According to researchers of “mental illness,” We the People
of the United States
are swimming in a vast and deep lake of depression and other mental
“disorders”. Some call it an epidemic and blame psychiatric drugs. Some say
it’s a full-blown “rebellion” against modern life and its dictates. Others
claim it’s linked to genetically modified food and nutritional deficiencies. I’ve
even read that the bombardment of radio and other invisible waves affect our
brains. It may be that we are getting clobbered from multiple sources. Even to
a layman such as me, it’s obvious the world is going bonkers.
When I first began working in the Garden
of Nemesis in 2001, I noticed
people walking down the street talking to what appeared to be—themselves.
Nowadays they have cell phones or headsets embedded in their ears but
nonetheless, are still conversing. I
honestly can’t see the difference.
The truth is there is a lot of pain and suffering going on. I,
too, once endured the depression malady; I was in my early forties before it
became clear I had had this chronic condition ever since I could remember. It
was so chronic that I considered it my “normal” state of mind. Alcohol and
other self-medications had once helped, but by my late thirties it became clear
that what I was using to treat my condition had themselves become a problem. It
was time for a lifestyle change.
This huge change began to work its magic when I stopped
self-medicating and got into psychotherapy and AA. Really, it was a good thing
I could not see into the future, because things got much worse before they
started to get better. I alternated between crying jags and frantic rages for
the first sober year. Many details of my childhood began to surface and I began
to perceive just how screwed up my thinking had been. In the second year of my
sobriety, I experienced my first moment of bliss while driving my old pickup
truck on a Mississippi back road.
Perhaps I had had this experience as a child, because it seemed vaguely
familiar.
After that first glimpse of joy, I began to realize I had
truly been “out of my mind” and my
body for most of my past. I knew in my gut, in my “second brain,” that even
though others may have caused my childhood damage, I alone was responsible to
facilitate my own healing.
Children have the amazing capacity to lock away fears and
demons into the dark recesses of the mind, otherwise they may not be able to
survive the growing-up process. As an adult, it was up to me to deal with these
fears and demons, otherwise my soul could not reach anything close to
maturation. I reached out for help during this process and miraculously
attracted just the right people who could help me. Some were professionals;
others were those who had had similar experiences.
During the many years of my therapy, several doctors tried
their best to get me to take medication. I believed, and still do, that in my
case, chemistry had failed to bring adequate results and I needed to simply
unlock the horrific and repulsive memories and allow myself to feel their true
impact; then, and only then, would I be free of the daily, albeit unconscious, forays
into the nightmare that was my childhood. My instincts were right.
One of the many transformations that occurred during this
healing period was that I began to listen to my gut, my instincts. Amazingly,
this ability still existed within me even though it had been suppressed and
squashed for decades. It wasn’t until recently that I began to ponder the
notion that gut feelings come from the same area as where I digest my food. Is
there a link? Is consumed food communicating to my mind and body as it passes
through?
Where and how had that animal on my plate been birthed and
raised? Had that apple faced the sun naked or covered with toxins? What
non-food substances had been added to that box or can? What kind of genes had
been transferred into that fruit/vegetable seed before it was planted? Most
importantly, is digestion more than a chemical process? Is some form of
consciousness being communicated to my being as I digest this “food”?
It’s clear by the commercials on television that
Americans are having digestive problems. Is there a relationship between the
food that causes heartburn, acid reflux, constipation, diarrhea and colon
cancer to—what? mental problems? If the gut is the seat of our instincts, our
second brain, then what are all these non-food additives and GMOs doing to our
thinking processes?
Richard Alan Miller has helped to educate me regarding the
relationship of my gut and the food I eat. His research has yielded information
that is not for the faint-hearted. If one is not open to changing one’s belief
paradigm, this brilliant man’s material should be avoided. He has opened my
mind to the possibility of “conversations” happening between myself and my gut.
I am ever becoming aware of this ongoing communication between my Self and the sun, the
plants, animals and even so-called inanimate rocks and soil.
Every day as I work or play in my garden, I have
conversations with my environment. I am but a small link in the incredible
Chain of Life. Each of us is as important as any other of the individual parts,
and we all make up the whole; a whole linked not just in the physical, but in
mind and spirit. Just as I am clearly conscious of my own suffering, I am aware
of the pain of others. However, pain and suffering are not meant to be a way
of life.
Pain gets our attention, points out that a problem exists;
pain is an opportunity to make corrections. I’m sorry to say that nothing and
no one can “fix” us from the outside. It’s an inside job. The buck stops here.
Yes, the world is going bonkers and looking for cures in all the wrong places.
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