If you naturally respond to reality or challenging circumstances with positivity and hope, you will likely possess the beautiful gift of faith and optimism. Embracing this perspective is an important part of your purpose. Let’s explore!
What does it actually mean to have a strong faith?
Faith basically means trusting the unseen. And the unseen can be many different things. You can’t see the Wi-Fi signal, right? But still, do you trust it?
Having this kind of trust can move mountains and make all the difference. Have you ever had a person truly believing in you? Perhaps without you even feeling like you did anything to deserve it? How did that make you feel? Empowered?
Optimism and faith make it easier to reframe negative situations
Having strong faith also means believing that something better is on the horizon. You might look around and see all the terrible things surrounding you, maybe in your life, but you know deep down that better things are ahead. Things will work out. Reframing this way positively affects your mental health, gut health, biology, and nervous system, as well as those around you.
We can have faith in a variety of ways
We can be individuals who have faith in people, we can have faith in the universe, we can have faith in nature and love, and we can have faith in God. But more practically, what does it mean to have faith? What does it mean to possess the gift of deep faith and optimism?
What you focus on grows
People who lack faith tend to be pessimists, and we’re all familiar with at least a couple of them. There are some very unhappy individuals. We need a certain level of faith in our lives; otherwise, we’ll end up creating a negative and lonely existence if we continually respond to what’s happening around us in a pessimistic way.
Everyone faces challenges in life, including happy people
Optimistic people have the ability to see the gold in situations, to endure difficult times, and to believe that things will improve. They focus on the positive aspects of life. We always have the choice to do this, and some people embody this trait more strongly than others. They possess it as a gift, inspiring those around them. They uplift others, and that is incredible; it truly is a remarkable gift.
Do we create our own reality or not?
There are sometimes disagreements about whether we create our reality or not, and to a certain degree, I believe we do. However, what’s for sure is that we at least create our mindset and how we respond to things in our lives. We are co-creating with the world around us. That is the universal law of physics. We need to resonate at an energy level with the things we desire in our lives—those things we want to bring into our lives.
A scarcity mindset never allows you to feel joy and fulfillment
Too often, we look around us and feel dissatisfied with what we see. We respond with a low energy of lack, feeling as though we don’t have enough, becoming frustrated, and seeing ourselves as victims. When this is our attitude towards the things we already have in our lives, why would we be blessed with more? If we can’t even handle or show respect and gratitude for our existing resources, situations, or people?
You cannot be promoted if you do not manage what you currently have
Let’s discuss work and promotions. I mean, some people receive promotions for less than honorable reasons, but that is corruption, right? However, if we consider promotions in a pure way, a person who is promoted has truly excelled in their role with the resources they already have. The job and the responsibility that she or he already has, and demonstrated excellence in the role and position they have been assigned. Therefore, their boss recognizes that they can manage more responsibility, greater power, a higher salary, and more.
And it’s the same thing with the laws of the universe. Our energy makes us either keep things in our lives or lose them.
Often, people who win the lottery lose their money because their mindset does not support managing wealth
Many people who win the lottery actually can’t keep the money because they don’t have the ability to handle and care for that type of abundance. They don’t resonate with the energy of abundance. They don’t have the right mindset to keep it.
Let’s take another example: love. We can long for love. We can long for a true relationship based on unconditional love where we feel seen and feel a true connection. But if you don’t accept yourself—if you’re not okay with all aspects of yourself, including the things you’ve been praised for and those you might not have been praised for, as well as the things you might dislike about yourself—then accepting and receiving that unconditional love becomes difficult, I would say impossible.
If you do not accept all aspects of yourself, and if you cannot be loving towards yourself, you cannot be that way towards another person either. If you cannot accept and love yourself unconditionally, you also cannot do that with another person.
You must become what you desire
If you don’t carry the energy of unconditional love; you want people to be a certain way for you to love them. Why? It’s a reflection of your relationship with yourself. You only feel lovable when you are a certain way, when you show up in a certain way. Therefore, you will not be able to accept another person fully either; you cannot keep a person who loves you unconditionally because your energy won’t resonate with each other. If it knocks on your door, you might not even recognize it because it’s not known to you.
