Spirituality plays a part in any kind of healing. If you want to become mentally healthy, you require some sort of belief in something higher than yourself. A higher power, if you will. Most, if not all, people who try to show you the way out of the desert, out of hell, will tell you one way or another, that you have to find a way to rise above your problems. Do not look at my finger, look at what I’m pointing at. And more often than not, believing in something higher is part of getting back up again. Believing that it’s all good for something. Good for what? I don’t know. That’s the point really. If you believe in a higher power, you also believe that you can’t possibly know everything, but that if you have faith, it’ll all work out in the end. It doesn’t have to be a deity. You could believe in “truth” or “beauty” or “love”, or something else you consider to be greatest good there could ever be. Then aim for that. Keep that in your thoughts.
There was once this study of mentally healthy people. The study found five properties that the healthiest people have. And one of them is spirituality or belief in a higher power. In this day and age, it’s a hard one to tackle. How do you surrender to something when all your education and training is about control and discipline?
Well, here’s a way to look at it.
You know that game people play with babies? Where you hide your face behind your hands, wait for a bit and then “peekaboo!” show your face again? It makes babies laugh, and it makes you laugh, even more so if you keep talking while you’ve hidden your face. Why is that? Well, the theory goes that babies have face recognition, but not much else. If the face disappears, you’re gone. I’d argue that this is probably not true, and that babies are born with a blueprint for a lot of things, including other people having hands and feet. I think babies find the game funny because it lies at the basis of the rest of the life you’re going to lead. You see, good things have a tendency to play peekaboo. Good things tend to hide for a little while, and then pop up from behind the sofa and laugh with you. But only if you’re willing to look for them.
If you’re paying attention, you can spot the good things, standing behind the curtains with their feet sticking out, being all giddy about fooling you for a little bit. Like you with your hands over your face, still talking to the baby “Where did she go? Ooh I wonder where she went? Peekaboo, here she is!”. The baby is laughing, because although they can’t see you, they still know you’re there. They can hear you. And if they keep paying attention, the reward will come. You’ll reappear.
It’s kinda like that with spirituality, and life, and healing, and love, and truth, and beauty. You have to be willing to pay attention. To keep watching. Until it appears. It might be a butterfly drying its wings on the wall beside your front door. Something small. But sometimes, that’s all it takes. Just keep looking. Because it’s no fun to go hide when nobody is looking for you. So, if you’re not looking, everyone will just up and go. Nothing will appear if you’re not looking. But if you enter the game, participate, and keep looking, someone will join the game. It’ll pop up to greet you. Tag, you’re it.