Is that you Zigmond?

Thank you all for the very helpful posts !

"mental illness" doesn't exist. Neither do I, so don't mind me.

Exactly. I think all mental illnesses are just different forms of PTSD.

Alycia B I totally agree . I am a 52 year old Hispanic woman, mother of adult children ages 21-30, grandmother of 9 children ages 1- 8, Who has been diagnosed with PTSD, Anxiety, and Mild Depression. I was affected by Sexual Trauma from the ages of 8-12 by my Adult Brother-in-Law. In the 70’s it was swept under the rug and kept as a family secret. After my Mother, who never did anything about it, passed away from Cancer, that was another Trauma. Even though I blamed her for my silent screams that made me a people pleaser as an adult, used in future relationships, it took a car accident to finally trigger all that trauma in me. I ended up with Fibromyalgia and Lupus.

Nasengold I have bad anxiety, should I observe that? What about my anxiety attack’s? Those as well? I don’t quite understand what you’re saying. Please explain in better detail.

Nasengold That's how it seems to be. Eckhart himself talks about his inner transformation after suffering with depression and anxiety all his life until the age of 29. Then he awakened to himself that all that suffering he imposed on himself was because he attributed himself with his sense of self and his thoughts, I think, I might have understood it wrong but you can find his experience on the cover of his book The Power of Now or even online. It's amazing how he was able to just detach himself out of his suffering by coming to such realization. To me it reminds me of someone going through hypomania or mania in bipolar or from antidepressants, I felt just like him or similar as well. Surely he must have taken some psychoactive drug or researched meditation and the benefits of not thinking and detaching yourself from you self with all these thoughts which cause suffering. I'm glad you were able to transcend and heal yourself the same way Eckhart has. It can happen if you get to your most unimaginable suffering, the worst of you depression can be a learning lesson if you know how to use it as a transcendence and healing. I always used to go very deep into depression almost taking my own life, but always resurfacing and realizing that only choosing to listen to my poisonous thoughts got me and kept getting me there in the first place. When you detach yourself from those thoughts feelings and stresses you can learn a newer peaceful way of living where you harness those thoughts into actions of improving your life situations where you feel stuck. I began to just distract myself from those similar thoughts and feelings blinding my daily life and trying to detach from that sense of self I created to understand my environment. You're not that so you don't have to allow yourself to keep going back to feeling and thinking that way. You can even forget about it all and just live in the now, in the present moment where you allow yourself to be free and innocent. You can learn with practice which thoughts you're going to attach yourself to and which ones you're going to detach and free your self from.

Show me Your memes I've had anxiety attacks and even panic attacks, what you have to realize is that these attacks happen because of your constant rumination. I was always attaching myself to these constant over thinking and over analyzing thoughts, worrying over nothing, stressing over nothing and all that does take a toll on you leaving you in a state of panic and emotional distress. You need to distract yourself from giving in and thinking about everything 24/7. You need to relax and calm your mind. You don't have to question and worry about the future, or about the now, and don't even think of going into the past. Just meditate and find a way to live in the right now without attaching to any of those thoughts and worries which seem to pollute your mind. When you give into those train of thoughts or you somehow already find yourself in them try to distract yourself and calm down and do something else. I had this terrible panic attack last year where I was worried and thinking that I had diabetes and that I was going to go into a diabetic coma. The doctors just scare you is all, a year later and no diabetes whatsoever but back then it was all I could think about and was obsessing about everything I was eating and producing pseudo symptoms of diabetes for myself. Now you can see how powerful your thoughts can be if you think about something. I felt like thinking about it again weeks after it happened and possibly going into another attack but I told myself that I don't have diabetes and the attack never happened again. I also had several anxiety attacks as well in youth with school and the social phobia of it all. Here again same thing, it was the thoughts that I chose to listen to and give power to create my own pseudo symptoms and scare myself especially with all the thoughts going on in anticipatory anxiety of social situations. What you can do there is always distract yourself especially every time these anticipatory thoughts pop up. Every time you choose to give in and listen to them you're just stressing over nothing. Just detach yourself from those thoughts with distracting yourself with something else be it blasting you head with music or engaging in an activity that will take your mind off such thoughts. Pretty soon this will just be your way of being but it does take practice like any other habit and it does save you from extra stress. When the situation you have anticipated comes to pass you'll just be there in the moment, in the now and what will be will be as long as you also don't over anticipate what to say and what to do. It's horrible having to attach yourself to all these thinking patterns which can cause unwanted premature attacks something for nothing. I could be wrong but I've heard people having attacks without even thinking about anything. They could be thinking or not and the attacks have found a way to take form underneath the thinking process as a form of symptom. All I know is that I'm more at peace with myself if I don't spend any uneccessary time over thinking what if.