I truly believe that people can learn this together; however, it must come from both sides. You can create this beautiful dance, or you can learn to love each other unconditionally. But it needs to come from both sides. We vibe with some people but not with others, and that’s just fine; it’s how relationships work. Energy must resonate with each other for us to keep it in our lives. It can, however, feel a bit sad, and sometimes it’s hard to accept and understand fully.
Why do universal laws relate to faith?
To truly improve our lives, it is essential to have faith. Everyone possesses some level of faith or lack of it. However, having faith in people, life, possibilities, and even in ourselves is incredibly important.
Did you grow up with someone who truly saw you and believed in you? I really hope so because you deserve that. You deserve people who believe in your gifts and talent. Didn’t that make a significant difference in your life?
Perhaps you didn’t have someone who had faith in you, who believed in you.
Perhaps you turned to other things growing up. Perhaps you turned to a pet, a dog, a cat, or a horse. Perhaps you turned to God, perhaps you turned to the stars, to the universe, to make it through difficult times and to stay optimistic. To change difficult circumstances, faith is absolutely crucial. To not go under, to not drown, and to not stay stuck. To trust that something better is on the way, even when we can’t truly see it in our surroundings.
Sometimes, it’s ”just” a matter of having patience, even if that can be hard.
Life’s trials test your faith
Difficult times can feel like a test, and perhaps it’s a test. I’ve undergone numerous tests where my faith has been put to the test, and I’ve been deeply challenged, and I’ve been wondering if I could still maintain an optimistic mindset. So many times, I just wanted to give up!
But to what? What is the better option? My experience is that when we begin to wake up to the destructiveness of our own behavior and the environment around us, we embark on the journey toward change, and once we begin to clearly see what was previously hidden, it’s impossible to unsee it and go back to our old ways.
Therefore, we must keep moving forward, taking one step at a time, reminding ourselves, ”You just have to make it until tomorrow.”
Even if I wanted to give up, that inner fire inside me, though small, persisted throughout the difficult times and when I passed the test:
- When I navigated difficult situations with my head held high and proud of how I handled myself…
- Not lowering myself to the level of those who challenged me…
- When I showed up in a way that came from the highest, my heart…
When I passed the test, the blessings came. Doors opened.
And perhaps not in the way that I had planned to, that I was picturing the way blessings would come, but the blessings came. That doesn’t mean I did everything perfectly, but I listened to that inner voice we so often ignore, and I did the right thing over the ”most beneficial” thing. I sacrificed. Our sacrifices are not always visible to the outside world.
People may dislike the term obey, but we must obey nature
And here’s the thing. There are principles. There are metaphysical laws, such as gravity, that govern our lives. Another one is the resonance of energy. Some call this the law of attraction, but it has a little ”wo wo” label, but it’s actually just physics and even biology.
Our microbiome in our gut is very defensive and does not want to compete, so for people who have a very different, competing microbiome than ours, we feel repelled by them. And it’s basically that the frequency that we carry attracts similar energy.
So if we are very pessimistic, only other pessimistic people will want to spend time with us. If we radiate an act from a negative place, positive, thankful, and optimistic people will not want to hang out with us. We all know this, right?
To change our experiences and outer environment, we need to have faith, rise above existing circumstances, and transform what we radiate and our energy in order to see changes in our surroundings. Start within first!
You can practice positive reframing just like a muscle; eventually, it will come naturally
Embrace the things you enjoy and that uplift you. I’m not referring to addictions here; I’m discussing mindset and reframing situations. I’m talking about things that genuinely build you up and are wholesome for you.
Sometimes we cling tightly to the belief that we’ve been mistreated, becoming almost obsessed with proving we’re right and seeking validation from those who have hurt us. However, that validation may never come, and holding onto this viewpoint keeps us prisoners of the past. It’s important to reframe your perspective in a way that sets you free. Instead, turn to the source—your intuition, the universe, or the creative force.
