Ah, country life.
This morning, on my daily post-meditation walk past the monastery, I happened to run into a young bear who was just about to cross the road to get back to the state forest. This bear seems to be a regular at KTD, especially after the pujas when the food offerings are brought outside. Anyway, I’m so used to bears at this point in the season that I didn’t even pause when I found myself a few feet from this one.
“Hello, Torma Bear,” I said casually, taking out my ear buds in case he had anything to say. “Be careful crossing the road.There are a lot of cars out today.”
I swear the bear looked both ways and gave me a nod as if to say, “I’m cool.”
Then we both went our separate ways: he into the forest, me down the hill. Oh, how I love summer!
I was just re-reading an old interview in Bark magazine with journalist Kim Kavin, the author of LITTLE BOY BLUE: A Puppy’s Rescue from Death Row and His Owner’s Journey for Truth.
Bark asked her:
“What five things can shelters do to improve their adoption rates?”
KK answered:
1. Make adoption a priority. At the shelter where Blue was found, unless a rescue group intervenes, the annual kill rate is about 95 percent. It is accepted as policy that the majority of dogs will die. Shelter managers need to make it a policy that rescue and adoption are a big part of the job. Nationwide, this attitude is the first thing to change in shelters that improve their adoption rates.
2. Hire people who embody the philosophy of rescue. Sometimes personnel changes are necessary, but sometimes people can grow through education. Either way, you need people on-site every day who care about adoption, and you need to give them the resources and job flexibility they need to succeed.
3. Give the dogs names. At the shelter where Blue was found in Person County, N.C., the dogs don’t have names; they are given numbers and expiration dates. The adoption coordinator at Robeson County Shelter in Saint Pauls, N.C., told me that when she began working to turn their program around, the first thing she did was name the dogs, because a name shows that someone cares about them as individuals. It affects the entire staff’s attitude toward what happens there day in and day out. It is harder to kill a dog who has a name. It makes people want to do more to help the dogs.
4. Tap into the nationwide rescue community via sites like Petfinder.com [4] (full disclosure: Barron’s is donating a portion of the proceeds from Little Boy Blue to the Petfinder Foundation [6]). Even if you’re in an economically depressed area and can’t find local adopters, you can find responsible rescue groups in other areas—even in other states—that are willing to transport and foster the dogs while marketing them for adoption. The pipeline exists. Use it.
5. Take photos of the dogs outside of the shelter environment. With my own foster dogs, the photos I take of them just a few hours after they’ve had a chance to calm down and play in my back yard are far superior to those I get at the shelter. Anything you can do to help them relax will make them look happier and healthier in their adoption photos, and thus increase their chances of finding a home.
Here’s the whole interview if you’d like to read it. This little piece is such a gem! Coming from the world’s best dog magazine, of course!
I wanted to let you know that my book, REX AND THE CITY, has just been re-released. Originally published by Random House in 2006 to critical acclaim, this book was praised as “Hands-down the best human-with-dog memoir you’ll ever read” by Bark magazine. A revised and updated edition has just been released by Diversion Books—just in time for the holiday season.
If you know anyone who might enjoy a book about the joys of rescuing a crazy hunting dog, please consider recommending Rex and the City. We’re donating a portion of all book sales to animal rescue organizations. My hope is that, through this book, more people will feel inspired to rescue needy animals and to appreciate the amazing canine species even more.
Less than 48 hours left in our “Beyond the Beyond” Indiegogo campaign and we’re almost there! We can do it! I just added a few more perks, including the very simple but profound gift of a single digital download for our track “Om Mani Peme Hum.” For a $1 contribution you’ll enjoy the benefits of this profound mantra, featuring the vocals of Lama Karma Drodhul and Lama Karma Thendup of KTD monastery. To hear a sample of the ROUGH MIX of this track (not the final track), visit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X5CV2GYEfg0
We finally uploaded a “sneak preview” audio file to the “Beyond the Beyond” campaign page: the track “Om Mani Peme Hum.” Featured vocalists are Lama Karma Drodul and Lama Karma Thendup of Karma Triyana Dharmachakra monastery in Woodstock, NY–which is HH Karmapa’s North American seat. These beloved lamas open the song with the “Prayer of Praise to Chenrezig” and then Chenrezig’s mantra (Om Mani Peme Hum), singing the melody written by His Holiness the 17th Karmapa himself. May all beings benefit from the sacred vibrations of this mantra!
