How spirituality can save your brain from hopelessness?

Goal setting has taken the place of spirituality in modern life, and it's depressing us. But is there a way to regain happiness through our spirituality no matter what challenge life throws at us?

Since every single one of us is born with an innate potential for spirituality, the field of mental health makes no sense without the spiritual core. There has never been a time when the number of persons who experience spiritual atrophy is as great. Additionally, rates of addiction, depression, and even suicide have never been higher due to the significant drop in personal spiritual life. At the same time, the standards of modern life, implicitly encourage an addiction to objectives making life all about accomplishing our ambitions at the price of connecting with the essence of life.

Scientists are usually unable to describe spirituality, but what they can do very well is use mysterious phenomena and evidence to highlight how spirituality affects the rest of our life. As a matter of fact, our most valuable source of rejuvenation and healing is our profound spirituality. And even in cases of severe mental illness, spirituality serves as our source of hope. Generally, each of us has two states of awareness at birth: achieving awareness and awakened awareness. And we need both of them in the right level to experience a balanced life. To strategize efficiently for instance, we must become conscious, and our achieving brain is in a relentless addiction to the next goal, and for the next feat. Therefore, when achieving awareness becomes our North Star, we run into problems, and we become depressed because of it.

To find our North Star or our deepest direction and purpose in life, we need another form of perception, and that is our awakened awareness. The state of awakened awareness is active when we stop asking this question: "What do I want and how am I am going to get it?" Instead, we start asking "What is life teaching or showing me right now? Where can I get guidance and direction?" And this is the place where synchronicity enters the scene to provide some answers. It might be the result of a coincidence, a magical encounter, a flash of insight, or someone entering our lives and directing us in a direction we had never considered. We might recognize that we are in new life’s journey thanks to our awakened brain. And it turns out that the neuro-docking station for awakened awareness was available from the moment we are born.

My personal experience with mentally challenged folks showed that most of them overcame depression by having an awakening. Furthermore, those who endured the most suffering actually found great comfort and even renewal when they made a connection with their higher power—whether it be God, the Universe, or whatever they chose to name it. They were more prone to perceive and reflect in a profound spiritual way, and that ability to see life from a spiritual perspective was mirrored by a thickening of the cortex, providing some indication that spiritual life is neuroprotective against depression. Additionally, when scientists examined the awakened brain, they discovered that we are all lured into an experience in which we are loved and held, guided and never alone.

Three main networks make up the awakened brain: The bonding network in the frontotemporal region which is activated when we are loved and held as children. The attention network coming from top-down dorsal, to the ventral system where the lights go back on, and the parietal that enforces rigid boundaries, enabling us to realize that we are never truly alone. We are both a point and a wave. We are all a part of one sacred consciousness, one field of existence, and we are marvelously distinct, unique, and well diversified. Each of us has the capacity to use his awakened brain, but how to do it?

Many studies observed that about 70% of people usually declare, "I am spiritual and I am religious." The remained 30% will claim that they are spiritual but not religious. For me, being in the nature and connecting with it, with family, or enjoying art or music are different way of experiencing a spiritual life. Regardless of our religious affiliation, every single one of us is fundamentally a spiritual creature. And it goes without saying that we are happier, healthier, stronger, and more ethical when we are aware of our spiritual dimension. And yes, we have greater external success as well.

Of all kinds of spiritual life, it appears that the most connected to the powerful cortex through the fortification of the awakened brain, is altruism, or love of neighbor. If you truly feel helpless, stuck or entrapped in hopelessness or depression, get up, go outside, and offer to your neighbor something lovely or loving. Bring a treat or supper for them. Shovel their driveway, go for a walk in the public park with them or offer to teach them a talent you have (we all got at least one talent or many), and which can be useful for them. Just step out of your comfort zone and show kindness and love to someone. And as you proceed, you will notice that you are paving the roads leading to a strong connection with a transcendent awareness or your true higher self. There is always a well-paved road leading back to God, your higher power, or to the Universe. And your awakened brain will lead you toward it if you own it and decide to take a ride on it.