Inner guidance, faith, and placebo
Trust your inner guidance instead of always relying on others. You have intuition, and your spirit sends you signals when you stray from your path. What we believe often becomes reality. Our thoughts and emotions influence both the material world and our biology, which can also relate to the placebo effect. What we believe shapes our reality.
If I believe that a sugar pill will cure my illness, there’s a good chance it will because my belief influences my epigenetics, cells, DNA, gut health, and ultimately, my brain. Everything is interconnected.
If a doctor tells me that I’m gonna pass away in six months, and I believe that truly and fully, the chances are higher that it will actually happen than if I believe there is a way for the body to heal. For anyone interested in the placebo effect and its applications in their lives, I highly recommend reading Dr. Joe Dispenza’s book, ”You Are the Placebo.” You can also read books by Neville Goddard, who writes extensively about the Law of Assumption, which is a great principle to bring into your life and live by.
Why an optimistic mindset makes all the difference
Be intentional about your beliefs, as the power of the mind is incredible. For something to manifest in our lives, we need to believe it is possible or completely surrender to the greater source of everything—whether we call it the universe, God, the cosmos, or whatever we believe.
Our thoughts even impact our gut health
I am currently very interested in how our gut health and microbiome affect our mental and physical health, and how it has a tendency to manipulate us to do things necessary for survival, such as eating certain foods or seeking specific types of drugs. It’s funny; it’s almost like a battle between the good and bad bacteria in our gut, and it’s directly linked through our vagus nerve and brain.
Our beliefs for example influence the balance between good and bad bacteria, as well as hormones like cortisol. Therefore, if we experience high levels of stress and cortisol in our bodies, it can harm good bacteria and negatively impact our health. This also matters in relation to which genes in our DNA are turned on and off (epigenetics). Once I have done more research on the subject, I will create content on this topic and provide links to relevant books, etc.
It is not what you have; it’s how you feel about what you have
When we are pessimistic, we are not blessed. And why is that? Pessimistic people are not blessed because they lack the ability to feel abundant, even if they are. They might live a long life, but what is the quality of their life when feeling like they never have enough? It doesn’t seem very fun to me, not at all actually.
So, embrace faith, embrace optimism. It’s such a gift, and maybe you don’t have this as a dominant gift. And if you come across people who have a strong faith and have the gift of being optimistic, keep them! They will influence your life in a beautiful way.
If the Divine Intelligence or God could be explained in logical terms, there would be no need for faith
Everyone would know of its existence, and then what would be the point?
The terms faith and God are very associated with religion, but in my view, they don’t have anything to do with religion necessarily. God didn’t create religion, Jesus didn’t create religion, and so on. Man did and used it for both good and destruction, as humans do with a lot of things.
You can have a very close relationship with God and be led by the spirit without practicing a specific religion. I have a more mystical approach to the relationship and don’t think that Christ and Jesus are necessarily the same thing. Jesus did, however, demonstrate the union with God, so following Jesus’ footsteps in that context is the absolute right thing to do. However, the phenomena of Christ and union with our Creator is not tied to Christianity, in my belief. However, it is known by different names in various traditions.
My perspective on embodied faith in the Divine
Everyone is on a unique journey, but trusting and having strong faith in the unseen does not come without some pain and struggle. You can grow up in a family with a belief system and programs that you absorb and believe in. However, your deep faith will not be embodied and truly manifested until you have personally walked through some fires and emerged on the other side safe and sound.
Why does the term ”God” have a negative reputation?
Many people find it difficult to use the name ’God’ to refer to divine intelligence, and that is perfectly fine. For a long time, I could not use that name because it was strongly associated with the negative side of religion for me. I really dislike it when people say that there’s only one way, and that’s my way; everybody else is wrong.
My own lesson: Not to engage in actions that you dislike when others do
I need to remind myself not to try to teach others ”the right way.” When we have experienced something very strongly or found a solution to a problem, we are so happy that we want to share it; we might think our experience is the only experience, the only truth. But how can we actually know that its the only truth? We can’t! Some things are universal and, in a way, always true, but our personal experiences may not be.