Anyone who contributes to our Indiegogo campaign will receive a free download of this track–when it’s officially mixed and mastered and ready to release, of course. For details, visit:
By Lee Harrington on January 27, 2014; http://www.spiritvoyage.com/blog/index.php/mantras-for-dying-animals/
Four months ago, my beloved dog Chloe (affectionately nicknamed “Gopi”) died quite suddenly of a particularly aggressive form of cancer I didn’t even realize she’d had. Long story short: I came home from a kirtan late one night to discover that my normally exuberant, bouncy spaniel mix was disoriented, listless and unable to walk.When I knelt down to investigate (assuming rather dumbly that she had some kind of sports-related injury), Chloe–sweet friend that she was–tried to give me a reassuring kiss. That’s when I realized that her tongue was cold. And grey. Panicked, I rushed her to a 24-hour emergency veterinary clinic near my house. There, the vet told me that my dog had something called “canine splenic hemangiosarcoma” and that a tumor on her spleen had ruptured. Basically, my sweet little Gopi was bleeding to death internally. After delivering this diagnosis, the vet–a youngish, tired-looking woman whom I had never met before–told me rather dispassionately that there was nothing I could do and that the “best thing” would be to put my dog down. Right then and there.
How do you react to news like that? One moment you are sitting in an artist’s loft in Soho, sipping gingery chai and chanting “Om Namah Shivaya” with your friends; the next you are in a poorly lit, eerily quiet veterinary office in some derelict section of Poughkeepsie, being told that your nine-year old dog was going to die within the next twelve hours. Needless to say I was stunned. But someone in this equation was going to have to make a decision and that someone was going to be me, whether I felt qualified to be doing so or not.
My decision took a second, and yet you could also say it took lifetimes. Lifetimes of meditation practice, of studying dharma and spiritual texts, of practicing yoga. “I’ll take her home with me,” I told the vet. I wanted–somewhat selfishly–to have the opportunity to say goodbye to Chloe. And I also believed–somewhat childishly–that maybe Chloe wouldn’t actually die; that I could take her to my “real” vet in the morning and receive a more positive diagnosis. But mostly I wanted to spend the next hours chanting for Chloe in a nurturing environment while she made her transition. As a meditator and a practitioner of both Buddhism and Kundalini Yoga, I knew that these final hours were very important.
And so, whether my decision was a wise one or not, I arranged to take my dying dog home. The vet gave Chloe a dose of strong painkillers and I watched with a sense of surreal, sorrowful determination as a technician lifted my dog into my car.
Chloe
Before I go on, I should clarify that I am not an expert on death and/or dying; nor am I am expert on the nature of animal consciousness or of human consciousness for that matter. I am simply a devoted practitioner who happens to love animals and relates particularly well to dogs, and was blessed to have shared a connection with a pretty remarkable dog. She was a mood elevator and a mind reader and a happy-go-lucky-goofball, and she spent much of her short sweet life sitting next to me at churches, monasteries, spiritual retreat centers and at our weekly Woodstock kirtans.For nine years we walked the path together. Literally and figuratively. And now she was dying. And it was my duty–my privilege–to walk with her right up until the end.
I felt wholly unprepared. And yet, one could argue that our yoga and meditation practices are nothing but preparation for the moment of death. One of my first Buddhist teachers, Khandro Rinpoche, used to say: “If it doesn’t matter at the moment of death, it doesn’t matter now.” Likewise, Yogi Bhajan always said, “You and your mastery must come through at the moment of death.” They were talking about one’s own death, but still. One of the great gifts we have as humans is our own free will, to work with our minds and direct our consciousnesses.
Another great gift we have as humans is the power to help others. And as human yogis, we have even more power. In the Buddhist tradition, we place special emphasis on helping animals. To paraphrase Lama Kyabje Zopa Rinpoche, renowned for his work with animals: “the animal realm is considered to be one of more suffering and less potential than the human realm. Thus, we want to do everything in our power to help that being’s consciousness to find a higher rebirth. A very important condition for a better rebirth is for the being to have a calm mind at the time of death. Also, being in contact with holy objects (statues, stupas, holy images and mantras) purifies negative karma and accumulates merit for that being which will help in this regard. This is the biggest present you can give them: Good rebirth, finish samsara, liberation.”
So yes, I am talking about reincarnation here. But even if you don’t believe in reincarnation, you have the power to surround your loved ones with love at the time of their death. It sounds so simple–and it is so simple–but it is also easy (and natural) to lapse into feelings of powerlessness as we are faced with another’s imminent death.
