Really recommend listening to this story from NPR.

I see "spirituality is just spicy psychology" all the time.

I don't see enough of "psychology cannot do what spirituality can" or "psychology cannot offer us the sacred."

There is a real danger in reducing all of spirituality to psychology. There is an objectively measured benefit lost in a commitment to strict materialism - what the "all of spirituality is just rooted in psychology" perspective is.

And if you're leaning toward that because of harm caused in faith communities - I see you. I grew up queer and trans in fundie churches. I had my abusers actions be justified by lay church leaders. I'm well acquainted with that.

Just know it's possible to heal. It's possible to reclaim spiritual ways of knowing. It's possible to invite the grand mystery back in.

Anywho, this has been my soapbox for the evening.

Light

Can blind

As much as

Darkness

There's this terrible existential loneliness and depression that begins to enter human life that is a sickness. And it comes from the loss of the capacity to feel the touch of the natural world upon us. And so, that's really in my opinion, the greatest dangerous that we face and also the root of the majority of problems that we have is, [if] people in this culture had that feeling, it would be much harder for them to clear cut a forest, to hunt a species to extinction, to pollute the atmosphere. You have to be...or as James Hillman once put it, 'Only when science convinced us that the world was dead could they begin their autopsy in earnest.' And as soon as you hear that, there's this kind of grief that begins to emerge inside because it tells us something really important about a bad choice, or as Gregory Bateman once put it, 'an epistemological mistake.'

- Stephen Harrod Buhner on The Medicine Stories Podcast (ep. 8 "Planetary Intelligence, Ancestral Resonance, & Heart Perception")

Working on my mental and spiritual health was not some walk in the park. It was difficult, eye-opening, and at times a painfully lonely walk. However, with each step, I grew stronger and wiser. I not only learned from my emotions and experiences, but I also learned why I felt them in the first place. Don't give up on your journey because this chapter is hard. Search yourself, seek God, and heal from all that is hurting you. This season is not meant to destroy you. It is here to develop you.

Morgan Richard Olivier - Blooming Bare

Today is the first Bandcamp Friday of the year – that means that for any purchases made on BC on this day, BC waives their fees, and us creators get all revenue (yay!).

For people like me, who are building a business from scratch, and who are the only providers in their home, it does make a difference. So, to invite you to support my work there, either by making a purchase or just by sharing my work, I have just added a new subliminal audio to our collection: Body Healing.

The Body Healing Audio Subliminal has been created to generate cellular regeneration, strengthen your self-healing abilities, elevate the vibration of your 3 base chakras (Muladhara, Svadhisthana, and Manipura), and reduce pain and stress levels. This subliminal also contains a charging of Reiki Healing, of which I am a certified Level 2 Master.

Visit my Bandcamp store at the link below!

I do not have “special interests” but i do have life-saving distractions/things I’m passionate about, n need a purpose. I NEED to be distracted at all times which can have a similar outcome n presentation to an autistic person with their special interest

One aspect of the experience of PTSD or C-PTSD that doesn’t get as much discussion is the religious and spiritual struggles that often accompany the mental health struggles. This article discusses, among other things, how “Religious/spiritual struggles are robustly tied to distress.” It is unclear the exact relationship between mental health struggles and religious/spiritual struggles, but I found this diagram from the article illuminating:

The article also discusses how religious/spiritual struggles often lead to growth, but also often lead to decline in other ways.

I had some really intense religious/spiritual struggles when my C-PTSD was at its height, and it’s something that affected me deeply, but I don’t think I discussed it extensively, either on this blog or with my therapist. I think greater discussion of and intervention in religious/spiritual struggles could be really helpful to those suffering from mental health difficulties.

The Savior complex/god complex goes hard and strong in the West. Sitting in front of a computer immersing oneself in outrage discourse and disturbing images of war sadly won't save anyone's life directly. That's the sad reality of war, and being nasty to people that choose to reduce exposure to violence as they try to continue being helpful in other ways is wrong.

Have these people never heard of watchers/bloggers who commit harmful acts to themselves or others after watching distressing videos, like that popular recent documentary about child sex trafficking networks in the US and Mexico? There were reports of people self harming or disappearing for days to contemplate their own existence, leaving their families and friends distressed and police on their case. These people felt powerless against the evils they watched and, honestly, what more could they do?? There's only so much awareness one can spread and charities one can contribute to. Otherwise, the world is awash with evils that we can't effectively flush out...a tragic reality we must face. We are not God.

I wish people stopped acting like online activism is sufficient and the peak of righteousness or superiority. It is the bare minimum. And people should still practice caution for their mental health.

Like, I don't know how to explain that just because there's a security crisis in Haiti and Kenyan police are being deployed there to join the effort, it's not a must that I actively post about it, immerse myself in dooming images/videos of the street violence and killings and then bully others because I think myself weirdly superior for 'caring' more than my fellow citizens.

In summary, you owe no one your mental health. Only you know how much you can handle. Don't push your limits and break.

Sometimes

You cannot reshape

Yourself

Until you're completely

Broken

This shattered state grants

Freedom

To reassemble the

Pieces

Whatever way you

Wish

Trusting your intuition regarding change can be one of the pivotal moments in a person's life. I'm no stranger to these sometimes subtle and sometimes urgent realizations that change is necessary. In this post, I'm reflecting on a recent event that occurred at the beginning of my personal new year, and I have processed what letting go can look like when intuition leads.