How to Begin a Spiritual Healing Practice for Depression and Mental Health

This post will go over the best, most effective, and easiest ways to begin (or if you have already started) enhance your spiritual healing practice, be it for depression, anxiety, any other mental illness, neurodiversity, or even just in general learning, healing and growing as a spiritual being.

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A Spiritual Healing Practice for Depression, Anxiety, Overall Mental Health, and Spiritual Growth

I have had a spiritual healing practice for well over 12 years now. It all began after my life completely fell apart, and I ended up being hospitalized and put on a psych hold.

While I sat in that dark, lonely hospital room, feeling like the biggest complete failure, I began to pray. I prayed with all my heart because I had absolutely nothing left I felt like I could do. This was after a long road of some pretty severe depression that I experienced for pretty much as long as I can remember and a series of life events that left me feeling broken and defeated.

Yet, because of the events of that night and what ended up transpiring, I began a spiritual healing practice. And I have come a very long way since that day. I now have a completely different understanding of depression and what it means to have depression.

I would go so far as to say I have healed my depression. I may still have dark nights and moments of feeling down, but the difference is that I now have a much better idea of what is going on, what I can expect, and how to get through it, knowing in the end, I will come out much better off than when I began. And I believe without a doubt that you can do all this too. In fact, if you are here and still watching this video, I fully believe you are meant to do it as part of your spiritual journey and soul’s mission.

If you're not sure what I am talking about, be sure to check out this video about depression’s good side, or even better, check out my Depression Warriors Book that goes over all of this in much greater detail, or check out this post.

Building the Foundation - From Physical to Spiritual

So, I have been working with others and doing my spiritual healing for a while now, and what I have recently realized is that we cannot go too fast. It is so important to build a strong foundation. This is a journey, not a sprint. It is a marathon of learning, healing, and growing.

Otherwise, if you jump too fast into too many of the very effective yet advanced concepts, such as surrender or even changing your focus or thoughts or using the Law of Attraction, you will likely feel overwhelmed, confused, uncertain, and experience self-doubt. And then depression and an unhealthy ego will have a chance to take over - and what is worse, this not only derails your efforts but may make you give up altogether.

And that is definitely not what any of us want. You are much too important for that to happen.

Be sure to keep coming back because this is just part one, and as you learn, master, and understand these beginning techniques, I will have more posts and videos that will take your spiritual healing practice to the next level.

But for now, let’s start at the beginning and start building that foundation you will need to ensure you can reach your highest spiritual potential.

The First Techniques to Master in Your Spiritual Healing Practice

The techniques I will go over in this first post you will probably be very familiar with. That is because this post is about the basics and where to start, but just know that they are in this first post because they are very important and the easiest place to start so that you have a foundation for future healing and growth.

This is the foundation that you will build upon. So ensure you understand these techniques, practice them, learn more about them, and master them before you move on. This will help you build the confidence, understanding, and connection with yourself and with Spirit that you need to set yourself up for success in the long run.

Also, these first techniques are like a bridge from the physical world you have lived in for so long. They will begin getting you in touch with the Spiritual – so although they may sound familiar and like something you have maybe even been told to do lots of times before, don’t underestimate their power to change your life and the power they provide you within a spiritual practice of any kind – I mean there is a reason they are so well-known – they work.

Grounding

The first thing you will want to learn and master is grounding. Personally, I have never been very good at grounding, and that has created some needless challenges and delays along my path. I started my practice without really doing much grounding, and it wasn’t that things didn’t work out, but I felt just straight-up weird all the time. Like I was distant and unfocused, and it made life just a bit more difficult. Until I realized that you could not do a lot of spiritual work or even the healing I was trying to do at the time on a physical level if you are ungrounded.

So, I really suggest you ground yourself every single day, and on those days when you are dealing with depression and anxiety, going through a dark night of the soul, grief, or any highly emotional time, make sure you are grounding yourself many times throughout the day.

How to Ground Yourself

To be grounded, all you need to do is simply have the intention to be grounded and then do whatever makes you feel and recognize your connection to the Earth.

So, you can visualize roots coming from your feet or the base of your spine and going deep into the earth like a tree. See the roots soaking up the energy and nutrients from the earth, that hot orange magma at the center of the earth traveling up the roots and into every cell in your body.

You can also do something as simple as walking around barefooted outside. Once again, focus on that connection you have with the earth.

Primarily, your goal when it comes to feeling and being grounded is simply to notice, focus on, and feel your strong and stabilizing connection to the earth.  Soak up that energy and feel that sense of power and control it gives you in your otherwise chaotic and hectic life.

Breathing

Breathing is one of those oh-so-important things that most of us do wrong. I know you have to breathe to live, but that is basically all most of us who experience any kind of depression or anxiety are doing – breathing to survive, simply taking shallow breaths that only serve to keep us alive.

But the breath is so much more than just taking in a bit of oxygen. It is healing. It connects us to our higher self and the angels, enhances the sense of grounding, and brings positive energy. Just a few deep, intentional breaths will raise your vibrations instantly so you can do so much more healing and connecting with Spirit. And in such a simple, easy, and effective way.

How to Ensure You Are Breathing Correctly

There are so many ways to do deep breathing, and I am sure you have heard of quite a few. But what is most important and how you want to start is by making sure you are actually taking deep breaths. This means the air is going all the way into your abdomen, not just your lungs. Right? I am talking about deep breathing.