I know I lapsed into feelings of powerlessness quite a few times that evening. But I am so grateful that I had a mantra practice.
When I brought Chloe home from the emergency clinic, she was too weak to climb the stairs, so we spent the night in the foyer, on the cold wooden floor. I had brought one of Chloe’s beds down for her to rest on, but for some reason she chose to stay on the floor–perhaps because the wood was more organic, more related to the Earth. In solidarity, I lay next to her, foregoing any padding so that I could stay close to her. The next few hours were and still are a blur. I know that I chanted and prayed and sang for hours, I know that I told her again and again that I loved her in so many ways, but when I look back I seem to remember only a few minutes and a few scant details. The sound of the music. The sound of her breath. The sound of recorded monks reciting mantras, and of gongs and of Snatam Kaur. And myself, crying and chanting; chanting and crying. As the hour of sunrise neared and the sky outside began to lighten, I made some phone calls: to my vet, to a neighbor, and to the Tibetan monastery where I planned to bring my dog. Even as I write this blog four months later, I am asking myself if I did the right things. If I should have tried to save Chloe’s life with risky surgery while I was at the veterinary clinic; or if I should have shortened her life with euthanasia. And yet, I know that friends of mine who chose the euthanasia route are also asking the same questions: “Did we do the right thing?” I guess the answer is: anything done with love is the right thing.
With the help of some friends, I was able to get Chloe back into my car, and I was able to drive her up to Karma Triyana Dharmachakra Monastery, where one of the resident lamas attended to her (working with her consciousness in ways I still can’t comprehend), and then I took her to my vet, which opened at 9:00 am. Chloe died as as soon as we arrived at the vet’s office. The last word she heard before her consciousness left her body was “Om.” Or rather, I should say: the last thing she heard was my voice, singing “Om.”
After Chloe died, I posted a short announcement on my Facebook page and on my personal blog pages, and I was both humbled and floored at the amount of response I received. Hundreds of people wrote to me wanting to know which mantras I chanted. So here, finally, is the list.
Akal
From the Sikh tradition, we have the beautiful, simple mantra “Akal” to assist our animal friends at their time of transition. “Akal” means undying, and I am going to quote Spirit Voyage blogger and Marketing Director Ramdesh Kaur on the deeper definitions of the mantra because she describes it so beautifully. “Chanting ‘Akaaaaal‘ is said in the Kundalini Yoga tradition to help liberate the soul from the dense field of the earth, giving it a boost into the peace of the divine beyond. Akal means that there is no death, only liberation. It reminds both the departed and those who remain behind of our true identity as deathless souls.”
“Akal,” to me, is one of those chants that can fill the room with a white light and literally set the soul free. Many of us are aware that our intense love of and grief over a dying companion can actually hold that companion back. The soul, in other words, sticks around longer than it technically should. (Forgive my lack of eloquence here, but the topic of death somehow turns my prose to wood.) By chanting Akal, we are reminding ourselves–and our loved ones–that it is okay to make this transition, that all is well, that we are safe.
I chanted along to Snatam Kaur‘s version during my dog’s transition (available as an MP3 free download here on Spirit Voyage). There’s also a soaring version by Simrit Kaur, from her album The Sweetest Nectar). The sweetness of the mantra can bring so much comfort in times of pain and loss.
Mantra of the Medicine Buddha
Tayatha Om Bekandzay Bekandzay Maha Bekandzay Bekandzay Radza Samundgate Svaha.
From the Buddhist tradition, the Medicine Buddha mantra is an excellent mantra to recite for a sick or dying animal. As the name implies, it aids in the healing of both physical illness and emotional distress. This mantra is also used to “ripen the minds” of animals, meaning that any animal who hears this mantra will be guided toward higher rebirths, better conditions, and more positive states of mind. (Remember: mustn’t forget how powerful these ancient languages of Sanskrit, Tibetan, Gurmukhi, Hebrew, etc are. These mantras are powerful that animals and even beings from other realms can hear and understand them.)
Mantra of Chenrezig (the Buddha of Compassion) Om Mani Padme Hum
According to Lama Zopa Rinpoche, the benefits of reciting the Compassion Buddha Mantra are infinite, like the limitless sky. Not only will reciting this mantra bring your animal comfort at the time of transition, the effects of this mantra will be felt for lifetimes to come. “This makes a huge difference. It has inconceivable result, unbelievable result. This practice will plant the seed of all the realizations of the path to enlightenment. That makes them have a good rebirth next life, to be born as a human being and meet the Dharma.” Rinpoche says it is best toverbally recite the mantras into our pet’s ears. You can also recite this mantra over their water and their food to increase its potency.
