mental illness
Spiritual Practices To Improve Your Mental Health
Mental health has become a critical focus for many in recent years. While traditional methods such as counseling, therapy, and medication are essential in addressing mental health issues, the mental health benefits of spirituality are often overlooked.
Everyone’s mental well-being is affected at some point by the challenges of modern life. It is common to feel out of balance when our world seems to be spinning out of control, or when it seems that we are not getting the things we most want in our lives.
Most people don’t realize that spiritual connection is essential to our mental health and facilitates well-being on all levels. Because mental health issues have such a low and heavy vibration, they make it difficult and sometimes impossible to feel the presence of God, Source, Spirit, the Divine in our lives.
But by working daily to establish a strong connection with your spirit guides and higher source, you are taking a powerful step toward freeing yourself from the grip of these inner demons and dark energies.
Spirituality in its various forms is a powerful way to connect with yourself and the world, fostering a deeper sense of inner peace and purpose for a more balanced and fulfilling life. Research clearly shows that various spiritual practices can significantly improve mental health. These practices offer complementary benefits to traditional mental health treatments, promoting emotional resilience, stress reduction, and overall psychological well-being.
Personally, I have found that spiritual practices such as prayer, meditation, and journaling give me greater access to guidance and support from the spirit realm and my guides. Our guides are a wonderful source of healing, guidance, and direction. Getting in touch with our guides can actually help us get out of a funk because they have the ability to set us free and empower us on every level.
Substance Abuse Destroys Relationships And Families
We all put a lot of time, effort, and resources into our relationships. From dating to marriage and parenthood, each stage comes with its own mix of joys and challenges. But amidst these milestones, it’s natural to ask: Is our relationship nurturing our spiritual well-being?
Think about the impact your partner has on your mental health and spiritual well-being. Is your relationship deepening your connection with God, Source, Spirit, or the Divine? Is it nurturing and protecting your children and loved ones? Or do you feel a subtle drift away from what really matters?
It’s a common scenario — an intimate relationship starts to fade as priorities shift. Maybe your partner chooses time with friends over quality family moments. Perhaps hobbies or habits take over, eroding intimacy and trust.
This isn’t just a personal story; it’s a broader reality with serious consequences. Children left wondering where a missing parent is, while the other struggles alone as a single parent, trying to juggle too much. This absence of care and nurture affects children’s personal and spiritual growth, leaving lasting echoes into their adulthood.
Alcohol and drug abuse often sneak into many of these situations, silently corroding relationships and families from within. In my spiritual work, I’ve met many souls grappling with failing marriages and domestic chaos overshadowed by substance abuse and addiction.
If you’re stuck in such a relationship, ask yourself why you’re staying. Love shouldn’t coexist with self-destruction. If your partner’s commitment wavers, consider where your spiritual path meets theirs. Sometimes, the toughest choices lead to healing.
Always Feel Free To Own Your True Feelings
Has anyone ever told you that you are too happy? Or has anyone ever told you that you smile too much? My guess is probably never.
So, why is it that whenever we experience negative emotions, be it grief, despair, or depression, we are often told that there is a time limit to such feelings and that we need to get over it. In today’s society, it is essentially also taboo to express feelings of loneliness, sadness, fear, or simply being unhappy.
My brother died at the tender age of 12 and left such a void in our lives that my entire family grieved his loss for decades. Fortunately, we were raised to accept this as a perfectly normal and natural process for us. We all understood that we would work through our feelings of grief and loss in our own way and at our own pace. We did not grieve according to a schedule or set of societal rules.
I find that a useful way to think about feelings and how to process them is to think of our emotions as being processed by our heart and mind like food is processed by our body. Just like food, we need to break down, digest, and assimilate the lessons and insights in our emotions to serve as growth “nutrients” for the soul.
Energy Imprint, Energy Cord, Or Entity Attachment?
In my work, I often encounter people who are experiencing phenomena that are negatively affecting their energy field, causing them to suffer a loss of physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual health and well-being.
