Mental health awareness and simple gratitude practice

 

Did you know it's 'mental health awareness' week?

How is your mental health? Here's a small practice to try if you're heavy, tired and lacking happiness.

Take a moment to stop what you're doing or thinking about. Have a breath where you feel your in-breath and feel your out-breath. Next have an awareness of your body: how does it feel? Smile to your body and say 'thank you body, you're doing so much for me all the time'.

From your body, look out at your home. What does it look like? Does it bring you any judgment or criticism in your mind? Can you drop the criticism and say 'thank you home, you're sheltering me and keeping me safe all the time'.

From your home, look out at your community. Your town, village, city. What does it look like? Does it bring you any judgment or criticism in your mind? Can you drop the criticism and say 'thank you town, village, city, you're housing many people and keeping them safe, you're bringing together a community of people and helping one another meet and not be so lonely, as best you can'.

From your address, can you look out further at the world? Can you look at mother earth, with all its forms, plants, animals and humans? Can you look at all the rocks, mountains, lakes and seas? Does it bring you any judgment or criticism in your mind? Can you drop the criticism and say 'Thank you Earth. Without you, there would be none of this. Without you, I wouldn't exist. Without you, there would be no food, no shelter, no home, no life! Thank you.'

Now drop back into your heart, into your body, and smile again. How do you feel?

It all begins with dropping the criticism and giving out lots of gratitude.

So much is going well, but we dwell on the things going 'not well'.

The concepts of 'well' and 'not well' are in the mind only.

To the universe, all is well all of the time.

So, if you feel down, if your mental health is struggling, see if you can offer gratitude and look deeper at what's going on for you. See if you can disregard those judgmental thoughts that keep weighing you down.

In the end, you are a being of the cosmos, just like every form on the planet. You have every right to be here, to exist - because you ARE here, you DO exist. Never bring yourself down in your own mind. Never fight with yourself or your emotions. Breathe, smile, and offer gratitude to everything.

Sending lots of gratitude to you all for reading, and sending lots of love to everyone who is struggling with their mental health.

Dive into the depths...

Dive into the depths.

What are you annoyed at? What is preventing you from your happiness? What are you holding on to?

When we begin to look at questions such as these, we begin to dive deeper into our being. By sitting with questions, we begin to sense we're annoyed at the past. The past has gone, but there we are, analysing, interpreting, judging it. It's all about our thoughts about something.

I'm annoyed BECAUSE...
I'm not happy BECAUSE...

The because is the past.

So, what to do?

Dive into the depths of your being.

You are the cosmos of consciousness! Consciousness is coming through you, as a human, to feel what it is to feel.

If you feel your annoyance and let go of the 'because', you discover there IS no annoyance. Annoyance is an emotion based on thinking. There may be a few physical symptoms (frowning, tightness in the chest, for examples) but when you let go of the thought, you are left with your cosmic light of awareness.

Awareness is NOW. Awareness is eternal and absolute. Awareness is your REALITY. There is no annoyance in this realm.

So, if you're wallowing, moody, bothered, caught up 'with something', you are in the PAST in your mind...thinking, thinking, thinking.

Thoughts can be allowed to drift by; just don't hold onto them. What are you holding onto?

Remember your true nature: you're a divine being of the cosmos, just like every other form you can see. Your whole nature is awareness and consciousness, you cannot exist without this.

So come back to this state, and be free of your burdensome thoughts. They're just memories from your mind, and you don't need memory in order to live beautifully, happily in this precious, amazing life.

Be the joy...

As I approach my birth date, I reflect on my life somewhat and what's happened, how things are, and how it's going.

When I look back at my younger self, I can only smile now at some of my mistakes, my naivete, my ignorance in so many aspects of life, which led me to having anxiety/depression in my twenties. I used to feel life was against me, not for me. I used to feel people were out to judge and criticise me all the time, not to be loving or kind. I used to lash out with anger and insecurity, time and time again.

But I understand now, that all of this was just lessons to learn, to hone and build my inner self to become more robust and more dedicated to understanding how to be happy and how to be peaceful to life. I always wanted peacefulness, because my earlier life was anything but peaceful, through actions of others and my own actions/responses.

So now I'm in my fifties, things have changed so much and my relationship to life has changed so much.