I sang Chloe my own version of Om Mani Padme Hum (which she seemed to like) and one by Imee Oiee.
You can download Deva Premal’s potent versions of the two aforementioned mantras, recorded with the Gyoto Monks, here:
Yod Hey Shin Vav Hey
My dog always enjoyed a CD from the Judeo-Christian tradition, called “Holy Harmony,” from master sound healer Jonathan Goldman. I used to play this hour-long chant for her whenever she was anxious, and the healing tones combined with the ancient chant would send us both into the cosmos. According to Mr. Goldman, “Holy Harmony” contains the divine frequencies of creation itself, with tones direct from the healing codes of the Bible. The mantra, YHSVH (Yod Hey Shin Vav Hey), is an ancient name of the Christ. So, as you can imagine, this mantra powerful beyond measure. It was comforting to both me and my dog to have this track and its frequencies playing in the background during her transition.
And I think, in hindsight, it was a wise decision to play something that Chloe was familiar with. Because so much of what happened that night was unfamiliar, after all. This is all the more reason to start playing healing mantras for your animals now, by the way.
I am not trying to be morbid here, or a doomsayer. I just want you to know that, if and when you ever reach that moment in your life when your beloved animal friend is critically ill, and your vet says: “I’m sorry, there’s nothing we can do…” that there actually is something you can do. You can sing and pray and chant. You can create a vibration of love and healing and ease so that your beloved animal does not transition in a state of worry or fear.
Friends are now saying that I was “lucky” and that Chloe was lucky that she got to die with me, at home, in a sacred environment, rather than at the vet’s office. Here I have to remind people that she actually died in my mini-van, which I suppose was the dog’s home of sorts, too. But I won’t deny that Chloe was blessed to have spent her final moments at a Tibetan Buddhist monastery.
But I’d like to point out that any environment can be made sacred, simply by putting forth the intention, or calling upon the Gurus. When once voices reaches out to another in prayer, that is sacred. When one heart reaches out to another in love, that is sacred. No matter where you are–at home, or in a treatment room at a veterinary clinic, or (heaven forbid) at the scene of a tragic accident–remember that you can help your beloved pets on their journey with the sound of your own voice. I can’t imagine a more beautiful sound current to be carried away on. And neither can they.
May the long time sun shine upon you!
Additional Resources:
Jivan Joti Kaur Khalsa’s spectacular and profound book, Dying into Life, presents teachings on death, loss, and transformation from a Kundalini Yoga perspective. For me this book has been very therapeutic as I process the death of yet another beloved in this lifetime.
My last installment of “The Chloe Chronicles” from the December 2013 print edition of Bark magazine is now up on the Bark’s website. I handed in this installment about three weeks before Chloe died. In this piece, I wrote about how Chloe was slowing down and showing signs of aging. I wrote about how I was starting to worry that some day she might get sick and die. I had no idea she was actually quite sick, yet as I re-read the piece, the signs are there.
As I re-read the piece, I don’t know how to react. I could feel ashamed and horrified that I treated her “signs of aging” so lightly; or I could feel awed that, at some level, we got to say goodbye in such a deep way.
What awes me most is the pull-quote Bark chose to use. A few months ago, when I expressed my concerns about to Chloe that I wouldn’t be able to handle it if she got sick, she replied (telepathically, of course): “Don’t worry. We are together now. That’s all that matters. And when the time comes, you will still be with me and I will be with you.”
Thank you, Bark Magazine, for publishing The Chloe Chronicles and allowing me to honor her in this way.
By now, most of us are familiar with the term “Seasonal Affective Disorder,” as well as it causes (chemical imbalances caused by changes of season, temperature and/or amount of sunlight available) and effects (depression, lethargy, inertia, etc). I was afflicted by this disorder for years–especially during those long dark winters in the Northeast. And at first I tried approaching this SAD from both traditional, Western, and alternative routes: Vitamin D, light box therapy, St. John’s wort. I even, for a time, tried taking medication–which helped, I suppose, but made me feel dull-witted and not quite real. Finally–in a more drastic measure–I decided to just move to Florida for the winters. The Florida sunshine helped, believe me; but after five seasons of SAD I finally decided to approach the disorder from a more organic standpoint: Kundalini Yoga.
