Understanding the Spiritual Causes of Depression

(Waking Times) Can you believe it, 70% of Americans are on some kind of prescription drug and more than half receive at least two prescriptions? High on the list of drugs prescribed are antidepressants. I find that shocking. Not least, it speaks about the dysfunctional nature of society in terminal decline. The system is not working! I imagine practically everyone suffers from some kind of unhappiness or depression from time to time. Why does that happen? How might we deal with it in an effective, spiritual way, without prescribing medication?…

The not-so-merry-go-round of society

I believe there are many reasons why people suffer bouts of depression, and to me, I sense it’s mainly – if not always – due to a dysfunctional relationship with the divine. I observe in the work I do with people, if we can get that inner relationship aligned and ticking well, then depression and other disfunctional experiences dissolve away.

I put it to you, that the root cause of all Depression, is a dysfunctional relationship with the divine.

Society has conditioned people to look for some kind of end goal in the outer world, and created a system of enslaved consumeristic addicts. Rather than attaining sense of completeness within, people have been made to believe some achievement, attainment, or physical manifestation must be the subject of their longing. Most people have been sold a lie, and when the lie doesn’t fulfill, something must be prescribed to fill the sense of loss. It’s a not-so-merry-go-round fueled by big corporations to make profit. And there’s no bigger cash cow than the ‘health’ industry.
So this is probably the number 1 reason people get depressed – they’ve been sold a lie which can never fulfill the sense of inner completeness. Worse still, prescribed drugs tend to lock people into the disconnection – they manage the situation rather than solve it.

Meditation is a powerful solution to this ‘madhouse’. I was running a course recently where one person had been steadily reducing from a daily cocktail of 18 prescribed drugs each day! Regular meditation, and seeking inner completeness, has reduced that to just one – soon that will fall by the wayside too.

So regular spiritual practice, where you’re looking for a sense of completeness within, will help immeasurably, if you find yourself beginning to feel low or depressed. Meditation helps activate endorphins, which block the take up of negative neuro peptides in your bodily cells. They help you feel good (here are other ways in generating endorphins…The Uplifting Effect of Endorphins).

We are alone in the Universe – we are “all-one”

But simple meditation is not going to be the end of the story when it comes to kicking depression into touch; there’ll be other reasons too. When you seriously get into the game of self-realisation (is there any other game going on?), then your soul will venture down the spiritual path, all the way back to the Source – back to completeness, which is the Void of Silence preceding all activity.

It’s on this journey, that at some point, the soul realises something crucial: that the soul in itself, is not an identity, but a stream of consciousness – a stream of experience. It means there’s only one self in the universe – the One; and you are that. I’ve witnessed many people in spiritual work arrive at this realisation. And in the beginning it can feel very lonely – you realise you are entirely alone in the universe!
How do you deal with this?

As within any resistance to reality, you have to deal with the tightness it creates. In this case, that’s likely to be depression. But you can’t solve it by distancing yourself from it, by pretending it doesn’t exist, or popping some pill to ‘cure’ it. That just perpetuates the problem, which you have to face further down the path (or medicate to drown the effects).
No, you have to get into the heart of it. So if you feel alone, be alone. Take yourself off and feel the aloneness. It’s all about Transcendence – you have to feel through any kind of distortion like this in order to process it. So let yourself be alone, fully express the aloneness. Then you’ll probably come to the realisation that as The One, it doesn’t matter, because you already are everything and have everything – plus you’ve manifested these relativistic experiences called ‘souls’ which give you the awesome pleasure of being reunited with yourself. So the penetration of the pain (the sense of aloneness) leads to this sense of joyful completeness – the knowledge that the world is full of resonant souls that you can interact with (it’s no doubt why social media for example has become so spectacularly popular).

The Pain of Existence

On the journey of the soul back to the source, you’ll probably also encounter the “Pain of Existence”. It’s the realisation that you’ve brought the universe into being (through no fault of your own) and now, you can’t switch it off! Wherever you go, whatever you do, you’ll find realtivity creates some kind of experience – even in the desert you can still hear the ‘sound of silence’ in your ears and beating heart.
But what you can learn to do, is to transcend reality altogether. How do you do this?

