Paws Assisting Veterans & Why don’t you ever talk about normalizing mental illness?
3 Favs & a Q - November 12, 2022
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3 Favs
Favorite Pet Picture: In honor of Veterans Day, rather than introduce you to a specific dog, allow me to introduce you to an organization. Paws Assisting Veterans (PAVE) provides service dogs to those who experience PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder), TBI (traumatic brain injury), and other mental challenges and physical disabilities. Their goals include preventing veteran suicide and empowering success. Service dogs are quite expensive ($42,000) and this organization provides these dogs to veterans (along with $1,500+ of necessary equipment and supplies) for free. To honor those Veterans who struggle after coming home from war, consider getting involved with PAVE, or another organization that helps people in need get connected with a service dog.
Photo by Caleb Fisher
Favorite Book Quote: The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma by Bessel A. van der Kolk, MD
“Mindfulness not only makes it possible to survey our internal landscape with compassion and curiosity but can also actively steer us in the right direction for self-care.”
Random Favorite: Taking one step.
I have this dream of having a little self-sustaining farm on which my family lives alongside nature, growing, making, and foraging for the things we need. That is not our current phase of life.
But, this week I did something I’ve never done before. I decided I wanted to make my own pumpkin puree. This was something my dad usually did, but I’ve never done it before.
Then I learned how to use different parts of the pumpkin. I didn’t know you could use the stringy guts - but you can! I made a broth from the part of the pumpkin I thought was unusable.
Learning that little tidbit made me feel so alive! It was such a small thing and yet it made me feel like I was living my dream, in a small way, right now.
I encourage you to take one step into living your dream.
What were some of your favorite things this week?
& a Q
Question: Why don’t you ever talk about normalizing mental illness?
Disclaimer: This is not medical, psychological, legal, or financial advice. If you need that, please contact the appropriate professional.
The popular mental health movement is meant to “normalize” disorders like depression and anxiety.
My opinion is unpopular, I’m sure, but I do not think it is healthy to normalize mental disorders.
Note: None of this is meant to downplay the considerable pain of mental disorders or the circumstances that lead to them. This is just to emphasize that how I choose to talk about and support mental wellness is not in alignment with normalizing mental illness.
Mental disorders are a messages from our body, mind, and spirit to us. When a mental state is dis-eased it means something. Mental issues have a spiritual root.
By normalizing mental health issues, society is making it popular to have these issues, to embrace the depression or anxiety (or whatever), to define ourselves by these issues, and to get help to manage them. Of course I encourage people to accept their circumstances (because through acceptance you can stop resisting what is and move forward) and to get help if they are struggling. However, “management” typically means drugs. Drugs will not fix the problem. Drugs only help us to ignore the issue. Can drugs be life-saving? Perhaps - in an emergency situation. But they are rarely, if ever, a long-term solution to a mental health issue.
“Management” typically also means talking about your problems. But, as Bessel A. van der Kolk, MD write in The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma “Psychologists usually try to help people use insight and understanding to manage their behavior. However, neuroscience research shows that very few psychological problems are the result of defects in understanding; most originate in pressures from deeper regions in the brain that drive our perception and attention. When the alarm bell of the emotional brain keeps signaling that you are in danger, no amount of insight will silence it.”
Anxiety, depression, and ADHD are some of the more popular mental health disorders. It is only in seeing these issues as a side-effect of the true root of the problem, and becoming reconnected with yourself, that you can address these issues.
Some mental health disorders, like schizophrenia, may require more intensive spiritual training. There are some cultures that believe a person with schizophrenia is actually an untrained spiritual healer. If this person does not receive proper spiritual training, they will never learn to gain control of their power to serve others with their gifts.
A mental disorder is a sign that you are not living in alignment with your spirit. It is an encouragement to learn from your experiences and to move forward in a different way than you currently are - either physically or through your state of mind.
So, pretty much all the work I do is in support of mental wellness. I have studied mental health from the perspective of neuroscience, psychology, spirituality (including Christianity), and Chinese medicine. But I talk about mental health from a solution-based perspective. I encourage the use of sunshine, grounding, breathing, body awareness, movement, mindfulness, meditation, communication, goals, connection with desires, awareness, letting go of those things that don’t serve your highest good, utilizing the wisdom of nature, and practicing your own God-given power to heal your system to empower you to walk your own path. All of this is intended to feed mental wellness and reignite your spirit.
Do you have any thoughts on the matter? Leave a comment! Do you have a question of your own you’d like to submit? Reply to this email.
Featured
Each week, I’m featuring a product or service that you can find on my website. My website is undergoing a few changes to make it more legally up-to-date, but you can still click through the links below and see some of my favorite things.
Some of My Favorite Things!
Mountain Rose Herbs is all about organic products, ethical and responsible sourcing, and sustainability. They also have a commitment to education so you’ll know how to use their products, even if they are new to you!
They offer essential oils, bath and beauty products, teas, bulk herbs and spices, home goods, aromatherapy products, and DIY ingredients.
I am an affiliate of Mountain Rose Herbs because I like them so much so when you buy through my link, I get a small percentage from their advertising budget at no cost to you. Check them out!
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Month in Review
Just in case you missed them, here are the weekly emails from the last month:
Question: What is Rose Quartz for?
Question: How do I make this life count?
Question: What happened during my meditation?
Question: How do I deal with the pain of the world?
Question: Why do I still get sad about the loss of my loved one?
Week in Review
Here is the subscriber-only content you may have missed this last week. Remember, the daily energy updates are relevant for the day, but the exercises can be done at any time! I’ve just come back from a break so there are only a couple to review.
Sunday: Give it a Rest
Monday: Communicate about Finances
Tuesday: Bring Peace to the Chaos
Wednesday: Take a Short Trip
Thursday: Look for Blessings
Friday: Let Your Beauty Renew You
Today: Use Your Emotions
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