Usually these problems are simply due to their own negative thinking, or external negative energy imprints or residues that their aura has picked up from toxic people or environments. In many cases, it can be due to the energy cord of a dysfunctional or unhealthy romantic relationship or other types of energy cords with family, friends, or co-workers that are contaminating or draining their personal energy and vitality.
In some cases, however, these negative energy influences have a far more sinister origin that the “carrier” or victim is rarely aware of, while it is destroying their well-being and wreaking havoc in their lives.
The problem is that many people do not understand the difference between negative energy imprints, energy cords, and evil entity or spirit attachments. In my experience, the confusion is mainly due to the fact that the effects these three categories of negative energy phenomena have on people are often similar, leading to misinterpretation of the source or cause of these influences and disturbances.
Mindful Connection In The Age Of Clocks And Screens
These days, we keep one eye on the clock and the other on our phone screen. It is stressful to always be on the go and in the know. Too often there is no time to relax and really enjoy the moment.
We have clearly lost sight of the things that really matter in life. We have become slaves to the clock.
These days we hardly notice or appreciate our friends and family. We are either preoccupied with our social media news feed or in such a hurry to get to our next destination. How often do we give a meaningful hug to those we love? We see more value in getting somewhere fast or getting something else done.
Can you remember the last time you gave a loved one a really good “squeeze”? Seriously! I mean a real, unhurried, sincere, meaningful hug? Have you ever received such a hug? Do you know what it feels like to get a real hug? It’s quite healing, affirming, and refreshing. What is that feeling? It’s love! And that is the true meaning of life, to give and receive love.
With the rise of digital technology and our increasing obsession with screen time and addiction to social media, many of us are not used to connecting in a personal, warm way. Some of us are not even capable of having a meaningful conversation these days. Ever since smartphones came on the scene, you see people everywhere with their heads down. If only they were busy praying! No, they are texting while their lunch partner is doing the same!
The Inner Truth Of External Clutter
We are almost a month into the new year, the time when most people begin to flounder in their resolutions. For me, resolutions are like empty promises, so my only resolution every New Year is to not make any resolutions.
Instead, I try to simply live my life with a few consistent rules. I have found that staying true to these personal and lifestyle guidelines eliminates the need for major resolutions each New Year.
Clutter is a big one for me. I make it a point to clean out the clutter in my life on a regular basis, whether it is physical, material, emotional, or spiritual.
Material clutter is the easiest to deal with because it is tangible and visible. It is hard to ignore a pair of shoes that you never wear anymore and have to move around in your closet over and over again.
It is also hard to ignore all those old clothes from another era that you have held on to in the hope that one day they will come back in style. Equally difficult to deal with are those old spice jars and other pantry items past their expiration date that you should have thrown away years ago!
These small lifestyle annoyances may seem insignificant on the surface until you consider that material clutter goes hand in hand with mental, emotional and spiritual clutter. The way we live, the way we manage our environment, and the way we organize our outer existence are a reflection of our inner being. The resulting clutter then becomes a recurring pattern that leads to more clutter, chaos, and dysfunction in our lives.
How To Beat The Holiday Blues This Year!
The holidays can be a very difficult and depressing time for some people. It can trigger unresolved emotions from childhood, unhealed trauma from past relationships, or unfinished grief from lost loved ones.
It can also make you feel more lonely, disconnected, and isolated than usual.
Especially for people struggling with existing mental health conditions such as anxiety or depression, their symptoms may worsen during the holidays due to increased stress, social demands, and cultural triggers.
But there are ways to beat the holiday blues and overcome sadness, depression, or low spirits during “the season to be jolly.” There are ways you can take back your power and improve your mood and overall well-being.
First, it is necessary to determine what is causing you to not feel the holiday cheer that everyone else seems to be experiencing.
Several factors can contribute to negative, gloomy thoughts and feelings during this time of year. A common trigger for many of us is that mainstream holiday traditions tend to emphasize spending time with loved ones and family, which can exacerbate feelings of loneliness for those who are socially isolated or have lost loved ones. This isolation can be particularly acute for those of us who live far from family or have strained relationships with them.