You have to be totally in the moment, and totally accepting of what is arising for you as an experience. If it’s tightness, unhappiness and resistance, embrace it, feel it, don’t push it away. Work at becoming ‘as-one’ with the experience; which means to be so intimate with it, that it’s like you’ve been completely submerged within it. And you may then stop defining it as some kind of judgment the ego has made.

Then right in the midst of the feeling, see and feel yourself ‘stepping through the experience’. It’s like you open a doorway right through it, into pure presence itself. You can do this only because you no longer allow the feeling to define you, and you’re not resisting it.

In being the One through the experience, you will likely find the nature of the experience changes into one which is more harmonious. The Pain of Existence naturally disappears and with that the depression (discover more about…Breaking through the Pain of Existence).

Where’s your Tribe, what’s your Vibe?

On a recent Openhand Course, I was staggered at how many starsouls there were amongst the group. I can always tell, because I can literally feel their vibration. You simply know they’ve traveled here from other constellations.

Many of these experiences will be much lighter and more expanded (the earth vibration being pretty dense). Plus many will have a greater sense of unity and harmony. So you could well be a starsoul, who has the sense your real home is elsewhere (it’s something I often hear). And being disconnected from your true ‘tribe’ can cause a fair amount of sadness – leading possibly to depression. In these instances, I encourage people to open a connection with their soul family – through their ‘vibe’. It can be done in meditation: you simply have to open your heart and extend an invitation.

Then afterwards, watch supportive synchronicity shaping in the field – perhaps you’re guided to a particular book or film, which gives a sense of something resonant within.
Try to see past the purely surface level in order to appreciate this – see the 3D world, but always look for the deeper message, the Joy of MultiDimensionality.

Chemical Imbalances

Depression can also be caused by chemical imbalances – in the brain for example. Especially since our world is so full of toxin and society is so distant from our natural ways. This is where diet and supplements can be of great help. This is clearly a huge subject, so I felt here below, only to list three important issues which are likely to have some kind of impact on you or those close to you:

• Fixed negative behaviour patterns: Conditioned depressive and distorted behaviours release negative neuro peptides that infuse our body. As previously mentioned, activating endorphins can greatly help prevent the uptake of these negative chemical imbalances. It’s something definitely to be explored. There’s no reason why we shouldn’t have pleasure and joy in our lives (check out this article here…The Uplifting Effect of Endorphins).
• Moontime: the adverse hormonal imbalances of the feminine monthly cycle – ‘Moontime’ – affects a great deal of women, and can easily cause anxiety and depression (having a big impact on relationships). Herbs such as Agnus castus can greatly help ease the burden (find out more in this informative article here…Honouring the Sacred Feminine Moontime).
• Cold weather and Lack of Sunshine: In colder climates where the winter days are cloudy and short, this can lead to vitamin D deficiency, which is a known cause of depression. Load up on vitamin D; nurture yourself with plenty of extra sleep. Protracted cold closes the body down as a protection mechanism. But it can close your consciousness down too. So intersperse these ‘hibernation’ periods with plenty of aroma therapy hot baths and saunas, to soften internal body tightness and to open lighter, uplifted and nurtured consciousness.

Be patient and trust in the Inner Guidance Mechanism of the Soul

Really then, for the most part, the route cause of depression is a dysfunctional connection with the divine. If we feel disconnected and isolated or can’t find inner peace and contentment with our divine connection, then this is highly likely to lead to bouts of unhappiness and depression. But if we’re aware of this underlying cause and how to work with it, then we can certainly kick depression into touch and turn our lives around.

It does take a good deal of work and attention – commitment to feeling into the experience, accepting it without needing it to go away, thus becoming ‘as-one’ with it; we penetrate the experience into “The One”. It feels ordinary – awesomely ordinary. It’s completely okay. Suddenly you laugh at yourself and feel much better.

Medication is no solution. It simply locks in the dissonant polarity and sense of separation from the divine. It just makes things more tolerable in the short term.
No, it’s a spiritual solution we’re looking for; and if we open ourselves up and ask, the answers will surely come. We just have to be patient and trust in the Inner Guidance Mechanism of the Soul. Then for sure, just as I’ve witnessed in many people, you can kick any bout of depression into touch.
from my heart to yours
Open
Source: Waking Times