Depression is sometimes a sign of your spiritual awakening. It certainly is much more than grief or emotional hurt. This is somewhere we’ve probably all been: a parent dies, a husband or wife leaves us, a beloved pet passes away. Though these things are wounding, they are rooted in the emotions – our needs have been denied. They’re the results of a loss that – in most cases – heal over time. Depression is something else. It runs much, much deeper – a chronic anxiety in which the very Self is lost. Or it feels that way. You feel overwhelmed by normal tasks. You’re listless and apathetic. And terribly afraid. Amazingly, this can be the start of your Spiritual Awakening. And you can do something about it.
Unfortunately, we’ve been taught to see deep depression as a disease, or something as simple as a chemical imbalance in the brain. It is neither of these. It is not actually something to be gotten rid of, like a chicken pox. It’s a rational reaction to a world gone mad, or a life unfulfilled, or not recovering from a truly broken heart. ‘I can’t go on like this’, is your new mantra, overwhelmed by dark thoughts, clawing and searing through your mind. The world seeps in and there’s a flood of tears as you get up to another day, just to go through the motions again.
I know how all this feels. I’ve been there. Which is why I’m writing a new book to show it’s possible to make it go away. To rebuild a sense of meaning. To bring you to a Spiritual Awakening. But the sense of meaning and purpose is what is lacking. This is what needs increasing. Not your serotonin levels. According to the World Health Organisation, depression is,
‘a common mental disorder, characterized by persistent sadness and a loss of interest in activities that you normally enjoy … a loss of energy; a change in appetite; sleeping more or less; anxiety; reduced concentration; feelings of worthlessness, guilt, or hopelessness; and thoughts of self-harm or suicide.’
Ah …. suicide. It’s the great taboo isn’t it? But sometimes, deep depression leads to it, and there’s no point in denying it. Maybe it conjures up the image of a weak-minded, drug addled failure, so full of self pity that they kill themselves. And yet one of my favourite authors committed suicide. This was a highly intelligent, University educated, former editor of a famous Rock weekly. He had written a best selling, highly regarded book on the Beatles. How could this great, learned writer possibly have done this? It was so very sad. He’d battled depression for years, apparently, and lost the war in the end. (It’s a measure of his sophistication that – on the fateful day – he left a note on his front door for someone to call the police.) But he couldn’t find a way out of the darkness and took his own life.
It doesn’t have to be this way. The depression will abate, eventually. It did for me, last year (after a three year period!). But I want to share with you how I finally managed to heal with powerful mindfulness techniques. With stillness and meditation. And ultimately, seeing something I’d missed before. I want to share with you my Spiritual Awakening (though it feels pompous when I put it like that). First though, you have to surrender to depression to get beyond it. I know, it doesn’t make sense. Feel more pain to ease the pain! It sounds mad. But it works. Like I say, I’m writing a new book, Awaken: The Spiritual Solution to Depression. It’s about awakening to our real selves, the one that gets buried beneath the ego, or a mad and competitive world, or all the negative things we tell ourselves (and believe).
The reason you’re depressed is that when you at last wake up to this mad world – with all of its cruelty, greed and selfishness – and realise how truly awful it is, you want no part of it; you are different. It feels like the world out there is the cause, but for the chronically depressed, the suffering is a spiritual wake-up call. Your spiritual awareness has been raised and you can no longer look at life in quite the same way, you can’t live like other people do any more. Maybe your empathy has increased. You are more sensitive to suffering in others. And you know you can’t go on like before. You are having a real Spiritual Awakening.
The sum total of your being is trying to shed the old, false self and there’s something new within trying to grow – whether you like it or not. Maybe you’re in so much pain because you are trying to resist it. The thing trying to emerge is a deeper, more spiritual awareness of life, but this requires openness, too. Openness to change. And trust in the future. In you. And looking at yourself as you really are. But maybe you’re still clinging to the old self, as your inner energies are turned within and have nowhere to go. They’re stuck. Hence the depression. There s no outlet for the new you. My new book will help you find it.
Spiritual Awakening – Get In Touch
If you have or are experiencing chronic depression and are still living in darkness, I’d like to help. Knowing you’re not suffering alone is always a good thing, so please email me with your story and I’ll include it in the new book, obviously making sure you’re anonymous. I’ll send you a paperback or Kindle copy once it is published. Let me know if:
You think depression is really a spiritual and not a brain-chemical imbalance.
You believe you need to find more meaning in life, not better antidepressants.
You think your personal Dark Night of the Soul is spiritually significant.
You have tried mindfulness techniques but can’t quite get it right
You need to calm all the raging distractions in your head
You have at some time said: ‘I’m cut off from life’; ‘I don’t know who I am anymore’; ‘Nobody cares about me’; ‘Life is not worth living’; ‘There is no hope for the future’.
There is. There is hope for the future. It doesn’t have to be like this. Embrace your new self. Embrace your Spiritual Awakening. Get in touch.
My email address is: james.lynn.page@outlook.com
Follow me!
