There are actually healthy habits that we can put into our routines that will help us fight off depression and improve our mental health. It is not shocking to know that anyone that struggles with their mental health has difficulty living the lives they really want to live.
Executive function becomes a challenge and so we have to train our brains to work out of habit. We do this by going against how we feel in the moment and choosing to follow through with one healthy habit at a time. These simple, yet powerful healthy habits, are the ones I have implemented into my life that are undoubtedly helping me live fully while in the midst of my healing from depression, anxiety, and PTSD.
Something changes when your perspective of yourself actually aligns with how God sees you.
God has been challenging me with seeing myself as He sees me. In fact, the other afternoon He was clearly speaking to me about this. I was surprised to hear Him so vividly.
I felt a strong impression of what He wanted to communicate to me in my soul. It was definitely otherworldly and His presence was almost tangible.
This interaction between Him and myself began when I was reminding myself that I am His child over and over again. I wanted my subconscious to get it! I wanted this truth to feel so real, so natural and to become second nature.
And that’s when I began to hear God speak to me about myself.
He was responding to my choice and faith to believe who He says I am in His Word about me. I was not asking Him to show me this or to speak into this, He just simply responded to my hearts cry to know my true nature in Him.
He then told me that my personal vision and desires of accomplishment fell extremely short to what He desires for me.
All I saw was a desire to make an impact with my online ministry, to be able to reach more hearts with His truth. I want to be successful with this, but whatever that looks like I have no real gauge for.
God then showed me that the work I put my hands and mind to everyday was not the work He sees me doing. My work, albeit it being ministry, is just a shadow of what He sees me capable of doing.
God then pulled me out of my tunnel vision to a broader perspective of my how He uses me. He said I was more than just what I did for Him, I was a representer of His glory here on this earth. I am a vessel that He uses to do His plans and purposes, and His Kingdom flows through me wherever I go.
What I put online, even these words you are reading, are an overflow of what is being poured into me daily. And the same goes for you.
You are more than your job title, more than what you bring to this world. You are more than your role within your family and more than a stranger on the street. You are more than what the world might have labeled you as or perceives you to be. There is so much more to you that the eye cannot physically see.
You are a son of God, a dwelling place of His Spirit. Where your feet take you, there also will God’s presence be. You bring His light into this dark world. And where you go, Jesus goes too.
May the Lord open our understanding to this truth and reality. We are more than what we see in the natural, we have the supernatural within our souls and because of this we are capable of all the Lord leads us to do for Him.
See yourself as a presence that lights up the very spaces you walk into, that drips Heaven’s reality when you pass by.
See your presence change the hearts around you, as the Lord inhabits your heart and goes before you and behind you.
See how you bring Heaven to earth just by being His. See yourself as God sees you.
On one of my runs the other morning, I found a little roly poly trying to make its way across the broad sidewalk. My dog was with me and she began to sniff the grass as I watched this little critter try and make it to the grass himself.
A lot of feet make their way down this path. And sure enough, when I looked up there was a line of people coming in my direction on their morning walk.
I decided to help this roly poly leave the dangerous sidewalk unscathed, and I also needed to catch my breath from my run as well. But for whatever reason, probably because I was a big human, this pillbug would not crawl up my hand so I could transport it.
So instead, I decided to use my feet to block it from veering back across the wide sidewalk.
It would crawl forward, then I would move my feet in such a way that continued to help it know the safest direction to move in. My actions proved successful when this roly poly finally made his way to the green grass.
Hoping that it was thankful for what I had done for it, I concluded that it was just moving away from my scary large running shoes. This roly poly had no idea that what I was doing for it was actually leading it to safety.
For all I know, he saw me as the greatest threat to his little life that he ever experienced. Where, in reality, I was providing him, or her (I don’t know how to tell the gender of these guys), protection, guidance and literally salvation.
Who does this metaphor bring to mind for you? Well, it brought to my mind the Lord.
How often do we mistaken the protection, salvation and leading of the Lord towards the best for us as an unwanted interruption in our lives and comfort?
How often do we not realize what He has already protected us from as we find ourselves being blocked by His so called “running shoes”? (That would be amazing if Jesus went on runs too!)
