A life spent in idleness and gloom is really a state of exile from God.
The soul has been dragged along after the body into exile, and one's whole desire then becomes to raise it up and restore it to the Father, to redeem the Divine element and free it.
The soul is seen as the true daughter of God, the one who has been taken captive.
And in order to restore the soul's freedom, one has to concentrate on precise action as defined by the mitzvot.
The totality of one's thought and action has to strive toward this one purpose.
It may even be necessary to pray and cry out to God in one's agony of exile and confinement in the body.
The idea is to seek joyful repentance and good deeds, modes of restoration of the soul, rather than the grievous confession of specific sin or transgression.
–Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz
From The Long Shorter Way by Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz