendations and nutrition tips, and Hadas Madar, a dietitian, is joining soon to write the whole nutrition section.

Questions and answers

What's the difference between guilt and taking responsibility?

Guilt is a reaction of the ego, and it leaves you standing in the same spot, not moving forward. Taking responsibility is looking back to understand what happened and to steer your next choices well. Gili illustrates it with the intersection example her rabbi at the college gave her: a wrong turn isn't a reason to blame yourself, it's a chance to learn and make the right turn next time.

How does Gili define illness, based on what Rabbi Ashrov says?

In the definition Gili brings from Rabbi Ashrov, illness is not a random malfunction. It is the body responding correctly to a stimulus that is wrong for it. That means the first cause always sits in the soul, even when it shows up as physical matter in the body. So a person whose thinking is clear can stay healthy on a diet that is far from ideal, while anger and frustration held inside can bring on illness even in someone who eats well.

What's the deal with faith versus effort?

Two axes running side by side. One is faith (emunah), and its highest value is knowing. The other is effort (hishtadlut): going to the doctor, getting tested, doing something about it. The higher the faith climbs, the less effort is needed, but as human beings and not angels we can't give up either side. You work the faith muscle, and you still sleep well, eat right and go get tested. Balance is the secret.

How did Tal's Crohn's disease come to light?

Tal says the disease developed gradually, during a stretch when she was caught up in an intense life and never made time to deal with the inner sense that something was wrong. It didn't break out in a single moment. Things got worse and worse until she collapsed, and from there the journey to a diagnosis was relatively short, while the road to recovery was very long.

Gili's original episode description

In the first episode of the podcast, Gili Man Wolner and Tal Eckerling introduce themselves and talk about the connection between them and how they met. They get into subjects like reality and the subconscious, and how each one affects the other. They talk about guilt and taking responsibility, control over your thoughts, and the link between body and soul.

They discuss the definition that illness is the body's correct response to a stimulus that is wrong for it. The next episode will give practical tools and methods for taking responsibility for our lives and finding balance.

About the podcast

Listening to The Truth Hurts feels like sitting in on a healing session.

The truth can hurt. It’s right there in the name. But we’re not here to cause pain. Quite the opposite.

In each episode, two women sit down for an honest conversation: an Emotional Healer and her client.

We talk about healing and consciousness, faith and science, the body and soul, personal growth, energy, and different approaches to healing. Above all, we face the truth no one says out loud: everything around us is upside down.

Is this podcast for you?

  • You want to hear the truth, and you’re ready to face it. (Yes, those are two different things.)
  • You want to gain insight and improve your quality of life.
  • You want to make a change.
  • You want a deeper understanding of the laws of the universe.
  • You want to live a healthy life in body and soul.
  • You want to take away something you can carry with you for life.

You don’t need any prior knowledge. You only need the desire to explore a wide range of ideas and discover practical guidance for living.

Listen and get in touch

Gili Man Wolner, Emotional Healer. Helping you heal and grow through Jewish wisdom.

Have a question about an episode? Send a WhatsApp message to +972 50-681-0611 (messages only).

Listen to The Truth Hurts (in Hebrew).

Tal Eckerling, co-host: Website · Facebook · Instagram