What leads to the so-called ”enlightenment”?
Based on my experiences and insights, there are several ways to honor the divine spark within us and achieve unity with the divine (not to become God, but to have union). However, what I have observed is that the authentic path to this state of divine union, often referred to as enlightenment, involves releasing fears, reducing the ego, and making space for the heart.
You don’t need to ”find yourself”; instead, let go of everything that’s holding you back from feeling at home in yourself.
People who have reached this state are very humble. Why? Because this journey is not about reaching an extraordinary place outside of ourselves. We simply die into enlightenment, or union with God, the divine, by shedding every single fear-based thing.
It’s not an achievement; it just happens. It’s like everything that no longer belongs to you needs to die first for you to actually feel at home in yourself. It is not an easy process. Moreover, people who are in union with God or ”enlightened” are not better than anyone else, nor do they demonstrate superiority. That is how you can discern whom to listen to and whom not to.
People who have helped me understand this process in my own life are mainly Adyashanti, Per Johansson, and Bernadette Roberts. It’s a very weird-feeling journey, so in my case, I’ve really needed people to explain what the heck is going on. In some people’s eyes, I might be seen as a Christian, while others may not view me that way. I don’t feel the need to label my faith. If someone wants to categorize me as ”new age,” that’s fine. What truly matters is not the box we are placed in; I believe it is the spirit we carry!
Accepting diversity
Many people also have a belief system, believing in something greater than what we can perceive with our eyes. They believe in the power of physics, the strength of the mind, the importance of love, and living authentically from our spirit and hearts. They might choose to use terms like ”universe,” ”source,” or ”creator”—the creator of physics and chemistry.
In my belief, it doesn’t matter what we call this immense force that is pretty much unseen to the physical eye; you can still make a delicious sauce over and over again without it having a name, right? The same applies to faith; you can practice and believe without assigning it a particular label. However, we must respect nature and its laws, as we did not create it.
Recently, I have begun to say ”God” out loud, something I wasn’t comfortable doing before. Growing up Christian, there were many aspects of the faith that I didn’t resonate with. As a result, I decided to distance myself from Christianity and the concept of God, as I associated this with judgment and victimization, which are the opposite of Jesus’ teachings. It just did not make sense to me.
I later learned that those traits of judgment and a victim mentality were human traits, not traits of Christianity.
I have never abandoned my beliefs. I always believed in something, even though I didn’t know what that was. So I called it ”the universe,” ”source,” and I recently started to name this force God because I realized that God does not belong to religion, and my relationship with God is personal.
How is it even possible to believe in a God?
You cultivate faith through life’s trials, learning to trust and embodying the belief that something has your back. You don’t do it because it’s a ”good” thing to do. You do it because there is simply no other option. Cultivating trust and faith removes so much anxiety from life because we often feel like we want to control the future to be safe, and that is impossible.
I can, however, control my habits today, my mindset, my knowledge, and who I am today, and this creates either a better or worse foundational ground for the future.
A good example of this is addictions and habits holding us back. Managing these things today or learning new skills sets a good foundation for tomorrow or next week. Makes even better things possible in the future.
For me, these urges to let go of habits always come intuitively, like: let go of this habit, go to this place, learn this skill, and so on. Your intuition rarely shouts, so we need to pay attention and listen. Life cannot be controlled, so stop trying, but make good choices today.
If you are struggling with making those choices, imagine what choices your future self would make, and make your why visual and strong (=more desirable).
Why trust the fireman if your house isn’t on fire?
We cant really create trust like this for no reason. We have to throw ourselves out there, be under some kind of attack or take a scary leap of faith to make this kind of trust possible.
Bernadette Roberts explains this in a very visual way, saying that you shouldn’t even talk about trust if you are not under some kind of attack or threat. She says there is no point in trusting the fireman if your house is not on fire. And that is so true. You have to be in a tough situation, without having a clue about what to do and how to solve it, to build this trust in the divine.
What is truly important when it comes to spirituality?
My belief is that the most important thing is who we are.
