Does the Spiritual Journey Create Depression?

[Guest guest]

Article by Rev. Maxi Harper from Radio Archive www.marhatis.com/radio.htmDoes the Spiritual Journey Create Depression?This is a topic that is hard to believe. We begin our spiritual journey and our search for higher consciousness believing that we will find Nirvana within and share without. On some level, we are lead to believe that by doing so we will find peace and bliss and see the world in a new light of love. Yet, we often find the path hard, unforgiving and a spiral into depression that evades our ability to help ourselves. Does this sound

familiar? "I just can't believe that when I started my spiritual path, everything went down hill. I lost my job, my friends my loved ones, and dug up all my dark issues to find myself sitting on a couch watching Jerry Springer and unable to even breathe without crying. What is wrong with me? Am I dying? Why can't I help myself?"What really hurts, it that all the inner work you did and the knowingness you now have and the help you can give others, you still did not see that the new life in the light and you end up in the dark. You feel betrayed some how, you feel ashamed of yourself for not seeing this, you doubt yourself for ever starting this path in the first place... yet you just can't stop or turn back. The floundering, lack of goals and direction brings on dark growth periods and Bardos that seem endless. Our original quest to find why we are here changes to why did I do this. In some cases we even get angry with God for making us think

that the way of the light would be the end to our pain, thus the famous words, "God, why hast thou forsaken me?" This recent awareness about depression on a spiritual path has finally been evident enough that surveys and research is beginning to find some evidence of truth. I have given it a name so I can better address the issue, "Spiritual Depression". And to be trendy, "SD, as in I have SD!!!Depression is part of the alchemy process of enlightenment. So should we embrace or medicate this state of existence? Depression is the last emotion you can have when you moved through without working on all the prior alert emotions. So the body suppresses the energy and chi meridians, until you figure it out. What I have found is the physical function that correlates to our spiritual enlightenment causes the secretion of brain chemistry and the activation of hormones that the increase body has to learn to read these chemical secretions as

part of the body and not as a foreign substance. Once the body adjusts to continual chemical changes, the process of higher consciousness becomes more automatic. However, if and when, too much of this chemistry is released into the body at the same time, the emotional overload can cause stress and frustration on the emotional system and it shuts down to a level call depression. The other element involved in this equation is, to reach higher consciousness we must look deep into our dark side and see and admit things to ourselves that we have been avoiding. Dealing with grief and various forms of loss, reflection on events that cause us to feel negative about ourselves, old belief and though patterns, and negative inner talk, all contribute to a state of depression as well.With this identification, it makes one think it might be a better to face the depression straight on rather than avoid, mask or medicate. What if we embraced

depression as one of our alchemical emotions, just as all the other emotions we accept, and meditate rather than medicate.What if have the attitude of gratitude toward depression by asking it what it is trying to tell us about or protect us from, then delve into the depths to find the source gift. In the practices of personal alchemy, depression is one of the "seasons" on the emotional wheel that brings us up and out into creativity. Many practicing alchemist rely on this stage of the emotional consciousness to reach that creative height. We certainly have seen this pattern in the great artists and brilliant thinkers of our time, who's deep depressions spurred them into the greatest works of all time. By honoring our grief, fear, and despair we can achieve a profound healing and transformation. How do we go about getting past the fear of accepting depression? We can begin by giving it the value it has as being real. It is not

a disease of the brain but it is an affliction of the psyche or soul.Dr. Zuess, in his book, The Wisdom of Depression, says, "The depressed response is nothing less than the body's natural impulse to go on a vision-quest. That is to say, depression signals a person's need to enter a new phase of spiritual fulfillment. Medication would only stifle a natural, inborn response."Carl Jung, has classified there being two types of depression, "reactive" and "endogenous" depressions. He states, "Reactive depressions are triggered by external events, such as losing a job or suffering the death of a loved one. Endogenous depressions, on the other hand, have no clear external trigger. They well up from within, and create a blockage in the "individuation process." In layman's terms, endogenous depressions have to do with

frustrations in a person's path of personal development. Depression, in this view, is an obstacle or symptom of stagnation in personal development."So if we look at our times of depression and recognize that it is the strongest emotion talking to us, we had better listen and work into and up out of it. Yes, there can be physical conditions such as low serotonin, however that may be from all the brain power we us up to try and avoid the depressed condition... you know, which came first... the chicken or the egg controversy!When I feel the familiar signs of the on-set of depression, I immediately try to counteract the negative inner talk that supports a full blown down time. Then I try to hang on enough to ask myself, what is throwing me out of balance. This can be hard to do since depression is the final emotion you have after going through all the other emotions and not listening and working it out at those levels. Depression is

when your entire being just shuts you off until you see no other way than to turn and embrace the depression and work through it. Yes it is debilitating but you can work through it. Even the slightest of shift can give you an emotional lift and that gives you a chance to get a better grip on your situation to be able to think in a more positive light again. One thing you can do is when you are not depressed make a file or scrapbook of all the pleasant memories you have and all the things you like, a color, a blanket, music, anything that makes you feel joy or comfort. Even write yourself an inspiring letter with advice or good thought. Collect these items and place them all into a box. When you get too deep into the depression that you just can't get out, open the box and read through the contents. The minute you smile at something, grab onto that emotion and focus on making it bigger, and bigger... I think you know how to go on from there. In

factual chemistry, a smile, even if forced, triggers brain chemistry that creates joy and lightheartedness. Try it. Look in the mirror if you have a hard time smiling, keep trying, and when you see how funny you look working from a grimace to a smile you will laugh, and as you have heard, laughter is the best medicine!