So lay down, or you can do this sitting and place your hand on your abdomen. Take in a deep breath and pull it in deep, all the way down into your belly, until you can feel your hand on your belly rise. And feel your hand fall as you breathe out.

Ideally, you are breathing like this all the time – but most of us aren’t, especially when we are dealing with depression and anxiety. It is almost like we get into such negativity that we intentionally deprive ourselves of the oxygen and positive energy the breath gives us, and we take even more shallow breaths. So do this often to ensure you are taking in the deep breaths your body, vibrations, and soul needs. The more healing you are doing, the more you want to ensure you are aware of your breath and doing some kind of breathwork—several times a day.

Affirmations

Affirmations are simply just stating something you want to have happen or feel - or anything at all, really - in a positive way and as though it has already occurred.

Now, although simple, affirmations are very interesting as well because it is almost difficult for many of us to comprehend or realize how much power these statements really have over our minds, physical bodies, and the energy we are attracting to ourselves. And the wildest part is that you do not have to believe what you are saying. Of course, if you do, it will be that much more powerful, but even if you don’t, these affirmative statements still work – very well.

A perfect example of this is when I worked as a counselor and did groups and workshops. I used to love doing this demonstration where I would have someone come up and hold their arms straight out, and then I would tell them to try their hardest to keep me from pulling their arm down. Usually, maybe with some resistance, their arm would quickly and easily come down. Sometimes, I put so little effort into it that I didn’t even do more than practically touch them.

Now, these were clients with depression and some other pretty intense mental health issues because I was at the time working in an acute treatment center, so these clients were basically being hospitalized while we got them in a better place. They often were very down and struggling a lot, and self-confidence was not an easy thing to come by at all.

Next, in the demonstration, I would have my volunteer say, “I am strong.” Three times, out loud.

“I am strong.”

“I am strong.”

“I am strong.”

Once again, I would then remind them to do their best to keep me from pulling their arm down as I began to pull on their arm in the same manner as before. Only this time, I kid you not, no exaggeration, I would not be able to pull their arm down every single time!!! It was truly incredible. And it was so awesome to see the looks on their faces!  A look of shock and surprise. Sometimes, I could practically hang from their arm without it coming down.

Where did this strength come from? It was astonishing for the group to observe this and even more so for the volunteers to have this demonstration done directly to them. And, keep in mind, these were people who had no clue what I was doing. Amazing, absolutely amazing.

Affirmations, or anything we say to ourselves really, are just so incredibly powerful. So, pay attention and ensure you are using the power of affirmations and intentionally bringing positivity into your life. Conversely, be aware of your thoughts and try not to undo your healing efforts by allowing a negative version of these to infiltrate your thinking. Because it does, in fact, work both ways.

How to do Affirmations

To do affirmations, you only need to state something in the positive or affirmative and just repeat it. You can say affirmations either out loud or to yourself. It doesn’t matter as long as you say it and try to say it often.

Some examples of affirmations are:

“I am strong,”

“I experience happiness,”

“I am more than enough.”

“I have everything I need.”

And that is it. Although not a requirement of any means, I find that saying each affirmation three times is effective. Once again, you will want to say your affirmations as much as possible throughout the day to get the most and quickest benefit.

Meditation/Focus Control

At this beginning stage of your spiritual healing practice, your goal is to know and understand that you can control your focus and attention. And you can learn to do so through meditation. Any kind of meditation, be it guided or where you try to completely clear your mind of all thoughts – whatever kind you do, just do it and do it often.

One of our most powerful spiritual tools is our thoughts and focus, whether we are using the law of attraction, trying to hear our angels, connecting with Spirit, setting intentions, trying to heal from the negativity of depression, or going through a dark night of the soul, your thoughts and focus are critical.

You manifest and cocreate what you think, feel, and believe, whether you are aware of it or not. A lot of things come up from the subconscious or the ego and affect the energy we put into the universe, so it can be imperative that you learn to gain control of this power you have and learn to use it to manifest what you want and need rather than what you don’t want.

The guided meditation below is created specifically for this purpose. It will introduce you to the power you have over your mind and attention. It is an easy way to understand and start with all of this.

So, the thing with meditation is that it is not only a way to help you focus. It is how you can make your brain do what you want much more easily. Simply doing five minutes of a breathing meditation will strengthen your focus muscle. It will give you more control over what you think and feel.

The mind and your attention are like muscles; the more you use them, the stronger they are. So meditation will help you get in touch with Spirit, but it also gives you even more control over the physical world and your reality because it allows you to have an understanding of your focus and what you really think about - even subconsciously - and gives you more ability to control it and choose what you want to think about or focus on.

This is absolutely invaluable on so many levels, but especially for those of us who experience depression and the superpower of rumination that we tend to have.

Don’t know what I’m talking about? Then be sure to check out that video about Depression’s Good Side – I will also link all the posts I’ve mentioned in the description below so you can find and remember them all much easier.

Once you’ve done, practiced, and begun mastering these basic techniques, you’ll be ready to check out the next post that will go over more basic strategies that will build upon these and help you take your spiritual healing practice even further.

If you want to learn more about starting and building a spiritual healing practice, check out these post categories to help you get started.

• Depression & Spirituality

• Spiritual Healing Basics

As always, I am sending a ton of love and blessings to you all

Thank you so much for being here and for being you!!!