I have lived with a heavy cloak of depression wrapped around my spirit for a good part of my adult life. It’s been severe enough to warrant a prescription. The anti-depressant kept me from falling further into the darkness and doing harm to myself.
The worst period was during my last years living in Los Angeles…
This is just before we moved to New Orleans where miracles happened. (Details later.)
Back then, I had massive frustration and failure I was dealing with: none of my screenplays had been made into movies, I’d worked tirelessly for a great candidate for Congress who lost twice, my years of research into election theft was growing mold. I couldn’t run anymore, even after knee surgery, my daughter was out of the house, my husband was toiling day and night in the movie-making pits, literally rolling out the door after 4 hours of sleep to drive an hour to work a 16 hour day, designing costumes and getting them on actors in a timely manner.
Me? I was not doing too much. Every day was pretty much the same. I’d get up and try to figure out something to do that mattered. And if that was too much to ask, something fun to take my mind off my fruitless endeavors.
One constant… I was walking my 15 year-old Shiba Inu around the block a couple times a day. He was so old and doddering, I took a book to read. I did.
So, this is what happened one day. It has a page in my book, “It’s Too Late to Quit.”
Everything about the creature was a reminder that there’s something much more brilliant, joyous, magical and incredible beyond my comprehension.
What’s to follow are my broad suggestions for lifting your Spirit, when you are feeling low. I’ll start with the obvious, based on my hummingbird moment:
SUGGESTION #1: Get out into Nature.
As soon as possible, get out the door. Humans NEED to be outside, and immersed in nature in order to reset our biology. “Nature walks have also been found to reduce rumination.” CLICK TO READ THIS ARTICLE ON NATURE & MENTAL HEALTH.
What’s rumination? Obsessive negative thoughts. Hello!
When you are feeling beaten up by the chatter in your brain, make it out the door to somewhere green. Sit or stroll in child-like appreciation of our amazingly complex earth and its deep beauty. Find somewhere on this planet you can let your guard down.
The great thing about being out in nature is the moments of mindfulness. That’s the peace that can expand when we accept the things that are making us uncomfortable. We stop struggling against all the stuff that we think should not be happening.
For example, last March 2020, I was in New Hampshire, staying at my sister’s lakeside home, looking in on my rapidly declining 92-year-old mum. I drove back to the lake from my mother’s senior living condo after sharing dinner and Antique Road Show (or a classic musical) piercingly, increasingly aware she had very little time left.
I would stand on the shore and let all my stress, pain and sadness pour out onto the body of water that lay still, silently taking it all in. It felt very natural to do as our ancestors have done throughout time, pour our grief into the earth to be transformed.
I think that having that time to adjust to the tough but eternal truth of my mother’s “demise” (as she would refer to it) allowed me to stay centered and positive, when a few months later, I had to manage her transport out to the lake and her care for her final few days.
Pain is inevitable: suffering is optional.
-Haruki Muraka
We suffer because we can’t let go. Pain is the correct response. Something really hurt! It’s our injured ego that pulls the scab off the wound, sticks a finger in, and creates another tired drama around what happened.
SUGGESTION #2: Acknowledge your suffering and ask for help.
This is a biggie for most people.
You may hate to ask for help because you grew up not being listened to when you did ask for help, so you don’t anymore. No more pain of disappointment!
You don’t ask for help because you should be able to manage all this on your own. If you can’t, it’s further proof of what a loser you are. You feel ashamed to be asking!
You don’t ask for help because you are a GIVER. Other people’s needs are more important and who are you to make requests?
If you rarely ask for help with your depression, or with any of the crap in your life, I propose an experiment. I’m including a prayer here, in case you are out of practice with this sort of thing.
Just read it to yourself. The most important piece of this, is to ASK.
The ONLY way out of our victim mentality is to ask for help. Certainly many of us believe that asking for help shows weakness. Exactly the opposite. It shows a willingness to set the ego aside to ask for the support you need to make the changes that are necessary.
Angels are everywhere. Once we put the prayer out there, it’s important to stay connected, through our intuition, to the signs and helpers. Open your mind, heart and spirit to the help that will arrive, once you ask.
