In my recent book, Let That Shit Go: Learn to Process Loss and Be Happy, I share my frustration with the fact that in spite of the advances in modern science, there are more depressed and suicidal people now than ever. A reader asked, “You mention in your book that you have had a lifelong struggle with anxiety and depression. Did you ever get to the point where you just wanted to end it all? If so, how did you get past it?” Yes, I’ve considered suicide, and I’m past it for good. Here’s how I did it.
Pablo Picasso, Blue Nude
I considered suicide when I was in my twenties, but it never felt right. Since it wasn’t my ego’s decision to be born, it didn’t seem like my ego’s decision to die, and that some higher power must know more about why I’m alive, as in “there must be some reason I’m here.”
Yes, I’m an idealist. There’s something to be said for idealism because you tend to see that somehow things will work out even though you don’t know how. (I call this “faith” but there’s no reason to think of it as religious or grand. It’s just having faith in something.) It’s an assumption I choose to make, rather than believing that life has no purpose.
Assumptions like these shape everything we think and do, so they affect our spiritual and mental health. Like anything, spiritual and mental health require good knowledge and practices, and these have made all the difference for me. I still have bad days, but I can better cope with them because of…
Reason #1: Our challenges help us learn how we can make things better for someone else.
There’s always someone going through the same things we are. This is helpful to remember when you’re having a bad time, because you can turn your suffering around to help someone get past or avoid it entirely. This can then point the way towards what brings you fulfillment, what you do to bring your best self, what you’re naturally drawn to–your way of spirit–which is special to you, is highly expressive, and brings you joy.
In my teens and 20s, I felt horribly lost, and had great difficulty finding my passions and path in life. Thanks to good teachers and practices, I found out how I can help people discover their passions and paths in life, so they can avoid the suffering I went through. I couldn’t do it if I didn’t have a deep, soulful reason to want to do it.
So suffering can be turned around to help someone else. That may be the only way to end it, and end it we must because suffering is not sacred or something to want to hang onto.
Reason #2: Suicide doesn’t end our problems, it only makes us nonphysical.
We go as us when we die, and we take our challenges with us. Working through our challenges is such an important part of our experience that we can’t escape it, even when we die.
How do I know this? I’ve spoken with nonphysical teachers, friends, and famous people, and publish these conversations in my blog and books so that others can learn from them. Perhaps I’ll never be able to prove it empirically, but that’s not what this path is about. This path is about using our intuition and intellect to navigate life’s challenges.
You’ll need to use your intuition to verify if what I’ll tell you next is true, too…
Reason #3: You never have to feel alone or unloved, because you never are.
No matter where you go or what you do, you’ll always have loving energies around you who want to help. They are with you here and now—not only in nonphysical space—so you might as well avail yourselves of them while you’re here.
If you don’t believe this, it’ll be helpful to examine your assumptions. There are too many unhelpful and simply awful beliefs that need to end…. for example, that you’re bad or flawed, or undeserving of happiness, not perfect yet, etc.
This site’s many free resources can help to untangle the belief systems that aren’t serving you, communicate with your Personal God, find your life’s purpose, and more. The book Let That Shit Go was written especially to help you with anxiety and depression.
There are people to help you. Why? Because they’ve been through shit like what you’re going through and have turned it around to help others. The Suicide Prevention Hotline 1-800-273-8255 is available 24 hours every day. A therapist with a spiritual component in their therapies can help you longer term.
Hang in there, baby. There is a lot more to you than you know… and a lot to look forward to!
