Your right to mental health and freedom

There are many people today talking about the subject of mental health. Whether your dealing with anxiety, depression, or simply wanting greater confidence and freedom and expansive thinking, we have the right and ability to find freedom now. Where does it come from? Is it about a brain that is in perfect balance? Or do we have another Mind that we can look to that transcends the body? The Mind I am talking about is God, divine Mind, our one perfect Source of clear, joyful, and beautiful thinking. 

The Bible says “we have the mind of Christ” (1 Cor 2:16).  Mary Baker Eddy refers to God as divine Mind. This Mind is sound, pure, and healthy. This Mind or consciousness is not located in a body because it is spiritual. It is totally good, peaceful, and happy. And the good news is that this consciousness and Mind is actually ours already — it’s within us.  We have instant access to divine Mind all the time giving us the right ideas to think. 

Having no other gods, turning to no other but the one perfect Mind to guide him, man is the likeness of God, pure and eternal, having that Mind which was also in Christ. — Mary Baker Eddy

Genesis 1 describes man as being made in the image and likeness of God, Spirit. Since man is the image and likeness of God, then man is actually the image and likeness of the perfect Mind. How important it is to awaken to this spiritual recognition and fact. The good news is that this spiritual identity that God has made you to be is totally good, pure, absolutely loved, worthy and beautiful. It is only made up of good. God couldn’t make anything less! You are the spiritual image and likeness of God right now. You don’t have to wait! God is giving you the thoughts to think about your worthiness, wholeness and how loved you are right now. So, you can go straight to the Source — God, infinite Love, –who is giving you good thoughts to think, loving and embracing you each moment with these tender truths. 

I find Psalms 23 and 91 to be so helpful in praying each day. Check it out: 

The Lord is my shepherding my thinking
God is giving me good and pure thoughts
God leads me with peaceful and still thinking
God restores my sense of who I am; God leads me in paths of right thinking — confidently and securely so that I can glorify Her.
Though I walk through the darkest valley
I will fear no evil because Love, my divine Mind, is with me.
Divine Love, Mind, is guiding and guarding me.
Divine Mind is anointing my consciousness with purity, love and peace — enough that it overflows
God’s tender mercies will follow me all the days of my life,
And I will dwell in the consciousness of perfect Love, my divine Mind, my author and Creator, forever.

Of course you can vary these Psalms to utilize in any way that is helpful to you for a morning and evening prayer!

For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. 2 Timothy 1:7 

If you need more encouragement, you can read my sister’s testimony of healing and mental freedom here

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Image by chuck herrera from Pixabay

A moment of spiritual clarity that heals

A recent news article highlighted the number of teens dealing with depression and anxiety. It reminded me of a time when I was dealing with a deep depression or a deep sense of loneliness. There wasn’t a particular reason for it. I had a happy life with plenty and friends, a nice boyfriend, a good job, etc. But there I was feeling like a victim to these feelings of sadness. I had been trying to skirt the issue by filling my schedule up with dates with friends and activities. But when my boyfriend at the time was unavailable one evening to hang out with me, I had no one else to turn to, and I finally found myself alone confronted with these feelings of loneliness. There I was feeling very alone, and I sat on my bed crying — or rather sobbing — for some time.

But then I reached out to God. It was a simple prayer. A simple and heartfelt “God, help me”. In other words, God help me overcome this deep loneliness and sadness I am feeling that has come out of nowhere!  Well, then I heard this voice. It said “You don’t have to be tempted by this.” Whoa! I was amazed. I was especially amazed because it completely freed me in that instant. In that very moment I was instantaneously cured. Sadness was gone. I dried my eyes. Turned off the light, rolled over, and went peacefully to sleep.

That moment was a revelation  — like a light turned on. In that instant, I realized all those negative thoughts were actually outside of me trying to get in and wasn’t a part of me. God showed me it was a temptation from the carnal mind, evil, and thereby wasn’t something that was part of me. It was not coming from inside of me and needing to get out. It was the other way around! It was outside of me trying to enter through the door of my consciousness. That gave me a sense of clarity and showed me that the problem really had nothing to do with me, I didn’t have to accept it, and that I was already whole and complete. This change in perspective made all the difference in the world.

The Word of God is a powerful preacher, and it is not too spiritual to be practical, nor too transcendental to be heard and understood. –Mary Baker Eddy

Whatever negative thoughts we are presented with — lack, limitation, frustration, etc. — they are not a part of us as the beloved sons and daughters of God. God has given each of us a perfect mind and identity that is creative, intelligent, peaceful, valuable, needed, and whole. We each have the mind of Christ. We can shut out the carnal mind with it’s false assumptions. We have the spiritual authority to resist and overcome thoughts that are unlike God. God has given us this power and ability.

God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. 2 Timothy 1:2

I am supremely grateful for this experience. It showed once again just how wonderful and good God is. Just one moment of divine consciousness — perceiving the nature of God, the truth of being, and our relationship to God — can heal, save, and stop a flood of tears.

Life lessons and a Star Wars analogy

The fear of loss is a path to the dark side.
Attachment leads to jealousy. The shadow of greed that is.
Train yourself to let go of everything you fear to lose. – Yoda

After this advice was given by Yoda to Anakin, Anakin Skywalker (in Star Wars episode III) was led into greater temptation before he was able to train himself to let go of everything he feared to lose (mainly his wife, Padme). And ultimately when he succumbed to the dark side, he lost it all anyway.

Fortunately, in the end of Star Wars episode VI, we see that hate is not the master of love. Meeting Luke helps Anakin – now Darth Vader – to remember his true self. After Anakin dies he is transformed back into the force and joins Obi Wan, Yoda and others before him.

I think important lessons can be taken from this fictional story.

For instance, spiritual healer, Mary Baker Eddy, also warned against personal attachment back in the early 1900’s. She instructed that those who were members of the church she established should not be motivated by personal attachment or animosity. Perhaps she sensed, as those in the Bible did, that this led to evil. Instead, she instructed them to be governed by divine Love; to be charitable, kind, and forgiving.

This is also the path that Christ Jesus taught – the path of life.

…the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,
Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. – Gal 5:22

Instead of becoming Jedi masters and having to live as monk-like warriors, we can become masters of our own thinking. We posses the power to overcome all evil in our thought and to demonstrate the all-power of goodness and love.

Know, then, that you possess sovereign power to think and act rightly, and that nothing can dispossess you of this heritage and trespass on Love. If you maintain this position, who or what can cause you to sin or suffer? – Mary Baker Eddy

Take each day to do this. The the entire perception of mankind will feel the difference and will be uplifted by it. Your example is a shining light to others enabling them to do the same.