Spiritual Healing from Depression

[Guest guest]

There is kind of depression that is very seldom discussed --

spiritual depression. It is a malaise that seems to be upon many

people from time to time when they feel " cut off " or " far away " from

God. While in it they have no enthusiasm for God's Word. They

seem " weary in well doing. " They seem ready to collapse under

persecution. Anyone who has ever felt rolling into his soul the black

clouds of depression, who has gone in an instant from the passionless

peace and contentment of the mundane to the paralysis, the

hopelessness, the feeling of drowning in meaningless and despair that

constitutes the essence of the black beast Depression, will know well

the subject about which I hope to say a few words.

They sound like the Psalmist when he states, " Why are you in despair,

O my soul? And why have you become disturbed within me " (Psalm 42:5).

He repeats this refrain over and over. He says his soul thirsts for

God (42:2) like a deer longs for water (v.1). He acknowledges that he

is in mourning (v.9) and that " deep calls to deep at the sound of thy

waterfalls; All thy breakers and thy waves have rolled over me. " (v.

7). It is almost as though things are too hard to bear.

What I can say to anyone going through this is: stay with the power

of spiritual truth. The mental darkness cannot keep you outside the

light of the powerful, present, infinite, divine Mind, and the

powerful healing presence of God's love. Nothing can separate you

from the love of God—not fear, anguish or despair, not the darkest

oppression, not terrorizing thoughts of destruction. It's not just

human love; it's God's great love—loving you always.

What is the solution to this depression? It is self-talk.

Psychologists have known for some time now that negative, irrational

self-talk in the form of simple declarative sentences often leads to

depression. And therefore, appropriate self-talk can lift us out of

depression -- unless depression comes from an endogenous source like

hypothyroidism. Positive affirmations can produce terrific results.

They alter the internal programming that's been subconsciously

guiding and directing your life. What are affirmations? They are

nothing more than a series of positive statements that represent

favorable outcomes. They are designed to shift one's own self

concept and thereby produce a healing effect.

Spiritual healing is based on the belief that life's problems are

caused the erroneous, limiting, crippling way we believe things to

be. It is concerned with our vision of the universe and our place in

it. One of the basic tenets of spiritual healing is that people can

lose touch with their true natures, forget who they really are, and

live a partial life whose limitations hurt them. All approaches to

spiritual healing help people reconnect to themselves at a very deep

level (the spiritual level) and realign their lives from that level.

In some spiritual healings, clients are coached to reestablish

contact with (what is variously called) the high self, the true self,

being, spirit, the higher power, or the soul. This true self knows

who you are and what you need to do in this life; it may even have an

agenda that needs to be accomplished in this lifetime--for spiritual

healing often implies a worldview in which souls are reborn many

times, each time to learn certain lessons in a world that is a kind

of school for soul-making. (Healing and learning are more closely

related than you might at first imagine.)

There are many components to healing. One is the brain. We create

paths in our brains when we think. These form habits and very deep

recesses in our tissue. So when we think, thoughts get fired off and

travel down the same ingrained path, over and over. When I first took

art classes, they used to make me draw with my left hand, eyes

closed, or with the picture upside down. They did this because they

wanted to open up long closed off brain cells and create new ways of

thinking and expressing. We only use 10% of our brain because we

continually follow the same paths and don't force ourselves to

develop new ones. Think of your main " thinking path " as a raging

river, where your thoughts flow.

When we force ourselves to think new thoughts they take a detour from

this raging river into a tiny creek. This creek still exists in your

brain. However, your thoughts will continue to be dominated by the

raging river because the path is wide, strong, and the path that your

thoughts are used to taking. It takes will power to start to feed

your new thoughts into the creek that you have formed. This does not

happen overnight, within weeks, or even within months! You are

reprogramming your neural networks! However, the good news is that as

you take your old negative thoughts from the raging river, and feed

them into the positive stream, the raging river will recede and the

creek will grow, until one eventually dominates over the other.

Another component to mental and spiritual healing is getting into

alignment with your higher self. But to do that, you have to have an

inkling of what I'm talking about. Your higher self is what speaks to

you, when you are out of your negativity. It is what encourages you

to do things, like find your life path, being true to yourself

(meaning true to your higher self). The higher self is about self-

love, unconditional love for others, honesty with yourself (honesty

with self is evidence of inner love); it is about letting go of ego,

fear, separation and all things that are not in alignment with the

higher self.

If you are suffering depression, get ready to change your thoughts.

Your thinking has not worked for you, for if it had you wouldn't be

depressed. This is part of self-honesty.

Our lives won't change until we change. You will continue being you

no matter what job, spouse, home, or country you are involved or live

in. The most important thing now is to start being dead honest with

yourself. Continue building that self-love that you have started. You

may say, " What self-love that I have started? " Well, it's the inner

love that wants something better for you: the inner love that drives

for change and improvement. It is there. It is always there at the

highest level.

Sit down and write out your thoughts, beliefs, fears, and resentment.

And for every one of those, find the positive counterpart and

practice forgiveness towards self and others. And trust me, you will

not believe any of the positives that you write out to be possible,

or real (if you did, you would be using them in your daily life). The

task is not to instantly convert you, but to start rebuilding who you

are. Remember, you recreate yourself every single day of your life by

your thoughts. You have already labeled yourself as to whom you think

you are, but I guarantee you, who you think you are is very far from

who you really are underneath all of your programming! When we change

our words, our mind, and then our body, follows. It doesn't matter if

it isn't true at the time for it becomes true.

It is important that we deal with our inner issues before taking on a

romantic relationship. The love we think we'd be giving to a partner

wouldn't be love anyways. A person who is deeply suffering would

enter the relationship with gaping holes and put incredible pressure

(conscious or otherwise) on the mate to fill them. We may deny this,

but this is exactly what all people do who are not yet developed.

They think love will cure them but it is no better than the medicine

they are taking. It is a band-aid on the real issue. It may FEEL like

they cure you, that you are better, that you are happier, but it is

transient! You have free will and will do what you want, but my

suggestion is that you heal and learn to love yourself first. Then

you will resonate at a much higher frequency and the mate you attract

will be of a much higher nature. Think of your energy right now and

your aura. What do you think you are expelling? If you are as blocked

as you think you are and negatively programmed, then you will attract

someone that is resonating on that level. Just think about that.

If you are already in a relationship and are lucky enough to have a

supportive mate, then share with them what you are going through, and

work towards a healthy solution.

I am speaking from experience here. I suffered depression much of my

early life. It was only through years of going inward, getting myself

in alignment with my higher self, finding self-love, letting go of my

ego, loving my fellow man, and reprogramming my negative beliefs that

I was able to step out of those shadows.

Why you have blocks, or are suffering is a highly personal issue that

only you can get to the root of. Be honest with yourself; start to

explore the inner workings of your heart and mind, and you will find

the source.

Your progress will depend on how much energy and love you put into

yourself. It is a very arduous path that only a few muster the energy

for, but the rewards are grand. There is no quick fix here, however,

you are the most important thing you have, and isn't that worth all

the effort in the world? You can experience peace, serenity, inner

love, and wonderful relationships that last lifetimes not only in

this one, but the next. No drug can offer you that.