*** Essential Prerequisites for Healing Bipolar Disorder

If you are desperate to be free of the tormenting cycles of mania and depression and you would like to know where to start, I suggest you begin your bipolar healing process by staying open to exploring:

• Why your bipolar disorder is a soul choice.

I believe that we have Divine Wisdom (Higher Consciousness or a Higher Mind) that knows everything about our past, present and future and it guides us (on an unconscious level) to circumstances that will bring us opportunities for our souls to evolve. In my opinion, illnesses are always opportunities for awareness and subsequent growth or completion of karma. When you align with your Divine Wisdom you are able to discern what kind of growth you are looking to attain. If the illness is karmic, you can determine if you have completed the karma or if it is necessary for the imbalance in question to remain throughout your current incarnation for karmic completion. In the latter case, the task is to make peace with the fact that your illness is a means to concluding karma. If you’ve chosen the illness for growth, the goal is to accept this and to discern the ways in which it provides gifts for awareness.

• How to identify “the gifts” of your bipolar disorder and discover how it’s actually serving you.

The identifying process is really quite simple when we ask ourselves questions such as: What does my disorder provide that I (perhaps secretly) genuinely desire? What is easier because of it? What, if anything do I get to hide from? What responsibilities do I get to dodge? What overwhelms me to the point that I need to avoid functioning fully in the world? This type of questioning may help you see that there are things about your imbalance that you have not been willing to forfeit.

• How to recognize the many ways that you are nurturing your imbalance.

This is a process that works wonderfully if you can believe or at least imagine that your illness has consciousness – that it is an energetic form with which you can communicate. Take a few deep breathes. Close your eyes and imagine that you are going into a meeting with your disorder. Can you see or feel your illness before you? Does it appear as an energy mass, a color or particular form? However it may appear or feel, do your best to be with its presence. Then, ask it how you are keeping it alive. You may get a sense of what it wants to say. You may begin to feel you have come into communication with the imbalanced energy. Continue by asking what you are doing that supports its existence and ask what it needs to be able to heal. I have used this procedure in sessions for years and odd as it may seem, I have never seen it fail. However, if you find this technique difficult, try doing it as a writing exercise. You may be surprised to learn that you really do know what feeds your illness and that you’ve been very busy providing plenty of fuel to keep it going.

• How to accept and make peace with bipolar disorder.

Acceptance of an imbalance can be a tall order. And yet, it becomes easier and ultimately possible once you have tapped into your Higher Wisdom and received information that brings understanding as to how your illness is serving you as a soul. Acceptance takes complete trust in the truth—that you are an enlightened being of God (or whatever you name the Divine to be) who has made a choice for the highest good. Once this has been achieved, peace follows.

• How to release your attachments to being afflicted with bipolar disorder.

Releasing these attachments can be as easy as simply aligning with absolute clear intent and stating unequivocally, “I give thanks that I have released any and all attachments to being sick with bipolar disorder— now and forever more.” The spoken word combined with gratitude and a strong unadulterated desire is all that is needed to put the energy in motion for manifesting a successful outcome. This tells the universal forces that you have changed your mind and that you have chosen to be free of all the ways you have been clinging to your illness. Once you have done this, you have taken your first step toward healing your bipolar disorder.

• How to give up your sick person identity.

The next step is to list all the ways that you see yourself or relate to yourself as a sick person. Write down everything you think or say that reaffirms that you are ill. For example, you may say, “I’m always so depressed.” or “I’m always so afraid to leave the house.” These statements may be true, but in order to heal it’s important to relinquish every perception you have of yourself that implies or affirms that you are less than completely healthy. After you comprise your list, look at the “story” of the sick person that you repeatedly tell or think about yourself. You can then make a choice to rewrite your saga. You can enhance the release of your sick person identity (using the same guidelines presented above for releasing your attachments to illness) by stating, “I give thanks that I have completely released all of the ways that I have related to myself as a person who is sick with bipolar disorder—now and forever more.” Follow this with, “I give thanks that I am in complete physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual balance and in excellent health—now and forever more.” Next, burn the list that describes what used to be your story or take it outside and bury it, or . . . just be sure to get rid of it for good. Then, acknowledge yourself for choosing to move beyond the attachments to your bipolar identity.

• Why you must fully commit to healing for results to manifest.

When you have an unwavering, earnest desire to heal, the vibration of energy that this creates attracts that which you need to move forward and to create the highest most appropriate outcome. A strong commitment aligns your physical, emotional, mental and spiritual bodies, your conscious, subconscious and Superconscious – so that success can be attained. Resolute commitment makes it possible for you to keep placing one foot in front of the other as you travel along what can be and often is an arduous road. It’s easy to give up when it’s time to face the things that have kept you stuck. It’s human nature to run back to the safety of that which is familiar no matter how unbearable “familiar” may be. It is difficult to hold on to hope and to continue on when you feel you have done everything in your power to heal and your desired outcome perpetually remains out of your reach. A powerful commitment will help you revive lost hope and give you the fortitude to march into the darkness within yourself and come out the “other side” into your own Light. When you completely commit to healing a brain chemistry disorder you are asking yourself to trust that jumping into the unknown is not only safe, but the only way to find your way to sanity and peace of mind. Without such a commitment, complete healing cannot be attained.