Why am I depressed? What is anxiety doing to me? How to relieve stress? These questions may cross your mind each and every day – day in and day out. There are healing answers, you know. Believe it! And they flow forth from freedom of the mind.
I love working with my clients. And whether they know it or not, our relationship is truly reciprocating. In addition to the joy I receive from lending a hand and witnessing their progress, my clients provide me with insight and inspiration – often out of nowhere. And so it was with a client in Manhattan.
“Olivia” came to me with troubling anxiety, accompanied by the occasional low-grade mood. I was pretty confident from the get-go her misery was caused by her pattern of thought, driven by the very personal structure from which she perceived and interacted with her world. In psychobabble, this is known as one’s schema, and I’d sure tap that link were I you. I believe Olivia has accepted the existence of her schema, its contents, and the challenges it presents. And so now we’re on to working with her foundational beliefs, automatic thoughts, cognitive distortions, etc. Simply, we’re building a new, better serving, schema.
So surprise, surprise. About a week ago Olivia sent me a text that included our featured image above. She’d taken it during a walk, and told me she’d done so for me. She went on to say she “thought it was a cool little reminder.” I’ll say – for the both of us.
Incidentally, the building is that of the Fourth Universalist Society of New York, located at W. 76th St. and Central Park West. There it is to the left. The church tower, “The Peace Tower of New York City,” is used by NBC as a command center for their coverage of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. Parishioners of note were P.T. Barnum, Horace Greeley, and Lou Gehrig.
And so, the words in the box. They’re attributed to Clinton Lee Scott, a 20th century American Universalist minister.
Why am I depressed? What is anxiety doing to me? How to relieve stress? | Freedom of the Mind
“The freedom of the mind is the beginning of all other freedoms.”
Given my intro, it’s pretty obvious I believe freedom of the mind brings us healing answers for depression, anxiety, stress – so many emotional/mental maladies. Good, my opinion only (it and $6 will get you a Grande Latte at Starbucks – including tip).
But what say you? Now, before you lead with a knee-jerk response, please consider my take on Scott’s words, k?
Freedom of the mind is 100% available to each and every one of us. Well, that may seem like a “Duh!” statement; however, I’m not convinced those enduring a mood or anxiety disorder really believe they’re invited to the party. And a major misconception is responsible for the perceived (such a powerful word) “stiff.”
See, I think folks like us lean toward believing freedom of the mind equates to freedom from pain. So if we’re to believe we’ve truly achieved freedom of the mind, we must then be free from the pain of our anxiety, depression, or whatever it is that’s tearing us apart. After all, they’re all mind-generated. Right?
I would suggest freedom of the mind is about acceptance of our anxious and mood leanings – nothing more, nothing less. And for us to fully receive and retain that notion, we have to know acceptance isn’t synonymous with acquiescence. We can work toward peaceful management and coexistence. Can you understand that?
This is very much about choice, don’t you think? And we’re all entitled to choose freedom of the mind. However, all too often choice just isn’t exercised.
The Freedom to Close the Article
Why am I depressed? What is anxiety doing to me? How to relieve stress? Are these questions hounding – haunting – you 24/7? Sure as heck, there are healing answers. And, yes, they flow forth from freedom of the mind. Ponder, won’t you?
Oh, almost forgot. What about “all other freedoms” Scott mentions? I can think of scads of them that would mean tons to anyone enduring a mood or anxiety disorder. But what are the rewards of establishing freedom of the mind from your side of the fence? Please, list a few in a comment. It’ll help other Chipur readers.
Yep, thanks for reading my story. A very cool bit of sharing from a client. And her discovery can, in fact, be yours…
So now you have the freedom – the choice – to peruse 600+ Chipur titles. Exercise it!
