I love the woowoo. I live in the woowoo, and I have also been in a place where I resent the woowoo.
And, you know what? As spiritual beings in spiritual circles, we can often feel shame about feeling frustrated, depressed or angry with the woowoo. No one is talking about how we can get “spiritually depressed.”
What does spiritual depression look like?
- You are conducting your spiritual practices, and you feel a sense of emptiness
- You are walking your journey, and you don’t seem to be getting what you desire
- You are feeling discouraged, frustrated, and depleted
- You keep turning inward and searching for the acceptance and love in the situations of your life, and yet it feels as if things are not moving
- You strive for a positive attitude, and still nothing
- You feel hopelessness (this is extreme spiritual depression)
- You might be in distress: physical, financial, in your relationships
I consider myself a spiritual leader, midwife and a renegade. I have a community who looks to me for support and guidance, and I have been spiritually depressed. I’m also hearing this from individuals of all walks of life who are leading what we would consider a spiritual life. They, too, feel like their faith “needs” to be revitalized.
Have you been asking yourself these questions, “Why am I not happy? Why am I not getting what I desire? Why am I not more at peace in my life? I have what I want and why am I still not happy?”
When you feel really disconnected and you are spiritual depressed, your life force is lowered. Low life force means that you don’t focus on creating the life you desire. You are just focusing on getting through the day.
Some of these “depressed feelings” are because of the energetic shifts that are happening on the planet now. That’s good to know, and if you are like me, you want an action step, something new to do, because you know you have big things to do on the planet and being spiritual depressed isn’t supporting you, your life or your service plan.
The old tools that you have been utilizing (gratitude, law if attraction, praying, etc.) don’t seem to be altering the spiritual depression. I don’t have all the answers. I do have some starter steps to revitalize your connection to the Divine and your life force.
Steps to help you move through spiritual depression:
Take a vacation.
I know this one is going to sound counter intuitive, but stop your sacred practices (just for a couple of days). Stop trying to fix what’s wrong (because you are whole and complete) and give yourself a mini vacation, so that some new awareness can occur. There are some strict rules for a mini vacation. Your vacation gets to be life-affirming. So do things and be around individuals who make your heart sing. This means avoiding those daily addictions: food, TV, social media, etc. It is amazing what we use to numb ourselves.
Find a mentor/coach/healer (a really good one!).
Sometimes, we just can’t see the forest through the trees. A good support member is going to guide you in the right direction, not tell you the answers… and, when we are in a spiritual depression, we might be looking for someone to tell us the answers. Trust me. Even when someone does, it is not truly satisfying, and the relief is short-lived. I’m not recommending that you read 100 books or go to 100 different healers. I’m suggesting that you set the intention (I know, I’m asking you to trust the woowoo once again), and the right resource for you will appear.
Get back to nature.
We are inundated with information all day long. And most of it can cause feelings of separation. We get up, we go to our jobs, we come home, and we do it all again the next day. Getting back in touch with nature allows us to reconnect to something that is much bigger than us. It allows us to be in the joy and connection of the circles of life that are always changing and always present. We know that spring follows winter.
For once, make it all about you.
Recently, I had a conversation with a friend of mine about an article in Time magazine on happiness. It was all about focusing on the little bits of happiness. So here’s a question to ask yourself, “What will create a feeling of happiness right here, right now?” Is it a cup of tea or listening to the sound of the birds or playing your favorite music? When we are focusing on the present moment, we are not participating in the loop in our heads about what we don’t have and how we should fix it; we are not re-telling the story that the Divine has abandoned us and we are not enough. We are creating energetic bands of happiness that, like a rock dropped in a lake, create more circles of happiness within us.
Once you have noticed that you are moving out of your depression (and you will move out of it… trust me on this), then I suggest you ask yourself, what new relationship would you like to have with the Divine and what sacred practices would support this new, healthy relationship?
