THE OPTIMISM GAUGE How Hashgocho Protis, Neuroscience, and Therapy Teach Us to See
I feel deeply blessed that, for much of my life, I have been able to open my eyes and feel gratitude for what I see. Perhaps I was born with a certain native optimism, inherited from my witty, warm grandfather and from my mother’s humor, buoyancy, and zest for life. Temperament is never the whole story, but it is part of mine. My friends sometimes call me “Pollyanna.” Who cares? Maybe the Jewish version is Polly Chana.
My inner gauge has often leaned toward full—not because life has always been easy, and not because suffering politely knocks before entering. But my mind seems inclined to scan for meaning before it scans for doom. I look for the good, the redemptive thread, the quiet simanim that appear in ordinary life.
This orientation has shaped my work as a therapist. Again and again, I notice that the themes emerging in my clinical work often arrive at the very moment I am grappling with similar themes internally. Some ideas I have known intellectually for decades. I could explain them, teach them, diagram them. But intellectual mastery is sometimes the thinnest layer of knowledge. In Torah language, there is Chochmah, Binah, and Da’as: the spark of insight, the expansion of understanding, and finally the lived, integrated knowing that joins an idea to the person.
The Rebbe urged us to open our eyes and see the miracles surrounding us. That teaching feels both theological and psychological. Attention is not passive. Human consciousness is not a neutral camera pointed at a finished reality. The way we direct perception shapes what we are able to recognize, receive, and respond to.
Neuroscience says something similar in another language. The brain is not merely a recording device. It filters, predicts, highlights, and searches for what it has learned to value. When we repeatedly look for goodness, providence, meaning, and connection, we are not indulging in sentimentality. We are training our instruments of perception.
I believe deeply in hashgocho protis: Divine Providence in its intimate, detailed sense. Hashem is involved not only in sweeping history, but in tiny crossings, odd timings, and strange convergences that begin to glow when seen together. A phrase repeated twice in one day. A question in my own heart that suddenly appears in a client’s words. A theme that shows up in a sefer, a song, a session, and a private struggle all in the same week. These feel like gentle Divine pats on the back.
Of course, a therapist must tread carefully. When a client’s material mirrors my own, is it attunement or projection? Countertransference or true resonance? The Baal Shem Tov teaches that what we notice in another often reflects something alive within ourselves. Yet this does not mean all perception is distortion. Sometimes our inner work sharpens our hearing. We begin to detect frequencies we once missed.
The question is amplitude. If the material in me is integrated and regulated, resonance can deepen empathy. I recognize the note without being overtaken by it. But if it is raw or highly charged, the signal becomes too loud. I may feel urgent, overly certain, or prematurely interpretive. The task is to ask honestly: Is this settled enough in me to help me hear, or so activated that I am hearing it too loudly?
So what is happening when my own themes appear in my clients? Part of it may be projection. Part may be attentional filtering. Part may be resonance, countertransference, or lived knowledge ripening into compassion. And part, I believe, is hashgocho protis—the finely woven Providence through which Hashem prepares us for the encounters by which we learn, grow, and serve.
Perhaps this is what it means to open our eyes: not only to notice the good already there, but to become the kind of person whose way of seeing helps goodness come further into view.
CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO MY SUNO SONG “MORE THAN HALFWAY FULL”
READ A LONGER POST ON SUBSTACK BY CLICKING HERE
With Gratitude,
Rus Devorah