Naseng

Thank you for this

Jon Forsberg Yep.

So very true. It's attitudes like this that are raising children and creating the illnesses also.

Areté how do you know you are enlightened??

Areté do you still have ocd though or are you completely free of it now?

im having ocd and adhd. Advice for me pleasee

yeah sometimes i see it that way too, because only option for me to stay alive with this mind is destroying it without destroying the body.

Amen. Ocd is pure torment

This is an amazing observation, thank you!

Wow, that last sentence is amazing! How do you know this to be true?

It is true, deeper senseitvity comes with a corresponding deeper experience of life, but there is a huge cost! We anethsatise ourselves to pain and suffering, essentially delaying the wonderful realisation that much of that pain and suffering is an illusion. We'll get there.

Jonathan Davis *recognising* that we *are* judging (it's we do as humans) without 'judging the judging' . we often dont want to accept this because we have ideas of ourselves as 'nice'people. mental illness is about the ego mishandling emotions - such as anger which arises from upset and sense of injustice. the matter should be at least acknowledged by ourselves before it can be addressed *constructively* to resolve it. often forgiveness is required towards others and ourselves to find a sense of peace with things that can't be so easily put right. but instead we often turn the anger inward :depression - because fear guilt and shame inhibits us. 'be angry sin not' :As wrong as it is to lash out in anger its as unhealthy to repress it . Sadly peope have been poisoned with the idea that anger is bad : it is necessary energy for survival to drive people to for eg bring about justice (which is not the same as revenge ) The ego? it' s limitations and pitfalls should be acknowledged and we *manage* it *not* 'destroy eradicate it 'etc.

You are truly in touch with the greater consciousness. When you wrote this, did it simply flow through you?

for example ?

Nn Vv Agree, I can feel my life changing as I'm part of Eckhart's teachings.

xx

My buddha is on vacation, best accept that

Anything for you Batman!

carlos batman the best in acceptance. That's awesome, thanks for that. 👏

There have been many Buddhas throughout history. We can all be Buddha. Just like we can all be Christ. These labels aren't titles. They are levels of consciousness.

Chris Hutchinson i agree. Well said Chris.

How can you misinterpret what he's saying, you aren't even listening to what he's saying, your listening to yourself, that's all you can do is interpret, you'll never actually know what he's trying to get across.

Lots of helpful comments on here. TU

I could not agree with you more! Very eloquently and accurately put! If you are not familiar with C. G. Jung's theory on "Death of the Ego", you might want to look it up, you will find it enlightening, to say the least. Jung, was also an INFJ personality type, less than 1% of the population, therefore able to see what most others could not....

5GreatDays WithHim Yeah that's exactly it. The feeling of separation and taking our own mental suffering personally blinds us to the truth that we are all one. I guess when we realize that we begin healing personally and fitting in with the whole consciousness of all.

5GreatDays WithHim I'd have to agree completely and I think you put it perfectly so thank you!

Yes, as one of the modalities of psychotherapy that I practice is Jungian. Dr. Jung as you know studied the Eastern Wisdoms Tradition and incorporated these major teachings, including the archetypes, into psychodynamic therapy.

+Fyrian Phoenix Your comparing yourself, your life, the cards to dealt to you and seeing yourself as a hard case is causing you the suffering...as we are one mind, this suffering is worldwide spread throughout the consciousness...it effects the whole. We all feel the same feelings, we all experiences the same emotions. We have our bluprints which are amp out with our spirit guides before we come to earth. we choose which parents we will have, life lessons, etc. Every person has lessons to learn, and they are all lessons in love. No person is of any greater value then any other, we are all equal. Do not fall into victimhood of comparing yourself. Take your power back, and see that we all have our lessons, and one cannot possibly know all the struggles others face, and are challenged with each day..The list can go on an on. Focus on the live and light that is within you, that is within all of us...learn to give yourself the love you deserve.