Instead we get upset, we get angry, and we want to be the ones in full control believing that crossing a dangerous wide sidewalk is the right way to go.
Trust God as He directs your life. Trust Him as He closes doors that would have caused you harm and leads you to where you do not want to go. His vantage point is exceptional and He can see what is headed your way.
No doubt this roly poly was afraid of me, no doubt he was frustrated that he had to go back the way he came, and no doubt he probably tried to cross that sidewalk once I was out of the way.
Yet, that particular morning, I was reminded how when life’s circumstances appear chaotic or scary, like it did for that little roly poly that day, God is still and always will be in control and looking out for His children.
In this thirteenth vlog on my mental health journey as a Christian, I share with you what I feel was one of my mistakes in this healing process. If I could go back in time, I would have remained with a counselor in that season.
Yet, because of God’s love, kindness and mercy for me, He still provided ways for me to continue to move forward in my healing. My road to recovery has ended up longer as a result of not getting the right help when I needed it the most, but my relationship with God and my dependency on Him has grown more deeply.
Becoming immovable with knowing who you are in the Lord and knowing who He is despite various obstacles we are faced with along our way, is what becoming an overcomer is all about.
I imagine a wildebeest crossing a dry place in search for water. And all along its journey an annoying bird has decided to mount itself on this animal’s back and join him without choosing to be useful and eat the bugs he sees. Then I imagine at different times flies buzzing around his face as he treads forward slow and steady.
There soon comes along a few hyenas to try and intimidate this great beast, but he lowers his head, sticks with his herd and continues on undeterred. Water is nowhere in sight, not even a small pool, but this wildebeest remembers how the year before, and the year prior to that, that they always found water. Remembering this and feeling the thirst strengthen within him motivates him to walk on.
Other dangerous obstacles are still ahead, but this brave wildebeest is immovable in what he knows and what he wants to do.
In our lives we can relate to flies buzzing around our head with their deceptions or the annoyingbird guest that refuses to mind the boundaries we have set in place, or even an occasional hyena sent our way meant to intimidate us from our path.
But like the wildebeest, we can choose to ignore these distractions, find ways to overcome the difficulties as we remain surrounded by a healthy support system and continue on with assurance that we, too, will find our destination soon enough.
I was having various distractions come at me in the past few weeks, and all while I was working hard on projects that needed a lot of my attention and energy. It took a lot for me to continue to remain focused on what was before me and not get pulled away. As well as, not allowing those distractions to derail my focus on God and His goodness.And that is when I heard the Lord tell me to become immovable in order to be an overcomer in Him.
Distractions will come and go, others will upset us and life likes to interrupt us with the unpredictable, but we always have a choice to continue on with living out who we truly are as children of God and reflecting His true nature in our choices.
Set your mind to be unyielding and immovable as you move along your journey!
In this video, I tackle the question of why creating routines for mental health actually helps to fight off depression. I have struggled with depression, anxiety and PTSD for a super long time and have discovered how putting together simple, healthy and practical routines does help our mental health improve.
Learning how our brains work and respond to consistent daily patterns we can develop in our lives, can benefit us as we learn to fight off depression or any other mental health issue.
My personality enjoys planning and creating routines, as well as experimenting with what actually helps with my mental health. In short, the routines I’ve developed for myself work with my personality and my priorities and values in my life. May this only encourage you to pull together a plan for your own daily routines to help you with your mental health as well.
In this dream I was circling around a mountain. I came to this well known part in my path and found that I could no longer pass through as I had before multiple times. It was a familiar path to me and so I was surprised to discover that I had actually grown bigger and no longer was able to fit through this particular part.
I had apparently outgrown this path!
I then was led to begin climbing up the side of this mountain instead. I instinctively knew that new paths were ahead of me to learn how to walk and conquer.
Since having this dream, I can testify that the lessons I am currently being faced with in life are all very new for me.
Now that I am finding healing more and more as a result of my therapy sessions, my mind is no longer stuck playing a broken record with parts of my past. And because of that I find myself more free, but also more free to think about other things and issues I’ve not been afforded to before.
I then had another dream where the Lord warned me about these snakes.