12 years ago (or so, can't remember the exact date), I discovered mindfulness (in particular, a zen approach to mindfulness that encapsulates a lot of Buddhist teachings), and my life was never going to stay stagnant in the depths of anxiety and depression from that point on. I had a health scare 12 years ago where I was diagnosed with an uncommon condition called Sarcoidosis. This affected my immune system and caused my body to flare up to fight an infection that wasn't actually there. It was a rite of passage for me, a way to really begin to look deeply at myself, because I was frightened by the illness which was beginning to interfere with my daily life, and I didn't want it to get worse.

Through the mindfulness practices, very simple, very simple practices, like drinking a cup of tea mindfully, or going for a mindful walk, I began to unravel all the thoughts, all the conditioning, all the rules and mindsets my brain had decided was the right things to have in order to keep me safe from harm (but were actually causing me far more harm).

I was diligent at the practices and enjoyed mindfulness so much, as it was the first method I had ever discovered that was about being kind to myself, about allowing things to be and letting things settle on their own without any striving or fixing mentality. It was all about befriending myself, and through its practice I've learned so much about myself to the point now that I'm reaching the innermost self - which IS the kind, open heart we ALL have, tucked away.

So, right now, I'm feeling happy and peaceful. All that past stuff was just fuel for me to grow to this point. I don't need to worry about the future any longer either, because I know that I've got the practice of mindfulness that will always help me, no matter what happens or what I have to go through.

The ongoing practice, daily, is to simply be aware of my actions: what I do, why I do them, how I feel when I'm doing them and how I respond to the daily rituals of life. This results in me doing things with far more conscious awareness than sub-conscious conditioning/patterns and old rule sets. The bottom line is acting from the heart, not the head, from love, not fear.

I'll continue to share mindfulness teachings with whoever needs them or wants them, but my main role in life is to 'be' the peace and the presence so that others can benefit from it.

I still make 'mistakes', but they're looked out more keenly these days, and I always learn a lesson from them. I also let go of them more easily, and no longer beat myself up or feel guilty or angry. I also no longer blame others for what happened to me when I was younger (I used to!) but just see everyone and everything as a rich tapestry of learning, of pulling me on to THIS awe-inspiring moment where I can sit in peace and harmony with life.

So, if you've made it this far, thanks for reading! Reflection over lol.

I hope everyone has a fantastic week.

And yes, I will be celebrating my 'continuation day' with cake.

Are you 'efforting'?

What this means is a mental striving, a mental exertion of 'I must do this in order to get that' or 'I have to work really hard in order to get my message across' or 'If I do nothing, I'm going to stay stuck' etc.

At its heart is a deep rooted fear, a lack of trust in the universe, which unfolds every moment in ways our little mind can only dream of.

Often, things happen to us 'unexpectedly', and these things, these designs from the universe have come to our avatar (this body) to do something with.
The people we meet, it's all down to chance - to where we were at the time. Did you sit down years ago and write a plan on how you met your current circle of friends? Or did you meet by pure universal wisdom?

Following the universal 'way' is what is known as Wu Wei, or the art of non-striving, the art of allowing what is happening to be happening without coercion, manipulation or trying to make something fit better. Any manipulation is just your ego trying to make things 'a bit more comfortable' for you - yet by merely being awareness you automatically make things more comfortable without any effort on your part: you merely let go of the fear (which are thoughts about past and future).

If you're constantly striving for change, you miss the present moment and all the gifts it bestows. You miss the interconnected presence, the timeless awareness that knows what to do and when to do it. You miss heart centred love at the highest vibration, and enter more deeper, darker, dense layers of vibration through the annoyances, frustrations and anxiety of 'trying to fix' and 'getting upset when your desired outcome doesn't happen'.

It's not up to 'you' to change the world: you 'are' the world and are not separate from it.

Therefore, by being present, by being peace, by being happy, you are changing the entire universe's vibration in those moments. Wonderful things will begin to happen for you (but also, importantly, for the collective).

If you continue striving and getting frustrated, or work too hard, you could burnout, get depressed, get judgmental with your life.

Time for a change. Let go of striving! Don't effort so much. Be, and enjoy your day - what is there to fix in this moment? Trust that the universe has your back; it knows what to do. Allow it! Just watch and be mindful of your thoughts - because your thoughts are what changes your world, not your 'efforting'!