Mental Illness Treatment

Forgiveness was a battle I could not understand. I had posted on my fridge a large note page saying forgive them for they know not what they do. Daily I seemed to wage this battle in my emotions. The day before I had forgiven and then the battle was back. The thoughts and then emotions. Those ANTS would visit me and tell me how unforgiving and how unloving I was and I was the cause of all the problems. I would forgive again and keep on task. I had chosen to overcome any unforgiveness. Any choices you make to be loving or forgiving will cost your flesh ( mind, will, emotions) dis comfort but in the end the freedom from not having those emotions will follow. Emotions do many things. First they dehydrate the body as it goes into fight or flight mode. Then the stress affects the body in negative ways. A lot of energy is spent on what if`ing in case those who hurt you get back into your boundaries again. There is nothing wrong with healthy boundaries. Forgiveness does not mean being in dangerous situations or allowing people to come into your boundaries and never address that there is a problem. You can ask them to forgive you because they are doing thus and so and you have a problem constantly trying to forgive them. You would like a solution, but if one cannot be agreed upon it would be better to limit interaction. I personally left my parents, when they were unable to go to therapy with me to work out old problems and new ones as no one had changed. That was a 20 year departure. My siblings left me because I separated from my parents. I respected their space. I never raised my voice or called them names or raged. I did continue to pursue my own recovery. Unforgiveness and being unloving only make you feel trapped and dis eased. I took a boundaries class, paid for counselling, went through many support healing groups and met new friends . As you recover, you may have to find new friends if yours are not growing with you or the ones not growing will hold you back from your own healing and restoration. You cannot love or forgive others if you don't know how to love and forgive yourself. Hope this helps someone. Blessings, charity

I remember when my medical policy would not cover mental health treatments and my doctors would tell me it's all in my head. The out of pocket was shocking and most people didn't get much help and fought all kinds of physical issues. They didn't cover any naturopaths either. How convenient. My eyes and teeth weren't covered by my health insurance either. They were separate policies. We live in a strange world controlled by dollars and cents. No real sense to it. I was very discouraged. I will say a lot of what goes on in our health does originate with our mind and our eyes and our teeth. What a silly world we live in. Humans, go figure.

Anyways this post is about thoughts. Journaling is good for your health because it helps you see what is happening and go back and analyze it so you can find unhealed or unhealthy patterns. I have a lot of full journals. I also ripped out lots of pages to start fires in the woodstove. I am not just rambling here. Your mind has a lot going on with side effects. Thoughts are called ANTS automatic negative thoughts steal your life away. Imagination can change your life and future and thoughts create what you see. The thoughts are the lenses your eyes look through to see. Is your glass half empty or half full? Are your lenses rose colored or blue? Journaling gives you a chance to make changes, take notes, write out a plan and take back your future. You are in charge of your thoughts. 3x5 cards in your pocket can help a lot. I also make 8 x 11 sheets and post them around where I look often to remind myself what I am overcoming and what sentences I am using to do that. I make a list of things I want to tackle and write out my plan of attack. Fear NOT is one of my signs. Forgive is one and Love is another. Your thoughts can take you places you don't want to go if you don't pay attention to them and make choices about how you want to think. It will affect your long term health. Every day I am healthier and stronger than I was yesterday and I overcome. Blessings, Charity