To live with the knowledge that you may be partly responsible for someone who has taken their life is a terrible burden. You can be consumed with an array of emotions from self-guilt, self-aversion, anger, despair, frustration and severe depression. It is critical that at this very emotionally fragile moment, you find a way to come to terms with what has occurred; and be able to get on with your life.

During this time in your life, you may experience very little peace and instead an immense amount of hostility towards yourself, thinking about ‘Why did I let this happen? Why? Why? How do I reverse the clock and alter what I had said or done? What do I do now? How can I live a normal life when this is what I have done to someone?’

•Whilst you are full of remorse, still yourself with a conviction that you want to move on in life and avoid the almost inevitable state of depression.
•Although it sounds very difficult at this moment, make a sincere attempt to come to terms with what has happened.
•There are only two things, ‘positive’ and ‘negative’. If you remain negative, whom would nature help? We should not have ‘negative’ in our dictionary. Thus, be positive and change your bad thoughts to good and constructive ones, because when your perception is wrong, your tendencies, your thoughts, and opinions turn towards the negativity, giving rise to a constant inner restlessness and internal turmoil, which we don’t want.
•To move forward, start slowly by taking a small step, one at a time.

Strategies to help you propel your life forward:

1.If someone committed suicide, we do not know what made him take this step; there are many factors which can contribute to someone taking their life. So rather than holding yourself responsible for what has happened, ask for forgiveness from the person you feel you have wronged. You can do this internally. This is very simple but an effective process which will yield tremendous results for you and the person concerned. You will gain a huge sense of peace from within and feel lighter.

2.Acknowledge your feelings of anger, frustration and guilt. You cannot fight these emotions for they will leave you feeling weak, just accept them and know that they will soon pass away.

3.If you can, do reach out and offer support to the family members who are affected as a result of this suicide.

4.Try to share the way you are feeling, with someone who is understanding. It could be your colleague or a family member or even a remote acquaintance.

5.Stay away from early warning signs of depression, self-loathing, and feeling of ‘if only’. These emotions do not help but only make matters worse.

6.If things are very bad, seek professional counselling for help and support.

7.Ask for strength from the God of your faith so that you will be able to cope with what has happened.

8.Balance your mind. Too much of thoughts will tip you over the edge and take your thinking to the extreme.

9.Do not allow the mind to be left idle, keep it busy.

10.Be patient and physically active.

These steps will assist you. Remember your thoughts will keep on taking you back to the negative aspects of what has occurred, but you remain firm and strong. And you will soon see you reconciling with yourself, and begin to move on the path of progress in life for sure.

Please visit https://www.dadabhagwan.org/books-media/spiritual-articles/depression/

Author's Bio: 

Ambalal M. Patel was a civil contractor by profession. In June 1958, spontaneous Self-Realization occurred within Ambalal M. Patel. From this point on, Ambalal became a Gnani Purush, and the Lord that manifest within him became known as Dada Bhagwan. A Gnani Purush is One who has realized the Self and is able help others do the same. Param Pujya Dada Bhagwan used to go from town to town and country-to-country to give satsang (spiritual discourse) and impart the knowledge of the Self, as well as knowledge of harmonious worldly interactions to everyone who came to meet him. This spiritual science, known as Akram Vignan, is the step-less path to Self-realization.