+Fyrian Phoenix Your comparing yourself, your life, the cards to dealt to you and seeing yourself as a hard case is causing you the suffering...as we are one mind, this suffering is worldwide spread throughout the consciousness...it effects the whole. We all feel the same feelings, we all experiences the same emotions. We have our bluprints which are amp out with our spirit guides before we come to earth. we choose which parents we will have, life lessons, etc. Every person has lessons to learn, and they are all lessons in love. No person is of any greater value then any other, we are all equal. Do not fall into victimhood of comparing yourself. Take your power back, and see that we all have our lessons, and one cannot possibly know all the struggles others face, and are challenged with each day..The list can go on an on. Focus on the live and light that is within you, that is within all of us...learn to give yourself the love you deserve.

+Fyrian Phoenix Your comparing yourself, your life, the cards to dealt to you and seeing yourself as a hard case is causing you the suffering...as we are one mind, this suffering is worldwide spread throughout the consciousness...it effects the whole. We all feel the same feelings, we all experiences the same emotions. We have our bluprints which are amp out with our spirit guides before we come to earth. we choose which parents we will have, life lessons, etc. Every person has lessons to learn, and they are all lessons in love. No person is of any greater value then any other, we are all equal. Do not fall into victimhood of comparing yourself. Take your power back, and see that we all have our lessons, and one cannot possibly know all the struggles others face, and are challenged with each day..The list can go on an on. Focus on the live and light that is within you, that is within all of us...learn to give yourself the love you deserve.

+Fyrian Phoenix Now obviously I don't know your diagnose but as someone who also "suffers" from mental illness (anxiety & depression) I try to see it as something that has grown into/inside me my whole life because of a kind of awareness of everything around me. So the mental illness in itself isn't really a random thing that was dealt to me, it's a result of a less good way of coping with the extreme amount awareness of my surroundings. So, instead of trying to fix the illness, I need to fix how I cope with it so I don't dig myself into a destructive hole. If this makes any sense. I think he said in another video that something that seems completely pointless and bad can become your greatest spiritual guide in life. So do everything in your power to try and see it as such.

Fyrian Phoenix You don't have to live in suffering and confusion with your illness. It's there for you to seek out or to reach out to people going through the same thing either online or in person and together help each other transcend as ONE through the suffering and let the healing process begin. Together with people like yourself you can awaken and heal and live in the now as Eckhart teaches where you're not adding more fuel to the fire but you're detaching yourself from your illusion of self and just choosing to be. If you notice we all have thoughts and feelings which we attribute ourselves to, if we detach from those with meditation and living in the now we can transcend and heal. We are all innately ONE with all, it just seems that our own illnesses separate us until we find others like us to help us see otherwise.

I know someone who got out of depression by practising Nichiren buddhism, chanting the "Nam-myoho-renge-kyo" sloka.

Steve Maggers Depression is mostly attributed to your daily thoughts and feelings. You need to detach yourself from those thoughts and feelings and realize that is just your illusion of your self. If you live in the past you'll be depressed, if you live in the now you'll be at peace, and if you live in the future you'll be anxious. Detach yourself from these poisonous thoughts which bring about depression and anxiety with meditation and distractions to keep you in the now, in the present moment. I know it can be hard as you've been living the same for 20 years. It's always difficult to build a new habit or a different way of life when what you always felt is so comfortable and is the only thing that feels right. I'm sure by now that the thoughts and feelings we always listen to bring us so much suffering. I can see it now as a comparison when I was in treatment with antidepressants. Those medications really have the same mechanism as meditation. They make you live in the present moment, in the now, without any of your previous thoughts and feelings and behaviours which led to your consistent state of depression. It's all in your thoughts and which ones you let define or rip you apart. You can learn to learn which thoughts to listen to and which ones to completely detach yourself from. You are not your thoughts, let go and be free in the now. When I was taking antidepressants I was a whole other person I'd never knew I could be. The experience is also similar to the different states of mind you can experience on any other psychoactive drugs. But you have that ability to either let your thoughts control you or for you to detach yourself from that continuous stream and live in the present moment and be free. It does also feel a bit like ego death.

Steve Maggers, these people do not understand chronic depression. Everyone gets depressed every now and then. I have been asked since I have this and that wonderful thing in my life, how can I be depressed? Those who live with depression know depression isn't over any one thing. I too, would like to jettison mine. But a good doc and a great therapist do wonders.

2012BeyondtheWorld I whole heartedly agree with you... however, it's not an easy thing to do. I went through major depression for years and it took me awhile to peel the layers of the illusion away. Once we get through it, we see how simple it should have been and can explain how to do it so effortless, but "doing" it takes time and hard work for some.