One of the most challenging aspects of SAD, for me, was the complete lack of motivation I experienced on a daily–sometimes hourly–basis during the winter months. Especially first thing in the morning. The cause of this lack of motivation is neurochemical: decreased levels of noreperephrine and serotonin caused by decreased exposure to sunlight. But the effects can be devastating–especially to us work-obsessed Americans who thrive on being productive. (I like to use the word “creative”.) Sufferers of SAD who find themselves too depressed to create can become even more depressed out of frustration. And round and round it goes. But the good news is that there are many, many simple practices from the Kundalini Yoga tradition and beyond that can help those who are prone to SAD break this cycle of seasonal depressions.
1. START ADDRESSING SEASONAL AFFECTIVE DISORDER NOW
While many of us don’t start to feel the full effects of Seasonal Affective Disorder until December or January, many physicians–both Eastern and Western–now believe that the best time to start addressing the disorder is in the fall, when Daylight Savings goes into effect. (My doctor actually advised me to start my pranayamas and kriyas in mid-summer, after the summer equinox.) The reason is fairly obvious: as the days shorten, and we lose two precious minutes of sunlight per day, our serotonin and dopamine levels are slowly but surely being affected by these changes. Our energy wanes, our moods slowly darken, and our minds cloud. Then, all of a sudden, in the throes of cold, cold January, you wake up and find that you can’t, well, wake up. But by addressing any potential neurochemical imbalances now, we can stave off these cripplingwinter depressions.
2. GET SERIOUS ABOUT YOUR KRIYAS (KEEP UP AND BE KEPT UP)
The thought of doing 52 minutes of daily practice–or even three minutes–can be vastly intimidating to the SAD-afflicted mind.I remember once bemoaning to a friend: “I don’t have the energy to do all the practices that I absolutely know will give me energy.”
But then I remembered three very important, life-changing quotes. Arthur Ashe’s “Start where you are.” And Yogi Bhajan’s “If your sadhana is more important than your neurosis, you are fine. If your neurosis is more important than your sadhana, you are not.” This statement really woke me up.
SAT KRIYA
Yogi Bhajan has called Sat Kriya one of the most powerful and complete kriyas in Kundalini Yoga, adding that “If you want to change the world, do Sat Kriya.” There’s a reason Sat Kriya is also known as “The Everything Kriya.” Its benefits are innumerable, and sufferers of SAD will enjoy its energizing, mind-clearing, Kundalini-raising effects. You might find that practicing Sat Kriya for just three minutes a day will shift both your mind and body from that frozen state of “I can’t do anything because it’s too cold and dark” into a more expansive state place of fortitude and action.
KIRTAN KRIYA (SA TA NA MA)
Kirtan Kriya is another extremely powerful (and simple) kriya that can help shift the SAD-plagued mind. Yogi Bhajan has said that if you had time to do only one meditation per day, Kirtan Kriya should be the one. Among its other benefits, this kriya eliminates brain fog, breaks up negative habits and patterns, and balances the hemispheres of the brain–thus restoring emotional balance.
HOW TO DO KIRTAN KRIYA
Music for Kirtan Kriya
SODARSHAN CHAKRA KRIYA
Yogi Bhajan has said that of all the twenty types of yoga, including Kundalini Yoga, this is the highest kriya. “This meditation will…cut through all barriers of the neurotic or psychotic inside nature…This kriya will give you the necessary vitality and intuition to combat the negative effects of the unchanneled subconscious mind.”Simply put, this meditation “cuts through all darkness” which is basically what a person in the throes of SAD needs most.
Music for So Darshan Chakra Kriya
For three times the benefit, trying practicing the”Triple Kriya” meditation, which consists of Sat Kriya, Kirtan Kriya and Sodarshan Chakra kriyas, in that order, for 11 minutes each. You will be your own internal sunshine for the rest of the day (and for lifetimes to come).
3. PRACTICE MANTRA
Ek Ong Kar Sat Nam Siri Wahe Guru
The Long Ek Ong Kaur, also known as Morning Call, Long Chant, and the Adi Shakti Mantra, is one of my all-time favorite mantras. According to Yogi Bhajan, chanting this mantra will open up all the chakras, charge your solar centers, purify your karma, and align your soul to the Universal Soul. In SAD terms, this mantra is perfect for those dark cold mornings when you’re so depressed you can’t get out of bed. In fact, I used to chant this one while in bed (pushing myself up into the proper posture first, of course). This mantra literally gave me the energy, strength and will to rise. In my humble opinion, it’s better than caffeine.