- What fuels our actions?
- Do we give? Or do we take?
- How much do we live from our hearts?
- Do we trust, or do we only make fear-based choices?
- Do we follow our spirit, inner guidance?
- Do we prioritize comfort, self-gratification, and our addictions as number one?
- Do we create good with our gifts and talents, or do we bring about destruction?
Our beliefs, opinions, and way of life will always trigger someone, and that is often a sign you are on the right path. You simply can’t resonate with everyone.
Human beings always make something their ”God”
What I realized is that we humans need something to worship. And if we don’t believe in a higher power, a higher force, what do we do? We make other things our God. It’s a need we have.
- We make our body our God
- We make our boss our God
- We make our children our God
- We make our sport our God
- We make our success our God
- We make our bank account our God
- We make drugs our alcohol our God
- We make food our God
- We make ourselves God
We might just self-serve and worship ourselves or our needs. Some call this narcissism, but we should be cautious when using this term. It exists on a spectrum, and I believe we all either have or have had narcissistic traits, unconsciously doing things or having done things to feel safe.
I’ve done many of the things listed above—not all of them, but many. I’ve never been that much of a sports person though. However, I’ve engaged in plenty of other activities, and there’s nothing wrong with honoring our sports or honoring our bodies. Of course, we should all honor our bodies; they are our temple, but they are not our God.
This is where addiction becomes tricky. If we have an addiction, staying sober—whether it’s processed food like me, alcohol, drugs, or shopping (there are more)—needs to be our top priority. Otherwise, that thing we are addicted to will become our ”God,” making us powerless, hijacking our system, and causing everything around us to probably start ”fall apart.”
If, for example, you are addicted to your sport and make it your top priority, your family life is likely going to suffer. Just a few examples.
Don’t make things the most important thing in your life, and be intentional with what you ”worship” and why. Few things are only bad or good; it’s usually how and why we use it. Drinking wine can be great, but it can also be destructive. It depends on ”the how” and ”the why” you use it. Biology might play a role as well, but it does depend a little on what we are using.
What we idolize and ”are powerless under” is individual
I realize that processed food and alcohol are not good for me, but that might not be the case for you at all. For example, I don’t drink and I don’t eat high-carb processed foods. However, for another person, these things are not a problem; they don’t drain their energy. For me, they bring my energy down, and I do not show up as my best self—who I want to be.
With those things in my life, I cannot live adventures and face necessary fears and challenges without regrets and courage. (openheartedly)
I’m a 100% addict, and admitting that makes life easier
Our ego might not like admitting things like that, though, but so what!?
In some people’s eyes, I may have chosen an odd or extreme path, but it is authentic to me; it is my true adventure and what I need to do. My path is what I am ”called” to do. I believe most of us feel this ”calling” within, intuitively, but the ”calling” usually feels scary to us, so we suppress it and numb it. It’s easier that way.
Numbing intuitive ”urges” like this affect our whole vessel: our physical state, emotional state, and psychological well-being, which are all connected. We will most likely have regrets further down the road.
Not living authentically and instead living the life expected from others is people’s number one regret at the of their lives. 1 And why this may be so hard because it requires a difficult sacrifice. And that is walking the narrow road of releasing fears, comfort, and sacrificing the need to be normal and fit in.
- Research by Bonnie Ware Regrets of the Dying https://bronnieware.com/blog/regrets-of-the-dying/ ↩︎
Having fears is completely normal; we all have them, but not the same ones. Don’t compare your fears and limitations to those of other people; compare them only to yourself.
It’s important to note that having these fears is completely normal; it’s a survival strategy that is deeply ingrained in us. However, this doesn’t mean it can’t be changed, and there are always more people like us out there with whom we might feel more ”normal.” You will probably have to embark on your unique adventure to find those people though. And if you aren’t authentic and true to yourself, how on earth is your tribe going to recognize you?
And a little reminder: Thank God for the technology making it possible to find connections on the other side of the world.
