Healing Chronic Mental Illness
 

I have been wondering about ways to spiritually heal or alleviate symptoms of severe strains of mental illness, in my case, specifically severe anxiety and chronic depression. I had a dream when I had just become a teenager, of a crow or raven flying straight at my face, woke up, and have been dealing with these illnesses ever since. I recently began to wonder what - if any - spiritual roots may underlay them and how to heal them?

Meditation seems like a good first step in the process of healing, but I can never figure out what one should be focusing on in the meditation?

Any advice or thoughts on the matter would be much appreciated. <3

QS

Meditation is the PRACTICE of Listening , not focus~

Be STILL and MASTER the Secret Of Stillness ..... which is LETTING GO ~

Anxiety and Stress are caused merely by ego.

Re-Connection is the Only Solution ~

Tools to aid:
The Mystic Path To Cosmic Power by Vernon Howard ( don't let the title throw you it could as well have been called TRUTH PSYCHOLOGY! )
The Secret Of Letting Go by Guy Finley ( this one came to me through Meditation! as an Angel whispered the answer to my question on healing with "Let it Go ..... Let it go ..... Let it all go" )

Meditation is SIMPLE ...... getting out of its way is a bit of a challenge!
Took me 3 months just to get the body to stop fidgeting ! And 6 more months to get the mind to be silent!
I would PRACTICE in the still of the night around 3AM for just 15-30 minutes.

In time the ANSWERS come without the need for even Meditation ....... for the Silent Stillness comes back into waking times and goes with us wherever we go ~

You need have NO FEAR of Divine Re-Connection ...... all Fear comes from ego and its deceptions which are in truth ....insane. 99.94% of the population is anxiety ridden ...... you are not alone in that and most have no clue they are! So you already have a heightened AWARENESS , FEED IT! For the Re-Connection is the SHIFT from thinking (anxiety) to AWARENESS (Joy!)

And that which IS your ANSWER ..... WANTS YOU TO FIND IT!

IT is subtle at first ...... but INSTANT Transformations occur which are not so Subtle but Amazing JOYFUL experiences ~

And if ready " A Course In Miracles " , though do not START unless you INTEND to FINNISH!

The ego does not like AWARENESS ....... because it CANNOT co-exist with it!

So it will bring forth ALL its DEFENSE MECHANISMS to try to get you to stop.

These are DIFFUSED by LOOKING AT IT and NOT believing egos Bull**** defenses (false thoughts of fear)!

Do not quit ~!
Be PURE of INTENTION !
Be WILLING above all else !

Willingness is ALL you NEED to OPEN the Super-Conscious to Conscious CONNECTION.
PERSISTENCE is needed to make IT permanent ~
Daily Practice is needed to keep from forgetting!

Walk in Nature as often as you can ~ She holds the Divine Vibration at all times ~ Walk barefoot as oft as possible ~ The Earth Electrical Field is ATTUNED to the body and wearing rubber soles weakens our connection ~

Above ALL else remember : every thought is a CHOICE ..... Two fields of thoughts can be received ; One is Fear Based and collective ego ..... the other is Pure Blissful Joy (Unconditional Love) and IT IS DIVINE and IT IS ALSO YOU !

Be SILENT about this around those you know ..... as you will likely have no allies there ...... or if you do share with them what you are doing ..... know you may get some really nasty responses! That is their problem and ego defenses ...... JUDGE them NOT but learn to DISCERN the ego imposter from the Divine True Self ignited in only a few ~

very helpful as i am overcoming my anxiety!

Based on what you mention here, i'd say mostly keep going in your discovery of spirituality. Make sure you practice in a balanced way, and balance your life as much as possible.

Balance in a holistic approach of spirituality includes practices that correspond to the 4 worlds. So, include physical practices, such as a sport you like, and a more internal one, like yoga or qi gong.

Then, there are the astral practices. You can begin with simple visualizations, of holy things and tarot cards. Work on active imagination. Maybe read Jung a little bit if you will.

Then the mental plane. Start with what you like. Get a general idea of most known things. Get a general culture of meditation, spirituality, holistic work. Then get more technical, with things like the tarot, kabbalah, theosophy, whatever you like, as long as it is balanced.

And finally spiritual practices as such, mostly prayer, and meditation, according to your preferences.

You may start for example 15 or 30 minutes a day for each category. The more the better, as long as it fits well in your life. Make sure you have such a base and keep going. You may add whatever you like as long as you have balanced basics.

Adjust your life so you get at least such a minimum practice, and then increase it according to your will.

For more detailed advice, i invite you to precise more your difficulties and questions. I wish you excellent practices.

I'm also gonna recommend holistic approach, find the cause and seek a way to cure it. Someone once told me that mental illness isn't always a result of chemical imbalance in brain or spiritual emergency resulted from trauma or life-threatening experience, but it can also manifest because we are not living true to ourselves as a whole or don't live towards our sense of purpose. You can ask yourself if it's one of these, maybe a mix of them or something else.

Also, observe your symptoms, if you have better and worse periods, what triggers the worse? Something that comes from your surroundings or certain thought patterns within you?
Or you may try interpreting the dream, what does the crow or raven mean to you? Did something happen during your teenage that had similar effect as the bird flying straight on your face?

Of course, there are many faces to mental illness. Medically it's defined illness when it prevents us from functioning in the society... as shallow as it sounds since society is a big web of norms and outside expectations imposed on us, usually the more empathy you have, the more people suffer from it while less empathic people thrive no matter how they hurt others, usually those who become mentally ill.
When it comes to these things, affirmations combined with meditation works wonders.

I use to suffer from both. My anxiety is pretty much all gone and my depression creeps up on me sometimes. But not at all like it was. What everyone said above was really helpful to me. Walking in nature really helped me. Cause you can mediate while walking, plus getting your body moving is really helpful for the body and mind. I'm also see a therapist for my past trauma. Although I did most of the work myself, just talking to someone is really helpful. They can catch things that you don't realize you are doing/thinking.