Another terrific mantra which is particularly good for SAD is:
Ardas Bayee / Amar Das Guru / Amar Das Guru / Ardas Bayee
Ram Das Guru / Ram Das Guru / Ram Das Guru / Suchee Sahee
Also known as “Mantra to Illuminate the Dark Night of the Soul,” the name speaks for itself. This mantra helps transform those SAD feelings of yearning and hopelessness into feelings of deep faith and hope. There are many extraordinary recordings of this mantra to choose from. Singh Kaur’s version is particularly stunning: as sweet and gentle and rejuvenating as morning sunlight.
ARDAS BHAEE CHOICES:
Singh Kaur
Snatam Kaur
4. BREATHE THROUGH THE RIGHT NOSTRIL
Another quick fix for those who are too depressed to even think about doing their practice, a great place to “start where you are” is breathing through the right nostril. This simple yet profound practice stimulates the Pingala channel, also known as the male channel or the solar channel. Just a few minutes of right-nostril breathing can help stimulate one’s own internal solar energy, thus counteracting the lethargy and mental fogginess some of us feel on those cold winter mornings and/or when the afternoon sun begins to set.
5. COMMUNE WITH THE SUN
At this point, most of us SAD sufferers know about the importance of absorbing sunlight and of taking Vitamin D. In yogic traditions, practitioners are advised to expose their hair, head and skull to the sun at least once per week. Yogi Bhajan always stressed that exposing the forehead to sunlight is especially beneficial. This is because the forehead bone is porous, which means that more light can pass through and stimulate the pituitary gland. And a well-stimulated pituitary gland, as we know, results in healthy levels of dopamine, serotonin and melatonin.
But who wants to expose themselves to full sunlight in the winter, right? Especially those of us who live in colder climates? When I lived in the Hudson Valley I would do my morning practice in front of a sunny window, positioning myself so that that first ray of morning light beamed straight onto my forehead.
To take it a step further, try transforming your daily dosage of sunlight into a devotional practice. I’ve always loved the concepts of those mythological sun gods of Egypt and Ancient Greece; so whenever I am in the sun I like to offer thanks to Ra and Apollo for sharing their healing light with this planet. I ask them and my other guides to help my body to integrate this blessed sunlight as efficiently as possible, so that I might be of utmost service to humanity on that day. I swear it makes a difference. (They don’t use the term “Sun Worshiper” for nothing.) If you think about it, the word “RA” in itself is a powerful mantra. In the Kundalini Yoga tradition it means “sun.” Among American sports fanatics, it means “Yahoo!” So you can’t go wrong.
6. STIMULATE THE SENSES
FLOWER ESSENCES
Flower essences are distilled tinctures that basically carry the vibration of flowers, meaning that when you take a few drops of, say, Summer Snowflake essence, you are taking in the frequency and qualities of Summer Snowflake. This delicate flower is winter hardy but also thrives in extreme heat.
There are hundreds if not thousands of essences to choose from, which can seem a bit overwhelming at first. So my advice is to call the essence makers directly–these kind and caring people will usually offer intuitive suggestions based on your personal needs and constitution.
Some of my personal favorite flower essences for Seasonal Affective Disorder are:
Most aromatherapists agree that citrus oils are the best choices for Seasonal Affective Disorder It makes sense if you think about it, given that citrus typically grows in warm, hot, sunny places. Think California in a bottle! Organic essential oils are best, distributed with cold-mist diffusers. Spirit Voyage blogger Donna Shepper wrote a wonderful piece about the use of essential oils to help treat SAD: Read it here.
7. EMBRACE THE DARKNESS:
Depression can be uncomfortable and painful. There’s no doubt about that. But when approached from a spiritual standpoint, it can also be beneficial. Yogi Bhajan used to stress that “In all darkness, there is a light and in all light there is a darkness.” Author Michael Beckwith also points out that “a dark night of the soul may be considered to be a moment of gestation; a new inner realization that is gestating. Just as a seed needs to be in the darkness before it breaks into the light, there are spiritual realizations gestating within us. We may be giving birth to something, so it doesn’t feel comfortable.”
I also like to remind myself something I learned long ago: Whenever you feel like giving up, recognize that you have reached a moment of great change. That’s your moment of power. Like Yogi Bhajan says: “Keep up, and you will be kept up.”
