depression

Finding a happy medium (or, when your ideal doesn’t turn out to be so idyllic)

~ Helen White ~ 2 Comments

We tend to think we want some extremely strong version of what we think we long for on the full spectrum of choices, and often it’s the very opposite of what we currently have, but that’s usually just a reaction. The best life we can ever live is never a reaction but a choice. Making our own choices, rather than reacting, is how we get to upgrade our experiences of life by becoming mindful of what we really want and going after that. Life becomes its own upgrade when (perhaps forced by circumstances that challenge what we thought we knew) we get to surprise ourselves with what we find out about ourselves and then to be utterly, ruthlessly, honest about what we really want, which often turns out to be quite different to what we used to think that we wanted, perhaps for a very long time until now. This is the gift of the thing that challenges our normality, whether that's an illness or some other set of circumstances that, initially, seem to present more of something you craved...perhaps more time, more quiet, a slower pace...but as ever, there is a happy medium to be found. Realising this is the very first step to attaining it!

Coping with sadness for what has been lost through chronic health

~ Helen White ~ 4 Comments

There comes a time, in chronic illness, where you have to address a profound need to be left alone, to carve your own space, time to put down all attempt at social skills to go mute and self-focused, devoid of all expectations from others to do or react or say the right things and just "be" in the dark void with whatever it is that is happening to you. There has to be time and space for you to pull into yourself, to lick your own wounds and to grieve your own losses which, though less overt than an actual "death", are a kind of bereavement all of their own...a deep sadness for the health you once had, the person you used to be, the hopes you once nurtured. This, like any bereavement, takes time and space and solitude enough to process. My craving for solitude is extremely high right now, perhaps no different to how any wounded or traumatised mammal will withdraw to its den in order to attempt to self-regulate its highly overstimulated nervous system in a way that can only ever be done by curling up, alone. No amount of kind gestures or people wanting to fuss or help out can play substitute for this need to be alone and look our current state in the eyes, to intuit what we most need and to search for the means to initiate the body's own healing process, which is not something you "do" but, instead, patiently wait for with whatever small iota of faith that you have left.

Healing mantra

~ Helen White ~ Leave a comment

Today, I simply want to share this video discussion between Deva Premal, Miten and Dr Kennet R Pelletier, author of the forthcoming book "Change Your Genes, Change Your Life" on the topic of the healing power of mantra. This subject is very dear to my heart since I have found what they are discussing here … Continue reading Healing mantra

Off kilter

~ Helen White ~ 2 Comments

I see in my dog a parody of same comic behaviour that plays out in me and mine at this time of the year, which he also finds something of a struggle being a sun-worshipper of the nth degree. He sleeps a hung-over type of sleep most of the day, his nose pushed deep into the pile of blankets that he insists upon, then he gets up for his walk (the one lively time of his day) and, once the sun goes down, obsesses about food and snacks like his life depends on getting another treat out of the cupboard, before falling back into a deep slumber in his bed. So what does this tell me..?

Don’t be SAD…

~ Helen White ~ Leave a comment

If you are a 'sufferer' from SAD (seasonal affective disorder) this is your loud and clear invitation to consider ways (and here's a whole treasure-trove of them, gathered through my own personal experience) that you get to create a very different experience; consciously, through choice. Suddenly, a seemingly endless procession of gloomy days doesn't seem all that gloomy anymore but, rather, has become the very playground of creating your own best experience - and not just in this rather trivial-seeming way but in all things, putting you back in the driving seat as the creator of your own best possible life.