World Mental Health Day

October 10 is declared as World Mental Health Day. #WMHDay
Mental Illness is the least understood but most widespread form of disease known to humanity currently. The mentally ill, as in those who suffer from depression, bi-polar disorder, schizophrenia, Alzheimer’s disease, and many others both mild and severe are the hidden sufferers of society. Hidden because their disease is still not recognised to be such.

There is some kind of inexplicable stigma attached to people who do not fit the common mould because their minds have unusual thought patterns and their brains are wired differently. And so their suffering is often silent.

Awareness alone can change this situation and channel compassion and curge to these individuals. Not pity, but empathy.

Depressed

incomplete my life

like shards of glass, broken dreams

bruise, flaw reveal.

by Lakshmi S. Menon 

W is for Wound, Willingness and the Warrior

Day Twenty Three: April A-Z Blogging Challenge 2015  : Mental Health Awareness — layers and nuances

  
The wound of the soul:

Who is not wounded by life ? Physical, mental, psychological, spiritual — we carry the scars of so many wounds. Some healed, some raw, some on their way to be healed and some neglected and suppressed deep within. Pain is a part of life and wound its manifestation. Since we anyway have to live with these let us then make the best of them. How, one might ask? Ah, therein lies the great enigma of life. How does one embrace something painful and why must we do it anyway? The answer to ‘why‘ lies midway between — the choice to heal or the choice to become bitter from all that wounding.  It is ‘midway’, because though the desire to be healed is universal (who wants pain ?) no one can shake away bitterness or negativity completely from the mind. It is a constant battle between the desire to move past and the urge to just give in. Well, I am talking here of mental wounds, some forgotten, some suppressed, some alive and festering, some healed naturally by time. A wound brings alive the awareness that all is not well — pay attention! Were it not for that niggle of uneasiness and that stab of agony or even that numbing grief, we might never even look within. So wounds force us to pause and take a survey of all that has been stuffed away underground, in the deepest recesses of the mind. Some define these aspects of ourselves as archetypes —  the ‘inner child’, the ‘victim’, and so on. The answer to ‘why’ is then, embracing a wound will ultimately lead to a healing. It is the first step in this process.

To make wounds a step in healing needs the quality of willingness. This is the ‘how‘ part. Long ago, I read in that insightful book by Louise L. Hay, You Can Heal Your Life, some words that have stayed with me all these years. She had written this universal answer to the question ‘how’ that said, ” Be willing and the Universe will take care of the HOW” ! I still feel a thrill when I read these words. Instead of getting caught up in the complexity of the ‘how’ of embracing the wound, of the intricacies of healing and getting caught in a mental loop, this sentence advices us to let go, to be willing, to be open and simply ALLOW universal forces to act. This is not some random, fatalistic act, but one that is full of resolve as well as openness.

This attitude then makes us spiritual warriors on the path to wholeness and healing. We are warriors who have decided to take on the ‘evil’ forces that disrupt our minds and lives. It needs the initiative and intrepidity of a warrior to face inner enemies that threaten our sense of well-being. But if we wish to heal, this is one choice that we have to keep making!

I is for INSOMNIA, ISOLATION and the INDIGO child

Day NINE: April A-Z Blogging Challenge 2015  : Mental Health Awareness — layers and nuances

  

Insomnia and Isolation:

A good night’s sleep is one of life’s primary requirements, something often taken for granted. If you want the day to be full of verve, you need to have slept peacefully in the night. No one knows the value of this better than the person suffering from insomnia or sleeplessness. While an overactive mind is the primary cause for insomnia, there are often emotional causes too. Sometimes traumatic events in life lead to depression and one of its symptoms is sleeplessness. You keep obsessing about events, reactions, responses and ‘what-ifs’. The mind goes on and on in a loop and before you know it, it’s morning and time to get up! Sometimes you might have depression and you may not even be aware of it, for this is not a topic to bring out in ‘polite’ conversations where social masking ( the ability to put on different masks and hide who you really are, in order to ‘fit in‘ ) is akin to multi-tasking in the ‘normal’ world ! No, you just don’t or can’t talk about not having slept without getting weird looks and knowing smiles with one or two sarcastic remarks thrown in. Why dig your own social grave, you think and remain quiet. This then leads to isolation. You slowly begin to realise that there is more to sleeplessness than you thought. Being sleepy and sad does not win friends. In fact, you lose the few that you had! Actually it is good riddance, but you don’t know that yet. You have, without your consent, joined the dubious section of society termed as the ‘mentally ill’ (do NOT flinch). Here are some common symptoms:

