You Are Not Your Mind
Category Archives: Meditations
What is Your Biggest Fear?
A Quick Mental Health Experiment to Try Now
Up for an experiment? Try this out and tell me what you think.
Meet Your True Being
You are NOT your mental illness.
Let’s Talk About Mental Illness
A single conversation with a wise man is worth a month’s study of books. ~ Chinese Proverb
Today, we may keep our thoughts and worries to ourselves. We may search for explanations within the craziness of our minds. We may consult books and the internet to find answers for why we feel anxious, depressed, and hopeless, and how to fix it. We may suffer alone in the madness, telling ourselves that no one understands how we feel, that we are unique in the torture we suffer.
Or we can be open-minded to the possibility that like us there are others who experience the pains of mental illness. We can seek out those who have been where we are; ask them about their experiences and how they cope. We can lean on others for strength.
Sometimes the problem is not that we don’t have the answers but that we aren’t willing to discuss the questions with another human being. We often and unknowingly perpetuate our symptoms by searching for peace on our own.
It is in reaching out, asking for assistance, and making ourselves vulnerable, if only by talking to an understanding and trustworthy person about our thoughts and feelings, that we find peace. If I surround myself with others who understand and support me, I will survive. Afterall, we certainly won’t be crazy at the same time! I will lean on others when I need to and they will lean on me in turn.
Today, I will talk to someone about what is going on inside of my head instead of isolating, and I will know peace.
Need someone to talk to? Need someone to listen who understands? I get it. Leave a comment and let’s share about it.
How to Stay Happy When Others are Fighting
When the conflict of others does not directly involve me, am I able to stay out of it? At times, it is difficult to let the adults in my life fight their own battles. Also, it is harder to distance myself emotionally than physically.
Physically, I can go for a walk or a ride, sit outside, visit a neighbor, put on head phones and listen to relaxing music, or take a break from my surroundings in some way.
Emotionally, however, my thoughts obsess over the conflict, causing anxiety, depression and fear to overwhelm me.
If I am able to expel these thoughts from my mind in a constructive way, like talking about them with a trusted person who is a neutral party, the negative feelings leave me. Then I am able to detach with love from those waging amongst themselves.
I have the choice to try a different action; to walk a different path. Today, I can choose to know peace.
Patron Saint of Mental Illness
May 15th is the feast day of Saint Dymphna, the patron saint of mental illness. For more information click here.
We do not know for certain how we will react in a particular situation until we are actually there. Multiple factors influence our thoughts, emotions and actions at any given moment. These factors may be outside of ourselves or come from within.
As humans, we all suffer from ailments, whether it is for a week with the flu, years with cancer, or a lifetime with mental illness. We must not forget that like the flu and cancer, mental illness is not a weakness or character flaw. It is an affliction of the mind/body that colors the way our soul/spirit experiences this world. Without help it is too much for us.
Have you ever prayed for someone? Do you ever ask others to pray for you?
Today, I ask St. Dymphna to pray to God for me and for all those who have mental illness.
Serenity Prayer
We feel that our past traps us in a constant state of despair and suffering. We blame others for our unhappiness. While our human condition tells us that we have to depend on things outside of ourselves for our peace of mind, this simply isn’t true. Our past experiences may have shaped who we are today, but they do not have to continue to affect us in negative ways.
We are not responsible for what happened to us as children, but we are responsible for doing something about it as adults. We have choices, now. Choices that may not have been possible before. We can remove ourselves from abusive and unsupportive environments and people. We can seek out positive and trustworthy individuals, and ask for their help. We need to find others who have found healthy solutions to difficult problems, and learn from them.
We are not unique in our experiences. There will always be others who have had worse experiences than us and others who have had more fortunate ones. Therefore, to compare ourselves and our situations with others is futile; it will only lead to either feelings of superiority or inferiority.
The way to true peace is to simply face the facts of our own situation, and accept what we cannot change while changing what we can. Praying for the wisdom to know the difference is vital to our plan of action.
Today, I will ask the Universe, the Divine Light, my Higher Power, the Holy Spirit, my God for the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.
P.S. Happy Mother’s Day!
How to Meditate – Book Review
How to Meditate: A Guide to Self-Discovery
There are many ways you can meditate. LeShan divides these ways into four different “paths,” as he calls them, which can each help you to achieve the same goals – less anxiety, better health, and a greater joy in living to name a few. The paths are as follows:
1. intellect
2. emotions
3. body
4. action
How to Meditate
Now, I meditate almost everyday for periods of five to thirty minutes. Even that little bit makes a huge difference in my anxiety levels and ability to calmly handle life’s normal stressors and even some of the big ones.
Do you use meditation as a way to cope with anxiety and/or depression? How does it work or not work for you?
Do we do things we don’t want to in order to please others? When we say “no” do we often feel guilty? Martyrdom is for saints. We are not saints. We are also not bad. We are sick and we are trying to get well.
Unless we are doing for others for “fun and for free” we are harming ourselves as well as lying to ourselves and others about our motives for helping them.
Today, I will give freely that which I can afford to give. I will not risk my physical, emotional, or mental health by saying yes when I want to say no or by feeling guilty for making my health my top priority.
Write into the Light 