Faith is taking the first step, then another. This movement, of prayer, and participating in our lives, will lift us out of the stagnation of depression. We can reframe our problems,
Speaking of which, when those problems reside with people or situations, try this:
SUGGESTION #3 Send love to difficult people and situations.
Your love is more powerful than your fear. You can send love and healing and acceptance to a situation or person. This helps on so many levels. Hanging onto resentment and hate creates toxicity. When we bring love, we are looking to solve the problem with a different energy.
Best way to try this, is simply send the rainbow. Let go of those dreadful musings and plans for revenge. The hurt and indignation. Let your light travel out from your heart.
(Apparently this graphic has struck a cord with people all over the world. I am really delighted that it has been saved 5,000 times on Pinterest. World Peace through pinning!)
SUGGESTION #4: Commit to your peace with a spiritual practice.
Ground yourself in your Higher Power. I chanted for years while I lived in Los Angeles, and I know the discipline and energy of the practice was a great balance to the Zoloft. The medication kept me from falling further into darkness, and the chanting helped to energize and focus me and keep me in action.
My podcast, “How to Connect with Angels” has given me the opportunity to understand spirituality based on unconditional love. My conversations with over 80 individuals - angel communicators - has opened up a world that I wrongly thought only belonged in church. Angels are written in every religion, in some form or other, because angels are the energy of love itself.
I have realized through my conversations with my interviewees that the work of the angels is to show us how much we are loved. Accepting that we are loved unconditionally is tremendously difficult.
However Divine Love lives alongside us, works through us and recreates us, moment by moment. It is transformative. Love heals wounds that we have suffered for decades.
Since I moved here to New Orleans, I have benefited tremendously from a spiritual meditation practice through Melanie Beckler of Ask Angels. There’s also a feast of FREE daily meditations and spiritual talks to be found on Enlightened World Network.
What helps you stay connected to the best parts of yourself?
Meditation? Prayer? Walking? Writing? Gardening? Painting? Dancing? Commit to it.
SAD NEWS: Only you can do it for yourself. (Sorry, but yeah.)
GREAT NEWS: Every time you make that choice to uplift, you have already won.
Your life will respond, accordingly.
SUGGESTION #6: Learn to overcome your tendency to quit.
If you feel a ridiculous amount of resistance to doing what is important for your peace and victory over depression, please visit my blog: Building Healthy Self-Discipline. It is very loving.
SUGGESTION #7: MIRACLES
After the encounter with the Hummingbird, my life started to shift in huge ways.
Some key miracles were:
- ~We moved to New Orleans! My friend Sarah gave us the house we live in!
- ~My mother celebrated her first solo art show at 92.
- ~My mother passed away at the lake, surrounded by family, despite the pandemic.
- ~My husband Dan got through radiation for prostate cancer with great results.
- ~ We’ve never quit our mission to see our film, Angel Lady, financed and produced, and now, we are closer than ever to seeing it happen!
Pretty good, eh? And all because I opened up to another potential. However that process is for you, and it will be unique - please begin.
I hope something I’ve written has helped spark your light!
Once again here’s the link to the How to Connect with Angels Podcast.
Please let us know if we’ve helped, and email your interest in the free webinar below.
Onward with Grace,
Sheri Leigh
NOLA
March 28, 2021
ART by Sheri Leigh Myers #itstoolatetoquit
Stay tuned on this free and fun webinar we're planning!
"Claiming your Marathon - Your Impossible Dream."
If you read my blog, you'll see some of the strategies we will discuss with guests:
- Marathoner Dr. Dean Goodman (still running distance in his 70's)
- Angel Lady film director Edgar Pablos
- Activist artist Daneeta Jackson of Planet Daneeta
- Triathlete, veteran, cancer champion, and health innovator Clayton Treska
- Plus more!
If you'd like to be kept in the loop and reserve a free place, email me your interest - sheri@itstoolatetoquit.com.
P.S.
Here's a link to the book's Amazon page with 45 reader reviews. If you want a copy in paperback or Kindle, you can get it there. If you are flat broke, email me at sheri@itstoolatetoquit.com and we will work something out.
