For the last 20 years I’ve been passionate about mental health. Why we have difficulties that affect our minds. And what we can do to help ourselves have mental wellbeing.

This is a cause close to my heart. In my younger days I had two bouts of clinical depression dealt with by antidepressants and counselling. The tablets helped the first time but not the second. The counselling got me through both. That’s why I decided to move into being a counsellor. However the reality of care for people with a range of ‘mental health’ issues is more about good people trying to help in a system that frustrates the nature of counselling. The talking therapy isn’t really that. It’s a listening therapy. It takes time and patience as it works through the relationship rather than the verbal offloading.

And it’s not helped by the idea that a mind has stopped being healthy and needs a ‘cure’.

I also found that working within current models of mental issues pulled me into targets, waiting times and cost/benefit debates. With a small private practice reaching only those who had private or insurance means I diversified all over the place hoping to do some good. Now I come at mental health for a very different perspective. My spiritual journey has taught me to see things in terms of energy flows, energy imbalances and emotional energy. It’s time for us to open up to the reasons why so many of us get sad beyond bearing. To recognise that we have lost the meaning of being alive. That frustration and helplessness drive hope away. And to see that anger turned inwards is the seat of depression.

It’s also time to understand that hearing voices isn’t necessarily an illness. Or seeing things either. Mental wellbeing can encompass all of our intuitive senses working alongside our physical senses.

I’d love to get the DSM V, the diagnostic manual that lists all the accepted mental ailments, diseases and syndromes, and rip it to bits. The drug industry and the healthcare industry make billions out of this manual of mental health dis-eases. Where is the compassionate understanding and support that will help people pull through the dark times? Who talks about energy, intuition and spirituality so that people find hope again? When will we stop accepting that mental illness is ok so long as it happens to someone else. And we don’t have to see or deal with it.

Perhaps it’s time to encourage everyone to pay attention to mental wellbeing.

I have alsways believed that labelling something is only useful if that produces a positive outcome where the best help is given . When it impacts in a negative way it’s time to stop applying the label and think again. Labels call to mind the bit in Alice In Wonderland when she is presented with a bottle saying ‘drink me’ and a cake saying ‘eat me’. Both labels had drastic consequences until she put the instructions into the right order. Then they made sense. But she still ended up swimming in her own tears. When someone defines themselves by the label they have been given I always ask if it empowers them. Or do they let that definition define them.

Many people find me because they are questioning their own mental health. Theyare seeing and hearing things they have been told don’t exsist. Yet it’s happened in to them.

They believe they are developing an illness in the mind. They are scared. Mostly because of stereotypical perceptions of mental illness. That’s when I talk about mental wellbeing. I ask them to focus on all of the things that their mind does in it’s usual way. Then we talk about the changes that are new. In that conversation I am able to validate their experiences. More importantly I can explain why they are having those experiences. I’m able to describe what connecting to non-physical beings is like. Sharing my personal experiences I can reassure then that we are both as sane as each other.

Except we are now living in a different reality than what we had before.

I can also help them to understand that their mental status is affected by the energy they find themselves in. Communicating non verbally with others is an intuitive flow. An exchange of aura energy. I can access information about state of mind, feelings, experiences by linking into another person’s aura. It’s there for me to ‘read’. They can also access mine if I let them. Understanding this exchange of energy is the first step in realising how Energy Beings can communicate with us. They exchange energy too. When someone takes the time to listen to the intuitive information from energy flows they often realise that half of what they are feeling and thinking isn’t actually theirs.

This has a great significance for mental wellbeing. What if I’m depressed because I’m carrying someone else’s anger or sadness? As well as my own?

We all do it. Through our connections we take on the energy others pass to us. And we pass ours on to others. I know that’s ok if what is being shared is positive. But what if it’s not? I do a lot of work with people who are weighed down by low vibrational energy they have collected from others. They often feel like they are stuck. Trapped in low moods. Wondering if they are suffering from mental problems. Often I find that the low vibrational energy got stuck years and years ago. So they have been holding onto emotions and judgements that could have been cleared already.

I also know that you can’t let go of stuck energy until you know that it’s there and what it is.

Or know that it’s not your own feelings and thoughts. Setting my sights on mental wellbeing gives me the room to consider my mental state as an inbalance in my energy flow. Have I taken on too much for others? Given away all too much of my positive energy? Do I set up protective boundaries around my aura to limit the energy I take on from the rest of the world? Have I found and plugged into positive energy flows so my energy batteries stay fully charged? All of these questions help me to consider my mental state in a proactive way. Answering them will lead to to the practical steps that are required to rebalance my energy.

It’s time to open up to a new understanding of our world. Putting an understanding of energy exchanges at the heart of our mental wellbeing. And to respect our mental capacity as an evolving model that needs more pieces added to it.

Day 583 of my blogging challenge