Me too and anxiety

Mary O'Malley... thats the title of her book,

Greg White don't get it

"What is in the Way Is the Way"

You seem to have gleaned the same understanding Elkhart intended to convey, as I did. Thank you for the validation. Experience IS the best teacher & the best teachers are those who teach from experience.

Mitchel Snodgrass My own experience in dealing with such people.

Mitchel Snodgrass There are theories that thoughts do have an effect on others and can be picked up by others, There are also some theories in psychology that schizophrenia is a problem with perception. I am just taking it a bit further.

Mitchel Snodgrass During a time when I was at an elevated level of intuition I came to the conclusion that they were picking things up from other universes. I cannot prove it. I had the experience of someone in close proximity who was schiz, who made statements that I was doing something in another room and he was correct only I was thinking about it not doing it. He then said he was doing something he could not possible have been doing but I had just been doing. He made a number of other statements at various times that seemed to indicate he was picking up on things I was thinking about and confusing them with his reality. It is not scientific. I did not chart anything. Psychologists and neurologists will figure it out eventually.

Mitchel Snodgrass Other than the occasional medicinal herb I was not on any psychedelics when interacting with the schizophrenic individual.

Mitchel Snodgrass This whole thing about expanding our consciousness is very personal. We refer to it as a subjective science. That means the proof is in your own experience. There is no way to describe these experiences to others adequately. In some cases the words do not even exist except in Sanskrit and even then the words do little to convey the experience except to others who have had similar experiences. We meditate and engage in various spiritual practices in order to better ourselves. It is not really about proving anything to anyone else. If you are interested in the objective science view there is a new field called Neurotheology that you might want to look into.

Simon Carlsson bill hicks.

Cool

What word would you use?

I hear you.

Because I kinda feel like that word is being used alot ingenuinly but when you think of it's true meaning it means something has stunned you a bit. I believe I have also experienced this state and tried to formulate it articulately but always realize the best describing ONE word ultimaltly is "cool".

Hi, The shadow figure. Are you still feeling this way and Do you experience anxiety?

I feel for you. I was meditating and reading advaitic materials at 15 too. Some would say that you need to build up a healthy ego before you “transcend” it, and Nisargadatta says not to teach advaita to children. I went through some very strange headspaces too, as I had no life perspective on what I was learning. I’m not sure how to help you, except to say to trust your own inner promptings. Love yourself 💕

Luv1234 Yes.

Hannah Bailey-Thomas Yes that's exactly it, those times of losing ourselves seldom involve thoughts intruding or keeping us back from living.

I do recall Mother Teresa ended up sort of obsessed with this angle?

bluemermaiid Yes it makes sense. I deal with anxiety and I think if we try to understand it on a deeper level that it is a coping mechanism that our brain uses for us but also try to use it in different ways as to not fully disable us from connecting with others and living our lives. We can continue to suffer with our illness or we can find ways to understand its message to awakening spiritually on the conscious level of all human consciousness. It is no longer an illness when you can transcend and heal not only yourself but other people going through the same. It makes me think of why there's a number of people being affected by the same illness, these people can help each other rise above their illness and transcend their purpose in life to the healing process. In a way, whatever our personal illness and suffering, when we come together and share we find similarities and find we do connect on a deeper level both emotionally and physically. We might have different lives or experiences but each one is similar to our own which on a broader scope can make us realize we're all in it together no matter the difference in our illnesses. This can go very wrong with continuous stigma, stigma doesn't help with any healing but adds suffocating negativity and shame to others wishing to speak out and join in the healing process.

bluemermaiid I find it useful when I can connect with another human living/suffering/experiencing with the same illness I'm living/suffering/experiencing with. Just to have extensive knowledge and understanding beforehand is really helpful when living among others and really adds more spice to life when you can connect so deeply with people like yourself. Then we offer hope and wellbeing to everyone and it really brings out a sense of deep belonging and acceptance when we're in it together as that's what life is innately all about. We all have the gift of transcending through our own illnesses and reaching out to others going through the same. When you reach out and say "I understand you" it makes a whole world of difference to the person you're connecting with. That's how psychologists try to help people, they're trying to reach out and tell you that it's going to be okay and they understand you, but I think you'll feel even better when you meet people who speak out your own life and you can connect so deeply almost on the same exact level.