Being Still
Being Still is not
thinking or talking about it. It is not therapy, meditation or mindfulness.
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Being Still is
an exercise in structured mental discipline. That discipline together with a correct understanding of how the mind and thought processes really work will bring mental, emotional and spiritual health and healing.
... "be still and know that I am"...Psalms 46:10
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When you have come to realize that you cannot think, talk, meditate, medicate or therapy your way out of depression or PTSD and escape suicidal thoughts, then what?
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Being Still is 180 degrees opposite of everything thought, taught and practiced in psychology today.
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How can you think and talk about it all of the time and expect it to ever go away?
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1. Learn how and why that when your depressed and you continually think and talk about it, even in therapy, you are just feeding the problem.
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2. Learn how and why the thoughts will get worse as you continue to think and talk about them.
Have you ever wondered why you sometimes felt worse after therapy than you did before you went in?
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3.Your thoughts are the most powerful and influential force in your life, they are the reason you are who you are and why you are experiencing depression.
"as he thinketh in his heart; so is he" Proverbs 23:7
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4. Learn how and why depression is not a psychological problem so much as it's a thought problem!
If you have ever thought,
"if I could just stop thinking these thoughts, everything would be fine,"
you were right in thinking that, because thoughts are the root and cause of depression and all the conditions associated with it, including suicidal thoughts.
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The most powerful and influential force in your life,
is your very own thoughts!
The Art and Science of Being Still
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Since the early 1970’s I have been teaching a simple mental exercise to people that were suffering from depression and PTSD. Some of those that I helped were just a little stressed out or bummed out and some of them were in deep depression, some of them were even on the verge of taking their own life. I was able to help them by teaching them a simple little exercise that I call Being Still. That little exercise, though very simple, always worked. I never much considered how or why it worked, it just did.
In 2008 I started volunteering at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Battle Creek, Michigan. I started volunteering because I was deeply concerned by the number of reported suicides happening among the active military and veterans of the military. I knew that if I could teach those people what I know that I could save some lives. With more than 35 years of prior study and teaching the discipline and then working regularly with those suffering with depression and PTSD at the VA, I came to a better understanding of how and why that simple little exercise that I have been teaching for so many years works.
In the book, The Art and Science of Being Still, I reveal a special knowledge and understanding of the mental processes that explains how and why depression and PTSD develop. It explains how and why the affliction progresses in spite of everything we are doing to stop it. In fact it explains how thinking and talking about it and all of the therapies people are using to help people cope only intensifies and exacerbates the problem, sometimes to the point that many are needlessly driven to suicide.
Being Still, when practiced properly, has been proven that it heals depression and PTSD. It has proven effective for those battling substance abuse also. This book is a detailed record of what I have been teaching with some examples of how effective it is.
I am a Vietnam Veteran, In 1969 I was drafted into the U.S. Army, after training I was sent to Vietnam as a combat infantryman. I was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 327th Infantry, 101st Airborne Division. I spent my tour humping a ruck sack, carrying an M16 rifle and sleeping on the jungle floor while on search and destroy missions of the enemy in the Central Highlands and the A Sau Valley of South Vietnam. From those experiences, I returned to civilian life suffering from depression and PTSD.
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I have my own, personal experiences with depression and PTSD. That experience, together with the knowledge and experiences I have gained by helping others with their affliction, make me uniquely qualified to teach others how and why it is possible to heal themselves from depression and PTSD through their own efforts. I overcame my depression and PTSD by my own efforts, by stilling my mind and letting go of and stopping the thoughts of depression and PTSD. I have used that knowledge and helped enough people to prove that just by Being Still, most if not all of us have the power to overcome that affliction through our own efforts.
My mission there at the VAMC and here in my book is to convince the patient and the reader that, with the little bit of knowledge that is taught in the book, and doing the mental discipline I call Being Still they, through their own efforts, have the ability to overcome and heal from depression and PTSD.
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Because depression is a thought problem!
Stilling those thoughts is the key to healing
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To be still is healing in the Lord's way.He tells us to
..."be still and know".....
He is the master psychologist, He made us, He knows our struggles!
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There are times and situations in life that we are not able to deal with through actions, words or thinking. Our creator knew this. He designed and made us and knew that the way to get through these situations was beyond our capacity to understand. And perhaps that is a part of His design. After all, sometimes we need to be humbled and there are times we need to see our weaknesses in order to grow strong.
And that is a part of the purpose of Being Still, to get us through those times when we are overwhelmed and just can't do it right now, or we can't take any more. Those are the times we need to just be still and let it go and take refuge in the knowledge that we can return and fight another day. There is wisdom in choosing where and when to return to battle and the struggle is a part of living this life. In the end it is those struggles that mold and shape our character, give us the wisdom we need to define and shape ourselves into the kind of persons we want to be. Our Heavenly Father gave us the words, "be still and know", to help us cope and prepare. He is God and does live and He gave us this to help us through!
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CAUTION! There are a few important keys you should know when practicing Being Still. As explained how and why in the book, the most important one is that you need to treat the intrusive thoughts like white noise, both during the exercise and throughout the day.
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"The reality is that
we are continuously self-involved in self-creating
the life that we are living through
and because of the thoughts that we think"".
The Art and Science of Being Still
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The Book is on Amazon
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