When the Black dog bites.....

Without doubt, depression can be a debilitating condition. When that big Black dog bites hard and your thinking becomes delusional and distorted, it can be a very emotionally painful and scary experience.

After the Xmas holiday period, an aquaintance of mine sank into a very, very dark place, including the real possibility of self harm. In the past I've used my meditation to disassociate my own mind from physical pain during multiple spinal injuries, and I wanted to help my friend disassociate themselves from the intense emotional pain they were experiencing from their depression... ....but how do you use your mind to dissociate yourself from your emotional pain when your own mind's distorted thinking is the main source of the problems?

I asked my friend to meditate with me.

As part of the meditation I instructed my friend to hold their right hand against their heart centre (4th Chakra) and recite the following:

Who am I? without my fears, without my self limiting beliefs,

without my distorted thinking,

without my negativity,

without my emotional pain,

Who am I?

I am the True Spririt*.

As I am the True Spirit* the essence of life is always with me.

I now allow the essence of life to flow through me,

through every fibre and cell of my physical and emotional being ,

to heal me,

to regenerate me,

to nourish me,

to cleanse me of my darkness,

and to fill me again with sparkle and light.

The pain that I currently experience belongs to the body and mind that my consciousness inhabits

It is unconnected from my consciousness

And as I am the True Spirit*, I know this too will pass.

*Note: In this context the term 'True Spirit' refers to the Supreme Consciousness of the Universe. Some spritual schools of thought believe our own consciousness is part of the Supreme Consciousness and on our path to spiritual enlightenment (or self-realisation) via meditation, the challenge is to overcome the veil of Brahman and connect our own consciousness to the Supreme Consciousnes of the Universe. The idea behind this meditation is to introduce the concept that the distorted thinking triggered by a depressive incident, including self-harm idealisation, belongs to the physical and emotional body that my consciousness currently inhabits. It does NOT belong to my consciousness, or spirit, which is a part of the True Spirit (the Supreme Consciousness) which is NEVER affected by the ever changing natue of the world in which we live. We are attempting to plant a suggestive seed to the depressed person that they try to disassociate themselves from their emotional pain, become a witnes to it, and sit tight and observe it until it has passed.