It’s incredibly important to identify the things that drain our energy because this holds us back from living authentically. It’s really hard to live the life we long for if we hold on to destructive things because of attachment or addiction. When you have ”unsober” behavior around things and still have them in your life, you are not yourself; your mind is kidnapped, you are not authentic, and you are not who you want to be. Perhaps you feel good at the moment due to all the good feeling chemicals, but how do you feel after? It doesn’t matter if we are addicted to food, alcohol, or love. The desire and the chemicals are still there making us hooked.
Nourish your body to enhance your connection with your mind and spirit.
To be my real self, I need to avoid sugar, ultra-processed foods, and alcohol in my life. Do I sometimes ingest sugar accidentally? Yes, that happens because it’s challenging not to in our modern world. However, eating real food is key to living bravely and authentically. If my body is happy, it allows my mind and spirit to be happy as well.
The addiction begins…
I developed a sugar and ultra-processed food addiction as a child. This is not due to anything my parents did or did not do; it was the culture and way of eating and living that I was born into, combined with a complex interplay of gut health, genetics, epigenetics, and environment.
You may also need to break free from your secondary addiction to achieve sobriety from your primary addiction
People who have addictions most of the time also have ”sub-addictions.” That’s why when healing an addiction, we need to heal and find tools to deal with our addictive brain, not just the substance.
This makes me don’t handle alcohol well either. I don’t have a problem staying off alcohol; it’s a non-problem for me. But sometimes, when consuming it, I’m not able to moderate it, and I could have memory loss from 3-4 units without feeling an ”it’s time to stop” at two units. My system always wants more. So alcohol had to go because it fires the same areas in my brain that sugar and ultra-processed food do, even if alcohol is not my primary addiction. I also have to stay off both to have sober behavior around food, also because alcohol interferes with my brain and ability to think about consequences.
We may keep our destructive behavior because it’s not ”always” that bad
Sometimes, I could moderate tasty beverages with alcohol, but other times, I couldn’t, and it wasn’t really something I could control. So, it had to go, just like the sugar and ultra-processed food, which I could absolutely never moderate. I could never eat two cookies and leave the remaining seven.
I could, however, discipline myself not to eat the whole thing if I were sharing it with someone because I ”had” to. But my mind was kidnapped, and I was only thinking about those bloody cookies instead of enjoying my time and company.
Even if you are a person who can handle alcohol well (not me), it’s still a toxin. When we consume it, our body pauses all other recovery and healing processes in the body to prioritize removing the alcohol. For some, it is worth it, for me its not. So, anyone who suffers from some kind of condition and has symptoms benefits from drinking less.
Your environment, gut health, microbiome, and fuel source influence how you respond to what you consume
For example, when you are in a state of ketosis, your tolerance to stimuli like alcohol is much lower. I notice the same effects with coffee and meds for ADHD.
Another example is a malnourished person. This person has bacteria in their gut that extract more energy from what they eat than a person who is well-nourished. Simply because the body needs it. So, our gut bacteria decide how many or few calories we extract from our food.
Also, I experienced that the less frequently I drank alcohol, the bigger the impact it had, and it did more damage to my mind. I suffered more the following days than before and needed more recovery. It was no longer worth it.
Drinking made it really hard for me to stick to my food plan and left me feeling weaker and less resilient – even though I did not drink much or even often. I couldn’t face the challenges I needed to tackle due to this toxic habit I insisted on keeping. It had to go. What I realized afterward is how much this toxin holds us back, leading to destructive thoughts that make it difficult to maintain a positive mindset, follow our path, and be happy.
It’s very important for me to have as much energy as possible so I can engage in the activities that bring me meaning. Addiction takes over my mind, leaving me feeling powerless, and this is a struggle many people face. Unfortunately, addictions or other things we idolize keep us from our path, robbing us of our joy and purpose.
When you aim to live wholeheartedly and follow your inner guidance, what needs to be released will become clear
We cant release all fears and destructive behaviors at the same time, we have them for a reason. I truly belive that we feel intuitevly when we need to stop certain behaviours but we do not always listen. We want so badly to be able to ”moderate” the things other can ”moderate” but the truth is that so many cant.