• You might be in a crowd, but you feel extremely isolated. 
• You see all these chirpy, ‘happy’ people around you and you can’t seem to join in. God, what IS wrong with me, you wonder. 
• You may want to belong, to feel ‘in with the crowd’, but something doesn’t give. You might even fake it — trying to contribute to superficial conversations, boring topics, inane gossip and the like, but not for long. It is too exhausting
• You cannot bear hypocrisy and much of social interaction calls for this
• You withdraw into a shell, you stop going out,  
• You become irritable, anti-social almost and the only remedy might be curling up in bed with a P.G. Wodehouse !!!

The INDIGO child:

All the symptoms mentioned above and many more that include high levels of integrity, dislike of obsolete systems and so on, fit in very well with a social group of individuals identified as the INDIGO group. So what has merely been termed as depression, being a misfit might have deeper roots. (WARNING: if you are extremely logical, have scientific pretensions and think all other points of view apart from the scientific-intellectual- materialistic to be inferior, then you can stop reading now. Au Revoir !)

As our planet moves into a higher frequency of vibration as witnessed in the several earth changes going on since 1999, manifesting forth as natural calamities, and also growth of awareness among humans as evinced by greater connectivity, openness, destruction of structures and systems, global cooperation, there is more and more evidence of special individuals born to aid this process of spiritual growth. This phenomenon was observed in the sixties and more so from the seventies onwards with the birth of children who showed several well defined characteristics, often and unfortunately mistaken as ‘mental illness’. These children were called the INDIGO children. This wave of the seventies, much like the baby boomer generation after the World Wars seem to be Nature’s way of assisting in the evolution of the planet. Here are some characteristics of these evolved souls who are veritable ‘misfits’ in society, but have a larger role to play in the scheme of things.

INDIGO ADULTS HAVE THE FOLLOWING ATTRIBUTES:

    Highly intelligent, though may not have demonstrated in school.

   Very creative

    Their first question is WHY?

        Repetitious work in school or career deters them

          (EARLY ON) Rejected authority of teachers, OR seriously wanted to rebel, but didn’t DARE, usually due to parental pressure.

       May have experienced early existential depression and feelings of helplessness. These may have ranged from sadness to utter despair. Suicidal feelings while still in high school or younger are not uncommon in the Indigo Adult.

         Have difficulty in service-oriented jobs. Indigos resist authority and caste system of employment.

  Prefer leadership positions or working alone to team positions.

           Have deep empathy for others, yet an intolerance of stupidity.

            May be extremely emotionally sensitive including crying at the drop of a hat (no shielding) or may be the opposite and show no expression of emotion (full shielding).

          May have trouble with RAGE.

           Have trouble with systems they consider broken or ineffective, i.e. political, educational, medical, and legal.

           Frustration with or rejection of the traditional American 

            Anger at rights being taken away

             Have a burning desire to do something to change and improve the world.

           Have psychic or spiritual interest appear fairly young – in or before teen years.

            Had few if any Indigo role models

         Have strong intuition.

           Random behavior pattern or mind style – (symptoms of Attention Deficit Disorder)

          Have had psychic experiences, such as premonitions, seeing angels or ghosts, out of body experiences, hearing voices.          

 May have awareness of other dimensions and parallel realities.

           Sexually are very expressive and inventive OR may reject sexuality with intention of achieving higher spiritual connection. May explore alternative types of sexuality.    

       Seek meaning to their life and understanding about the world May seek this through religion or spirituality

You can read the the complete article here: Characteristics of the Indigo Child/Adult

Apart from these children and adults, there are also the Crystal and the Rainbow children, who have been born to take human consciousness to the next level. Here is an article that talks about all the three and how compassion can help to ease their struggles in the real world: Indigos, Crystal and the Rainbow Children

What is common among all these people is how they exhibit symptoms resembling mental illness and in many cases are prescribed medication that suppresses these symptoms AND their special gifts. A sympathetic understanding by adults and the medical profession is imperative to allow these souls to live out their true destinies.

© Lakshmi S. Menon & VOICE’nVIEWS