With new paths to venture down comes new assignments from the Lord and new obstacles to learn from as well. And these snakes that the Lord was warning me about were the obstacles I am needing to overcome. No doubt these “snakes”, representing the deceit and tricks of the enemy in my dream, are something that I need to learn to overcome.
In the book of Revelation we are encouraged to be overcomers, overcoming the snares and traps of the enemy and this world. As you step out in faith and obedience to new assignments, doing things that stretch and challenge you, there will be new enemies you have yet to come across and new obstacles to overcome.
And instead of getting overwhelmed and asking the Lord endless times of why these new struggles have arrived, it is a better use of our time to begin to recognize how these struggles perhaps come with the new territory God is leading us to take and overcome.
As I have come against these so called “snakes”, caught surprised by these difficulties, I have been made aware of my need for growth in new areas of my life. These “snakes” have surfaced more issues within my heart that I need to tackle.
But that is what growth is about!
It is discovering something about yourself that needs to change and be sanctified in Him. And if we did not have these difficulties that we get faced with, we would not discover our need for growth.
The enemy tries really hard to trip us up, but God uses it to strengthen and grow us up instead making us all the wiser. Choose to become overcomers and do not let these new difficulties bring you to despair, but instead relish in your opportunity for growth.
In this twelfth vlog on my mental health journey, the discussion turns towards my husband and I relocating back to the States, choosing a new home to find stability in and bringing to light the importance of building a support system that is right for you.
Not everyone should be a listening ear to your story and struggles, but praying for a safe person that can either relate or show compassion and empathy is key. The temptation to isolate is also strong. Fighting against that will become your strength down the road while in recovery and healing.
In this eleventh vlog on my mental health journey, I share how I pondered whether or not my brain had failed me in light of experiencing extreme burnout, depression and anxiety. This question led me to do my own personal research on the brain to understand what had happened to me.
There was a specific evening where the left hemisphere of my brain was not connecting with my right hemisphere and I was forming words, but not able to put together a complete sentence. That was extremely frightening for both my husband and me. Truth be told, it was more than just my “brain failing me”, it was something that I did not protect and care for; my own mental health.
I am currently seeing a trauma specialist and have been since last Fall.
Our recent time overseas surfaced some deeper issues I needed to face and I was advised by a wonderful counselor to seek this type of therapy.
I was not too keen at first to do this, but I was definitely made aware of my need for it.
The type of therapy that I found after talking with trusted friends is called EMDR. EMDR stands for Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing.
The simplest way for me to explain EMDR is to emphasize on the reprocessing aspect of it. The therapist has been trained to help you safely stimulate both sides of your brain in order to revisit terrifying memories and reprocess them with new healthy perspectives.
This therapy does not put you in a trance or hypnotize you and you are fully aware and in control.
If the therapist is trained well and know what they are doing then the patient is able to feel safe and comfortable revisiting these painful memories. Getting help from someone that knows what they are doing is so important.
I have discovered a beautiful element to my therapy sessions and that is the role of the Holy Spirit. I see a Christian therapist that invites God into our sessions and allows Him to move and work in me and my memories.
I have learned much, but one thing that stands out to me the most that has brought a deeper clarity to my life’s experiences is learning that I was never alone in each of those terrifying moments. God was with me.
Even before I knew Jesus, an old man that I knew instinctively was the Father had stepped into a memory to show me He was always there and never hidden. And as we have moved along in my timeline of memories to revisit, Jesus began showing up in my memories once I had become a believer.
It has and still amazes me how the Lord has helped me immensely create new neural pathways within these memories, healing my pain, and bringing a healthy closure to each of them.
Our God is so kind and compassionate. And He can even unlock trauma that has been trapped in our minds and bodies for years and heal us deep within.
Revisiting the healed memories now with no overwhelming emotion attached to them is freeing. I feel more and more free as each memory is resolved. It has been such a beautiful and safe experience to find deliverance from the Lord this way. He is indeed gentle with the brokenhearted.
Moving forward I have learned a new tool with caring for my soul and mind. I can easily invite Jesus into any experience that has yet to be resolved in my memory bank and know that I will find Him there. That brings me great comfort and peace, and settles my heart as I look towards the future. We have not been alone, and never will be.
