May marks National Mental Health Awareness month, so it seemed timely to publish a blog on this topic.
Oh dear… it’s the 8, 9, and 10 of swords! These can be some of the most troubling cards to receive in a tarot spread. Connected with the element of air, swords is the suit of the mind. In traditional decks, victimization, isolation, anxiety, insomnia, and defeat are some of the negative keywords associated with these pip cards. While newer decks may instead choose to focus on positive aspects to help querents pivot from fear to love, work on mindset alone is not everyman’s path to wellness.
Image credit: "Out flew the web and floated wide; The mirror cracked from side to side; The curse has come upon me cried, The Lady of Shalott," The Lady of Shalott by A. Tennyson, Dodd Mead & Company Publishers, 1881. Original lithograph by Brett Lithographing Co, NY.
Since the pandemic and even in the post-pandemic world, mental health issues remain very palpable in the collective. Although some have been fortunate to be able to work remotely, there were many who felt helpless and hopeless having involuntarily lost their jobs. Others were essential workers out on the front lines risking their lives without proper compensation; forced to keep giving from a place of depletion, stress may produce feelings of spiritual poverty. Cut off from families and human contact, those in self-isolation with an excess of idle time may turn in on themselves.
Meanwhile, time spent in close quarters may also escalate conflict between couples and families in households. While social media helped people stay connected while stay-at-home orders were in effect, not everyone has had the same access to technology. What’s more is through overexposure to the media, empaths may absorb negative energy from the collective during these awakening yet disruptive times. Sensory overload and empathic absorption lowers vibration, in turn making us more susceptible not only to the virus, but also to EMF toxicity, dark moods, energy vampire attacks, even dark entities from the astral realms!
Talk therapy and pharmaceuticals may be helpful, but often they just mask the pain, pushing it deeper into the depths of the subconscious. Even if the root cause is identified, recognizing the pattern is just one step in the healing process.
A highly sensitive person who grew up with an undiagnosed learning disability, I have gone through dark nights of the soul and have hit rock bottom many times on my ascension journey. Mental health issues can stem from ancestral karma and stored trauma from past lifetimes. Beyond the genetic predisposition, there may also be chemical and nutritional imbalances that support dis-ease rather than well-being. Bipolar Disorder tends to runs in families, for example, and Niacin (B3) deficiency has been linked to depression. Talk therapy and pharmaceuticals may be helpful, but often they just mask the pain, pushing it deeper into the depths of the subconscious.
Even if the root cause is identified, recognizing the pattern is just one step in the healing process. In order to reclaim the power to make different choices, our brains must be rewired to perceive them. While Quantum Healing (QHHT), Past Life Regression, Reiki, Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT), Hypnotherapy, and Theta Healing are some examples of holistic therapies which activate neuroplasticity, the process of vibrational upgrade is often long-term and gradual. This is why ‘flipping the script’ and work with positive affirmations may not be enough for someone with a history of mental health disease or trauma.
Interestingly, there is an old Franciscan prayer that intentionally invokes suffering to awaken compassion. Thus, suffering can be a blessing. Why? Because it encourages us to find a way to transmute the pain into higher consciousness.
Interestingly, there is an old Franciscan prayer that intentionally invokes suffering to awaken compassion. Thus, suffering can be a blessing. Why? Because it encourages us to find a way to transmute the pain into higher consciousness. Understanding that thoughts create feelings which precipitate in moods is also a key concept. Spiritual author Eckhart Tolle has conceptualized of the pain-body to describe this phenomenon. Similarly, Abraham-Hicks teaches that holding a thought for more than 17 seconds is all it takes for a thought to gain momentum and create negative emotion. In fact, the common premise behind many meditation and mindfulness practices is natural observation, which helps us cultivate the understanding that we are more than just the thoughts we think. Abraham-Hicks encourages us to seek to be the “receiver of [our] thoughts rather than the thinker of [our] thoughts.”
Support groups can also be a good public resource to turn to in your local community. In the time of Covid many of these groups started hosting virtual Zoom meet-ups, making programming more accessible than it had been in the past even. Growing up with a disability, I was ridiculed and bullied by my peer group which made social and emotional isolation a regular, sustained condition reinforced by a broken single-parent household. Receiving the diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) as an adult, for example, has gone some way towards allowing me to find an inclusive community of like-minded individuals.
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If you need immediate assistance, please contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline (1-800-273-8255), or simply dial 988. While I am a multidimensional healer rather than a licensed psychotherapist, if you'd like spiritual advising or even just a witness, I’d be happy to talk with you. Book Now and receive 25% off your first Spiritual Reading with me. Simply enter the coupon code NEWCLIENT at checkout!
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