Ways To Take Care of Your Mental Health on Your Spiritual Journey

My spiritual journey begun like many of yours with the Law of Attraction. I was already meditating for some years prior. Then, finally, I stumbled upon Neville Goddard’s teachings and non-duality/oneness. At first I was mind blown and felt empowered and shocked (in a good way) at the same time. Shortly after, I consumed a lot of information including the misconception of “your thoughts create” and “stay in your desired state”. This took a toll on my mental health, even as far as disconnection and dissociation from the physical world and human life. I thought it was pointless and that the 3D world was “dead”.

I started to isolate myself because I was afraid of being distracted from maintaining a perfect mental diet and staying in my desired state (or better said the state I thought I’d “have to” be in to manifest my desires) when meeting others. I wanted to perfectionate my inner world, so that my outer world could reflect that. I was replacing physical action with mental action while still trying to make things happen. My mental health at that time was worse than when I was in the depths of my eating disorder. It was spiritual bypassing at its finest – suppressing thoughts and emotions out of fear that they could manifest and forceful action as a result of not trusting myself and past conditioning.

It took me a while to function “normally” and get back into human life again. Luckily, I found resources that helped me to learn to observe my mind instead of trying to control it. I’m now in a place where I barely fear my thoughts anymore. I’m not advising you to take plant medicine but, Ayahuasca helped me to connect back to my emotions. I used to be an ice block before, as if my body created a safety mechanism – I thought showing my emotions wasn’t a safe thing to do. Since those one or two ceremonies two years ago, I am at a place where I can embrace all of my emotions and process them properly instead of being overpowered by them.

Here are some ways on how you can take care of your mental health while discovering who you truly are and practicing conscious creation:

Be the Observer:

Your thoughts alone DON’T create, they are just part of the state that you’re in. Thoughts in and of themselves are powerless, unless you give them power by trying to flip them constantly and living in your head. You are not your thoughts, you are aware of them and since you are aware of them you cannot be them. Thus, you are the observer. You can try to zoom out of your head and take some deep breaths and observe them from afar. This will help create
some distance between you and the thoughts. It can also help to treat them like clouds in the sky or cars driving on the street. After some practice, you will discover these little moments of stillness between thoughts which can be very liberating.

Your Breath Is Your Most Powerful Tool:

And your breath is always with you. Don’t underestimate your breath. There is a reason why in Yoga and meditation we say “focus on your breath”. The deeper you breathe, the more relaxed you become. The constant pattern and rhythm of your breath can give you a good indication of which state you’re in. When we are in a stressful situation, our breath tends to become shallow and when we are in a relaxed state our breath tends to be deeper and slower.

Breathwork is a wonderful tool to calm your mind and nervous system. More advanced techniques like holotropic breathwork can even have psychedelic effects. As I’ve said, your breath is a powerful tool that you’re always carrying with you (just like your desires).

Integration Work:

You are a whole divine being, the perfect mixture of light and darkness like the yin and yang and are meant to embrace all parts of your Self. Approaches like shadow work or Internal Family Systems (short: IFS) are helping me to get in touch with deeper parts of myself – to discover more of who I AM. The truth is, our personality consists of different aspects of Self. We are not bound to one single part. Our psyche is way more complex and our subconscious mind is stronger than our conscious mind.

That’s why you don’t have to control your thoughts and be constantly on top of them – who wants to live like that? These tools can help you to get to know these different parts of yourself, especially those you tend to deny or to suppress. They will come up, either internally or through circumstances or patterns that trigger something in you to finally go within and face yourself. Shadow work and plant medicine helped me to get back into my body and embrace my emotions and my “demons” instead of running away from them.

Journaling and Self Talk:

Writing is medicine to me, it helps me to get all of the stuff out of my head onto a piece of paper or a document on my computer. This way, as well as with self talk and self-soothing, I can hold space for my human and listen to her. Both are wonderful ways to be there for myself without getting caught in stories and to respond from my adult self instead of from my childhood self – which is also called reparenting myself.

These are some of my go-to tools, feel free to play with them. Most of all, be gentle with yourself, especially when you do shadow work. Make sure you don’t take it to the extreme because this can be tempting at times such as spending too much time trying to be positive which can lead to bypassing. Balance is key.

Slow down, you’re here for the long run, not for quick fixes, right? There’s no rush. One of the main lessons that my spiritual and mental health journey has taught me is that the most important relationship is the one you have with yourself. It affects everything, from the relationships you have and manifest into your life, and all areas of life, as everything is connected, and of course with manifestation itself.

This is because your concept of self, your identity, the lens through which you perceive life, gives meaning to things and you dictate everything. Whether you are on your spiritual journey or not, your mental health and overall well being should be your top priority. Without your health you cannot fully enjoy your desires anyway.

It’s great that more and more people are becoming aware of their true nature. However, in my opinion, it’s crucial to embody the teachings and not just talking about it and spread information because people could get traumatized. Spirituality and awakening to our true nature is not always a pleasant journey as we are literally going through death and rebirth phases. However, it is meant to bring us closer to each other, to have a more loving relationship with ourselves, the world and all the beings around us. Dear coaches and modern spiritual teachers, please be mindful about what and how you teach. It is our responsibility to make spiritual teachings as practicable and safe as possible. Thank you.

*If you are in a mental health crisis and/or suffer with your well being, please consider therapy or any professional medical care. Spirituality can support you but it is not a replacement for professional medical care. As Jen said, you can use all the resources in this 3D world. They are here for us to be utilized.

About the Author:

Nea is a German writer and spiritual guide (synonyms: coach, mentor). She is an advocate for mental health and plant medicine and believes that manifestation and mental health go hand in hand as we are learning Self-Mastery. She received education, and different trainings in mindfulness, mental health, plant medicine, spirituality, and coaching including Yoga, breathwork and meditation teacher training in India. Moreover, her favorite languages are Korean and Japanese and she’s obsessed with Shiba Inu.

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