A drug free life is not a boring life
If we are addicted to something, we need to remove it to be free and to be who we truly are. In the beginning, we might think life will be boring, but today, I have a genuinely fun life because, when you think about it, why can’t you dance, go to concerts, pubs, clubs, etc., sober? Or go on vacation and eat delicious ”drug-free” food that doesn’t kidnap your brain? You can, and I am proof of that. But you have to be comfortable in yourself and feel ”at home” in yourself and remove things and beliefs blocking you.
Today, I find it strange that people are willing to do certain things only when they are drunk. It suggests they are either uncomfortable with themselves or they simply don’t really enjoy those activities, or they are stuck in the ”one-way-of-doing-things” lane.
To be free, you need to discern what is good for you and what is less beneficial (or family and people around you). The things I have mentioned in this post are not necessarily good or bad. As I stated earlier, we should honor the food we eat. We should honor our bodies and treat them well. We should honor our sport. It brings joy, meaning, and, you know, friendships, socialization, and purpose. However, it’s not good to make it our God.
Our spirit and inner core bring inspiration and aliveness
Our authentic core, or spirit, is connected to the universe, God, and all the people around us. This connection is not tied to any specific belief or religion. It’s nature. Based on my experiences, I believe our spirit embodies the purest and most loving energy. The more authentic we are, the more we create space for our spirit in our lives, allowing it to radiate, fill us, and guide us.
The more connectedness and meaning we find, the more aligned and fulfilled we feel. This is completely opposite to a depressed person, a spiritless person. A state that can be a symptom of running away from ourselves for a long time; there are, however, other root causes as well.
Being depressed is like being an empty shell
My experience with depression feels like having a body that basically feels like an empty shell. Our spirit has completely left the building because we’ve been running away from ourselves, serving the wrong priorities for such a long time that we no longer feel alive.
Our spirit has left the building, and therefore, we have no life, we have no energy, our body is completely drained, and we basically want to sleep all the time.
The ”dark night of the soul” is not the same as clinical depression
We can feel similar symptoms if we live a spiritual life and go through something referred to as ”the dark night of the soul,” which points to an experience where we shed our ”old selves.” This can occur even if you don’t consider having ”a spiritual life”; perhaps you then might call it a crisis or something similar. Even if the symptoms are similar, it’s not the same as having clinical depression.
You can be a complete atheist and still recognize what is alive, has spirit, and what is not!
There is actually a great Swedish word, ”Andefattig,” for those of you who know Swedish; it essentially means spiritless. I believe everyone can tell if something or someone has spirit or not. You can see if a person radiates life or not. You can tell it in a song or a movie: Does it move me or not?
We can feel this in environments too: does a home have life, or is it dead? Some people can sense this more than others, though, because we have different gifts and we also practice different things. If we never use our gifts or senses, they will weaken.
What has worked for me when dealing with depression
As mentioned briefly, there are various reasons why depression can occur. For example, we may become depressed after experiencing periods of grief or as a result of a lifestyle that lacks joy and essential elements our bodies need. Our lifestyle, combined with factors such as genetics, epigenetics, environment, and gut health, can lead to imbalances in our body, mind, and overall system. It’s very challenging to live in accordance with nature and our original design in a modern society.
However, regardless of the source of our depression, resting is essential. Additionally, setting the intention to rediscover joy, connecting with our core, listening to our bodies and spirits, and recognizing what brings us joy, along with connecting to nature, is helpful.
Eat real food!
Lastly, it’s important to consume food that truly nourishes your body. Eating the right foods can support proper brain function, help your cells operate effectively, and ensure your hormones work as they should. Your hormones, which are crucial for regulating many body processes, need fat for production. Therefore, focus on eating real, wholesome foods, including healthy fats, animal products, and meat, as your body requires these nutrients to function optimally.
If you are someone who naturally responds to reality or challenging circumstances with positivity and hope, it is likely that you possess the beautiful gift of faith and optimism. Embracing this perspective is an important part of your purpose. You Are A Gift To The World!
